How did the community become this toxic?

[SummonerSenah]

I think that a lot of toxic people are probably also that way irl. It really has nothing to do with the game at all. Some people are just that nasty and no changes to the game will fix that. Then there are the people that believe the relative anonymity of the internet makes it so they aren't accountable. If you check any Youtube comments, you'll see examples of that.

tl ; dr It has more to do with people just being that way than with it being because of the game, IMO

[Anandra]

I think that a lot of toxic people are probably also that way irl. It really has nothing to do with the game at all. Some people are just that nasty and no changes to the game will fix that. Then there are the people that believe the relative anonymity of the internet makes it so they aren't accountable. If you check any Youtube comments, you'll see examples of that.

tl ; dr It has more to do with people just being that way than with it being because of the game, IMO

I think that you are absolutely right. I tend to act pretty much in game/on boards as I do in real life. I'm a softie at heart and try to be nice to folks. Even if I'm in a horrendous group, I try to gracefully exit. Was in a WP group with one fellow who had low level jewelry and a level 44 weapon...yikes. We got it done but it was a pretty rough run. No one said a peep although we could have. This player thanked us at the end for taking a newbie through the dungeon.

Last night while running CT for the second time, I had a horrid gaming experience. One player (a tank) who had a name that sort of indicated a short fuse, started mouthing off at the start. On clearing the very first room, one poor tank made a bad pull and the abuse heaped upon this poor soul was unrelenting and went on for quite some time. Mr. Mouthy Tank kept on with the abuse throughout the run. Retards, stupid players, etc. At one point, I wanted to chime in with, "I would rather run with "stupid" players than someone having a temper tantrum through the whole run." My hubby who was playing along side me begged me not to stir the pot so I held my tongue. Most everyone else said nothing throughout the run but this one player ruined it for everyone. Not sure how to start a votekick....I fumbled around for a bit but was too busy following the herd trying to get the run done. I'm not even sure if this behavior was a reportable offense. I need to get better acquainted with the TOS and start reporting more.

After the run, I looked up this particular player on lodestone toying with reporting him. His blog posts were quite telling. Filled with profanity and raging. Definitely not a nice person and a miserable human being. Unfortunately he has chosen an MMO for his outlet I guess. I hope that he finds happiness and some sort of relief in life. Seems to suffer real extreme anger issues and wouldn't want to meet him in real life. Scary person.