For the past few months I have been hosting a weekly level 80 Republic side PvP event for my guild to help people get better gear and have a safe place to experience PvP, and everyone from the guild who has joined has been such a delight to play alongside! Everyone has been so positive and kept a great attitude. But every now and again there is going to be the random filler on our team that tries to cause trouble or an enemy player whose ego is a bit too big. But why is that? And how can we combat it without making matters worse? I want to make PvP a safe space for as many people as possible, so here's some things we can do to make PvP not be so daunting to other players.
Your Team
In my experience when a player on your team is talking some mad smack in the ops chat it's for a few possible reasons. A big one is that they have an actually good way to improve the team's performance but don't know how to convey that without first identifying what the team isn't doing correctly. But they also don't know how to convey that too. This could be because of previous bad games, or they're underperforming themselves and it's just built up over time. There's also a chance they just have anger issues like the classic gamer punching walls stereotype, but you can't really do anything about that in my experience. Counselling them while they're angry will lead to them lashing out more and that doesn't make PvP a safe space at all. As for the other two reasons, you can help with these easily, even if they don't improve any team performance it will still make this player feel heard and that they're supported at the least. Here is how I suggest handling these situations.
If they're complaining about how bad games have been, ask them what they suggest to improve and try to follow it. Letting them know that their opinion is valid (even if it's just to an extent) will help calm them down and if other team members also listen, your team's performance may improve!
If you find players complaining about the match, but really it's themselves underperforming, playing a support role in PvP will let you support them, literally! But this only works if you're already a support role. Maybe they're running into the enemy without first grouping up or they're getting flanked and no one is noticing. Try to keep an eye out for this player and even as a DPS role you can support them in a fight. Teamwork makes the dream work after all.
The Other Team
As for enemy players talking smack in the instance's general chat or say chat, the best you can do is not so much stroke their ego, but congratulate them I guess? For example, if an enemy player says "haha you suck" or something similar, shrug off their insult because who cares? In the end it's a video game and you should be playing for enjoyment. And reply with something along the lines of "good fight! I could barely keep up with you." In theory, and in my case in practice, this will cancel out their negativity with some positivity! They feel valued as a PvPer and you now know to avoid fighting them because it's a tough match up to keep up with on your part. That's how I've been doing it at least and the results have been really good for me. In the off chance you do have to fight them again, whether you win or lose, give them a "gg :)" in say chat to let them know you're having fun playing with them and that they're doing a good job. If you do win, however, let them know it was a challenge so they know their skill is up there!
Other Players in General
This next one isn't specific to your teammates or enemy players, but when any player criticizes your gameplay. Take it. Well not the negativity, but learn from what they say. What are the criticizing? Did we miss a chance to capture a point? Did we forget to use our defensive abilities or miss a chance to defeat an enemy? We can learn from our mistakes and something new from other player's experience. Be sure to let the other player know that you will remember what to do next time and to thank them, making them feel heard and valued.
The Power of Friendship!
After asking for any advice for writing the blog post in my guild's discord, it was brought to my attention by Zahk that going into PvP as a group makes experiencing toxicity a lot easier. As they put it:
"The way you react to negative comments goes from "might take it to heart" to "can laugh about it with your buddy" instantly as soon as you aren't queueing alone."
And that is an amazing way to go at it! Even if you're alone, making friends along the way and initiating that positive experience can improve not only your own experience, but others as well. This point of view screams "be the change you want to see" to me, and that can be used to sum up a lot of what I'm talking about in the post. Is your team not performing well? Maybe ask for help attacking a certain point, or saying what you're going to do in a Huttball match so your team can follow you. Asking for help is never a bad thing to do. You don't have to be the one complaining about your own team. Maybe they just lack direction?
When I asked the #SWtorFamily hashtag on Twitter, what are good ways to combat toxicity, user Snips89 replied with an amazing point I think should be brought up, and that is laughter seems to be the best way to combat toxicity. Bringing your friends along for a fun time and laughing at what chaos ensues will definitely make the experience better for everyone involved. They also said that if it's no longer fun, to take a break! Which is something I completely forgot to think about. A literal outside the box point. There's no shame in taking a break, or even not continuing to PvP at all. It's not for everyone and that's ok too.
So summarise, the best you can do to make PvP a more positive space starts with yourself. How you react to the toxicity, and support your teammates can stop the negativity that we generally see in PvP right in it's tracks. Maybe do what I've done and host PvP groups for your guildmates and friends. Pick a role that will support your team to let them shine! I personally enjoy playing tanks so that's what I've been learning to play as of late,. I don't really have it down yet, but I've been letting my team know that I'm still learning my tank spec in arenas and they've generally been ok with it. At the least I hope this post can inspire people to make PvP a better place in SWtor, or give a toxic player some perspective and realise that it's not the best way to go about things.
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