Is toxicity a major issue in the FGC?

[LeifEriksson]

Personally, I believe that the more toxic the community is to newbies is directly proportional to the amount of time you need to put into the game to "git gud"

For example, Marvel vs Capcom as opposed to Street Fighter. In MvC 2 if you don't play Magneto Storm Sentinel you better have a damn good reason why, or else and be prepared for cries of "Low Tier Special Snowflake" and the such. However, in the Street Fighter community there's a HUGE number of guides on youtube, such as cross counter tv, that teach you everything you need to know to ease you into the game.

Let me use a Smash Bros as an example. Melee, which requires a large amount of tech skill and dedication, is very hard to play and contains a more toxic community, compared to Smash 4. The community of 4 has a lot of leniency of what qualifies as "good". Not to say I dislike 4, it's actually my favorite. But we are REALLY lazy as players. In some places, we banned a character that's been out for only 2 months! The players of other games are laughing at us because of our laziness.

tl;dr What I'm trying to say is that the toxic communities tend to be the ones with the most experienced and (objectively) the best players. Should this attitude of elitism continue so we only will see the best of the best playing? Or should it be toned down so that new players can enjoy the game and be cultivated into good players?

 

[Sucumbio]

I think all fgcs have toxic members. I don't believe any specific gaming community is any more toxic than another though.

Killer Instinct story : a friend and myself while at an arcade in Rhode Island watched a guy using Riptor. He absolutely decimated the competition. He was really quiet, and yet he didn't mind explaining what he was doing and why it worked. He basically ended up fighting the cpu and was about 2 stages from the end when a new kid shows up and put his quarter above the p2 joystick. We looked at him like he was cancer. He mouthed off 'you can go **** yourself I got next' he says. Shrug I did. He chose Combo and lost. Lost again. Kept losing. Finally walked away flipped us all off and me and my friend went back to watching the riptor main beat the arcade mode, then switch to Orchid and land a 42 hit ultra.

Myself I was involved in the mk, 2,3,u, the tk3 fgc and sf2 before finding smash. Of all of those the community online and off was the same. Raw skill = respect. Scrub mentality = rejection. Smashboards is interesting because it's population is so incredibly diverse. I think more so than other communities. But make no mistake. Raw talent still goes the furthest. Toxicity is usually seen as a smoke screen to hide the fact that you lack the skill needed to win. Some champions do act like assholes but they well they're just assholes to begin with lol so it should be no surprise.

 

[KirbCider]

Toxicity has always existed in any community and in any game/sport.

It doesn't have to involve experienced players nor new players, because it comes from the peoples personalities involved in it. It can come in the form of someone who is a massive sore loser, to someone who is so full of themselves due to the skill they've obtained. New players can be just as toxic as pro players and the community often has no effect on them as they're already that way most of the time.

For example, somebody can start taunting, teabagging, and being an overall **** in Smash. Chances are its not because of our community or because we have high expectations. They'll most likely do that in any game they play just because they can and feel like it.

People are jerks, especially Online when they know they can get away with it.

Now there can be some influential factors involved. Take "Trolling" as an example. People find it hilarious to do that to someone and often times they actually get rewarded for it rather than punished. If people start seeing videos on Youtube of others trolling in Smash, chances are they'll want to make troll/disrespect videos of their own cause "It's oh so funny and people will love it!". People are actually rewarded for being complete, toxic ***hats in the gaming community because people find their antics funny. Why exactly?

Normally because "They're good, and that player just sucks" usually. It's a sad truth.

The biggest factor is the fact the mentality "Git Gud or Bust" exists, and has always existed. People worship someone who is great at something, and often mock someone else who is terrible at something because they have to compare them to the better players. You are expected to be like them and if you don't have the skills to pay the bills then you better get ready to receive those mocking taxes.

People seem to forget you have to climb your way to the top. Even the best players started off as the "Noobs" they are currently mocking.

Now, should this kind of attitude keep existing? No, absolutely not. Again, everyone starts off new. Everyone has to learn and work their way up. Everyone has different learning curves and no one is going to be a perfect player at the start. They should not be mocked for it, but rather encouraged. Toxicity should in no way be encouraged just because we want to see only the good players.

Our community should be one that is open to everyone no matter what their skill level it is. It should not turn into one that's "Club Elistist: Pros Only, no Scrubs". I don't want to see our community turn into one where everyone wants to bully someone that has "No skill".

If I was able to, I'd smack someone across the face that tried to mock someone just because they weren't good enough.

Maturity is a thing, guys.

 

[giggleboy]

Unfortunately, the only real experience I've had in the fgc was toxic players or people who do nothing about them. My city has quite a few toxic players, and everyone else tells me to just ignore them even though they constantly bring down anyone that isn't as good as them. I only got any respect from them once I became top 10 in my city (and those people kept telling me to stop playing games with my friends because they weren't top 10 material), which made me actually quit playing altogether and just watch on rare occasions.

 

[the.tok]

tbh I think it is hard to do a broad generalization on the fgc, because it is so diverse throughout the world.

I can only talk about what I've seen of french and a little of belgian FGC, and even then street fighter 2/3/4/5 community, melee community and smash4 community are very different too (seen a bit of KOF but can't comment too much.)

What I can say is that I've very seldom encountered any actual problem in person. Each group has its good and bad points.

I'd say smash players I've encountered tend to be younger on average (I'm 32) so they came as more shy/ akward, but they seemed more inclusive to me. SF players were older and a little more expansive, though a bit less inclusive. I usually go to tournaments with my gf, and there is a mild macho mentality though the age difference might be a factor too (a bit old fashion).

The only times I saw some toxicity was online, where it is easier to be a douchebag. And I don't know if culture is not a factor there too, since it was always on english-speaking forums

What I did see is a few players from one group despise the other groups/games

In that, some SF3.3 players and melee players very much look alike in that "OMG you play SF5/smash4 you such a casual" attitude. Super turbo players are sometimes annoying and insist on making your life difficult if you dare say you are a pad player because "arcade stick master race".

But then... I can't promise that after a bottle of wine I'm not going to trash talk about Tekken so, to each his own


But bottom line, I'd say it's quite great actually, and the tolerance shown in smash comunity is one of the greatest I've seen.

 

[FirestormNeos]

[googles "the brilliant fighting game community" to watch the funni video for the nth time]

thank you for giving me an excuse to watch this again, not that I needed it.

 

[Nohbl]

No. I think the exact opposite is the problem. A lot of the FGC, or at least Smashers, act like babies. Getting triggered by taunting is so weak. They love to complain. It's gross. And if so called "toxicity" is continued to be discouraged, that only enables the babyish mentality further. Gone are the days when you could talk mad trash and people knew you didn't mean anything by it.

 

[kiteinthesky]

This is why I don't play other fighting games. The communities really are as toxic and as dysfunctional as you hear, and there's nothing an individual can do to influence the community to adopt healthier communication practices the way one can in Smash, especially online. At least here I can give a good argument as to why Smashers should stop doing things they shouldn't be doing on a forum or Reddit or some-such-place, and they'll usually listen, and that's the case for everybody here -- we all have a voice and we all have the wisdom to listen. Not so much in other games.