Loading up the space shooter Helldivers 2 on PC for the first time, I found myself catapulted into the frantic action on the surface of an alien planet with not a clue as to what I was doing.
Of course, I wasn’t alone. Other players had spawned with me, they were experienced, their high-ranking insignias a giveaway as to their battle-hardened readiness. I, on the other hand, being the lowliest rank, something between invertebrate worm and cannon fodder, steadied myself for the usual barrage of verbal abuse.
You can imagine my surprise when instead of copping flak, I was immediately assisted by a fellow player offering to show me the way and teach me a few tricks. That and my acceptance into the Helldivers 2 gaming community have left me heartened. The experience has reignited my faith that positive gaming communities do exist.
It’s also got me asking: Have toxic gaming communities beaten me down so much that I’m expecting the worst?
Has PC gaming really been so toxic?
The simple answer to that question is, yes! If you game online, then you’ve also encountered toxic behavior, or at least witnessed it. It’s all too common and it really does make you almost expect to see it these days.
I could get deep into the topic in the way that a scientist might, to unpack the contents of a study like this one, but that would be to take away from my lived experience.
A Termanid, one of the giant instectoid creatures that you battle in Helldivers 2.
Arrowhead Game Studios
The fact is, flaming, griefing, and cheating — and the whining that results from those things afterwards in forums — does spoil one of the things I love about PC gaming: the social experience. Being that gaming is inherently social, how then did it end up so toxic?
How did it come to this?
I’m putting toxic gaming down to being just a distasteful 2000s fad, like bellybutton charms, that we’ll soon see disappear — the unfortunate fallout from a period where developers were mainly making games that pitted players against players in mostly fast-paced FPS games like Counter-Strike.
During this time some gamers turned to cheating to get a leg up, which naturally led others to vent their frustrations. Others copied that bad behavior, or forgetting that a generation before had to use dial-up internet just to play a LAN game of Doom, felt entitled to whine about more things. Whining soon became the norm in a lot of communities.
But there is a glimmer of hope. I’ve been encouraged by the fact that we’re now seeing a new type of co-op game appear, one that goes beyond the normal requirements of a co-op experience to make team play essential to any kind of success; one that fosters players to communicate and to enjoy each other’s company outside of the game.
Widespread cheating caused game developers to develop anti-cheat systems for games.
Dominic Bayley / IDG
Call me an optimist, but I like to think that PC gaming is slowly making a return to the golden days, where dedicated gamer geeks would invite friends over for more than just a few rounds of Doom on a dial-up connection. They also wanted to enjoy a meal, hang out, and chat about the latest Arnie film.
But I’ll settle for more of what I saw in the Helldivers 2 community.
Why I’m hopeful gamer communities are changing
I think Helldivers 2 gets community right because of the way its gameplay enmeshes player efforts. Unlike other co-ops that still emphasize the individual in the midst of a group where players might celebrate individual achievements like capturing a flag, in Helldivers 2 you’re a little more tied at the hip.
Ultimately the onslaught of the game’s foes, the Termanids and Automantons, is so overwhelming that anything but players working side-by-side for the good of all is sure to end in them seeing far more of the load screen than they’d like to.
They’re forced to communicate, build camaraderie, and do it quickly, and that spills over into the broader community.
That experience isn’t unique to Helldivers 2, but it is hard to find. One other game that does this well is Deep Rock Galactic. If you’re not familiar with it, the space co-op game sees you join a group of space dwarves, who must dig for resources and fight an onslaught of alien bugs in massive procedurally generated cave systems.
Deep Rock Galactic has one of the friendliest and funniest communities.
Ghost Ship Games
The game’s community stands out as being one of the friendliest communities you’re likely to find. It’s also mostly free of the kind of gripes you’ll find in most other gaming communities.
Yet again, that can be put down to the necessary camaraderie you need to build in the game itself. But judging by the memes in the community pages, I’d say it has as much to do with funny cat pics as anything else.
