Hard disagree on this really. Probably cause I fall into the PvPvE portion of the community that absolutely also exists. I find I have a nice variety of experiences in this game - sinking players, being sunk by players, stealing loot, having loot stolen, randomly helping out newer players, forming organic Alliances that work, forming organic Alliances that get broken by betrayal, sailing solo and enjoying peace and solitude by properly avoiding others, rolling with a crew to tackle greater challenges, engaging with a Tall Tale alone or with a Crew, varieties of Voyages, and the list goes on.
Been doing that for around 3 years now, with a pretty stupid amount of time in game (not as much as some, even among my own crew, but a lot). In that time I am pretty sure I can count on two hands the amount of legitimately toxic encounters I've had out there. Of course, I also accept a lot of the things about this game and don't see them as being toxic because they are a part of the games design philosophy in presenting an open sandbox shared world online adventure game. Since I don't do Open Crew stuff (which does open up more potential for toxic behavior in trolling ones own crew which is directly against the games actual code of conduct), that means about the only thing someone can do to me to be toxic is how they choose to communicate over the voice comms, game chat, or if they elect to send me messages and harass me outside of the game (this last one I've never experienced in my entire time playing this game, thankfully). That is about the extent of it in regards to being able to be toxic here, as the gameplay isn't something that can be toxic really. Again, I can't count on two hands how many interactions I've had in countless ones that went to a bad place. Actual toxicity can be reported and is actually addressed with action.
People can cheat/exploit as well. I don't see that as toxic, that would be misconstruing that term really. It is unsportsmanlike, for sure, and is also something you can actively report just like toxic behavior. It is also pretty uncommon to run into, at least actual cheating, which I can again count on two hands the number of instances that I even expected that someone was actually cheating (one hand actually). Exploits on the other hand I do encounter a bit more regularly, but still not altogether often if I'm being honest. Thankfully most of the exploits in this game are also very easily countered so they rarely give me much bother either in the end and I'm very capable of reporting.
So, all in all, like I said I disagree with the community being split in half. For me, I see two very vocal minorities in the game that lock themselves to a single playstyle and get really mad because a game that was designed for people to engage with both doesn't really specifically cater to either side of the coin. PvP can be harder to find than people might think in this game, so they get frustrated about how much option defenders have and how long you can potentially go without seeing another Ship. On the flip side the PvE only folks get mad that they can't just play this game with no focus on the fact that other players are around as they want to obliviously grind away at tasks and then flip a gasket any time another player so much as thinks about attacking or stealing from them. Then there are some of us who fall into the intended demographic of the game who like what we have who will try and explain what this game is as best we can, though some in this crowd over the years have gotten to a point where they are a bit aggressive or even rude in their approach as they tire of this vocal minority.
The largest demographic when you look at player numbers, the people just enjoying and playing the game who don't take the time to come on these forums or Reddit or what have you to ramble on or complain. They far outweigh all of us combined I would comfortably wager.
Anyways, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
