Micah Whipple

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”.

Believing my team sucks protects my ego. And if I believe that, I get mad at my team and that often results in toxicity. Never mind that because of MMR we are all at the exact same skill level. My team doesn’t actually suck. (or at least, if they do, I do too.)

Increasing pressure to win increases the emotion associated with winning or losing, and so I do think tying rewards (especially limited time rewards, which trigger loss aversion) to skill performance can increase toxicity, but I think it’s actually just amplifying the root cause.

Dang. Like three days in and already dropping all manner of opinion.

oh like i wasn't doing this before thanks for the thought provoking thread, Chris!