Guild Wars 2

Well to start out I love guild wars 2, i have been playing it since the beta. I have always looked at, but never posted on the forums here. However, i thought it time to throw my 2 cents on the games current status.

I would say that overall arena net has done an amazing job with guild wars 2. I played the first guild wars, but very causally since that’s how the game was. Things however are quite different with Guild Wars 2 as it seems arena net has tried to make it competitive and up-to-date. Though something that most people would agree is that the game sorely lacks in end-game content. I myself experienced this but have stuck with the game for over 2 years. Part of what made me stick with the game, (which i know is the same for others) is the PVP aspect.

This however can only stay fun and fresh for so long, and something that keeps this alive is the people you play with and against. Lately it seems that the PVP community is quite toxic, almost i dare say reaching the level of League of Legends infamous toxic players. Even with the profanity filter on i am constantly disgusted with how people talk and behave in lobbies and HotM. You can not join a game without constantly seeing people complain about builds leading to people calling each other vulgar comments, trolling, and other types of misconduct.

Naturally some of this is to be expected with any live pvp games (just look at Xbox live). However, when it became the normal daily way i see people behave in the game it makes me wonder why i still play the game. It’s like being in a relationship with somebody that you know is no good and about to end, but you still stick with it despite the obvious bad signs.

This is to no fault of Arena Net of course, they can not control how their clientele behave. Its just very disheartening to see what was once a fun and helpful community turn into the toxic insulting cesspool it is at the moment. The good news it can change and hopefully with heart of the thorns people will become to busy playing and exploring the game to attack each other. Then we can have the community that the original guild wars, and start of guild wars 2 was like.

You are absolutly wright and to tell the truth i follow their way a lot of times answering to them, but pvp always will have this problem you haveto learn to control your self.
But i remeber sometimes this kind of behaviour in GW1 in gvg not so much but there was to.

It really feels like the PvP community is getting more toxic every week. I fear with the introduction of a league system it will get even worse.

the more eles around the more toxic it gets

A toxic community always comes with player competition, especially when said community becomes more and more condensed. GW2 dont have much new blood incoming.

For example just today I learned that if you dont know every player in competetive teams by name, you’re not allowed to post in this forum. Apparently.

The problem can be summed up in three parts:

1. Poor matchmaking. That will always cause friction in a game.
2. Lack of a balance team. Changes are way too slow. OP stuff stays OP too long.
3. Some people are just bad people. This is the same as real life. There are good people and there are bad people. Except the same in game.

style.6173:

1. Poor matchmaking. That will always cause friction in a game.

Feels the same like the past six month. You only get good matchups during the prime time, otherwise it is lacklust.

2. Lack of a balance team. Changes are way too slow. OP stuff stays OP too long.

Still, the balance is better than ever.

3. Some people are just bad people. This is the same as real life. There are good people and there are bad people. Except the same in game.

This has always been the case.

The things you mention have always been that way or are now better than before, but the community is getting more toxic. Therefore I don’t think there is a connection between those three points and the growing toxicity of the community.

Kids will be kids i guess,had this guy last night in pvp that thought he was any good for constantly 3on1ing me and then jumping on me afterwards to boast about it,i complained about being constantly zerged an told him theres nothing to brag about so he could stop jumping.When the match ended i left,the guy started rage pming me out of nowhere with nonsense and telling me to enjoy my imbecile life.I was trying to ask what he was on about,but then he decided to block me.
I still hardly do pvp tbh,getting kinda bored of it all but whenever i do play i certainly notice this increase in toxicity.It just gives me the impression that i’m playing with a bunch of 14 y olds.

I love it. A couple of days ago I got teamed up with 2 guys in a guild that were absolutely terrible, they spent half the match fighting off point and losing those fights, and the other half talking kitten about the rest of the team. I made sure to send them some packets of salt in the mail and have a good laugh at them as they raged.

Then the best thing that could possibly happen next happened, we got thrown into a match on opposite teams. The thirsty kitteners spent a good chunk of the game trying to 2v1 me, they would fully abandon points trying to get me, and of course we absolutely crushed them. To rub it in more I would compliment the rest of the team saying good fights, sorry you guys are stuck with those 2 crappy players, they are losing the match for you, etc. Then I made sure to send them some humiliation dye.

This isn’t a care bears cartoon, if someone is being an kitten you can ignore them or beat them and laugh at them. If you are really bothered by what some stupid little 13 year old says to you in a game you either need to grow some thicker skin or avoid the internet for the rest of your life.

Puck.9612:

This isn’t a care bears cartoon, if someone is being an kitten you can ignore them or beat them and laugh at them. If you are really bothered by what some stupid little 13 year old says to you in a game you either need to grow some thicker skin or avoid the internet for the rest of your life.

I doubt this is about getting bothered by what some 13y old says.I think it’s more about the fact that this attitude is increasing amongst players,turning what used to be a proper community into something that’s worth vomiting on.

Player running a build that does a disproportionate amount of damage for the effort required to run it and winning:

Ez Scrub Get Rekt

Player running a build that does a disproportionate amount of damage for the effort required to run it and losing:

Cheese mode scrub get [pejorative redacted by mod] wow

And that’s why pvp is horrible. Nobody in their right mind gives half of a rat’s behind about anyone with the above mentality, but that mentality seems to be the overwhelming majority of players you run into.

I’ve come up with a decent solution to this. It’s not great, but it works for me so far. In addition to my main chat, I have 3 other channels. I have “Team”, which holds /party and /team but no /map. This eliminates chatter from the other team and things shouted out during the match. If it’s my own team that’s being toxic, I use “Party” chat, which only has /party listed. This way I can ignore my team but still communicate with anyone I am grouped with from outside the match. I use this because often I will pvp with 1 or 2 friends but not a whole group. And then I have a tab called “Zen”. This tab has nothing turned on. If I feel like spvp but dont want to deal with a particularly bad crowd, I turn this on and ignore everyone.

Lol personally I find stuff like this hilarious. I love these guys who send hate messages then insta block, or the ones who yell at their team for losing yet have the least points, and oh lets not forget the ones who call you scrubs or trash….after you just killed them. X3
It’s nice to be loved but it’s fun to be hated lol. I don’t care what anyone says about me or my play style this is a game and I’m here to have fun so as far as haters are concerned my advice is to either deal with it or get out of dodge because you better believe I’m going to enjoy coming after you once you start something.

If you think this game has a toxic community you’ve never played a moba. Imagine being trapped with a flamer/troll/feeder/blamer/etc for 40+mins because if you bail you get penalized. I do believe they need to do more banwise because i’ve reported mouthy players that use derogatory terms and they have yet to be banned. If anet actually banned these players there would be fear and people would think twice before they start spewing their dribble

This is what happens when you , the developer (anet) focus on branding and hyping e-sports INSTEAD of actually focusing on sPvP as a system to make it fun, interesting to watch, where players actually WANT to stick around and continue playing.

While Anet has done a good job with GW2, I can’t say that about sPvP…(i’m not blaming pvp devs, their hands are tied by higher ups from anet/NCsoft who don’t want to actually allocate enough resources to the pvp team…).
The community itself could have brought it to e-sports if the game was actually, you know, worthy of it.

Unfortunately its NOT. And this is what is left, a tiny PvP community, so small that it’s impossible to get to an actual e-sport level…. It’s no where near what it could have been because Anet DID NOT FOCUS ON PVP as they should have (systematic improvement to all functions of PvP instead of constant hyping and branding of GW2 “e-sports”)

the community turns it into an e-sport if the PvP system was actually great…instead, anet thought they could just turn it e-sport without putting a big focus on the PvP system itself…

There was barely 10k (under 7k after chinese were knocked out) viewers watching the finals of WTS, a major pvp tournament for gw2…If you play gw2 PVP, you probably watched it… PvE,WvW had absolutely not one care for it. This shows me how small the PvP community is… that amount of viewers for a MAJOR tournament finals is just…not good.

More ppl trolling instead of actually playing spvp…hardly ANY competition for the top teams… its been the top teams for a long time and that isn’t going to change because the spvp community IS NOT GROWING. and it won’t until anet starts FOCUSING on constant, systematic improvement of all aspects in sPvP…Toxic community is not ruining the PvP scene… higher ups from NCsoft/Anet are because they have refused to give these PvP devs the necessary resources to make it fun,competitive,engaging system.

RoRo.8270:

If you think this game has a toxic community you’ve never played a moba. Imagine being trapped with a flamer/troll/feeder/blamer/etc for 40+mins because if you bail you get penalized. I do believe they need to do more banwise because i’ve reported mouthy players that use derogatory terms and they have yet to be banned. If anet actually banned these players there would be fear and people would think twice before they start spewing their dribble

They can and do ban people. They have to use a scalpel not a bludgeon because there are many people that get frustrated for many good reasons with this game and they are not going to ban people for occassional rants during a match. I would imagine it has to be prolonged individual harrassment to get banned. Sorry but somebody calling people noobs in team chat is not going to get somebody banned most likely.

Teutos.8620:

style.6173:

1. Poor matchmaking. That will always cause friction in a game.

Feels the same like the past six month. You only get good matchups during the prime time, otherwise it is lacklust.

2. Lack of a balance team. Changes are way too slow. OP stuff stays OP too long.

Still, the balance is better than ever.

3. Some people are just bad people. This is the same as real life. There are good people and there are bad people. Except the same in game.

This has always been the case.

The things you mention have always been that way or are now better than before, but the community is getting more toxic. Therefore I don’t think there is a connection between those three points and the growing toxicity of the community.

The balance is NOT better than ever. It has been a long time since there was a god tier class like dd ele.

Also, as you mentioned there the matchmaking issues have been there for a long time. The part you are missing is that the longer they continue, the most people become annoyed which builds that toxic community.

Aside from the toxicity, we get misinformed “know it alls”

No joke, my shatter Mesmer was reprimanded and got told to bunk. Gotta get my Mesmer out of this bracket

werent ppl just saying this about hambow like what seems 6months ago… i have been elestronk since beta. i play a few builds, not the meta dd one, but still…is everyone guna get all bunt hurt with rev? take a breathe and go seek a therapist…take some chill medicine and remember this is a fun game. Props for the image to stonepro…

Pimsley.3681:

Aside from the toxicity, we get misinformed “know it alls”

No joke, my shatter Mesmer was reprimanded and got told to bunk. Gotta get my Mesmer out of this bracket

That dialogue was so bad, so effing bad.
1. he wanted you 3v1 as glass Mesmer
2. according to him it was better for you to get stomped and having to respawn while losing the point instead of disengaging to stay alive to help another point
3. he actually thought that stealth is helpful defending a point

how/why are you even teamed w/ that behemoth of a noob in the first place. im not being toxic, just factual.

The balance is a big part of the “toxicity” imo.

Most of the time, players are angry at the build(s) and not the players using the builds. I don’t get mad at “Player A” and “Player B,” I get mad at “Cele D/D Ele” and “PU Shatter that I had no idea was even there cause they stealthed out of visual range.”

I only get mad at players when they try to pass off using these builds as them being good, or when my team doesn’t communicate.

Even at the hight of Hambow the amount of toxicity wasn’t this high. That’s because only a few small, and easily identifiable mechanics/traits were too strong (sadly they nerfed some things that were fine but w/e).

Fix the balance, hopefully fix the community a bit.

The closest thing to toxicity I see are:

Forum posts begging for nerfs on multiple classes instead of asking to buff classes that are lacking. need more booms and explosions, need Micheal Bay on the dev team instead of Tyler Durden….

Imho raging, trolling and verbal abuse is the natural thing in any PvP oriented mode.
The more people that play it, the more problems the game has (balance, fun …), the more rage and trolling will occur.
One thing that not many people would admit or think about, is that generally less skilled player who thinks he is very pro, can sometime get "proper"tactics and play only when somebody rages at him.
PvP (not casual style) is mostly about #kitten so it is normal to rage at others for “letting your team down”etc.
This speaks to me that you focus too much on what other people say, or are in general too susceptible to these things. There is a plethora of ways you can avoid this if it bothers you that much, best one is to block a person you deem to offensive or childish. If it gets to actual verbal abuse, report and block.
But never rage at someone and insta block them afterwards, that makes you look like a kitten.
But in general, this is PvP, it is unavoidable and rightfully so. There is raging, verbal abuse and trolling in any competitive sports.

The only Toxic thing which is ruining the game is Anet’s approach for balance and communication with active playerbase.

What you experience in game is an aftereffect.

I don’t think this problem is going to go away. There will always be kids and rude people in pvp though I have to admit lately there’s been too many of them around hotm. I always did think there should be an IQ test before people are allowed to play games with others. But really, I don’t think there’s much Anet can do about it other than ban people who were reported for a reason.

Give me a blacklist and I won’t have to rage in chat. 90% of my raging is players that refuse advice and DON’T get it right on their own. If I had a blacklist then I could block and forget instead of having to vent frustration since I know I can’t avoid these people.
Also if someone is raging at you in particular, check if they blocked you straight after or not. If they blocked you it means they’re all show, so you can just laugh at them.

Anyone that thinks the community is toxic, i dare you to play CSGO on casual(20 people in a game) with voice comms enabled, i even learnt how to curse in Russian.

If you are so sensitive just disable the entire chat and the bubbles over the head. IMO, the game is too fast paced to chat, they should implement dota like chat wheel or better ping system.

Necromonger.4970:

Anyone that thinks the community is toxic, i dare you to play CSGO on casual(20 people in a game) with voice comms enabled, i even learnt how to curse in Russian.

If you are so sensitive just disable the entire chat and the bubbles over the head. IMO, the game is too fast paced to chat, they should implement dota like chat wheel or better ping system.

I’ve said it before and said it again, an option to disable chat is the worst idea ever and is likely to kill non-group matchmaking.
Well, any more of an option than currently exists. It’s actually really easy. Wonder if that’s the problem, and team chat should actually show up in every chat.

Why is it toxic?

Anonymity coupled with little to no punishment for them being toxic.

Wouldn’t surprise me if half the ones being toxic are middle aged men/women either.

SolarDragon.7063:

Necromonger.4970:

Anyone that thinks the community is toxic, i dare you to play CSGO on casual(20 people in a game) with voice comms enabled, i even learnt how to curse in Russian.

If you are so sensitive just disable the entire chat and the bubbles over the head. IMO, the game is too fast paced to chat, they should implement dota like chat wheel or better ping system.

I’ve said it before and said it again, an option to disable chat is the worst idea ever and is likely to kill non-group matchmaking.
Well, any more of an option than currently exists. It’s actually really easy. Wonder if that’s the problem, and team chat should actually show up in every chat.

I think i didn’t say anything about a popup that asks you if you want to disable the chat completely(HotS like), didn’t i ?

I started to play just one week ago and I really didn’t notice all this toxicity.
I did like 50 unranked and I didn’t read any insult.

Maybe is a thing of ranked at higher level.

*I play in EU

I hate League’s “anti toxicity” kitten. Trash talk is part of competition and if you can’t handle it, stop competing. Go weave baskets or some kitten

That’s how PvP has been these last years, add the fact that GW2 scratches the surface of Esports and you have it, a lethal disease at every PvP encounter.

I don’t think it’s the balance, the fact their really trying to push this game into e-sports territory, or even matchmaking. I think it’s primarily that people are tired of Conquest. Tired people are grouchy. Even with leagues and Stronghold right around the corner, I question if it’s enough to make people somewhat happy with how they’re handling sPvP.

I mean, what does leagues accomplish, really? Sure, it might pull back in players who’ve quit or stopped PvP’ing, but for how long? Until they get the backpiece? All it’s doing is slapping a new set of wheels on a busted-up Ford Contour ( Conquest ). While it may certainly be refreshing for awhile, it’s still -in the end- Conquest. This also holds true with Elite Specializations; they’ll be a meta-changing breath of fresh air, but you’re still going to be bunkering down on nodes and rotating.

Stronghold on the other hand, isn’t going to do much for sPvP at least on the ‘e-sports’ level. It’s very much a casual PvPvE map with more emphasis on the “vE” part. Anyone remotely interested in duking it out with other players will probably stick to Conquest but…see the above paragraph.

I believe that ArenaNet really needs to add a substantial amount of content for sPvP if they really want to get things rolling. Maps, 3 queues ( Conquest, TDM, Stronghold ), and new reward tracks first to get people to come back. These are what a lot of people have been requesting forever now, and rightly so. If they don’t like the thought of Conquest being dwarfed in population upon releasing three separate queues, increase its rewards.

Kind of got off topic, but I think people being salty, troll-y, and not really caring seems about right for how sPvP’s been handled the past few years. Not trying to defend it or anything, but I can understand why.

Just a random guys opinion.