Over the years, World of Warcraft has undoubtedly garnered a bit of a reputation for toxicity. With the release of The War Within, many in the community have rallied to call for an end to virtual hostilities.
The complex nature of World of Warcraft means that players who take the game very seriously are inevitable. Conquering WoW’s most challenging activities requires immense skill, class knowledge, and familiarity with the game’s systems, so a certain intensity is expected in those quarters.
That said, this mindset has bled into the rest of the game over the years, to the point where there is now a perception that toxic players run rife. One WoW player shared a post on Reddit, detailing several instances of poor behavior before calling on the community to leave this attitude behind.
As well as being highly supported by upvotes, hundreds of responses detailed other experiences before sharing a similar sentiment to OP.
“My husband and I have picked the game back up after years – I last played seriously in Cata/MoP. The way people blow through dungeons and kick people for the slightest thing is wild to me,” one player said.
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They continued, “We needed to do a quest where we picked up candles in one of the new dungeons, and when we mentioned we needed to get past certain groups of mobs to get to them, we were completely ignored. We basically had to pull them ourselves and try to deal with them while the rest of the group just rushed ahead. It’s exhausting.”
Another expanded on this, “It’s this rush-rush mindset that is plaguing a huge chunk of the community. I get the appeal to see your gear and DPS grow, but people should slow down a bit. The expansion is here to stay for a while, so there’s no need to rush.”
A third added, “100% mate, I tank and FIRST dungeon run in the expansion I pulled a few groups one at a time and got told by a DPS to ‘hurry up please’. You serious dawg? I’ve literally never run this before, and the healer probably hasn’t, either. Calm down.”
The discussion relates to Blizzard’s broader issue in balancing the game to appeal to all potential player types. With stories like the above more numerous than ever in The War Within, the community is far from achieving true harmony.
