Micah Whipple

Why the rise in toxicity in games? The game industry needs to take a step back and realize that we have tied MMR into all of our player progression systems. And I’m skeptical of its success...

What makes a game a fun, positive experience? One important factor is an adequate challenge. Its why we have Easy, Normal, Hard modes etc. Dark Souls may be rewarding and enjoyable to you, but impossible and frustrating for your friend.

This is especially true in competitive PvP games. This is why we have MMR, TrueSkill, etc. Its *purpose* is to give you an adequate challenge, a “fair match”… to maximize fun!

At some point, we’ve turned the concept of MMR into a MMO-esque progression system in every game. Ranks, medals, cosmetics, in some cases power progression items and so on. What works in an MMO doesn’t work in every game.

This has turned out to be problematic. We’ve given players the expectation that they will become a diamond player if they just try hard enough. This is not true. This perception breeds toxicity, especially among team games where you can feel others are “holding you back.”

I think the biggest reason for toxicity is that as humans, we have fragile egos. When we win, we attribute it to internal factors, like our skill. When we lose, we attribute it to external factors, like RNG, P2W, matchmaking, or “my team sucks”.