In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?

My opinion:

Once they start insulting you 'out of character' then I would brand it as toxicity.

Example:
"You fight worse than babe in a barrel of rum!" - totally fine pirate insults

"You are a trash player and suck at this game" - toxicity and personal attacks, ergo not tolerated.

On the good note it's easy to block them in Xbox friend list which prevents them from being matched into your game in the future.

@hellshoot-01 said in In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?:

I was playing on a 4 man-crew galleon, everyone leaves after a couple hours of play but since we were so close to a small island with 4 chests I decided to try and do it on my own.

I dock the galleon and prepare it to sail. I'm waiting and checking for enemies before I dig up the chests, that's when I see another galleon come my way. I quickly raise the lamp and turn it on and off to try to show I want to talk, I even call parlay but they shoot on sight. I'm okay with that, I couldn't expect anything else from the community of pirates I've seen during the whole beta. That's where I was wrong, just as they reach voice comms range they start insulting me for no reason. "[Mod removed]", "You're so bad at the game" and many other stuff.

I don't get why they suddenly started to insult me, I've to say it didn't work at all. They also had their galleon hit a sandbank and while trying to board me and dying to me. One by one I killed them all and watched their galleon sank.
As they spawned they kept insulting me and I replied that they're the ones that started it. Someone asked me to not kill them, to which I replied: "If you swim towards the mermaid I'll not kill you". I kept my word and didn't kill them.

However, I kept hearing someone insult me when there was no one around. I checked the water, I checked the ship, even checked the really small island (more like a sandbank). He kept repeating insults from earlier: "You little man", "You [mod removed]", "You suck", "You're trash".

I say "sure" to show I'm not affected by the insults and that's it. I go dig one of the treasures and when I'm about to leave I hear the insults again, this time saying my name. I check everything again, even the crow's next, the captain's chamber and the balcony next to it, nothing again.

As I leave I go straight to the outpost and after delivering the chest I see a 2-man sloop ram the galleon and shoot at me while I was holding a lamp and turning it on and off. They kill me and when I respawn they're sailing my ship. They kill me right as I respawn and do the same 2 more times. When I respawn the 4th time they already sank my ship.

I didn't care about that but everytime they killed me on respawn they kept insult me. The same insults from before: "You little man", "You [mod removed]", "You suck", "You're trash". I was so surprised to see the 4-man galleon dude on a 2-man sloop right after he died. I don't even know how he changed ships and got back on the same server instance.

After this I managed to deliver all the chests so jokes on them, but my concern is the level of toxicity everyone is having while the game is still on beta. This is not good for the game, even if you say "It's a pirate game", in the end this is still a game. I'm not concerned about me and I didn't even got mad once, but to other players this can be a deal breaker and ruin their experience.

Is toxicity in the game becoming a major issue even though we're still in beta? If not, when is it too far?

TL;DR: Players tried to kill me and insulted me. I killed them and they kept insulting. Later they board my ship in an outpost and kill me, respawn kill me a couple times and sink my ship. Everytime I respawned and they killed me they kept insulting me.

Is toxicity in the game becoming a major issue even though we're still in beta? If not, when is it too far?

A kot of people have said, It's a Pirate Game. In a way yes, and in another way know. All these games turn into what they are mulitplayer free for alls. Even Test Drive Unlimited was toxic. A Freaking racing sim, toxic. Just unbelievable.

Just today I tried a little test. I sat on shore, literally sat there by a fire. A Galleon comes up and they unload loot. A sight to see for sure. One comes over, I bow, we exchange pleasantries. I ask how their day has been. Quite nice.

They kill me anyway. At least one of them did.

The bottom line isn't why, it is because they can. No filter even stops them. I think it comes with age. Shoot my first home console I played on was Pong.

Topper

P.S. Mods? Rare employees? Push for balanced lobbies, or solo lobbies, friends only or you'll probably see a trend that millions have already done. They left gaming altogether. Toxicity in multiplayer is rampant. It will kill the industry. Slowly.

A shame... I wish we had a secret recipe to have great communities on every games... Unfortunately this doesn't exist yet. Even some of the answers on this forum show that these guys aren't the last toxic guys you'll meet.

Also, good job for the chests :P

Staf'

@musicmee Well thank you =) I've heard about this game only too recently, I wish I've heard about it earlier but I didn't play any of Rare's games in the past.

I'm trying to be innovative and creative and love to share my ideas and read other ideas on forums like in here.

Staf'

@crusaderjesus said in In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?:

@hellshoot-01 People are so oversensitive these days. Just grow a pair and deal with it.

People should just stop being toxic or insulting each other. It's sad really,- those are mostly people who have so much agression or a hidden l**t for toxic behavior that they can't live out in their real life's.

It's not OK to insult others out of nowhere. This has nothing to do with being sensitive, it has to do with people having to stop being s****y for no reason.

@stafylocok said in In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?:

A shame... I wish we had a secret recipe to have great communities on every games... Unfortunately this doesn't exist yet. Even some of the answers on this forum show that these guys aren't the last toxic guys you'll meet.

Also, good job for the chests :P

Staf'

I would say the most pleasurable multiplayer exerience I ever had in a game was battlefield: Bad company 2. No mics. You basically spotted and the game did the rest. And like this game you really didn't know where the enemy was until they were spotted.

Mics are a scurge, face cams are too but that's something altogether different.

@topper-tuesday I guess this is a fair point of view. Especially in a game with a lot of immersion hearing Kevin screaming in his microphone isn't something really pleasant.
A lot of recent multiplayer games disabled the chat, or added an option to fully disable it.

Though I have to say it would be fun to have a sailor come at me with a parchment and his message written for me on it. Rather than using a direct chat text or microphone.

Not sure this will happen one day as this is real hardcore roleplay... But we could also leave a message with a dagger on a wall like "You're too late I took the chest - Staf'"

Staf'

@neviriah If you are insulted by stuff like this "You're so bad at the game" and "You suck", "You're trash".. You are terribly oversensitive. Normal person just ignores these things. Maybe we should create some sort safe space in SoT for oversensitive people where saying "You suck" results in perma-ban. That would make you feel better?

@crusaderjesus you're missing the point friend... Being offensive isn't part of a game. There's always a limit for each individual and you may cross someone's limit while yours is way beyond...

But you also forget that kids are going to play this game, and kids are basically all over the internet.

I mean, this isn't a reason, but you should always be nice on the internet, sarcasm and insults lead nowhere...

Staf'

@stafylocok I'm not missing any points. "You suck", "You're trash" is not offensive for normal people not even kids these days. Jeez you people never played LoL, Dota 2, Counter Strike or Overwatch? You might learn a thing or two about toxicity there.

"You're too late I took the chest - Staf'"

Staf'

To the point, I like it!

@stafylocok said in In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?:

@crusaderjesus you're missing the point friend... Being offensive isn't part of a game. There's always a limit for each individual and you may cross someone's limit while yours is way beyond...

But you also forget that kids are going to play this game, and kids are basically all over the internet.

I mean, this isn't a reason, but you should always be nice on the internet, sarcasm and insults lead nowhere...

Staf'

He also seemed to glance over the fact that the original poster here wasn't just insulted he was currsed at. Jesus, go fig. ;)

@crusaderjesus said in In-game toxicity. Is it okay? When is it too far?:

@stafylocok I'm not missing any points. "You suck", "You're trash" is not offensive for normal people not even kids these days. Jeez you people never played LoL, Dota 2, Counter Strike or Overwatch? You might learn a thing or two about toxicity there.

"You're trash" is offensive. Plain simple. No one is trash by default unless the person /player is doing something [mod removed]. And it's not "normal", no. lol... your opinion does not automatically reflect those of all gamers (no matter the game!). Get a grip.

@erikinthebakery Yet here you are, crying on forum.