As part of the postmodern world, video games aren’t just a niche hobby or an experimental way of destressing; they are now a profession and even a way of life for some, and they are as inescapable as music, traffic, and YouTube’s unskippable ads. As they moved on to being online, games became a bridge that linked people together globally, and it is through this virtual space that many people form connections with many people they may have never met.
There is, however, always a flip side to every coin. In any video game, when one person is having fun, another is spreading so much poison that you’d rather get bitten by a saw-scaled snake than put up with the vitriol for another second. If you want to play some games but don’t want to lose your sanity, here are a few you should definitely avoid. And take note that even if the game listed is a decade old, it’s still surprising to see them leading the charge into degeneracy.
Hearthstone
To start things off, let’s talk about trading card games. It’s not really an image of toxicity in the video game industry, and you wouldn’t really think that a game about cards would be toxic, but you’d be wrong. Hearthstone is a competitive card game similar to Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon; knowing that it is competitive, they pull the 300IQ move of removing the ability to send chat messages to your opponent. It would have been perfect, except they added emojis.
They don’t seem threatening at all, until they are stringed together and blasted at your face like you were on the receiving end of a deadly combo. Whether you’d like it or not, you’d receive these obnoxious things in your normal playthrough. Taking too long in your turn? Emoji. Are you destroying your opponent fair and square? Emoji. Getting mildly lucky with the cards you draw and play? Emoji. By the time you’re sick of this game, you’d be sick of all the emojis you see thereafter.
Valorant
Much like Counter-Strike, Valorant is a competitive shooter where one team plants a bomb while the other team prevents it from detonating. What makes Valorant different, however, is the inclusion of unique character abilities that add another layer of spice and strategy to the game. Despite being a cooperative PVP game, players aren’t too keen on actually cooperating; instead, it’s a massive cesspool of racist players juiced up with Red Bull. Though there are some circles that foster wholesomeness and kindness, they are still largely overshadowed by groups of people who believe that “if I’m not having fun, no one else will.”
Fortnite
Competitive shooters are toxic enough as they are. If you think it couldn’t get any worse, then try throwing screaming 10-year-olds into the mix. Originally, the game was supposed to feature a team-based strategy where you and three other players collect resources and defend against hordes of zombies. It was originally planned to be a free game, but while waiting for the official release, the developers released the battle royale version of the game that Fornite became famous for. Because of its smashing success, the original concept of the game was pushed behind a paywall, and the battle royale version became the free version.
Battle royale games attract gamers from different age groups, including the aforementioned toxic kids and angry Twitch streamers. No amount of fanservice crossover events will ever make playing this game worth the salt.
Any & All Fighting Games
Fighting games of all kinds share the simplistic idea of beating the other guy until you win, and it’s this simplistic idea that became the template for other games to follow. From Tekken to Street Fighter and even Skull Girls, fighting games are recognised for their 2D, side-scrolling appearance. The appealing nature of fighting games lies in their simplistic and straight-forward commands that can link together for devastating combos, or at least that’s what their rabid, and often toxic, player base wants you to think.
Fighting games are like Twitter; there’s a limit to how many characters you can have in a single tweet. That’s why people find creative ways to be toxic. Though they can’t do much, people will find ways to be insufferable online, and God help you if you meet them in person. If you want an example of what we mean, then check out the YouTuber LowTierGod.
League Of Legends
Ah, yes. The final boss, the king of toxicity, is League of Legends. Riot Games, the developers, just can’t help but make the most toxic games out there, can they? If you’ve been connected to the internet for the last 10 years or stepped into an internet cafe for 10 seconds, you know what LoL is. Put simply, though, it’s a multiplayer online battle arena (or MOBA for short) where it pits two teams, consisting of five players, against each other.
From its inception until now, what has made this game so toxic is its complex mechanics, which, if you mess up, will severely cripple how you and your teammates perform later in the game. Mistakes are frequent and easily punished, and if you’re unfortunate enough, your teammates will be the first to recognise this and start trashing your sloppy performance, regardless of your experience with the game. It’s why this game stopped having new players and why the developers just jumped ship, focusing all of their attention on Valorant.
Sources: Wallpaper Flare, Flickr [1], [2], [3], Ars Technica, Trusted Reviews
