Helldivers 2 players are supposed to work together for Super Earth's glory, but as is often the case when dealing with such a massive audience, some fringe elements of the community are going overboard. Former Arrowhead CEO and now Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt says that the studio has seen a "horrifying" amount of toxicity, including "threats and rude behaviour".
Pilestet spoke to GamesIndustry.biz (thanks, IGN), describing the overall experience as "extremely enjoyable and a little bit daunting". But with some 12 million players to contend with, the level of abuse the studio has faced has been on another level entirely: "The big difference now, which is horrifying, is the amount of threats and rude behaviour that people in the studio are getting from some really sh*tty individuals within the community. That's something new we have to deal with."
Arrowhead has undoubtedly made some mistakes along the way, with the community fairly regularly up in arms over some slight or another, real or imagined. The balancing of the game has remained a constant concern for some, and then there was the Sony/PSN debacle on Steam, which Pilestedt attempted to push back on and share some of the blame. Arrowhead's new CEO (involved with Helldivers since the start), Shams Jorjani, had this to say on the matter:
"When you hit this big, much bigger than anyone thought – Sony, us, everyone – what happens is the game finds an audience outside of that niche fan group. So you get this amplification of different voices. Almost all games have a bit of toxicity in the community, but with these big numbers, you just get so many, so we need to work with the community to get them to self-moderate, give people the tools to speak with each other in a positive fashion, so we can keep talking to the players openly. The more voices being added to the choir does add complexity."
What is the best way to deal with needlessly aggressive or toxic elements of a gaming community? Is this just the reality of mainstream gaming, or do other developers maintain a relatively sane player base? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source gamesindustry.biz, via ign.com]
Comments 32
@TrickyDicky99 Wouldn't be surprising if it were.
And they put down the head and said "I'm sorry" to those toxic players then ask for permission to release content LOL.
Don't feed the trolls. The Helldivers 2 player base stretches far and wide. What large group of people does not divulge into people being poopy in 2024?
Toxic players in an online game?!
Say it isn't so!
They've got their work cut out here. Sadly, the Helldivers 2 community is awful.
@TrickyDicky99 I’ve had much much worse experiences on PSN than I ever had on PC. Playing Counter Strike for years, the worst it got was the odd game with a toxic player or sustained sexism and I gather it has more bot problems than anything these days. On Overwatch a couple years back through the PS4, I was on the receiving end of the worst sustained abuse I’ve had in a game. Proper bad stuff, well beyond just saying I’m a f**got and that, truly nasty stuff encouraging hanging and all sorts. That’s not even an isolated incident in one game, FIFA also often has players sending messages of abuse after matches with the very handy activity card giving you a direct link to the other player’s inbox. Steam being a bit of a mess in the UI department actually stops a lot of targeted abuse, matches finishing in games like Counter Strike often draws a line in the sand whereas PSN I’ve seen a lot more spillage after a game with abusive messages being sent directly to the account. It’s just a bit naive to assume PC is more toxic when PSN is pretty dire too.
@get2sammyb what? It's the same with any community online or otherwise. There will always be those people who have to be total horror bags just because they can. In my honest experience the helldivers 2 community on the ps5 has been a very good experience overall with a couple of people being stupid and trying to be clever and annoying. The community's of gtav,cod and battlefield are far,far more toxic than hd2's. I've been playing hd2 since launch with the same guys and we've had nothing but a laugh out of it.
The subreddit is a proper swamp. Aside from turning on Arrowhead they also like to turn on other players and dictate how they play. There's a lot of armchair generals trying to dictate the "war" and throwing their toys out of the pram when people just play to have fun.
My Granddad said to me, People = Problems.
He wasn’t wrong.
I dont see what thr problem is from a players perspective. Play the game, add people who play well and as a team and just build your own group of people to play with like i and @Northern_Munkey have done. Dont go on reddit and you dont have to see it. Enjoy the game for what it is and what it offers. Granted, ive let my PS+ lapse so ive not played for a month but i know when i do jump back on there will be decent people that ive met along the way ready for a game or 2.
Modern westerners use toxic, anxiety, and horrifying for such petty things. So soft compared to our ancestors. Not every online community on the internet needs to be rated E for school girls. Nor is every game rated E. People need to stop taking people on the internet so seriously. Remember stones actually can hurt one.
@PSme Slipknot shared a similar sentiment with their song People = Shift Without The F. 😂
Most people are just horrible individuals, especially on the internet. I wish I was born a cat, it's embarrassing being part of this species.
It’s probably a massive task to undertake but the solution would seem to be:
1. Lockdown offenders accounts with a clear explanation of why.
2. Allow an appeal and have a human consider the offenders response.
And that’s it. There’s nothing more frustrating than being punished for something with no idea what you’ve allegedly done and no way to appeal that punishment.
Take any Community, whether its built up around a Game, a Sports club or just the Community where you live, there is always some that will have a Different opinion, different perspective etc that can be a trigger for Conflict. The bigger the Community, the more variety of opinions etc, the more likely a conflict.
That can occur between fans too as they 'argue' over where the Devs should be focusing on or what they should be doing etc. When they do 'something', some wished they hadn't or rather wish they had done something different.
It's like playing an Objective based game in CoD when some of your team seem allergic to Objectives so you 'argue' about why they play those modes if they won't 'help' with the Objectives - then conflict starts.
The more people in a community, the more 'opinions' and differences you'll see. That can then lead to conflict as people try to assert their Opinions and dismiss others.
No doubt this abuse is coming from the Pc Pirate Race.
Just block them and move on. Why anyone interacts with these people I'll never understand.
@MisterNintendo
Lol. Pc Pirate race? 😂You know it's not the 1990:s anymore? Game sales are doing big numbers on Steam. There is a reason why Xbox and Sony are selling games on PC now.
There is a reason why I don't play online games, and it's been the same, since the early days.
I remember being told, by a kid, to go F myself, when trying Battlefield online on the 360 😂
I wish there was a proper single player mode, in the game. Yes you can play it alone, but it gets pretty much impossible to survive later in the game, going solo.
@TrickyDicky99
The console gamers are just as bad.
@TrickyDicky99 Again everytime i have been shouted at and heard the N word it's been a console player, everytime some goober throws an orbital at my feet while I'm taking out nests with grenades it's been a console player.
Arrowhead need to add in a report voice chat feature so i can snitch when you break tos and get you guys banned on psn like y'all done to me years ago.
I dunno about you guys, but when I play online my friends and I play in a party and mute outsiders these days. Don’t notice the toxicity that way and you just play.
@BAMozzy As much as you are my go to read for al things technical I feel like you missed the mark a little on this one.
" That can then lead to conflict as people try to assert their Opinions and dismiss others. "
I don't think these devs are talking about dismissiveness and differences of opinions.
We now live in a time where little school kids beat up their teachers.
https://x.com/TMZ/status/1793659882044035232
Where people can go across state lines, obtain guns illegally, hunt people down and kill them, then be lauded as heroes.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/us/kyle-rittenhouse-requests-seized-property/index.html
People are threatening to kill other people on a daily basis, and w/ easy access to guns and easy access to people's personal information the threats have to at least be considered real.
Society is basically on a knife's edge waiting for collapse to happen, leaving us somewhere between the wild west and Lord of the Flies. There is very little decency any more. Or respect. Or boundaries. Or sensibility, courtesy or common sense. People out there are just waiting to explode, and it has to be really scary to be on the receiving end of any of that. This isn't normal discourse, it's open warfare.
I guess I feel like you're trying to normalize or downplay the insanity of the current situation we are living in. Death threats over video games aren't normal. They are becoming all too normal, but we shouldn't let that have us thinking they are normal.
https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/video-games-developers-gdc-survey-report-player-harassment-38735/
@nessisonett In COD i turn of the voice chat on Playstation. The best community i had was Guild Wars 1 i played that 5 years i think over 3000 hours. 🤣
@rjejr Differences of opinion lead to Conflict. That can be 'minor' (as in just verbal arguments), but can lead to far worse - such as death threats and even violence.
I will agree that in recent years, there seems to be an increase in these 'conflicts' becoming more than just a heated discussion/argument and leading to more violent acts/threats. Even if you are ALL gamers, there are arguments, death threats, violence etc because of opinions. Even if you love Football, you see violence over opinions.
All I said is that the more a Community grows, the more varied and/or extreme the Opinions can get, the more chance that you'll have some with no courtesy or common sense, Some 'extreme' behaviour/less tolerance to others and/or their culture etc.
I do agree with you that Society these days does seem worse than 25yrs ago, but to expect a large Community in a Game to be very different to Societal Communities (which may well be on a Knife edge today) isn't realistic either. The fact is that those who are violent, aggressive, lacking decency, common sense etc are still able to play and be part of that 'game' community too.
It 'reflects' society so if Society is lacking tolerance, lacking courtesy/common sense, then its likely to be the same within large gaming communities - those people don't change, maybe even worse when its not 'face to face'...
All I meant is that if Society and every other Community has these issues, then Gaming will be no different - not that it should be acceptable or tolerated, but more a reflection on the state of the world/communities in real life. I wish it was different, but it seems things are declining globally...
I tried not to go to 'deep', use some of the worst as examples etc to try not to upset, single any one or group out, not make it 'personal' etc as that maybe too much 'Politics' for a Gaming site so sorry if that seemed to miss the mark...
Reddit is an awful place the amount of abuse threads on their was unbelievable,
Every dev is complaining about toxic community. But none of them gave players tool " Ban this player for me."
Removed - inappropriate language
@BAMozzy Thanks. And I do agree the gamer community is just a reflection of society at large, I don't think gamers are any worse than any other group w/ a similar demographic, but I suppose I feel like if I say that then people turn it into "well then you're saying it's ok b/c everyone does it" when what I'm really trying to say it isn't all right when anyone does it. 😝
Oh and smart move trying to keep politics out of it, that only ever makes things worse. 😂
@get2sammyb think you're being harsh to say the least
Sadly it's just a reflection of the word we live in
The whole "wah wah I don't want to link my steam to PSN" wasn't enough to see it? Something that takes 2 minutes and you only have to do it once, did not warrant the commotion.
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