Don't forget "I thought Republicans were the party of states rights? Why are they trying to ban abortion nationally after some states held elections to protect abortion in their state constitution?"

Gamers don't understand software development and it shows

(You're absolutely right)

I think you should be a bit careful... Ideally active community members with an interest and a fairly level headed post/comment history. Some people want that "power" too much 😅

Also consider finding one or more people that have time zones different from yours.

So far the communities I've moderated have all been pretty small (<1000) and there's not much of anything in terms of reports. It would be great if some folks that moderate other large communities showed up and talked about how they've grown their moderation team.

You can mute everyone from every game made in the last 20 years.

I literally just listed one where you couldn't that was released within the last 10.

If tea-bagging pushes your buttons so much the only solution you find is to ask the dev to remove crouching

Didn't ask for that.

Those "turn X off" buttons are fine; they're great actually, that's exactly what I'm advocating for (at least in the in game portion of things). There should be more of that, and they should be standard options.

e.g. it took Quake Champions years before they finally decided to add a mute chat button ... and when I suggested it almost a year before they implemented it, the discord chat lit into me "get tougher skin", "lolololol", etc kind of comments.

Every time it's brought up people take it personally like it's their right to be a dick in the game you both paid for... just because developers didn't implement an option to allow people to shut them up. Even here there are some pretty obnoxious takes (I'm not talking about yours) insisting I just need to get over it because "it's just a game."

I'm not saying anybody should be prevented from having a competitive rage baiting game where they trash talk left and right ... but some people do not enjoy trash talk regardless of whether or not they can "handle it" and I am one of those people.

Edit: For forums, I think non-constructive criticism/disrespectful comments/personal attacks should be "punished" by disabling forum/comment access though. There's no benefit to "mind games" or "trash talk" there... if you don't have anything constructive to say... I don't think you should be on, e.g., a suggestion forum. It's not helping the poster or the developers, it's just outright spam.

"If someone pushes your buttons repeatedly to try and tick you off, and it does or you just generally don't like it, you're the problem ... it's just a video game"

I don't buy this argument... and characteristically that's the exact argument you're making. If it didn't work other people wouldn't be in here defending it as a "mind game."

This has been sorted out in other competitive spaces, there's no reason gaming has to be this way.

You're welcome to be toxic with others who want that, but I hate that this behavior, defines the competitive gaming experience. There should be other options.

I'm not talking about "safe spaces", I'm talking about giving people options to say "fuck that" without having to just avoid the game (something that's totally possible).

You don't need banned for doing stuff like this, but you also don't need to be shoving it down people's throats that just want to play the game on skill and strategy alone without this cringe "mind game" idea and blatant disrespect for other players.

Most of us are adults and I'd like to feel like one when I log on.

I'd like to feel like it too. Adults shouldn't act like children.

I'm not sure I even regard this as a developer studios responsibility.

I mean, they're the ones running the servers and ultimately providing admittance. There always going to be "bad people" unless owners of establishments actually exclude them (or as I've suggested -- since this is an imaginary world -- just take away their ability to be a jerk in said world).

Change what is in your control: Play in a good state of mind where this stuff does not get to you (not when you're tired after work). Turn off voice comms. Don't let it get to you. Worst thing you can do to a troll is ignore them.

Definitely good advice. Part of it is genuinely just friends too though. Like this isn't "my friend", this is my friend (though that's not to say I enjoy this crap either)... and sometimes it's hard to gage their mental state, or even though they're in a bad mood, I'd really like to do something more challenging ... and of course they get t-bagged or abused on comms ... and then everybody is having a bad time.

I wish I had access to these game's source code... then the whole thing would be in my control ☺️

Yeah that's very fair; I definitely miss when I could run my own servers for big games and just axe anyone who didn't behave

I love outplaying people ... I typically don't find AI enemies challenging/creative enough ... I just don't care for the childish "mind game" (which seriously whoever started claiming they're "mind games" is ... well I'll let you finish this sentence with your own choice of creative words 🙂)

It's pretty typical that my team is all friends on discord or similar 🙂

Definitely see the issue with monetization... but also depending on the game the emotes have value outside of this particular situation.

Freeze frame (or just a black screen) is a good idea