D&D 5E Toxicity in the Fandom

[kenada]

For reasons I'm not even clear about these days, I check my Facebook every day. There's a few friends that I don't have better ways to contact, I guess, and every so often a funny meme might get posted worth a chuckle.

I have the Messenger app installed on my phone to keep in contact with a few people. I have not logged into or used the main Facebook site or app in years. It’s a terrible place. There’s no need to inflict it upon oneself just for keeping in contact and memes.

 

[Helldritch]

I much prefer to see the good in people. Yes, there are some ugly ones over there. But should we judge a group by its minority of by its majority?

And frankly, I much prefer to talk with toxic people than to shut them down. If you do not talk to them, they do not get isolated, but reinforced in their thinking that "they" are right and fall into an echo chamber in which they only get to see what "they" believe is right. And guess what? These echoe chambers get larger as time goes on.

If you keep the lines of communication open, it is there that you get the chance to try and change their point of view. You confront them with their own biases and show them that they are not right or at least that what they think is the truth is not what it is. I had friends during the COVID that did not believe in the pandemic. It was all a hoax. Some of them still believe that even today. Others, I successfully opened their eyes. It is not always an auto success to turn people over to be more tolerant and open minded. It is even harder to open their eyes when they do not want to see the truth or when someone prevents you for opening their eyes. Sometimes, being blunt with people is the way to go and at other times, it ain't. But in the end, as long as you can communicate with them, you have a chance to open their mind that something might not be the truth.

And here, I do not claim to have the absolute truth. Far from it. But when one see that the other is truly wrong, communicating is the only way to turn the other over, or to get one's own eyes opened. Sometimes, it is oneself who is in the dark.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Toxic fans ... suck. Its unfortunate that they tend to forget the actual people they are hurting.

Simon Pegg: ‘Star Wars’ Fandom Is the ‘Most Toxic at the Moment’ and It’s ‘Really Sad’

Simon Pegg said it's 'really sad' to see 'Star Wars' fans so resistant to diversity.

variety.com

Also? Toxicity is being weaponized. But we already knew that.

Exclusive: Fake Accounts Fueled the 'Snyder Cut' Online Army

A WarnerMedia report reveals that inauthentic users bolstered the fan-led campaign for director Zack Snyder’s 'Justice League' do-over.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Retreater]

The worst I've faced is a Snyder cut fan decided to research me, threaten my job (finding out where I worked) and my wife (by name) because I didn't like the movie.
At least on forums I have some anonymity. I don't use it to be nasty to people, even if I am critical of things in the hobby.
Fandoms are toxic, for sure.

 

[jasper]

Considering some the "Don't gate keep" and "Movie bad" posts hit with a few hours of each other. Some of those are just marketing reps ginning up noise for the movies. Others are your standard concerned person wanting people to be good. And the final are the normal trolls.
But when I see the same "Don't gate keep" script down almost to the same placement of hearts and prayers; also multiple peoples feeds. Then I feel some thing dirty is going on.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Considering some the "Don't gate keep" and "Movie bad" posts hit with a few hours of each other. Some of those are just marketing reps ginning up noise for the movies. Others are your standard concerned person wanting people to be good. And the final are the normal trolls.
But when I see the same "Don't gate keep" script down almost to the same placement of hearts and prayers; also multiple peoples feeds. Then I feel some thing dirty is going on.

You think marketing folks for the D&D movie are using the Russian disinfo playbook, creating fake outrage posts, despite the fact that toxic fan activity has previously led to review-bombing and worse?

Please, don't give marketers that much credit as conspiracy theory archvillains. They're neither that diabolical nor that self-destructively nervey.

 

[John R Davis]

Unavoidable. If as someone said 0.01% of all persons on the planet, are irredeemably horrible, no matter who they are, you will bump into these people on the internet.

But remember just as there are 1000s of noisy horrid people, there are millions of ok quiet ones.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Unavoidable. If as someone said 0.01% of all persons on the planet, are irredeemably horrible, no matter who they are, you will bump into these people on the internet.

But remember just as there are 1000s of noisy horrid people, there are millions of ok quiet ones.

Well, here's the thing.

First, .01% is generous.

Second, the major deleterious effect of social media is that it allows horrid people to easily find each other. And then it amplifies those voices, creating the effect that those people think that their voices are more common that they are. Third, it rewards people for being even more horrid than they would otherwise be. Finally, it normalizes the voicing of those horrid opinions, causing others who might otherwise not be so horrid to become more horrid.

I am less sanguine than you are.

 

[toucanbuzz]

...moderated forums like this are important....at least something holding back the worst excesses.

I appreciate the work that is done to keep this an amicable community. I come here to engage in a hobby, not swim in toxic waters and indulge in anger.

We're not a unified fandom, not in the slightest. Hatred, toxic behavior, fear of the "other"- it's all still there. People wanting to gatekeep to preserve "their way of gaming".

There were still some toxic gamers when I was rolling dice in the 90s. They just didn't have a far-reaching place to air their racism, bigotry, sexist game styles and so on.

Spoiler

One example was from a female gamer whose previous adult DM in his 30s had a sci-fi setting with female slave planets and the idea that women couldn't fight or do anything useful. When she protested, he announced her character suffocated in an airlock. She and her husband kicked that group to the curb and never looked back. Back then, he didn't have social media to retreat into to find fellow sexist DMs who would reinforce his style of play.

Now that they do, I don't engage. Like my spoiler, I kick that type of talk to the curb and appreciate if I'm on a forum that does.

But, I am just as optimistic we have a good community as I was a generation ago because my life experience tells me that guys like the spoiler are not even close to the norm nor do they represent anything close to a significant portion of the fan base.

 

[Umbran]

But seeing this made me sad. We're not a unified fandom, not in the slightest. Hatred, toxic behavior, fear of the "other"- it's all still there. People wanting to gatekeep to preserve "their way of gaming".

Yep.

Thing is, the community is made up of people. Humans. And humans are still basically apes with smartphones. All the nastiness, but with added intelligence. RPGs do not especially select those things out, so, we get them in the usual measure.

My wife is a gamer. She also reads a couple different Fiber Arts communities (groups about knitting and crocheting, f'rex). And she sees the same toxicity there. Toxic knitters. What more is there to say?