Why is the North American community so much worse than the Japanese one?

[Shihen]

We seem to have a monopoly on terrible. Why is this? Is it just our culture?

Pretty broad statement. Is it based on experience playing in many communities, or are you playing on NA servers drawing conclusions on what they're like based on hearsay and what makes it to Youtube? In NA individualism is the norm, and you'll probably run into way more toxic players there because there's less societal pressure for stepping out of line, but is that actually worse? On JP toxicity still happens, it just takes longer to hear about it because it's more subtle. You may not even realize someone who was entirely polite doesn't like you until someone else is talking to them but on your friends list they're offline. And to be honest, I'd prefer the first scenario. I can blacklist dbags. I can't do anything about people putting on a mask for me, and I definitely don't want to wonder if someone I consider a friend is wearing one.

[ToasterMan]

I wish more Americans that I encountered online were like this.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with trying to do things for the good of other people, but when it gets to the point were you're being to told to kill yourself by flying a fighter into an enemy battleship then something is wrong.

Of course it isn't like that over there nowadays, but that's just an example of how bad it got over there at one point. And of course Japan isn't the only country guilty of doing something like this. This kind of collectivist mindsets exists in many parts of the world.

[Sebazy]

Whilst there's definitely a difference in attitudes born of culture between the different regions, I can't help but feel that there's a bit of a 'grass is greener' going on here.

Whilst I'd be naive to suggest that the NA WoW (I played on NA to try and prevent myself from raiding) community was all peachy, the PvP community on my server was mostly very tightly knit and respectful behaviour went a long long way. I'll never forget joining a Warsong team one evening only to find that they promptly abandoned the moment they came up against another premade (Comprised of a lot of people I'd PvP'd against very extensively). Myself and a Warrior weren't having any of that rubbish, as such, we stayed in rolled out into the middle for the inevitable beatdown. Rather than getting curb stomped and graveyard camped, they pretty much stood there, cheered/saluted us and promptly let us have the win. Put a tear in my eye that did <3

Another great memory from back then was getting loaned the use of an AQ geared Pally so that we could do an all stars cross faction pvp team for giggles. To say that team was insane was an absolute understatement.

God I miss those days =o

Whilst I play on EU now, I don't really think FFXIV's community is as bad as some make it out to be, really the only repeat mistake I see being made is that some rush in to trash talk someone else without considering that there's a real person with real feelings behind that character. A little tact and respect goes a long long way.

[Kurando]

Someone asked a similar thing on another forum about a different game and how a certain server was more toxic than others. In the end although we cannot put every single person in to the same basket, mostly it's down to upbringing and how people are molded over time. There is also the issue that "snowflakes" are very much a western concept which doesn't help much....

[winsock]

What is it about the NA community that makes it so much worse than the Japanese community?

How are you quantifying this / how did you arrive at this conclusion? What toxic behaviors are you referring to? Do you speak fluent Japanese?

We seem to have a monopoly on terrible. Why is this? Is it just our culture?

Most of the time, the toxic stuff I see is:
* People getting offended over polite requests such as "please don't cast HoTs during pulls"
* People getting offended because they don't get their way / people disagree. "If we're not going to do it this way, I'm not going to do it at all!"

Personally, I don't play around with these people. If they want to be offended by everything, they can be offended by themselves after being kicked from the party. I think part of the problem is that we let situations escalate too far. Don't argue with these people or insult them, just remove them before they start having an impact on morale.

[Ametrine]

Which is worse? Talking about what little toxicity you stumble into so much it seems like a much bigger problem than it is (English speaking players), or never speaking up about anything and letting all but the absolute most terrible behavior get buried (Japanese speaking players)?

Neither are perfect, but at least the former gives me more personal power to confidently take action action to protect myself and my friends. If that makes the world seem more volatile, maybe you need to look at the type of players you keep surrounding yourself with instead of painting everyone with the same brush.

[Lium]

Snip

I'm basing my opinion on 13 Years of playing MMOs and console games. And while it's still only an opinion, there's pretty solid evidence that online communities in the West are far more toxic than their Eastern counterparts. And American communities are usually the absolute worst.

No, I do not speak Japanese. But the people I've talked to in-game, who do, say that the JP community is in general, much nicer and more chill. And a cursory glance at the two cultures in real life backs that up.

And the toxic stuff I see in NN is usually racial slurs, trolling, ya know, the normal stuff you find in pretty much every MMO. I usually ignore it because general chat channels in all MMOs are mostly unreadable. Which is the unfortunate norm in our country.

[Krokov]

Why indeed, players in this game overreact if you mess up or make a mistake during a fight not all of course but some.

[TaleraRistain]

It's not. The NA community is more vocal. The Japanese can be nice to your face because they're discouraged from sticking out as part of their culture. But then they just stick the knife in your back later.

Like another poster said, I would never want to live in a collectivist society. I'm straightforward and maybe a little more blunt that I should be, but I'm honest and can express myself in an honest way. There are some in the NA community who could use some coaching in how to interact constructively with others, but I would not trade our community for the Japanese one.

[AxlStream]

It'd be fine if we did like the JP servers do and have a common list of blacklisted players. Oh wait, we'd probably get reprimanded for it by the devs cuz the JP are their golden boys.