Toxic Community

You propose that he is mad, but is this really so ? How much are you able to look into his thoughts ?

You are merely drawing conclkusions from what is written - we all do so - but there is still the possibility of having a bias.

Your "u mad" sounds not very much like serious talk - to me the kind of speech you use there rather reminds me of the way younger people insult each other. Older people rarely use the "u" as the short form of "you" - at least not in the forums I'm in.
"u mad" is furthermore written as if it was meant to be an self-fulfilling prophecy. "U mad" almost sounds like a command, because the verb is missing there, giving this part of the sentence power.

Ironically, you use this "power" yoiurself with your "u mad" sentence part. It's like throwing a ball to him, looking if he catches it - then you might have power over him - or whether he drops the ball - then you won't have any power on him. In fact, this is similar to the try of a troll to confuse / irritate / anger a person by a "thrown remark". The remark is worded so that - at first sight ! - it isn't obvious what intention the remark has. Only deeper analysis - to which most people are too lazy of, and far fewer people are even capable of - reveals the true nature of a sentence.

He just said that because he didn't have an argument or anything productive to say.

This is only halfway true.

Personally, I often prefer to use the term "acid".

What does acid do ?

Well, it consumes things. It destroys barriers. It lets itself flow into the thing which brrioers it just has consumed or destroyed.

Learning to establish a border between yourself and the world outside of you is something some people actually have to learn. (German language has the neat & short word "abgrenzen") for what I mean.) I know people who had to.

People who have NOT learned it, are the IDEAL fodder for sadistic trolls !

And, seriously, "trash talk" is mostly sadistic. It is meant to humiliate someone. Psychological warfare. In the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, this even had become a Sith combat form !

Those who already have "grown a thick skin" are very insensitive, do not notice subtleties anymore, and are very thick-headed. They don't even notice the damage they do to others anymore - and they don't care anyway.

The result of "trash talk" = "forums PvP" is to let only those survive - and actually reach Ranked ! - who are those with "a thick skin", and that means : The most insensitive, the most indifferent, the more rough people survive.

They don't even care about people of a different kind. A player might be just great and at the same time very sensitive - but because he would be so sensitive, he wouldn't survive "forums PvP2 and harassment. bullying,. mobbing in general. Because those people with "a thick skin" do not want him to survive this ! They only want people of THEIR kind to survive it !

Which is very effective selection. Only people with a certain kind of personality / psychology actually survive harassment, bullying, trash talk, forums PvP.

It's like the survivors of ANY war are the most brutal, the most sadiostic and the most cunning soldiers.
Sensitive ones are destroyed like bad weed. No matter how good they might be as generals, for example, or as medics.

In the end, harassment, bullying etc. are merely a form of the philosophy of "survival of the strongest". Not the fittest ones, mind you ! The strongest ones !

The fittest ones might actually be able to "smell trouble 10 miles against the wind" and therefore circumvent war, trouble, plundering groups, hooligans, bullies etc. They are able to survive through sheer circumventing trouble. In a wood, you wouldn't even know they's exist - because you have become so much insensitive.
Like so many animals. When was the last time you have seen deer ? Wolves ? Mice ? They all hide. They can "smell trouble 10 miles against the wind".

Although I agree with a lot of that, being strong and thick skinned is not only for people who are thick headed. You can be stronger than other people and still extremely perceptive and extremely sharp. You can have very good emotional and situational awareness while still being thick skinned.

It simply requires taking in everything around you and realizing that 99% of what people say means exactly nothing. Some people, like yourself, will come along and say something that makes sense every once in a while, but for the most part, what people say is complete garbage (which is also subjective. some people will think this post is garbage, lol).

OP is correct in that Ranked is super toxic. If you really want to catch some crap in there sometime, play a tank where losing is all your fault (unless it is the healer's ofc) and winning was done despite you.

As for the sports analogy, totally incorrect. As noted in sports, you are actually in front of real people so when you act like a complete *** it is usually followed by shame or real life retaliation by the ref or other players. Not so much here. As much crap as EVE online gets, there can be very real consequences there for being a total jerk.

Lastly, being indifferent and numb is not the same as strength. It just means you can't feel the pain anymore as people walk all over you.

Anyway....Regz or bust!

You have here in SWTOR (at least) two problems:

- There is no way insults simply announce
- There is no clear separation between elitists and Casuals (Both are Represented in the Warzone)

I also play GW2, there i can be easily report insults and the Flamer be punished with 72 hours ban at the first time. Therefore, insults in GW2 are very rare. Here they are commonplace.

Second problem is the different claims of Casuals and Elitists. Elitists are very serious, completely humorless, industrious existences and when the encounter Fun Player there's trouble.

We must banish the elitists in their own areas. Rated, tournaments, etc. All things where they keep to themselves and do not interfere further. That did not succeed in SWTOR unfortunately. Premades against PUGs is everyday life here. Both sides have no fun doing (or what elitists under Fun understand).

So: Report Button like in GW2 and Rated 8-Warzones for the elite.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking the past few nights ago after reading the Fleet chat on Harbinger. And this is the conclusion I reached:

The worst enemy of the quality of PvP in the game is the players themselves.

Most PvP players are like Bart Simpson at rock-paper-scissors. Y'know: "Good old rock, nothing beats rock."

Even before the game has started, they have already set themselves on playing the same strategies which have lost them game-after-game (e.g., "I'm going to mid at Hypergate/Novarre Coast/Civil War - someone else will get the lone node.").

They have their excuses ready for when they lose. You can see these excuses appearing early on in warzones or arenas. These excuses usually run the gamut like "Sorcs are so OP." Or "you are dumb - get some pvp gear on." Or "Stupid guy. Why didn't he call incs?" when no one else was there to deal with extra 2 guys rushing the node before said player even got to mid. Or "You guys are all losers - why doncha just focus?" when you and your mate have failed to even peel for the battered healer who was keeping you up while you two were being damage-heads and putting your healer at risk.

All I'm going to ask, and I say this in all kindness, please think as you play. Remember it is a team game. If it is a loss, then it is a team loss. If it is a win, then it is a team win. One player seldom carries the whole team (i.e., not all the members of the opposing team lost their hit points just because of you). And please don't forget to vote at the end of the warzone or arena. Even if you have all your commendations, there might some poor schmuck out there who might need them for the next piece of gear.

A report button would be nice - but judging by how often the tickets in my helpdesk just sit there, I'll just say "good luck".

I would agree to punishing "toxic players" the moment we can punish people who don't watch doors, fight in the middle of nowhere, don't look at turret controls, don't read chat, don't use their head to figure out that if he and 4 more are chasing 1 guy then some bases somewhere else is under attack by a ton of players... And so on, you can keep adding.

Now in ranked? As long as I can ban people that don't have the appropriate gear, stims, grenades and so on.

You are a beautiful example of the defect in the matrix at elitists. Completely unable to have fun, only on criticizing others and themselves as holding something better. Please stay away from the fields for normal players. Thank you!