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

[Iceboy]

I think it's also the fact that bad behavior is more noticeable than being nice, because being nice is something people expect from you from the get go, because that's what they call being civilized.

But like most people here said, that's a cultural thing. I bet people only care about their own nose, and not the community as a whole.

[Miste]

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.

Where is this solid evidence you speak of though? All I see is personal anecdotal experiences to form an opinion. It isn't evidence.

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.

This is also just more anecdotes. It's not evidence or proof of anything.

I mean if you want an idea about how different people's experiences can be my experience with Japanese players was not as "chill" as your apparent acquaintances.

I can read Japanese at basic level and they likely don't realize I can read it and were openly insulting me in JP assuming since I was English that I couldn't read it. It's quite amusing really. This isn't a one time thing either. I've had it happen multiple times in different situations.

These are all personal experiences as well, but in FFXI there were JP sky linkshell groups that would MPK NA linkshells when they were trying to get pop items in order to get rid of any competition when NA first started getting going into endgame. There were some JP EXP parties that would also MPK NA groups in order to take the EXP spot. Eventually MPK issues got so bad in that game SE had to alter mob AI (making mobs despawn when they lose aggro instead of pathing back) to try to stop it and also start banning people who purposefully did it.

Even though my personal experience with them has been kinda bad (although to note I met many nice JP players too and became friends with them just as I have met many nice NA/EU players as well) I know it is only my personal experience so I know I can't claim either one is better or worse. We simply don't have any factual proof of either one.

[AppleJinx]

It's not that american communities is toxic. It's just that the people her loves to take offense and get triggered over the most minor stuff whereas it will go unnoticed in every other community hence way less drama and "toxicity"

[PibbXtra]

It's 2018, every community is toxic or dying these days. I don't even notice it anymore, but this really seems like another grass is greener type of thing here. Take the wap goggles off, OP.

[NessaWyvern]

I have heard some bad things about Japan.

My uncle was telling me about is wife, my aunt, who is Japanese. Her dad was a widower, and after he re-married, her step mother was pretty cruel to her, but the way she explained it to him, was that her step mother was never supposed to treat her as her own child. Ever. And that any abuse was expected. She was expected to show utmost respect to her step mother though. It was... Chilling.

Also, my dads a paint chemist, and his Chinese friend before she worked with him had a very hard time when she was working in a lab in japan. She was just as qualified as all the other people in the lab and theoretically had the same job, but they only had her doing clean-up. She wasn't allowed to do anything else.

[PandaMonium]

What is it about the NA community that makes it so much worse than the Japanese community? From what I understand, the EU community is not as bad as the NA one either.

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

I'd say that it's a culture differences: collectivism (J) vs individualism (US) based.
I'm not going to discuss which one is better as obviously different people like different approach but you can definitely answer your question from here.
Japanese players feel inappropriate and very uncomfortable not to follow general courtesy like greeting on the start and finish of any run or saying "I am sorry" after a wipe no matter who caused it. Same going with the basic knowledge of proper playing the job: they feel very inappropriate to waste other people time not knowing your rotations, how to hold aggro or heal.
That being said, J players are first and foremost focused on their impression at other players and the impact of their performance on the group. Community - that what matters.

On the other hand, the individualistic approach to the game of US players, does what you all see to the community. "I have a right because I am a person and have a right!" - something like this. Most of US players are not interested in putting the community or other players wishes and needs above theirs, because this is not how they were taught all their lives. They were taught that every individual is precious, every opinion has a right to be expressed and every behavior can be justified.

Both of these approaches have their positives and negatives and which is better is one of those arguments that would never end while we have different cultures on Earth.

So let's take it in this way: if you want to log in, run all your Roulettes, Hunts and weekly stuff in the most calm and efficient way; if you don't like shaming, looking for a guilty part or other people telling you how to play (but you can not tell them how to play as well); if you prefer all 4-8 people greeting you in a proper way on the start and the end of a run but no one says a word during a run otherwise, if you don't like silly memes and chit-chat - open Google Translate in your browser and go play on the Japanese servers. But you wouldn't have a "sense of community" in Western way there, never.
If you not all about efficiency and overall courtesy, you know where to stay :P

[Ghastly]

People show their real colors and thoughts online so it's just that, it's just it's becoming clearer now which is pretty interesting.

[VanilleFang]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but Japanese culture is much more focused on the "collective". People generally don't want to stand out and everything is for the betterment of the country as a whole. In the West the culture is much more individualistic. People try to stand out and everyone is special and unique.

I'm not saying one is better than the other but it could explain some things.

[winsock]

I'm basing my opinion on 13 Years of playing MMOs and console games.
....
No, I do not speak Japanese.

OP, you must see the problem here though right?
Even if I wanted to give merit to your personal experiences, toxicity is delivered via language and you don't understand theirs.

You may have 13 years of experience communicating within the NA community, but you have 0 years of experience communicating within the JP community. You can't really compare the two.

[Jellybums]

FWIW, I don't recall running into rude/toxic players in NA. Not yet anyway. Sassy ones yeah and they made run-related comments, nothing personal, maybe with a little more attitude than necessary but nothing out of line. So, I don't know about worse, I can't even say bad like generally bad.