I played some Halo 2/2A SWAT yesterday for a long time to grind out Battle Rifle headshots for the Montage Starter Kit challenge, and something dawned on me after hearing the voice chat between matches that’s been a recurring thing ever since I started playing Halo a couple years back. Some people- and, for whatever reason, it seems to be with 2/2a the most often, though I experience it plenty in the other games- get super toxic after winning. Now, it’s babyish to whine and throw tantrums when you lose after a match, but I at least get it, because it can be demoralizing to lose. But I far more commonly experience people doing nothing but trash-talking and degrading everyone but themselves after a win. Heck, one of the guys I got like 3 matches with yesterday did it between every single match, saying everyone else was awful and needs to uninstall, and that his 8-year-old son could do better (I feel sorry for that kid, having a dad like that) and all this other nonsense.
Like, I don’t get it, is it not enough that you won? Why would you feel the need to be a toxic mf afterwards, and what do you expect when most of the people you played against haven’t been playing Halo 2 nonstop since the day it originally released? I guess I just want to see if anyone can tell me the logic behind it. When I win, personally, I feel relieved, happy for my team, and either say nothing or give a nice “gg” or give compliments to my teammates for contributing to the win.
Boasting and trash-talking have long been a part of competition, both in online and offline spaces. XBox Live and Halo have maintained a reputation for being particularly notorious for it. These topics have been discussed to death for decades. I think we have all heard the armchair psychology explaining it at some point.
And it is not always offensive, harmful or toxic. Sometimes it is part of a fun atmosphere, playfully teasing the other team, often with a lot of back and forth. Lots of games with friends can be like that.
As with anything, it can go too far and is often unpleasant for everyone else when it does. But equally human communication is not perfect. One person’s playful jest can be another’s grave insult. One person’s courteous “gg” can be another’s boasting, sarcastic, smug “gg”. Even if they are referring to the same message. We are never going to understand another’s intentions flawlessly. The individual you encountered may well have thought he was the life of the party and that everyone enjoyed his antics.
I’d say if it really bothers you that much, you can always say something to the person doing it. As I say, they may not realise that they are causing any offense. You can’t improve if you don’t know you are doing something that upsets people in the first place.
If they don’t respond favourably to that, I would say their intention may indeed be to antagonise. At that point I’d say mute them and ignore them. Out of sight, out of mind. If enough people ignore or mute them and they find that they are talking only to themselves, they’ll soon stop.
Some people just like to trash talk, there’s more at stake, it makes the wins sweeter and the losses tougher. As long as they can find someone to trash talk back. That’s why they do it. I wouldn’t take any of it personally.
I think it’s a combination of things. Just like a lot of things like sporting events, etc. emotions run high especially if you make a big play or save the game.
There’s people who troll that are better than you but there’s also people who troll because they know you are better than them and they want to get you off your game and get you mad.
For me it’s about having fun, I tend to ignore the side stuff and I usually don’t celebrate until my group has actually won. It goes the other way as well, there’s a lot of people that play this game that give up too early if they are off to a bad start, etc. No one likes losing but at the end of the day you do your best and whatever happens (win or loss) you are having fun and you gave it what you had.
I understand your feeling. It is very dislikeable, and a sad truth is that the world is filled with people who are just scum.
Usually when I encounter this kind of people I just block them and ignore them afterwards. Still I know that it is very frustrating to have to read/listen to them. It has happened to me before that I end up with a bad day at work and I join to play with some friends to relax. It was going very well until some guy and his crew join the party and we get matched up against them. He swears at you, calls you names, wants to order you around and after he won he started to make very unpleseant sounds and basically threatening to commit horrible acts against your loved ones.
I would be lying if I told you I did not wanted to inflict pain and misery to him 10 times. To make his suffering so gory that it would make horror and gory movies look like a joke.
But we have to remember to be better than them, as in just ignore them and move on, while knowing the truth.
Which is that many of them are most likely toxic towards you because they are nothing more than an insignifcant speck of wasted meat in their lives and they know it…so they want to pick on you so they can feel better about themselves.
Pity them. Do not mock them back nor say anything to them. Too long must they carry with the weight of the shame of their existence. They desperatly yearn for some sort of power over others because they are powerless.
I do not understand it either. I also experienced it, but not in Halo. I was playing some fighting games.
Basically, I’ve met this guy who clearly was stronger than me. He won pretty much every duel, and after each of those he sent me a message telling me I am worthless and what not. Then I’ve finally won against him for once and he reported me. Like what?
I bet he left his motivation empty. I can’t imagine him writing “because I lost” in it and send the report like that.
My favorite is if my team loses but i go say 20/5, a dude on their team will try trash talking the hardest dispite going like 3/15 and the other 3 on the winning team tells the dude to -Yoink!-
Doesnt happen often but its really funny when it does.
Tangent, during the flight i was playing and 3 of the opposong team quits and one of my teammates goed “look out guys were fighting a brony. His gt has mare in the name” i think was a shadowmere(skyrim) reference? But it was funny as hell to me and i nearly had to stop playing from laughing so hard trying to turn my mic on to say “check out my gamerpix dude.” My gamerpic is Raindbow Dash
People can be stupid idiots online. Its literally NOTHING new
Mean spirited people that trash talk are the reason that in-game chat is a toxic wasteland, and no longer the fun community to make friends in that it used to be.
That guy sounds like he’s a terrible father IRL. People like him usually say things like that to stroke their own ego because they’re lacking in other areas. It’s kinda like the meme about how guys with small -Yoinks!- get bigger cars, so people ignore the fact they have a -Yoink!-. To put it even further into perspective, that guy is boasting about winning a match in a game that’s almost 2 decades old with lackluster gameplay mechanics and terrible hit detection. He’s living in his own fantasy world like all the other delusional tryhards who think they’re better than everyone else.
> 2533274805506739;13:
> Mean spirited people that trash talk are the reason that in-game chat is a toxic wasteland, and no longer the fun community to make friends in that it used to be.
Interesting. I would say online gaming now is infinitely tamer than it used to be.
Perhaps I just run in different circles or play different types of games these days. Or maybe people treat me differently as an adult than they did when I was a teenager. The other possibility is that more people now use party chat or third-party software for in-game communication rather than being forced to screech at strangers using in-game chat functions.
To tell the truth, it might be the latter. It is rare that I hear anyone speak these days, never mind trash-talk.
Whatever the reason, my perspective is the polar opposite.
It’s ridiculous. I’ve gotten hateful messages before from people on the opposite team because of stuff like me killing them with rockets multiple times, even though their team won the game. Like, can’t you just be happy you won?
Usually it’s a deep emotional issue on their side. Maybe their dad was really hard on them so their view is that anything that’s not aggression is weakness. Or they have something going on in their life that makes them unhappy so they lash out and try to denigrate others to prop themselves ip. Seems somewhat common among gamers to have one person in a game that fits that description.
Talking trash is different than being toxic, so if that’s all it was, then it’s normal in any sport. Basically the different between talking trash and being toxic is sportsmanship.
When I was doing the seasonal challenge for Warthog turret kills, it was a heavies match on Halo 4’s Shatter. I hopped into the Gauss, hoping somebody would drive. Nobody even bothered. However a teammate (I remember the name but cannot say it here), said I was camping and followed me around to destroy all of our teams vehicles and the enemy’s.
Constantly trash talking, and being nasty for no reason whatsoever. He was also a grown man but didn’t act like it. Anyway he ended up 3-21 and I went 27-9. Even continue to berate after the match, sent a voice message that I erased immediately, and reported him for his behavior. We don’t need that attitude on any side or in any game.
Part of halo (and most online games) is the trash talk win or lose. Me personally I usually don’t interact with people I don’t know online, but my friends and I trash talk each other constantly. It’s all in good fun.
IDK if anyone else has mentioned this but what I ALWAYS do is as soon as my XBOX loads up is I immediately go into party chat by myself because I don’t want to hear anyone’s stupid crap & I know they don’t want to hear mine in case I start getting frustrated. It’s a very peaceful win-win.