Because it doesn’t seem to matter currently if you play ranked games or casual games, the general experience tends to be the same. But one has numbers and things to go with it. You still get people playing to win in casual games and you get people dicking around having fun in ranked games, and the ranks don’t necessarily indicate how they play as a team and a whole bunch of other things that make it less than ideal.
I feel like we all just need to chill out when playing video games, it isn’t like anything we’re doing is important, has an impact on the world around us, or is meaningful in any way.
If I, an adult, went into a laser tag arena filled with a bunch of kids that are screwing around, not really playing the game, then I get angered about this, I’m the asshole and I’m the one getting kicked out of there is a problem.
I could say to these kids “we should focus and play the game” but they’re already playing the game, it would just be me that doesn’t like the way that they play.
Then, the only things that me being annoyed have achieved are: I’m no longer playing the game and enjoying the time I spend, I’m making the environment hostile and toxic, and I’m probably not having a good time for the rest of the day.
Easier and less stressful to not pay attention to what others are doing if it genuinely has no real impact on your life.
Completely agreed with this! I actually avoid competitive elements in games, such as PVP in MMOs, because they almost exclusively have a hugely toxic community.
The one and only time I’ve enjoyed PVP is when an MMO was testing it on the public test server, and offered a reward for players who did at least one match. Because it didn’t matter if you won or lost, you got the reward for playing either way, it was just a bunch of people having a really chill time. If it was like that all the time, I’d do it more often.
It makes me wonder if the easiest way to get rid of the toxicity in online gaming is to get rid of all the points, scores, and prizes, so the only reason to play is because you enjoy it.
I feel like competitive gameplay could be fun for everyone but the space would have to be well-moderated but not sanitized which, IMO, is hard to do with an online platform.
We used to have hella fun playing Mario Kart on N64 with the neighbors when we were kids but it isn’t like problems didn’t occur, they just got resolved quicker and we learned that it’s best to be(e) nice if we want to have fun.
In an online game, you’re probably talking shit for weeks before you get forcibly removed from the game for any length of time.
Edit: to add onto this, it isn’t like you’re seeing most of the people you play with the next day at work or school so there really isn’t much incentive to involve yourself in the game’s community.