Support NeoGAF

[Systolique]

Good lord - you are overwhelmingly close minded.

I'd suggest you read The Will to Keep Winning - to show you how radically open minded professionals/competitive players of either sports or eSports needs to be in order to be excellent.

I suggest you come back to the real world where you realise no one likes people who randomly give advice to strangers because they are always going to be wrong, that's just the way it is.

This has nothing to do with being open or close-minded, if someone wants to get better they'll find help online or build a team, they're not waiting for your divine intervention during a random game?

 

[FaintColt388301]

There problem is that when a person who sucks is solo in solo queue, there is no responsibility of the people they are with to actually help them since they do not know them. Thus it's easier for the teammates to get mad and spew hate at the person opposed to actually helping. Then the solo person is so used to getting that that they can't decipher hate from help. And most often even if it is help it's given in a rude and frystrated manner, not an "Iunderstand that you need to practice. Let me help you. Try bouncing grenades here."

 

[Nameless]

Honestly, unless you're playing in competitive environments(and that might just mean with a regular group of dedicated gamers where's there's an understanding you play to win), deal with it or switch games. People are going to have varying levels of knowledge,experience,skill,engagement and time to improve. There's nothing you can do about that and they are under no obligation to accept your criticism, as valid as it may be.

 

[rocK`]

I suggest you come back to the real world where you realise no one likes people who randomly give advice to strangers because they are always going to be wrong, that's just the way it is.

This has nothing to do with being open or close-minded, if someone wants to get better they'll find help online or build a team, they're not waiting for your divine intervention during a random game?

Clearly I've done something to strike a nerve with you.

I'm actually not going to keep going back and forth with you because you're pretty set on your ways - but even you (hopefully) can objectively see how stupid your comment is:

I suggest you come back to the real world where you realise no one likes people who randomly give advice to strangers because they are always going to be wrong, that's just the way it is.

Really?

No one? at all? sorry I don't find people giving me advice, even if it's bad as offensive.

 

[Nimby]

well yea obviously that would be toxic. Dont know if you even read what I said? what I was referring to were things that were not toxic tho being called toxic just cause people pull that card so easily in overwatch, to the point literally anything is toxic

I was more of less building off what you posted.

I wouldn't (shouldn't) be called toxic if I asked for the support role. But most of the time, people go "GIVE ME GENJI OR I WILL FUCKING THROW" or "Dude you fucking suck with Winston, oh wait you're a MERCY MAIN no wonder (has 40 hours on Mercy and 20-30 on all other supports)." Non-toxic behavior made toxic.

This shit happens at all tiers too.

 

[AlexBasch]

Who the hell do gaffers be playing online with

Gaffers

Yeah, I have been trying to overcome my social anxiety of playing with other people but then I also remember how competitive Overwatch threads go and I go back to play alone without a mic.

And yeah, toxic is usually reserved to people who teamkill, use racial insults and overall are assholes because of a fucking videogame.

 

[Goldrush]

Not everyone who plays competitive games want to be top of the pack. If I care about rankings, I'll read meta guides. Nothing will chase me away from a game more than a serious competitive atmosphere. It's personally exhausting to play whose happiness depends entirely on victory or defeat. As far as I'm concern, it's the matchmaker's role to separate the casual and hardcore.

 

[Clefargle]

If you play on PS4 and Xbox you already have literal "participation awards" in the form of trophies and achievements. These are video games, the people trying to get better are people. Being intentionally harsh to randos was never cool and this concern trolling about this nonsense is late

 

[redcrayon]

Personally, I just fear the day when parents will be calling their teachers toxic because their kid got a C.

To be fair, it's rare to find a teacher who words their 'constructive criticism' of a student in the style of the majority of feedback in online games that seems to revolve around 'you're shit at this, kill yourself'. Objecting to people not being overly keen on randoms offering foulmouthed 'advice' on the basis that you're the equivalent of a professional teacher doesn't really work.

Ultimately, if the OP means to draw a criticism of society by saying that 'carebear attitudes unfairly regard (even offensively worded) 'advice' as toxic rather than taking the advice and ignoring the insult', I think the OP is more of a capitulation that online advice in 'toxic' communities shows that there are a lot of adults who somehow really can't communicate online without insulting someone. That's far more of an issue for gaming in general than expectations that people should be able to offer constructive criticism without losing their shit.

On top of that, even constructive criticism in games where much of the rest of the comms is racist/sexist/aggressive nonsense isn't happening in a vacuum, so it seems odd to put all of that shit to one side and zero in on the somewhat rarer 'constructive advice that sounds harsh but is for your own good'. A community isn't unfairly labelled as 'toxic' for the small amount of helpful, if harsh, comms if much of the comms actually is awful. Personally, if people can't communicate without sounding like a massive wanker or understanding that not everyone has thousands of hours to play online, no matter what their intention, I can't be bothered to spend my limited time for games with them. Life's too short. When I show my wife and daughter how to play board games, I manage to do so without screaming about the wrong piece being moved or questioning their gender/intelligence/parentage etc.

Where advice is helpful, practical and clear (and I've had loads in Monster Hunter where the community is largely awesome) then sure, I take it on board. I even happily accompany low-ranking hunters while downgrading to mission-appropriate gear if they want me to help show them the ropes as a stronger community of new players will eventually mean more people to play with, but then the community there doesn't have a rep for being 'toxic' in the same way as many of the competitive online games.

 

[Eumi]

That last bit about the teachers is really baffling.

Teachers are people who are paid and trained to teach. Their job is all about treading the line between encouraging their students whilst also correcting and rectifying them when they go wrong. They do this every working day, often for years at a time, all so that the children they teach can be functional upon entering society. The skills they teach literally form the foundations of that child's life.

An angry, screaming 20 year old on the other side of the mic in Overwatch is not a teacher (I mean, they might be but we should hope not), they're some random playing a video game and getting mad that the other people playing the video game aren't up to their standards.

The fact that you equate the two, even as a joke, is kinda worrisome.

I'm sorry that you think gamers are becoming too casual for your tastes, but that attitude is exactly what people are talking about when they call communities toxic. People aren't playing a game to please you, they're playing it have fun for themselves.

If you can't handle that, I'd really suggest playing with like-minded people that actually play the way you want them to.

 

[Eridani]

why are you going mid as PR youre better off suiciding top =).

If you see another post I wrote, I agree, sometimes the advice isn't good - so you can totally discard it. I don't know what offense they did to you, but it's just meaningless words. Good on you to ignore bad advice, but I bet not all of it was bad.

Like I said, no one else wanted to. I certainly wasn't going to bother wasting my time arguing about it in game so I just went mid, and it worked out pretty well.

And no, all of it was bad. Rather, there wasn't any advice to speak of, just a constant stream of insults. If you played HoN, surely you know how bad that game was. The closest thing to advice you get in 99% of moba matches is "don't feed [insert insults of choice here]". Yeah, thanks mate, I was dying on purpose.

And that's the kind of attitude you're defending here. People being "toxic" aren't giving advice, they are just trying to ignore the fact that they are bad at the game by pushing the blame on teammates that are doing worse then they are. Or hey, if no such teammate exists they just flame the one that's carrying them instead. I've seen that happen way too often.

If you want games to have a community that actually supports competitive play, people like these are the last thing you want. It's no coincidence that the higher you get in the rankings in these sorts of games, the less people flame. People who actually want to get good at the game generally don't waste their time insulting random people. If they lose, they analyze their own play for mistakes and learn from them instead of blaming someone else, because they know improving matters much more then winning one single game.

 

[Cuburt]

Stealth Overwatch thread?

 

[old manatee]

When I call an online community toxic I'm referring to tons of hate speech in the chat, or private message death threats. I have noticed that a lot of people on gaf call certain communities toxic, and when they give examples they mention stuff like team killing or playing music over the mic. To me that stuff is just ambiance.

 

[vazel]

I learn nothing from randoms at my rank criticizing me in-game. Getting better at a videogame is a personal journey that involves lots of practice, being self-aware of your own mistakes, and looking up online resources from better players.

Not that I consider people that criticize me in-game toxic. I just find no value in their feedback and ignore them.

 

[Namegoes_Here]

Clearly I've done something to strike a nerve with you.

I'm actually not going to keep going back and forth with you because you're pretty set on your ways - but even you (hopefully) can objectively see how stupid your comment is:

I suggest you come back to the real world where you realise no one likes people who randomly give advice to strangers because they are always going to be wrong, that's just the way it is.

Really?

No one? at all? sorry I don't find people giving me advice, even if it's bad as offensive.

Ok wow, when you're breaking down the literal meaning of a sentence and ignoring common meaning, you know you're losing. Might as well have corrected his spelling or negated his argument because of improper punctuation. I'm sorry someone random player may have gotten under your skin by labeling you toxic when you were genuinely trying to help. Maybe capcom will make a special safe space playlist where you'll get matched with players who like to provide constructive criticism to each other. That way big strong Alpha pro players won't have their feelings hurt by being labeled as toxic for just trying to provide unsolicited advice.

 

[hiryu64]

As I read the thread title, I expected that the OP would be a thoughtful treatise on how using words like "toxic" and other broad, negative descriptors of the gaming community can potentially lead to a normalization of said community's toxic elements, consequently leading to a resigned acceptance and complacency by members of said community.

I was expecting a critique on how, as opposed to people who genuinely care about changing the community for the better, a large portion of gamers may, perhaps, hold attitudes such as, "That's just how the community is," or, "Maybe you should just gitgud and stop whining."

I was expecting a callout of those who throw their hands up and accept that the community is toxic as a way of resolving cognitive dissonance through the path of least resistance rather than taking the opportunity for self-reflection and examining their own contributions to the toxicity of the gaming community and how they could potentially turn the tide through changing their own actions for the better.

Instead, I was greeted with a post from a person with the very attitude I was expecting to be critiqued.

So, um... bravo?

 

[Won]

Haven't seen someone trying to shit on casuals in a while. I guess it was overdue.

 

[Holy Order Sol]

Reminds of back when I used to play SoulCalibur and saw many players described as "having potential" for years lmao foh with that shit

 

[Tain]

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"you're being toxic and exclusionary"

^^^ this is a scenario that has never, ever happened in the real world outside of OP's head.

 

[AntraxSuicide]

It is essentially the "participation ribbon" of online gaming and will ultimately lead to a more casual, non-confrontational or critical play.

 

[Gotchaye]

I can't say that I've seen a lot of this. In my experience people are generally quite receptive to constructive criticism after a loss, as long as you're the least bit diplomatic about it. Excepting people who are clearly just there to troll, I've really only rarely encountered players who wouldn't take advice in the middle of a game, as long as it's not like: "hey [slur] you're making us lose stop being [slur] and git gud".

On the other hand, what I see all the time are huge assholes who are I guess too socially or emotionally stunted to recognize that they're huge assholes. These people appear to genuinely believe that they are politely offering constructive criticism, and for some reason also that they are not garbage humans.

This is really just Dunning-Kruger, I expect. People with no ability to get good results interacting with others are incapable of telling that they're bad at interacting with others. This is compounded by another manifestation of something like the Dunning-Kruger effect -- often it is the case in competitive online games that people who ain't shit nevertheless think that they're the greatest. The only reason they're not Master tier is because matchmaking keeps screwing them by giving them horrible teammates. What you run into a lot is that someone who is mediocre at best relative to the rest of the team gets incredibly angry at other people on the team, who often actually are doing what they should be doing, but thinks of themselves as trying to responsibly "captain" their team and help their teammates play better.

When I used to play lots of League of Legends, sometimes on the forums one of the staff would have people request to have their bans reviewed. This was always fascinating. People would give every impression of genuinely feeling that their ban was unfair. They would tell their side of the story, how really all they were doing was responding civilly to someone being a troll or a jerk, or how they were only trying to help their team win, etc. And then the Riot staffer would produce chat logs showing them to be terrible people. This happened over and over again. And people didn't learn. They continued to genuinely believe that their ban was unjustified. And it's not like they were just misremembering what happened. Even after the chat logs would get posted these people would argue that, no, that guy really was being a [slur] and you have to do this or they'll never learn and you can't baby these people or else pretty soon we'll be calling teachers toxic for giving kids a C.

So I gotta say, I don't think you make a convincing case and I come away feeling that it's pretty likely that you're a terrible person to play with and a pretty big jerk. To say that online gaming suffers from games having too much of a "care bear" attitude is frankly so disconnected from reality that I am not sure how you function in day to day life, and this should be obvious to all but the most socially stunted people who spend any real time playing or watching streams of high-level games in something like League of Legends. I would ordinarily be somewhat more diplomatic in my criticism, but, well, you are asking for it.

 

[NeonBlack]

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"you're being toxic and exclusionary"

^^^ this is a scenario that has never, ever happened in the real world outside of OP's head.

You're right, they usually don't respond and continue to play the character we asked them not to.

 

[rocK`]

Ok wow, when you're breaking down the literal meaning of a sentence and ignoring common meaning, you know you're losing. Might as well have corrected his spelling or negated his argument because of improper punctuation. I'm sorry someone random player may have gotten under your skin by labeling you toxic when you were genuinely trying to help. Maybe capcom will make a special safe space playlist where you'll get matched with players who like to provide constructive criticism to each other. That way big strong Alpha pro players won't have their feelings hurt by being labeled as toxic for just trying to provide unsolicited advice.

Yes - because in order to have a thoughtful argument the burden of arguing senseless hyperbole falls on me.

No, sorry - I choose not to do it.

 

[Wallach]

You're right, they usually don't respond and continue to play the character we asked them not to.

my god, not that

 

[rocK`]

my god, not that

I mean, looking at this thread is a prime example. I guess OW can be used here:

"Please switch off junkrat, it's not helpful to our team comp"

"I don't listen to advice from random people in my bracket, ignored"

continues to lose while playing junkrat.

 

[Drewfonse]

People actually play online games and have randoms unmuted? Oh no no no. I don't care how badly I play, that's not happening again. I recently tried to play Friday the 13th with unmuted randoms, and I nearly projectile vomited. Never again.

 

[Raylan Targaryen]

Yes, they benefit from the guidance from people that are paid to play, who are training 10 to 15 hours a day, which obviously isn't either my case or OP's.

I personally don't have the pretentious idea to give advice to random people who have played hundreds of hours already during a 10min game, though I can give advice to friends or in the extremely rare case someone I don't know asks for it

Why not? Numerous times in CS I've given someone advice or I've gotten advice and it benefitted the team.

Unless someone is being a dick about it I don't see the problem. If anything the pretentiousness is from people who think they're above getting criticism or advice from their peers. Again, this isn't even just a video game thing. It can be work related, but people get so upset at the idea of someone telling them something because one has to assume they're insecure and believe the other person is being condescending. God forbid someone actually tries to help others

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The concept of "personal accountability" when you're an anonymous random name in an online game with an infinite number of other anonymous random names seems a bit mystifying to me.

 

[Raylan Targaryen]

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"you're being toxic and exclusionary"

^^^ this is a scenario that has never, ever happened in the real world outside of OP's head.

No, but:

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"stfu don't tell me what to do i know what i'm doing"

*makes the same mistake*

is a situation that does happen in the real world far too often.

 

[Syril]

No, but:

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"stfu don't tell me what to do i know what i'm doing"

*makes the same mistake*

is a situation that does happen in the real world far too often.

Sometimes all you can do is do your part in not being a jerk.

 

[Leafhopper]

...Wait, so am I the only one who thinks this is a good topic for discussion? Is my environment that unique?

No you aren't but, GAF, in a general sense at least on gaming, has this weird "All online communities are bad with the public" when honestly it's more good than bad imo. They, like OP says want to be congratulated at large for everything and don't want to be told by anyone if they aren't doing well or paying attention. I think this top is a decent one but, uhh looking at some of the responses.

No, but:

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"stfu don't tell me what to do i know what i'm doing"

*makes the same mistake*

is a situation that does happen in the real world far too often.

Yep.

"hey dude, in the future you should do Y in response to X"

"you're being toxic and exclusionary"

^^^ this is a scenario that has never, ever happened in the real world outside of OP's head.

I have seen it happen. Someone actually was trying to help another player in a game and people used the word toxic to dodge the fact that they were playing poorly. Instead of using the word toxic for the people who grief, teamkill and hurl insults.

People actually play online games and have randoms unmuted? Oh no no no. I don't care how badly I play, that's not happening again. I recently tried to play Friday the 13th with unmuted randoms, and I nearly projectile vomited. Never again.

I really do think it's a game to game basis.

 

[rakkadakka]

So does this mean OP has no problem with all the sex I had with his mother?

Excellent.

 

[ironmang]

i mean i'd rather have my team not tilted and try to work around the bad player than have the bad player and a tilted team

Pretty much. Calling someone out for having a bad game isn't going to make them instantly play better and actually, in my experience, makes them do risky shit to try and get you off their back. If the bad player is communicating and trying that's really all you can ask for.

As far as personal accountability, I often get tired of teammates who die and look for the nearest person to blame. Another thing that does nothing positive for your team.

 

[Kai Dracon]

I have to admit, I can think of no online game anywhere which is swamped with false praise and a timid fear of criticizing players. If anything, in my experience many people online are relieved to encounter someone capable of acting like an adult in the process of offering genuine advice.

I don't think you can automatically blame people for not instantly following advice you intend to be "constructive criticism". After a while many people tend to filter that stuff out because there's so much chaff.

One can offer all the advice in the world, and one can genuinely intend a critique be constructive or helpful, but nobody is required to listen to you and you can't take it too personally if they don't. There are a hundred reasons why they may not, and the reason isn't always because they're ignorant and don't know they are a bad player.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

No you aren't but, GAF, in a general sense at least on gaming, has this weird "All online communities are bad with the public" when honestly it's more good than bad imo. They, like OP says want to be congratulated at large for everything and don't want to be told by anyone if they aren't doing well or paying attention. I think this top is a decent one but, uhh looking at some of the responses.

My issue is that I think there's potentially a discussion that has almost nothing to do with gaming that I think you can have that's basically asking the question "are people perhaps overly sensitive to even constructive criticism?" where you might reasonably conclude that the answer is "yes." People often don't like to be told that they suck even if it is phrased more diplomatically. This can certainly be a problem in real life. I suppose it can be a problem in competitive team gaming as well. Though in the latter scenario I would personally argue that if it's bothering you that much that randoms aren't trying hard enough to git gud, it probably falls on you to try to form a more regular group of players to team with. People that are either at your level or who will at the very least not react negatively to constructive criticism you offer about their play because they already know you and respect your ability.

But this?

So - this creates a "care bear" attitude where the only way to keep a win going is by falsifying praise, celebrating mediocrity and avoiding personal criticism. Often having an overly positive, non-reality grounded response of "It's ok guys, I know he's given up the past 10 deaths but it's fine! we can push through", which is certainly fine for the moment, but often not for any game after that, especially if the player is simply just not learning.

It is essentially the "participation ribbon" of online gaming and will ultimately lead to a more casual, non-confrontational or critical play.

This is really a head-scratcher. It's so implausible to me that I can only reasonably surmise that you're just imagining this.

 

[PunjabiPlaya]

I can see where the OP is coming from and have definitely seen it a couple times in Overwatch for example, but rarely does it happen.

Honestly, gaf threads about voice chat are where I see stuff like what OP is saying with people stating, "I don't and never will use mic with a team cuz I don't need people telling me how to play and I don't want to hear people try and tell me what's going on in the game, it doesn't apply to me."

I have seen people leave voice chat or get annoyed when there's a group of people giving call outs or asking for people to switch, which in casual play, I understand, but it's just the worst when people can't contribute or care to know what's going on with the team.

Again, you don't see this very often and you don't see it outside of games really, but it is there. Moreso the ones complaining are just people who have control issues and can't trust anyone. At the same time, it's usually the same type of person who is excessively on chat hounding people.

 

[jdstorm]

Clearly I've done something to strike a nerve with you.

I'm actually not going to keep going back and forth with you because you're pretty set on your ways - but even you (hopefully) can objectively see how stupid your comment is:

I suggest you come back to the real world where you realise no one likes people who randomly give advice to strangers because they are always going to be wrong, that's just the way it is.

Really?

No one? at all? sorry I don't find people giving me advice, even if it's bad as offensive.

Well in that case......

In all competitive environments no one likes playing with that over competitive person who thinks they are the greatest and tells everyone else tbat they suck. This is true even of Elite sport its not just "casual" players. If even Kobe Bryant can learn tbis perhaps you should too.

 

[terrible]

I have seen some people take constructive criticism poorly but for the most part as long as people aren't wording their criticism wrong people take it well. The toxic crap is when people do nothing but criticize their team without legitimate suggestions on how to be better while holding on to the idea that they are somehow better than everyone. Those people are a joke and are far more common than those that can't take constructive criticism in my experience.

 

[charlequin]

No one? at all? sorry I don't find people giving me advice, even if it's bad as offensive.

Well, since we've established that you'll act upon thoughtful advice, no matter how harsh, here's my advice: quit online gaming and don't come back until you've developed at least a modicum of understanding and perspective. It's actually impossible for a person who just sucks at a game to be as destructive to its online community as someone who overvalues their own skill and knowledge, lacks basic interpersonal communication skills, and has a perspective so warped that "gamers need to be more mean" seems like a reasonable position.

Whether it's video games or sports, people at the highest level still benefit from the guidance of someone better/smarter than them.

The chance that the person lecturing you about your play at the end of a match is actually better and smarter (and actually has useful advice) is extremely small, though. A useful critique takes a very specific format, and requires a certain level of smart engagement from the person offering it, which you very rarely see in these pseudonymous random-group settings. You can even see some of the evidence of this in this thread: there's no context where "stop playing character X" on its own has any value whatsoever, but it's being suggested as the kind of "good" advice that people are ignoring. In actuality not only can you pretty much safely ignore this "advice," you can pretty much safely ignore any other advice from the same person.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Yes - because in order to have a thoughtful argument the burden of arguing senseless hyperbole falls on me.

No, sorry - I choose not to do it.

Sounds like you're not responding very positively to the constructive feedback the poster gave you. Are you displaying personal responsibility?

 

[rocK`]

Well, since we've established that you'll act upon thoughtful advice, no matter how harsh, here's my advice: quit online gaming and don't come back until you've developed at least a modicum of understanding and perspective. It's actually impossible for a person who just sucks at a game to be as destructive to its online community as someone who overvalues their own skill and knowledge, lacks basic interpersonal communication skills, and has a perspective so warped that "gamers need to be more mean" seems like a reasonable position.



The chance that the person lecturing you about your play at the end of a match is actually better and smarter (and actually has useful advice) is extremely small, though. A useful critique takes a very specific format, and requires a certain level of smart engagement from the person offering it, which you very rarely see in these pseudonymous random-group settings. You can even see some of the evidence of this in this thread: there's no context where "stop playing character X" on its own has any value whatsoever, but it's being suggested as the kind of "good" advice that people are ignoring. In actuality not only can you pretty much safely ignore this "advice," you can pretty much safely ignore any other advice from the same person.

Honestly appalled that mods have such an attitude, especially when this has been nothing but inviting thoughtful conversation.

I'm so glad you can generalize all players and all advice given as useless and are able to minimize it.

You (and other like minded individuals that display this generalization) are exactly the close minded individuals that suffer from the inability to be introspective and take things like criticism/feedback as opportunities to learn instead of attacks on your person.

To judge "good" advice and "bad" advice in sweeping generalizations is just mind boggling.

 

[rocK`]

Sounds like you're not responding very positively to the constructive feedback the poster gave you. Are you displaying personal responsibility?

Another mod with inflammatory comments - I don't get what sense of duty you have here.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Honestly appalled that mods have such an attitude, especially when this has been nothing but inviting thoughtful conversation.

I'm so glad you can generalize all players and all advice given as useless and are able to minimize it.

You (and other like minded individuals that display this generalization) are exactly the close minded individuals that suffer from the inability to be introspective and take things like criticism/feedback as opportunities to learn instead of attacks on your person.

To judge "good" advice and "bad" advice in sweeping generalizations is just mind boggling.

This post demonstrates such astonishing lack of self-awareness that I can only assume that it's intentional.

 

[Veitsev]

OP I think the toxic person may be you.

You might just be the baddie.

 

[rocK`]

This post demonstrates such astonishing lack of self-awareness that I can only assume that it's intentional.

Could you go a step further and help explain instead of leaving it as a baseless attempt at humor?

 

[Stumpokapow]

Another mod with inflammatory comments - I don't get what sense of duty you have here.

Toxic has fewer letters than inflammatory if you want to save time when rejecting my constructive criticism.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Could you go a step further and help explain instead of leaving it as a baseless attempt at humor?

You don't seem very receptive to criticism and instead seemingly want to be coddled and given a participation prize for trying to be a positive contributor to online gaming communities. This doesn't really seem like a point that should have needed to be explicitly spelled out for you. Perhaps you're not as smart as you think you are?

 

[Leafhopper]

My issue is that I think there's potentially a discussion that has almost nothing to do with gaming that I think you can have that's basically asking the question "are people perhaps overly sensitive to even constructive criticism?" where you might reasonably conclude that the answer is "yes." People often don't like to be told that they suck even if it is phrased more diplomatically. This can certainly be a problem in real life. I suppose it can be a problem in competitive team gaming as well. Though in the latter scenario I would personally argue that if it's bothering you that much that randoms aren't trying hard enough to git gud, it probably falls on you to try to form a more regular group of players to team with. People that are either at your level or who will at the very least not react negatively to constructive criticism you offer about their play because they already know you and respect your ability.

But this?


This is really a head-scratcher. It's so implausible to me that I can only reasonably surmise that you're just imagining this.

Reading that part of that post again you might be right. I wouldn't say I totally agree with that. More of the question of what you said in the bold is the angle I am looking at.

 

[wamberz1]

Like most things, offering criticisms in online games comes down to those 6 magical words -

Don't be a dick about it

While I generally just play silently in most team based games, there are some like FFXIV where offering criticisms is basically mandatory to progress. As long as you offer advice in a way that makes it clear you're not doing it for yourself but for them then it works 90% of the time. Way too much I'll see someone go "Hey dickwad, don't stand in the fire". Great critique there buddy. Which fire? What can you do the help them pay attention more? And most importantly, how do you word the critique? This is what goes through my mind when I try to help others, and for the most part the results are great.

 

[rocK`]

You don't seem very receptive to criticism and instead seemingly want to be coddled and given a participation prize for trying to be a positive contributor to online gaming communities. This doesn't really seem like a point that should have needed to be explicitly spelled out for you. Perhaps you're not as smart as you think you are?

A contrarian in 2017? How cool