My obsession about making games fun and easy is actually quite hard and a lot of work. I spend a lot of time talking to people about their favorite games, their worst games, the best players, and the most toxic. And even worse, I watch a lot of public games. I’m looking for the secret recipe that leaves players with the feeling that they just had a fulfilling social experience where they feel closer to the people they played with.
Toxic games- I can feel them crawling under my skin. They make me either want to walk away from the circle, or they rile me up into part of the angry mess. But the question is – WHY. What makes a toxic game so toxic?
I have found an answer!
In the ugliest of games, what I hear is: accusations of being on the evil team sound like attacks that the person themselves is evil.
non-toxic – “My information points to John being on the evil team”
toxic – “John you are evil!”
It’s not just the wording. It’s the tone behind it. As if they were shocked that John did something bad. And that it requires judgement. The attacks become agressive and personal. And in turn those accused defend with the same energy because it’s their character/person being attacked (not character/role).
If that’s true, what’s the secret recipe that makes for a non-toxic game? When the game is seen as all players solving the same puzzle. One team actively trying to solve it, and one team making it more difficult.
Sure it could be the fault of the game using such loaded words like good and evil. But I imagine aggressive players could turn something like cooperative coloring into something aggressively toxic.
So… Now I know what to look out for if these are players I want to sit with. How they talk about the evil team.
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