Guild Wars 2

So I figured I’d put this in the PvP forum because that’s where it happens pretty much 99% of the time. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much on a daily basis I’ll have people whisper me, usually after I kill them or else make it VERY hard for them to kill me (generally involving 3+ teammates of the opposing team). These whispers are, by and large, hateful and derogatory. Calling me names, telling me I’m bad at the game (never mind what that makes them for having such a tough time?), generally just trash talking. There’s a REASON I avoid Xbox Live.

Now, this is rather annoying on its own. But these same…people (I’ll be civil)…tend to also Block you first before even whispering, so you aren’t even able to reply. I often get spammed with hateful, rude, and disgusting comments while I’m in the middle of another fight and unable to take my attention away from the combat to block THEM.

Now, there are ways around this. Creating a chat window that doesn’t show whispers while in pvp comes to mind. But the thing is…I’m often chatting with friends while doing pvp. So that doesn’t really work. I’m sure there are a couple of other methods, each with their own drawbacks.

One thing I’d like to propose is that if you Block someone, it goes two ways. So you can’t message them, and they cannot message you. This won’t stop someone from spamming hate and vulgarity at you and THEN blocking you, but it will at least prevent them from immediately blocking before going on a spiteful whining rant more befitting a misbehaved child, with no way to even respond to them.

TLDR: SPvP community is at times toxic and I’m rather weary of being blocked then spammed with hateful insults. Measures should be taken to prevent this, also leading to less bans from the inevitable reports just because someone got worked up.

You’d be surprised how many times this has been proposed. I don’t understand why it doesn’t already work like that tbh.

I’ve been whispered some pretty nasty stuff usually involving cancer and me not getting along. I’ve tried to respond to ask why anyone would want to say something like that, but found I was blocked. I would be lying if I said it didn’t bug me. I like your idea.

Right now my solution is to report. If it happens twice, I log off for the day. I’ve only once run into the same abusive person twice. I will occasionally run into players who get really annoyed, but I can let that slide because I’ve seen them enough in pvp that I know they are annoyed or just really frustrated and it isn’t about me, or at least I use to before the changes. Now I hardly ever get paired with regular people. Good for variety, but sometimes not as fun.

Overall, it is never about the person being insulted it’s about people putting too much personal self worth in a game or people not knowing where to vent their frustration. I don’t feel these people would say any of these things to another’s face, but through chat it is, for some reason, okay.

You do occasionally get people that whisper after a game to complement how well you played if they think you were really good, and sometimes even a party invite. It’s not all bad. Unfortunately the bad is just more potent. What annoys me most about it is these hateful whisperers seem to lack the ability to reason - as you said, what does it make them if they lost to someone so bad? What does it make them if they lose to someone who does "nothing but" evade, kite, engage from stealth, heal or whatever it is that particular person was doing? Sometimes you’ll run into a particularly nasty piece of work who deduces, from you killing them, that they don’t know how to play the game mode and only focus on kills, having just expressed how you ’re too bad to get kills. Sometimes it’s amusing, sometimes it’s just a nuisance. If you don’t think you can (or want to) talk sense into them, just say "k," or "whatever," or "you’re entitled to your opinion," and block them. There’s nothing much else you can do, and even if you do get a point across, that was only one bad egg in a very large box.

Mysticjedi.6053:

I’ve been whispered some pretty nasty stuff usually involving cancer and me not getting along. I’ve tried to respond to ask why anyone would want to say something like that, but found I was blocked. I would be lying if I said it didn’t bug me. I like your idea.

Right now my solution is to report. If it happens twice, I log off for the day. I’ve only once run into the same abusive person twice. I will occasionally run into players who get really annoyed, but I can let that slide because I’ve seen them enough in pvp that I know they are annoyed or just really frustrated and it isn’t about me, or at least I use to before the changes. Now I hardly ever get paired with regular people. Good for variety, but sometimes not as fun.

Overall, it is never about the person being insulted it’s about people putting too much personal self worth in a game or people not knowing where to vent their frustration. I don’t feel these people would say any of these things to another’s face, but through chat it is, for some reason, okay.

I’ve said much the same thing before. Many of these people would never say such things to another’s face. That isn’t implying they’re cowardly or saying anything about them, but something about typing online allows them to dehumanize the person they’re talking to mentally. This corresponds with something else I was considering when I made my suggestion.

The act of blocking someone then whispering conveys with it a measure of power. Suddenly, you aren’t fearing verbal retribution in any form whatsoever. It allows one to vent and insult while being completely invulnerable to any return comments. It eliminates the possibility of retaliation or being outwitted. There’s been various psychological studies done on the kinds of things people will do if they think themselves immune to consequences or societal judgment. So this might also be an additional deterrent, something that makes someone pause before going off and think if it’s really worth it.

Keep in mind, I really don’t like to see anyone get banned. I’ve reported people for being absolutely horrible to me with no provocation, but I don’t take any ‘joy’ in that. I would much rather they simply ’didn’t’ spew vulgarity. Perhaps they had a terrible day, or any number of other things. Therein lies the other reason for my suggestion. Less necessary bans means more people playing and purchasing things from the gem store. Everyone wins.

Impact.2780:

You do occasionally get people that whisper after a game to complement how well you played if they think you were really good, and sometimes even a party invite. It’s not all bad. Unfortunately the bad is just more potent. What annoys me most about it is these hateful whisperers seem to lack the ability to reason – as you said, what does it make them if they lost to someone so bad? What does it make them if they lose to someone who does “nothing but” evade, kite, engage from stealth, heal or whatever it is that particular person was doing? Sometimes you’ll run into a particularly nasty piece of work who deduces, from you killing them, that they don’t know how to play the game mode and only focus on kills, having just expressed how you ‘re too bad to get kills. Sometimes it’s amusing, sometimes it’s just a nuisance. If you don’t think you can (or want to) talk sense into them, just say “k,” or “whatever,” or “you’re entitled to your opinion,” and block them. There’s nothing much else you can do, and even if you do get a point across, that was only one bad egg in a very large box.

Oh, I’ve actually whispered people after fighting them and losing to them, either offering a compliment or asking what exactly they did/what build they’re using. I’ve made some friends this way as well. Likewise, I’ve had people whisper me with compliments and even gone on to give them tips and guidance on how to play the class or to compete better against the spec I’m currently playing.

Rarely I’ll whisper someone with either a compliment or a question and get a nasty reply. Thankfully this ‘is’ rare, and those people I simply block and resolve to have no further interaction with if they can’t communicate in a mature and mutually respectful manner. But no, I do agree that the majority of people are pretty cool. But the it’s the ones who ’aren’t’ who also tend to be noticed simply because they’re loud and vile.

Take a note from my book when ppl rage or QQ to you in a whisper, simply respond with this

:)

This simple response will generally result in them having an aneurysm from the rage it causes them and meanwhile you get to have a nice laugh.

most of the time they aren’t blocking you, they are simply invisible.

I love it when that happens, I have done my job well to earn some hate

Mogar.9216:

I love it when that happens, I have done my job well to earn some hate

Seriously!

You know you had a good day in PvP when you get Turret Engis calling you a noob

Life is too short boys – It’s just a game – Don’t let 14 yr old virgins get you upset

If I were you op I would call my lawyer I think you may have a case for cyber bullying. Just claim PTSD.

ummm if people were angry after you 1v3 them…. id take that as a compliment???

This is what happens to me after a loss

1) someone will rage call everyone bad.
2) Ill imply somehow he was the worst… try to include something that happened in game as evidence(gets them every time)
3)99% of them will whisper me after game ranting
4)I give them advise (meant to be insulting)
5)They tell me to uninstall and block me
6) I lol

am i going to hell?

Starlightmagus.8654:

So I figured I’d put this in the PvP forum because that’s where it happens pretty much 99% of the time. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much on a daily basis I’ll have people whisper me, usually after I kill them or else make it VERY hard for them to kill me (generally involving 3+ teammates of the opposing team). These whispers are, by and large, hateful and derogatory. Calling me names, telling me I’m bad at the game (never mind what that makes them for having such a tough time?), generally just trash talking. There’s a REASON I avoid Xbox Live.

Now, this is rather annoying on its own. But these same…people (I’ll be civil)…tend to also Block you first before even whispering, so you aren’t even able to reply. I often get spammed with hateful, rude, and disgusting comments while I’m in the middle of another fight and unable to take my attention away from the combat to block THEM.

Now, there are ways around this. Creating a chat window that doesn’t show whispers while in pvp comes to mind. But the thing is…I’m often chatting with friends while doing pvp. So that doesn’t really work. I’m sure there are a couple of other methods, each with their own drawbacks.

One thing I’d like to propose is that if you Block someone, it goes two ways. So you can’t message them, and they cannot message you. This won’t stop someone from spamming hate and vulgarity at you and THEN blocking you, but it will at least prevent them from immediately blocking before going on a spiteful whining rant more befitting a misbehaved child, with no way to even respond to them.

TLDR: SPvP community is at times toxic and I’m rather weary of being blocked then spammed with hateful insults. Measures should be taken to prevent this, also leading to less bans from the inevitable reports just because someone got worked up.

ignore them…unless you’re turret engi, if so then they’re totally right. Insulting turret engis is completely legit.

People don’t trash talk to me when I die, so I have no idea why people are treating it as some epidemic or something. It doesn’t happen nearly often as people point it out to be.

Chase.8415:

People don’t trash talk to me when I die, so I have no idea why people are treating it as some epidemic or something. It doesn’t happen nearly often as people point it out to be.

You’re fortunate to have not received such vitriol, then. Though keep in mind that it’s rarely when ‘I’ die and generally speaking when they die to me. The exception to this is when it takes 3+ of their team to kill me, which is quite often a case for someone (usually the one I was fighting the longest) to snap off some rude whisper at me. I’m not quite sure why this is.

That said, I know for a fact I’m not the only one this has happened to. I’ve spoken to a great many players who have experienced the same thing. And while it may not be an epidemic in the sense that it happens every single game played, it generally happens 1-2 times a day with playing even a moderate amount of pvp. In my own experience.

I’m almost certain part of this is that my main tends to be a thief and I’ve been accused of…well, quite a bit because thieves seem to be the punching bags of PvP in a verbal sense. That isn’t necessarily always the case, however, as I pvp on every class on varying days (and not just for the daily). A recent example was playing my Guardian (which I’m admittedly pretty terrible at, I’m learning) and after dying to someone was mocked and insulted because…Guardians are OP? I have no idea. I was running an experimental build.

It does break down into a societal problem and how the anonymity of the internet shapes people’s perceptions and allows them both power and the ability to dehumanize their ‘opponent’. Obviously, changing society and the perceptions of people is a long term issue and one highly unlikely to be addressed within an MMO, but there are ways to mitigate and prevent verbal abuse.

(And I’ve never actually played a turret engi, though now I’m tempted to try it just for lawls. )

Starlightmagus.8654:

So I figured I’d put this in the PvP forum because that’s where it happens pretty much 99% of the time. The title is pretty self-explanatory. Pretty much on a daily basis I’ll have people whisper me, usually after I kill them or else make it VERY hard for them to kill me (generally involving 3+ teammates of the opposing team). These whispers are, by and large, hateful and derogatory. Calling me names, telling me I’m bad at the game (never mind what that makes them for having such a tough time?), generally just trash talking. There’s a REASON I avoid Xbox Live.

Now, this is rather annoying on its own. But these same…people (I’ll be civil)…tend to also Block you first before even whispering, so you aren’t even able to reply. I often get spammed with hateful, rude, and disgusting comments while I’m in the middle of another fight and unable to take my attention away from the combat to block THEM.

Now, there are ways around this. Creating a chat window that doesn’t show whispers while in pvp comes to mind. But the thing is…I’m often chatting with friends while doing pvp. So that doesn’t really work. I’m sure there are a couple of other methods, each with their own drawbacks.

One thing I’d like to propose is that if you Block someone, it goes two ways. So you can’t message them, and they cannot message you. This won’t stop someone from spamming hate and vulgarity at you and THEN blocking you, but it will at least prevent them from immediately blocking before going on a spiteful whining rant more befitting a misbehaved child, with no way to even respond to them.

TLDR: SPvP community is at times toxic and I’m rather weary of being blocked then spammed with hateful insults. Measures should be taken to prevent this, also leading to less bans from the inevitable reports just because someone got worked up.

…And the funny thing about hate speech and cyberbullying? It’s illegal in the state where this company resides and it still will not monitor the real trolls in this game.

This one follows me around, blocks my view with one or more players who follow his example sometimes completely stopping me from fighting in WvW at all.

Then, in this instance, he whispered the enemy, whom he ignored, then stood around while they killed me – jumping up and down and emoting for joy.

It’s in the news, gaming cyberbullying, cyberstalking is being ignored by many.

I get very few angry whispers, but my pal who has only been playing a few months and mains thief gets quite a few. we get more when we spawn camp in EotM. our tactic is always to reply with something short and sparky ‘LOL’ L2P scrub’ ‘thanks dad’ etc, and laugh it off. but we are stoners who think rustling jimmies is really funny.

TLDR: you rustled some needs jimmies and he is jumping up and down on his computer chair in rage. pretty funny actually.

block them back. stop crying …. duh.

Starlightmagus.8654:

One thing I’d like to propose is that if you Block someone, it goes two ways. So you can’t message them, and they cannot message you. This won’t stop someone from spamming hate and vulgarity at you and THEN blocking you, but it will at least prevent them from immediately blocking before going on a spiteful whining rant more befitting a misbehaved child, with no way to even respond to them.
.

yes. Sounds like a simple tweak.

Sorry for the toxicity you got dumped on you. We aren’t all bad,

i see it this way: if i get such whispers it means i did good on mah teef

i mean, if i am that bad, useless and <insert all possible slur here> then what does it make you if i killed you repeatly?

Just add your complaints/suggestions to one of these lists.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gw2+messaging+blocked+players&rlz=1C1KMZB_enUS565US565&oq=gw2+messaging+blocked+players&aqs=chrome..69i57.6599j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=gw2+messaging+blocked+players+site:forum-en.guildwars2.com

Btw, in my experience the majority of players receiving these whispers provoke it in the first place, and are just upset they couldn’t get the last word in. I just play in invisible mode if I know I’m going to be trash talking a player that deserves it but don’t want him spamming me with whispers.

The 10 Commandments of Hateful Whispering:

1. Every build that is not mine is cheese
2. Every build that is not mine is braindead
3. Every class that’s not mine is broken
4. Every player but me is hacking
5. Hard counters do not exist
6. Bugs only effect me
7. Much experience wow!
8. Because I am so gud, I should never lose fights
9. A loss is never my fault
10. muh MMR

Yes, indeed, sour grapes. I get those whispers as well. And after I block them, I see the responses to those sour grapes in map chat after.

Being a good winner is easy. Being a gracious loser is a whole ’nother tier. It takes time for some people to understand that.

My favorite whisper? “I could beat your kitten IRL.”

Just smile, block, and move on. Life is too short for stupid kitten.

I always find those hateful messages hilarious. Because they usually involve people making some comment about how cheesy my build is, and thus showing how little observation skills they have. Like when Im on my thief and they whisper me: “Oh, I see your rotation is 222222222” When I only used heartseeker once on them, after they were at 10% health. Or when I’m on my Engineer and they whisper some comment about how OP turret engi’s are, even though the only turret I use is my healing turret, and I run a zerker FT build….

Good times.

I only trash talk if I have beaten them. There is no point in flaming or trash talking if you don’t win. Adding insult to injury is the point of it all. Why would someone add insult to another’s victory I will never find out?

I do think some trash talk is healthy tbh. It is just a natural side effect of competition.

TDLR PvP is half the battle, map/say chat is the other half.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I think trash talk is a sign of poor sportsmanship. I never make fun of a fellow gamer.

PistolWhip.2697:

I only trash talk if I have beaten them. There is no point in flaming or trash talking if you don’t win. Adding insult to injury is the point of it all. Why would someone add insult to another’s victory I will never find out?

I do think some trash talk is healthy tbh. It is just a natural side effect of competition.

TDLR PvP is half the battle, map/say chat is the other half.

I very strongly disagree with your attitude. No one should ever trash talk another player, regardless of whether they win or lose. This isn’t League of Legends, GW2 has always had a generally friendly community, and I would like it to stay that way. There is no need to create an atmosphere of toxicity.

Good suggestion, TLDR is that blocking should also prevent whispering afterwards.

Some of the comments go away beyond “you are bad” trash talk into stuff that in some countries like the UK would be grounds for police action. Surprising Anet is so far behind most companies (at least in the last couple of years) when it comes to actually taking action on verbal abuse, there’s a report button but nothing seems to happen with it. I guess no resource behind it, like a lot of other things.

Tempted to take screenshots next time and send them to some gaming websites, could generate a good amount of publicity as this has become an issue that is getting some pushback elsewhere. Nothing gets companies off their kitten quicker than bad pr.

just block man, im really generous with my blocks. my list is quite long and it makes pvp more enjoyable. in fact, I also just block people who annoy me in general, even if theyre not hostile toward me.

You know what would help this? Better matchmaking.

Chaotic.9742:

Take a note from my book when ppl rage or QQ to you in a whisper, simply respond with this

:)

This simple response will generally result in them having an aneurysm from the rage it causes them and meanwhile you get to have a nice laugh.

This.

This person gets it.

There’s no better response than a constant stream of smiles. However, I agree that if you block someone, you shouldn’t be able to whisper them. That should go without saying, imo.

Gern.2978:

PistolWhip.2697:

I only trash talk if I have beaten them. There is no point in flaming or trash talking if you don’t win. Adding insult to injury is the point of it all. Why would someone add insult to another’s victory I will never find out?

I do think some trash talk is healthy tbh. It is just a natural side effect of competition.

TDLR PvP is half the battle, map/say chat is the other half.

I very strongly disagree with your attitude. No one should ever trash talk another player, regardless of whether they win or lose. This isn’t League of Legends, GW2 has always had a generally friendly community, and I would like it to stay that way. There is no need to create an atmosphere of toxicity.

I think you’re missing out. Video games are meant to be a playground for the silly.

+Trash talk can be part of a friendly healthy competition. It is only when you take things too seriously does the fun be replaced by malice. Kanye West wouldn’t be half as entertaining if he was humble.

PistolWhip.2697:

Gern.2978:

PistolWhip.2697:

I only trash talk if I have beaten them. There is no point in flaming or trash talking if you don’t win. Adding insult to injury is the point of it all. Why would someone add insult to another’s victory I will never find out?

I do think some trash talk is healthy tbh. It is just a natural side effect of competition.

TDLR PvP is half the battle, map/say chat is the other half.

I very strongly disagree with your attitude. No one should ever trash talk another player, regardless of whether they win or lose. This isn’t League of Legends, GW2 has always had a generally friendly community, and I would like it to stay that way. There is no need to create an atmosphere of toxicity.

I think you’re missing out. Video games are meant to be a playground for the silly.

+Trash talk can be part of a friendly healthy competition. It is only when you take things too seriously does the fun be replaced by malice. Kanye West wouldn’t be half as entertaining if he was humble.

There’s trash talk, and then there’s telling someone you hope they die of cancer. Most people seem to opt for the latter technique. Plus, hearing trash talk from someone I don’t know is almost exclusively annoying to me, because I don’t really respect someone who can’t have an honest conversation.

That doesn’t stop me from spamming a rap airhorn when I do something that ruin’s a friend’s day in a game, but I also prefer creative ways of trash talking.

yeah I think the WvW system would fit PvP and it needs to happen. Though, the ability to still whisper someone if you really want to its far less common in WvW.

Ive mentioned this previously.

I have people in PvP right now who have zeroed in on me as their guy to beat. (Mkes me feel rather good that Ive caused that many problems for them in my very short time in PvP so far thatr I have become their focal point. I just became Pheonix ranked and am still learning myself.)

Regardless, I get the most ridiculous whispers that Im hacking, macroing, they are going to report me, blah blah blah.

Even in fight the say chat is the immediate retribution for being downed by someone.

PvP chat system makes the WvW emotes look vanilla in comparison and I hated that.

The Feels!