No Man’s Sky, Mass Effect: Andromeda And The Growing Toxicity Among Gamers

This is where No Man’s Sky and Mass Effect: Andromeda come into play. Let’s begin with the former. NMS fell victim to extreme hype (and extreme over-promising) that led to the game’s dismantling by players. The extreme hype and extreme over-promising came hand-in-hand, too, leading to players expecting a true game-changer. With these kind of expectations, fans got a little apprehensive with each passing moment that didn’t include playing the game. People remained somewhat patient for the release, but upon the announcement that the game would be delayed an additional two months, fans reacted poorly.

The developers received death threats, insulting comments and more simply because they slightly delayed their game. Not only that, but a Kotaku writer got death threats just for reporting the delay. It represented a sense of entitlement and toxic overreaction with these particular games just because everything didn’t go exactly how people wanted it to.

While the game received plenty of criticism (much of it deserved) and hate upon release, fan reactions went a bit too far. Even worse, many seemed to revel in the harshly critical reality of NMS post-release. This negativity was widespread enough to get the game’s main subreddit briefly shut down due to it becoming a “hate filled waste hole of no actual discussion.” It was a rough situation that only worsened over time due to growing vitriol among gamers. People felt deeply burned by Hello Games, which led to these many expressions of grief and anger.

The words “grief” and “anger” help segue into the next topic of discussion: Mass Effect Andromeda. In order for you to understand where a good amount of this anger towards Bioware comes from, you need only look at fans’ “disapproval” of Mass Effect 3‘s ending. Outcry against the game’s conclusion was so strong that the co-founder of Bioware spoke out about it. Although the company released free DLC for the ending, many still felt the sting that the original left. Judging by the consistent negativity within Bioware’s comment sections, certain fans haven’t forgiven them yet.

However, even with the craziness of the ME3 ending controversy, it’s still unclear what Bioware did to anger so many. Bioware used to be seen as one of those infallible companies, potentially on Rockstar’s or Naughty Dog’s level. Alas, it seems that they’ve now lost favor with at least a few of their fans. This has led to many feeling considerably less open to future Bioware titles, at least within comment sections and forums.

Now, by no means was every comment section negative, as there were some that expressed completely valid concerns:

These more thought-out and reasonably expressed comments became increasingly rare as the release date drew closer. Taking their place was people who were complaining about the game “appealing to SJW’s” and being too “leftist.” Although this sounds like some are still feeling politically-charged post-election, these comments are EVERYWHERE. Some were so concerned about the game’s “SJW” connection that they accused Bioware of purposely making characters ugly on purpose. Then, there’s the many facial animation memes. Yikes.

Bioware has certainly been put through the wringer in recent weeks, but it’s largely undeserved. The quality of the game notwithstanding, the harassment of company employees is simply indefensible.

Although issues regarding the former Bioware game dev certainly brought on negativity, it doesn’t cover everything. It seemed like dissenters have been rooting for Andromeda‘s failure since the beginning. For fans of a series that promotes all-inclusiveness at every turn, it’s baffling how close-minded many seem to be. Fans of the old series never complained about the attractiveness of romance options or subpar animation; they cared about the story and characters. With fans allowing these secondary issues to control their opinions, it’s clear that this toxic negativity has only become increasingly influential. This leads to more people behaving this way and potentially harassing more innocent employees. These online personality types bring everyone to their way of thinking and ruin the fun of being a gamer. Being excited for upcoming releases becomes difficult as these personality types try to make every hype train crash and burn.

Now, this is by no means a call for reducing legitimate criticism. In fact, we should increase the amount of thoughtful discussions regarding actual gameplay flaws and issues. If any game, regardless of how much praise or jeers it receives, is expected to evolve, then feedback IS necessary. However, giving shallow criticism (“X is bad”) leads to no growth as developers don’t know what to fix. That’s why these toxic personality types add nothing to the conversation and only hurt gaming in general; they see everything as a flaw, yet they’re never willing to discuss how improvements can be made. If their trash-talk is proven correct, they tell everyone ” I told you so.” If they’re proven wrong, then they move onto something else.

We, as gamers, NEED to stop giving into these toxic internet types. They never contribute to actual discussions and only seek to ruin the collective gaming experience. When a company did something gamers didn’t like in the past, they simply voiced their opinions. Nowadays, because of these poisonous personalities, many go further and seek to threaten and insult the developers instead. It’s wrong, it’s immature, and it only makes gamers look bad and makes the developers feel worse. If gamers want to be taken seriously and treated with respect, then it starts with this.