Itโs sad that toxic game culture is so prevalent cuz like. As someone who has ended up in random matches with kids before, I can attest to how fucking easy it is to reverse and un-teach shitty attitudes in kids.
Example: I downloaded Friday the 13th because itโs free on psn. I dunno how to play, so I just enter quick play and Iโm matched with 3-4 kids on mic. Immediately on mic theyโre shitty and disparaging to each other. They laugh at each others deaths, they actively work against team mates and self sabotage, they call each other โfagsโ, etc. From the sounds of the voices they cannot be older than 13-14.
I put on my mic and just decide I ainโt havin it. I am nice. I thank them for barricading doors or leaving me items. When they break free from Jasonโs grasp I say โgood job!โ or I try to help them. One kid survived for most of the match by himself. When he dies, I tell him he did a fantastic job.
The mood shift is practically INSTANT. These kids almost immediately stop being dick heads. They start encouraging each other and being kind. After the match all of them try to friend request me. Which should tell you a couple of things:
A) kids want to be kind, and they want to have a nice time playing games. But encounters with adults like me or so rare that theyโve trained themselves to instantly put on a toxic, shitty, defensive veneer when encountering any new person online. Itโs literally just THAT EASY to not groom a horrible gaming community, itโs just that NO ONE does it.
B) the speed of which they all tried to friend me was cute, but paints for me such a sad picture? Like these kids are SO desperate to find people to play with who arenโt crappy jerks. They played with me for 10 minutes TOPS and all instantly tried to reach out to me.
tl;dr: The kids are alright. Adults are shit heads.