7 Ways to Properly Deal With a Toxic Gamer

Playing video games is a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone, especially when it involves social activities.

But it can quickly turn sour when you encounter toxic players.

Nowadays, toxic gamers know precisely how to ruin the gaming experience of others, either by cheating, harassing, or trolling in games.

Unfortunately, these kinds of people are all too common in the gaming world.

But fortunately, there are some ways to properly deal with poisonous gamers and ensure that your online gaming experience remains enjoyable for yourself, as for other gamers you play with.

In this article, you'll discover 10 easy tips that will help you successfully navigate any situation involving toxic gamers so that you can keep playing without disruption or stress.

So let's get started!

What Is a Toxic Gamer

A toxic gamer is someone whose gaming behaviors lead to a negative experience for others and themselves.

Their main goal is to discourage other players from having fun when they are playing video games.

So the other people become uncomfortable or unhappy and are most likely to quit and be disgusted by games.

They are the exact opposite of ethical gamers who positively impact the gaming community.

Usually, a toxic behavior in games involves the following actions:

• Cheating. Cheating is probably the most common action for a poisonous person. By exploiting game mechanics and taking advantage of known bugs, hacks, or automated scripting, they will likely gain an unfair advantage over fair-playing opponents.
• Harassing. Harassing other players through insults, other people's skills degradation, name-calling, racial slurs, and threats are also part of toxicity. Nowadays, online harassment is the most difficult challenge game developers face in their online games.
• Trolling. Trolling is the act of disrupting online communities by purposely annoying other players and causing disruptions in games. Even though trolling is not always negative, which can start with a simple joke for fun and can quickly scale to something way more damaging for the people involved. Online trolls are especially active in ranked games and present in-game chats.
• Griefing. Griefing is the fact of intentionally ruining the gaming experience of others by sabotaging their progress in any way they can. This toxic behavior is present in competitive games, especially in essential game matches involving the possibility of ranking in a superior division or saving its place in a current division.

Now that you know the meaning of toxic gamer meaning let's take a look at some easy ways to properly react when facing one.

7 Ways to Respond to Toxic Players

Here are some tips to properly deal with toxic gamers:

Avoid Them Like The Plague

Naturally, the first tip is to avoid them as much as possible by supposing you can do it.

Don't waste your time with a potentially harmful player when you recognize its bad behavior.

Toxic gamers are using the voice channel? Mute them.

They switch to the online chat? Mute the channel or change the active instance.

They send you private messages? Go offline or ignore their gibberish. They are likely to be bored and switch to another smarter activity.

It shouldn't be too difficult.

In general, it's better to avoid responding and not fuel the flame, as it will only worsen things.

The more you argue or debate with a toxic player, the higher the chances of escalating the situation, leading to even more toxicity and disruption.

Don't Get Too Emotional

Sometimes, it's difficult or impossible to avoid them.

In that case, your best way to react to harmful behavior is to know yourself and try to stay calm to avoid being too emotional.

While it's understandable to get expressive when someone is harassing you, it's important not to let these emotions take over, as they will only worsen the situation.

Taking a few deep breaths before responding can help calm the mind and allow for more rational thinking about how best to respond.

Don't Take It Personally

Toxic players usually act out of insecurity and from a place of self-hatred, which can be hard to remember in the heat of the moment when you're being targeted by one.

But it's important to try not to take their words personally.

They are likely projecting their own insecurities on you, so don't let it affect your own confidence or enjoyment of the game!

One of their favorite tactics is remembering others how newbies and unacquainted with the game mechanics they can be.

But everyone has been a newbie in games.

Don't be ashamed of this.

Set Boundaries

Another way to respond to online toxicity is to engage in a dialogue to set boundaries, especially when a person doesn't stop, no matter what you do.

At this stage, it's time to set some boundaries and ensure they understand that their behavior is unacceptable.

You can do it by simply stating that you don't appreciate their comments or behavior and asking them with calm to stop.

Communicate Positively

Always try your best to remain civil and communicate positively with online trolls and toxic people.

It will show them that you are still willing to interact with them even though they misbehave and may encourage them to do the same in return.

Sometimes, you can even discover that the toxic gamer is on a bad day and doesn't usually act like this.

Or even that it's only a tactic to engage with the community to find other players to play with.

Whatever their reason, keep calm and move on as soon as possible.

You still have a game session to do!

Related Article: Tips to Stay Calm While Gaming

Report Them

Reporting them is usually your best chance when you're running out of passive solutions and want to do something that could potentially help poisonous people to change their attitude in games.

Most online games provide an official system for reporting players harassing others or exploiting known bugs or glitches.

The game developer team can then take over your case to potentially banish the toxic gamer account or even permanently stop them from creating any more accounts.

Talk About It With Your Friends

Finally, talking with your friends about what happened can help give you some perspective on the situation and make you realize that it wasn't -in most cases- as bad as it seemed at the moment.

Plus, you'll get some moral support from them, which is always a good thing, especially after a difficult period!

And that's pretty much it for our different ways to deal with a toxic gamer!

By following these tips and staying focused on the game, you can efficiently deal with toxic players and still enjoy your gaming experience.

Just remember to stay positive, keep being proactive in reporting toxicity, and take plenty of breaks when needed.

With patience and understanding, you are most likely to get immune to online toxicity, and your actions, when involved, could make everyone able to play video games without having to worry anymore about harmful players ruining their fun.

Do you have any other tips you would like to share with us?

Let us know on Instagram!