MeinMMO demon Cortyn has turned off chats in many games. And suddenly the games are a lot more fun.
In most online games, there are relatively strict rules of conduct regarding how to interact with other players. In theory, misconduct should almost always be met with sanctions, ranging from temporary bans to permanent suspensions.
In practice, however, we all know that many people don’t refrain from being quite rude.
After a long back and forth, my solution was simple:
I turn off all chats in the game where I might have contact with “randoms”.
Whether it’s the overarching chat of a match or the team chat – just deactivate everything whenever possible.
Shooters are better when you don’t read anyone
Especially in Overwatch 2, this saved my fun. In Blizzard’s hero shooter, when I queue alone, I mostly play the role of the tank. I’m certainly not the best tank, but not the worst either – usually somewhere around the end of Platinum or the beginning of Diamond.
Yet in every second round, there was someone who had to write a snarky “Tank Diff” in the chat after their first death. Every few games, there are also people who are so incredibly rude that it completely ruins my enjoyment.
Comments like “Uninstall the game and then yourself” or “I didn’t know Overwatch has introduced a disability quota now” are unfortunately not rare, although you can usually recognize such people by their recognition level of 1 (basically the lowest “social rating”) in the game.
I still don’t understand what these people aim to achieve. Does anyone really believe you play better when you’re insulted?
I, at least, start thinking: Do I really want such people to win? Do I really want to give my all at the side of such people and help them enjoy a victory?
No, I don’t want that.
At the same time, I also don’t want to ruin the match for my silent or friendly teammates.
Thus, there was only one solution here as well: turn off the chat.
Losses are less frustrating and victories still feel just as good as before. I don’t win more than I did before, but I also don’t lose more often. Everything is exactly the same – I just have more fun.
Actually, this is a pretty absurd development when you think about it. Because the great thing about online games is that you can play with others. But it is precisely these others that often cause that joy to fade away.
I know some of you are thinking right now: “Oh, what a thin skin you have. That’s just the internet. You have to rise above it. You just can’t let it get to you.”
And exactly that is what I do, only quite literally. I don’t let it get to me anymore because it’s not even displayed to me.
Of course, there are games where I still keep the chats on – for example, in World of Warcraft. But I do that because I only team up with people who are either in the same guild or community. There, communication with “randoms” is anyway limited to the trade channel, and that is quite bearable on my realm.
But for games where I’m out on my own and have a large PvP component, it’s simply the better decision.
Then I also don’t care that due to the lack of communication, perhaps one or the other piece of information isn’t exchanged. That’s a trade-off I’m willing to accept to preserve my enjoyment of these games.
