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Why Do People Support Toxic Players?

Catffeine·6/24/2019, 9:16:18 AM·3 votes·2,710 views

Now I don't mean players who have had plenty of time to sit down and think about their indefinite bans like Tyler1, Jensen, and XJ9 (who still has theirs but only because they're not a streamer or a professional) and spamming #FreeTyler1 or #FreeXJ9. I mean players that are presently toxic and a general scourge to the community, yet their viewer base is blindly loyal saying they did nothing wrong and continue to throw money and views at these players.

These are players that you absolutely wouldn't want on your team, that if they were smurfing and you weren't aware and got them in your game you would 100% report them and detest them, players that do the same thing your "toxic" or "troll" players in your games do that you spam "9x report" in chat over, yet just because their name is "Nightblu3" or "Tarzaned" people completely ignore and forgive everything they do like it's nothing.

I don't know about you, but when I click a stream and someone is being nothing but toxic, passive-aggressive, or very confrontational, it causes me discomfort and is generally unenjoyable. Streamers like Boxbox that are constantly positive even in the face of stress, or Dyrus who are always chill even when he's clearly upset, are super enjoyable and give off a nice atmosphere. But when you have a player like Nightblu3 who's constantly abusing his teammates and is a general hypocrite, or players like Tarzaned who break every rule in the ToS, honestly how do people enjoy watching that and defend these players?

I genuinely don't understand.

13 Comments

WoollyWitch6/24/2019, 9:29:27 AM3 votes

[deleted]

GreenKnight6/24/2019, 11:29:49 AM1 votes

Some people like seeing other people suffer and get angry, and some like to see their own behavior being approved of by people who they look up to.

In other words, for them, it's part comedy and part flock mentality. There's nothing wrong with that, at least when it comes to games, but i agree with you that calmer and less mean streamers should get more attention and good press.

Sona Ping6/24/2019, 3:49:06 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Why Do People Support Toxic Players? Now I don't mean players who have had plenty of time to sit down and think about their indefinite bans like Tyler1, Jensen, and XJ9 (who still has theirs but only because they're not a streamer or a professional) and spamming #FreeTyler1 or #FreeXJ9. I mean players that are presently toxic and a general scourge to the community, yet their viewer base is blindly loyal saying they did nothing wrong and continue to throw money and views at these players.

....I genuinely don't understand.

There are many reasons for that. If we are going to try to understand it there's a lot to do. It's both complex and murky and it varies. There's a lot to accept and there's a lot of difficulty in trying. That's if we actually want to understand it and not just take whatever easy explanation there is that's convenient and expedient to us. But it's important to do so because it's about people and far better than the alternative. "Why Do People Support Toxic Players?" Well, the first thing to pull from that is that there is no standard that exist for what is "toxic" to be had in the first place, this usage of the word is really quite empty because what it is, is a label. The label is placed after people come to whatever conclusion for whatever reason that they have, and very frequently, an empty label is for building off of for their purposes. That conclusion is going to be drawn from opinions, motivations, perceptions, background, personal history, incomplete information, individual standards, and a hundred other factors that are all going to vary from person to person. People are going to come to different conclusion and not agree on someone being toxic in the first place, even if it wasn't such a ambiguous notion at the start

These are players that you absolutely wouldn't want on your team, that if they were smurfing and you weren't aware and got them in your game you would 100% report them and detest them, players that do the same thing your "toxic" or "troll" players in your games do that you spam "9x report" in chat over, yet just because their name is "Nightblu3" or "Tarzaned" people completely ignore and forgive everything they do like it's nothing.

A person can call someone "toxic" to mark them out, but that's not an Us versus Them situation even if they attempt to make it one, and trying to do so is well know to make people pull back instead and become more defensive. And again, it's not like this is anything clear, it's an accusation and not one that's a matter of fact. People are people, they're a mix of traits and motivations and can act against those for due to other traits, They're ot just a set list of one word adjectives on a character card, and others can understand that and with that, accept it. Equally on the other side, there can be others with own motivations and those who act in bad faith or with ill intent or for poor reasons or petty reasons. Opposition not about correct conduct. There can be those who dislike them just because their videos are recommended too much or because "they're obnoxious and he's got a $$$$$$ voice". And with that, personal experience can also be a polarizing factor.

I don't know about you, but when I click a stream and someone is being nothing but toxic, passive-aggressive, or very confrontational, it causes me discomfort and is generally unenjoyable. Streamers like Boxbox that are constantly positive even in the face of stress, or Dyrus who are always chill even when he's clearly upset, are super enjoyable and give off a nice atmosphere. But when you have a player like Nightblu3 who's constantly abusing his teammates and is a general hypocrite, or players like Tarzaned who break every rule in the ToS, honestly how do people enjoy watching that and defend these players?

I genuinely don't understand.

You can understand that you have your own experiences, your history with people, and your own ideas and standards which lead you to your conclusions about what how much you value things so you have a basis as to how you can understand how they can support someone.

After all, you do support Dyrus.

YerroFever6/27/2019, 5:56:33 AM1 votes

Some people support toxic players because they themselves are toxic and find it reassuring and comforting that someone else is doing what they're doing.

Some people support toxic players because they find it funny to watch melt downs or streams filled with insults.

I don't watch any streamers who use racist language or say bigoted things. I don't want them to get views, let alone any financial support from me.

CrazyMonkeyCZ6/24/2019, 9:24:53 AM

Imo, it's the way to cope with frustration, if I'm on losing streak where in every game my botlane went 0/18, there is higher chance that I will go and watch some toxic streamer. Not saying that it's same for all of their viewers, but for some for sure.

Eventhough it may sound disgusting, I enjoy toxicity to some extent, that's why I watch IWD.

Like it or not, down in there, many ppl are actually toxic af and frustration is just bringing it up, that's why toxic streamers are more successful than positive/neutral ones.