MassivelyOP's Game News Website mentioned HC regarding Toxic Positivity

[battlewraith]

The best way to combat toxic positivity is to not engage in it! (heroic music)

[lemming]

1 hour ago, AmeliaHealYa said:

I feel like this is needlessly reductive. I recommend that you spend less time dismissing what others are saying out of hand and more time actually listening and trying to understand what they're trying to communicate.

 

Regardless of whether or not it exists here, toxic positivity is a very real thing. The environment in which I have most often encountered it is work. A former manager loaned some of us a copy of a horrible book he championed called something like The Energy Bus. The central premise of the book, and of the culture at that company, was that anyone who complained at all about anything was the problem, and the Real Problem was never the issue that they had raised. As far as they were concerned, the only thing that ever needed fixing was an individual employee's attitude.

 

(It was darkly satisfying after I left that company to read about my former coworker who'd been promoted getting hauled into both civil and criminal court, and to watch the CEO get skewered in Congressional hearings. I'm so glad I'm out of that industry entirely.)

Did we used to work together? 😄 (yea, it's a widespread issue)

 

My go to book is "Death March"

[biostem]

9 hours ago, Snarky said:

In the future I will endeavor to curb my positivity.

Snarky's dietary habits confirmed:  He only goes for the Rh- factor...

[Mopery]

Wait until this guy hears about lethal neutrality...

[Seed22]

6 hours ago, JMacClear said:

Hmmmm... let me recap as a new player.

 

A "free game" with a Free Download.

 

No Micro Transactions or subscription fees.

 

Very modest fundraising goals to essentially keep the servers running. No CEO-level Salaries are supported at these levels. 

 

Slow but incremental improvements with no 'digital content' purchases required.

 

For a game that is 'beloved' by many hundreds or thousands who were very very disappointed to see it end circa 2014.

 

For a game that is beloved by many many new players who enjoy the opportunity.

 

And of course a large dose of gratitude towards the persons who made it happen from the people who enjoy and love the game.

 

--

 

This is deemed "Toxic Positivity" ? 

 

George Carlan (Comedian - deceased) often mocked such stupid inane usage of the English Language... and in this example we have such a perfect asinine misuse.

 

If the BLOG/E-mag author did not / does not enjoy the : (i) game (ii) forums (iii) Discord ... fine you are entitled to your opinion.  I do enjoy it and obviously many others do.

 

--

 

If you don't enjoy any one or all aspects - say it plainly....  "I don't like what I think is forced rules of conduct praising the game / server / devs" 

 

Then go away because you obviously do not enjoy it and leave it to those of us that do. Perhaps you like Conan or Warcraft. Well don't worry you  will not see me there because their culture and rules of conduct.

 

 

 

 

 

You’re new here. You’re right about the George Carlin quote. None you understand what that word means (Toxic Positivity) and are misusing it to, funny enough, try and dismiss toxic positivity(claiming it’s a hoax, making up definitions for the word, etc)
 

I’ll raise you another saying. A hit dog will hollar and you lot are howling right now.

 

To the thread(not really you new guy, you don’t know enough about this community and are fresh here). Relax, it’s just an article. 
 

*Edit: New guy, I’m glad you’re enjoying your experience in CoH. Hopefully that continues for you!

Edited March 14 by Seed22

[Seed22]

Since no one seems to know what it means, here’s an article to help:

 

https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/toxic-positivity

 

bout the most official source I can find on the term.

[Indystruck]

6 hours ago, JMacClear said:

George Carlan (Comedian - deceased) often mocked such stupid inane usage of the English Language... and in this example we have such a perfect asinine misuse.

 

Like 25% of Carlin's standup is about hating overly positive people because they're blind.

[BlackSpectre]

"Toxic positivity"... bah! There's no such thing! I deny everything!!!

 

 

[GM Crumpet]

18 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

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.

As long as it's polite we welcome negative feedback as well as positive. We mess up, we put our hands up and try to make it right. somethings broken? We try to fix it. You think our CoC and rules are too restrictive? We'll happily have a debate. There are reasons for a lot of our rules. Some are obvious, some we can't discuss. The only thing we are very intolerant about is rudeness. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

10 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:

As long as it's polite we welcome negative feedback as well as positive. We mess up, we put our hands up and try to make it right. somethings broken? We try to fix it. You think our CoC and rules are too restrictive? We'll happily have a debate. There are reasons for a lot of our rules. Some are obvious, some we can't discuss. The only thing we are very intolerant about is rudeness. 

No, I don't think the CoC is too restrictive. I think the selective enforcement of it, which was far more blatant a few years ago when the forum was still new, has left quite an impression on me. And I think that selective enforcement is what allowed the toxic positivity to be such a big problem back then.

 

But, as I said in a different post, most of those folks have calmed down so it's not much of an issue anymore.

[JMacClear]

40 minutes ago, Indystruck said:

 

Like 25% of Carlin's standup is about hating overly positive people because they're blind.

 

 

Which further emphasizes the non sense of "Toxic Positivity" - say what  you mean - don't twist words to infer something. Stand up to critic - if you intend to critic others.

 

- to be un-rationally happy and over optimistic in all situations  can be: (i) Naïve (ii) Stupidity (iii) Censoring (iv) Perhaps overly amorous about something new /  shinny / exciting 

- but is never  (a) Poisonous  (b) Poisonous to the effect of lethality (c) Transferrably poisonous.

- You cannot 'infect' someone else with Happiness nor can you enforce it nor can you poison someone with happiness (though you can alienate them) 

 

If the author means "some folks"  "or all of the folks" are TOXIC  in any way - just come out and say "they have an unwritten code of conduct which condemns free speech and criticism and they persecute you if you disagree."

"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."

 

If I come across as "a howling dog because I got smacked" you can always just put me on ignore...I wont be able to poison you.. because this thread offers proof different opinions are freely expressed. 🙂

 

Edited March 14 by JMacClear

[Indystruck]

Okay, but brevity is the soul of wit.

[Seed22]

I’d imagine I’m one of the more hated people on these forums or at least on half of people’s ignore list(who are also most likely on mine). 
 

Received a few demerits, but that’s besides the point. To round it back to the article, I read it, and honestly a good deal of the stuff in it I have seen here and in closed beta. But especially here. 
 

Lots of people just trying to shut down discussion around their discontent with how development is going(sensible discussion at that) with “be grateful the game is back”.

 

 

[shortguy on indom]

• I NEED TO KNOW HOW SKYNET GETS BUILT.

[Apogee]

20 minutes ago, Indystruck said:

Okay, but brevity is the soul of wit.

 

I see that, (and raise you) the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

 

[Skyhawke]

18 minutes ago, Apogee said:

 

I see that, (and raise you) the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.

 

 

I'll see that and raise you:

 

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

Someone took the name on Excelsior, so I went with Everlasting and went Spines/Radiation, because ions!

 

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Less toxicity, please.

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

As long as it's polite we welcome negative feedback as well as positive. We mess up, we put our hands up and try to make it right. somethings broken? We try to fix it. You think our CoC and rules are too restrictive? We'll happily have a debate. There are reasons for a lot of our rules. Some are obvious, some we can't discuss. The only thing we are very intolerant about is rudeness. 

* rolls up sleeves…

”I’m going in folks!”

 

wait, just read the last sentence.  Crap.  And i was gonna start with that.  
 

okay, back to the drawing board.  Someone else do the work.  I mean, enlighten us all!

[Techwright]

10 hours ago, Aracknight said:

I experience toxic positivity at work, hence my slogan above.

 

The definition I generally adhere to is:

 

 

While the first part is arguable both in intent and in observation,  I can absolutely vouch for the effects of the second part.  Not necessarily in CoH per se, but generally.

 

So essentially it's that state of being demanded of the 12th Doctor by the emoji-bots in the episode "Smile".

 

 

[Apogee]

5 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

 

I'll see that and raise you:

 

 

 

wait...what?  *rolls up sleeves* ... a man's gotta eat, Mr Lahey.

[Forager]

18 hours ago, JMacClear said:

 

This is deemed "Toxic Positivity" ? 

 

No. It's not... not by anyone. Nobody said any of that wax toxic. Weird post.

[Octogoat]

There's being a smiley Susan then there's just being a Debbie downer. Jedi shouldn't deal in absolutes.

[tidge]

I am still of the opinion that trying to make "fetch toxic positivity" a thing in place of using a less charged word/phrase like "blind advocacy" or "cheerleading" ... or even a potentially more charged, but in-vernacular use of something like "drank the flavor aid" or "the emperor has no clothes" or "rightthink" is an obvious (and somewhat lazy) attempt to equate some folks support of something that somebody else doesn't like as being inherently poisonous. The workplace examples cited about? Not cool, but they sound more like cult-like behavior with an emphasis on "othering", or at least an attempt at dividing people into in-group and out-group categories of rightthink.

 

It is a real stretch to call out "positivity" as being toxic... it sounds like a term an edgelord would come up with after being called out for "toxic" behavior that was self-recognized as being "non-positive". If person A insults person B... that isn't "positivity" of any sort. If an individual feels they are being poisoned by (or having an allergic reaction to) more than one person disagreeing with them in the same way... that individual should probably disclose their allergy and not simply toss out wild accusations of being poisoned.

 

The blog quote accusing the HC devs of "sins" also strikes me as extremely judgemental, with zero context provided. It is easy for me to imagine that the "positivity" related to the "sin" was that the devs implemented a change that guy didn't like, and some non-dev agreed with the devs approach.

[High_Beam]

I don't have exact numbers but the majority of the player base of Homecoming is not in their 20s or 30s.  I personally am in my mid fifties and I can guarantee that the opinions and what that generation consider toxic (as a whole - not the clusters of assholes that ruin many things) differ from those writing for gaming blogs.  This is fine mind you, its the age old process and discourse that our parents had with us and theirs to them, just via different means.  You navigate around or if need be through it.

 

Toxic this and toxic that are just more words attempting to describe complex things relating to humans being around other humans, its no different than the introduction and constant misuse of the term passive aggressive; it became the word used to describe arguments that don't go your way.

 

But if you don't slap a new coat of paint on it or rebrand it, then it isn't yours and we all need agency?  That's the word they use now right, agency? 🙂