MassivelyOP's Game News Website mentioned HC regarding Toxic Positivity

[Sanguinesun]

Massively Overthinking: Toxic positivity in the land of MMORPGs | Massively Overpowered

 

Article essentially discusses issues of games and toxic positivity seen by different writers on staff of the site regarding different games.

 

 

A quote from one of the staff from the site:

 

Quote

Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): There is most definitely an easy answer in Star Citizen, but I’ve also felt a bit of this toxic positivity – or at least something near enough – out of the folks who get behind City of Heroes: Homecoming quite a bit. Apparently a game that old and run by players absolves it of all sins to some people.

 

I know members of MassivelyOP have covered HC many times in the past and play so this is an interesting take, and I agree as a whole that toxic positivity across many different games, while its existed in the past, is increasingly becoming more and more common across the board as well.

 

What are others thoughts?

[biostem]

Enforcing a "you're only allowed to say good things about the game" policy is just as bad, if not worse, than prohibiting criticism...

[Skyhawke]

Who the @%$@ thinks I'm toxically positive? I'll #$%^ them right in the !@%^ until they bleed out their @!#$!!!! Also, yes, this game is great. 😄

 

In all seriousness, yes, there is toxic positivity on these boards, but there's also toxic negativity. Does it even out? Who knows? Is Chris Neal a plant from Thunderspy? Who knows? Should we worry about this article? Who knows? Who knows football and baseball. Bo, that's who.

[Biff Pow]

Gamers never beating the weird allegations.

[Apogee]

10 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Who knows football and baseball. Bo, that's who.

 

Wow, dating yourself there

[tidge]

[Yomo Kimyata]

40 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Who knows football and baseball. Bo, that's who.

 

Um, Jim Thorpe, clearly!

 

[Seed22]

56 minutes ago, Sanguinesun said:

Massively Overthinking: Toxic positivity in the land of MMORPGs | Massively Overpowered

 

Article essentially discusses issues of games and toxic positivity seen by different writers on staff of the site regarding different games.

 

 

A quote from one of the staff from the site:

 

 

I know members of MassivelyOP have covered HC many times in the past and play so this is an interesting take, and I agree as a whole that toxic positivity across many different games, while its existed in the past, is increasingly becoming more and more common across the board as well.

 

What are others thoughts?

Completely agree. The asinine cult like personality that has surfaced around this game is utterly insufferable if you actually intend to try and have discussions around the game that aren’t just:

 

”Isn’t HC great? All hail the volunteers!” 

[arcane]

So is anyone going to explain what toxic positivity is?

 

I can guess, but my guess is that it’s bullshit.

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 minute ago, arcane said:

So is anyone going to explain what toxic positivity is?

 

I can guess, but my guess is that it’s bullshit.

 

Sounds like a Spines/Energy scrapper to me.

[arcane]

Okay I know what this thread is about now. Toxic positivity is a new term invented for the sole purpose of smearing people that are enjoying a game rather than agreeing with another’s disdain for it. Good to know there’s more bad faith bullshit out there.

 

PSA: it is not toxic to enjoy a video game. It is 110% toxic to call people toxic for enjoying a video game. 

Edited Friday at 01:02 AM by arcane

[Glacier Peak]

Meh clicks drive ad revenue. And whether it's good or bad writing coming from Massively, their website is a dumpster fire of ads every square inch of the site. Meanwhile, Homecoming hasn't had a single ad on its platforms in six years...

[Clave Dark 5]

36 minutes ago, arcane said:

So is anyone going to explain what toxic positivity is?

 

I can guess, but my guess is that it’s bullshit.

The linked article covers it.  It's basically people defending their game by telling others to not slam a bad choice made by those running the game.  Seems like a very too-online sort of think to dicker over, really.

[arcane]

4 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

The linked article covers it.  It's basically people defending their game by telling others to not slam a bad choice made by those running the game.  Seems like a very too-online sort of think to dicker over, really.

Yeah I read the article after I made that initial post. Essentially people that use the term are frustrated that the game in question isn’t conforming to their every whim, so, in their frustration, they use this term to slander the majority of the player base. Pretty disgusting shit.

[arcane]

Hey guys just fyi my flight home was delayed 5 times and I plan to be a little less aggressive tomorrow.

[PeregrineFalcon]

2 hours ago, arcane said:

Yeah I read the article after I made that initial post. Essentially people that use the term are frustrated that the game in question isn’t conforming to their every whim, so, in their frustration, they use this term to slander the majority of the player base. Pretty disgusting shit.

That's not what 'Toxic Positivity' means.

 

It's what you've seen me refer to as the "Dev Defense League." That group of players who defend the devs with the fervor of a long unrequited crush, and will attack and insult people who post any kind of negative feedback even when we're giving feedback in the feedback thread started by a dev asking for feedback. They insist that everything's perfect or, if it's not, then it certainly isn't the dev's fault and how dare you bring up anything that's anything less than 100% worship of the devs. Don't you know that making games is hard? The devs are unpaid volunteers and you get to play the game for free so how dare you!

 

You get the idea. And you know who I'm talking about.

[biostem]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Toxic positivity is a new term invented for the sole purpose of smearing people that are enjoying a game rather than agreeing with another’s disdain for it.

I'd argue that it's a matter of degrees:  A "healthy" community can recognize a legitimate critique of their respective game, acknowledge it, then either explain the reasoning behind whatever triggered that critique, or have otherwise found ways to work around whatever the reported issue is.  At the same time, not every criticism of a game is, in fact, legitimate, and to carry that notion further, someone not liking the explanation that they were given doesn't mean that the criticism they raised is still valid.  It's when you say that *any* criticism of a game is verboten, and the only types of conversations that are allowed must be glowing endorsements of the game and/or dev/mod team are allowed, that you get "toxic positivity".  The decisions made by the dev team are routinely discussed and derided, so I don't see that as being the case, here...

[Mopery]

Is this about those newer players showing up to say, "HC NEEDS this thing that another server had, why isn't it already here? Why are the devs so lazy? OMG this is taking forever for them to do what I specifically want done!"?

[Healix]

 You must remember that this game is nothing more than an electronic version of an elementary school playground; it is full of good kids, bad kids, bullies, cheaters, and whiners.

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

[Apogee]

32 minutes ago, Healix said:

 You must remember that this game is nothing more than an electronic version of an elementary school playground; it is full of good kids, bad kids, bullies, cheaters, and whiners.

If the game spit out 20 dollar bills people would complain that they weren't sequentially numbered. If they were sequentially numbered people would complain that they weren't random enough.

 

How about random sequences?

[Snarky]

I am sorry to have put you people through this.  In the future I will endeavor to curb my positivity.

Edited Friday at 09:37 AM by Snarky

[Skyhawke]

10 hours ago, Apogee said:

 

Wow, dating yourself there

 

You got the reference.  Just sayin. 😉 😁

[tidge]

I think the choice of "toxic" as the adjective for "positivity" reveals a lot about both preconceived beliefs and the limited vocabulary of the (blog) author. If the source of the quote was turned off by forum discussion (and not the HC game itself)... they must be incredibly sensitive and likely don't recognize very much autonomy in other people. The author of the article is almost certainly just doing a lazy drive-by 'both sides' piece.

 

Here (forums) I observe a lot of non-dev-team folks explaining why certain things are the way they are, and the potential consequences of certain "drive by asks" in the suggestion forum, but for the most part these are pretty neutral (up to the point of someone posting in a petulant manner, very often the OP)... and the non-OP responses often show more evidence of critical thinking than the original post.

 

Then of course, are the suggestions that are almost certain never to be implemented for which many of us can explain the dev's stated reasoning. I don't think that is "toxic positivity".

 

It strikes me as rather pathetic for a blogger to equate "choice I don't like" with "sin". Pope wolfeyes must have a pretty wild heaven he's trying to get into.

[Fira]

Believe it or not... Toxic Positivity has actually been my #1 problem since HC launch and represents the cause for well over half of my game hiatus. I could give more details but it's just going to come out as a boring rant.

 

However whatever the reasonS (personal or community changes) I've been feeling this weight less and less this past couple of years. But I think especially the early 2024 player influx post licensing washed away a lot of it.

 

Even been actually finally able to discuss this (or similarly 'touchy' subjects) with people in-game, directly or indirectly, where I'd have just gotten straight into a firing squad before. It's somehow refreshing and an important reason I started playing more often again since late 2023.

 

So, can at the very least see where the writers' coming from about this especially if they played a long time back...

[ScarySai]

There was a lot of it on closed beta. Assume it's still the case.