General DiscussionWhy is it that MOBAs have the most toxic communities?

lots of dumb people on earth = lots of dumb people playing this game + team game + competitive enviroment = angry people

Because team game and average 30-45 minute duration rounds.

↑ what does game length have to do with people shouti g puta madre over their mic and spamming the report button?

^Because people get pissed off if they've invested 40+ minutes of their time at full concentration only to get a loss.

It is because people feel powerless when they are only 1/5th of a team, a team they don't know, a team they did not pick.

You need to just have your friends play with you all together. That is how the game is supposed to be played. Even though we all do play alone plenty... playing with anything but 5 is really not dota... its like practice dota, even the ranked games. If you don't have 5 its not the same game.

why didnt you post with your main acc?
maybe they flame you because you are destroying their games.
nobody wanna lose

+1 @ihaveaname and Relentless

its same shit everywhere, that internet.

Even though I would have to agree with Relentless about it not being the same game, I would argue that not-5-man Dota is also very complex and interesting and has all the rights to be called Dota)

Figuring out a way to coordinate with a team of complete strangers can have a very rewarding feeling.

Also, I am currently in the process of writing a Blog on the topic posted by OP. It is unlikely to come out soon - it seems I require a lot more knowledge to actually make it interesting, useful and legitimate at the same time. But will try my best to make it such. Even if it takes me ages - I honestly find the topic particularly interesting and VERY VERY important. Figuring out why the community is toxic is a step towards making it at least a bit more mature and friendly.

In the meantime, I will share some of the stuff I found useful with you guys:
Testosterone levels and competitive gaming
Anonymity and antisocial behaviour
Psychology of Cyberspace

The reason MoBas have toxic communities is a combination of feeling powerless, and being unable to leave a game in progress without being punished.

If you think about it, there are very very few games where a player can not leave mid way through if the player wants to. FPS shooters, mmorpgs, fighting games, RTS games etc. You can GG out, leave a server, leave a lobby, leave a raid etc, without being punished by the game. In dota however, the player has not power to leave, and often feel powerless to change the outcome of the game. Instead of feeling like progress is being made (generally a desired feeling in game) the player feels like time is being wasted, and is actively not enjoying themselves.

This leads players to become frustrated and often times angry. This may be compounded when the player experiences this kinda of game, and willingly chooses to play another game, only to have the same experience.

There is a very high learning curve for this game. I'm sure everyone here has put their time into this game and spent hours upon hours to get at least decent at this game. Once someone grasps the game and gets decent at it, they are very focused on winning and confident in their abilities/knowledge of the game because of how much time they have spent to get good at dota. This game is so intricate and complex, there are a million ways of playing and thinking of how the game should go.

Because of this, this is where I think the conflict lies. A very simple example of this would be say a low hp Bane was ulting a low hp Rubick, and Rubick's teammate was a low hp VS. The VS runs away and lets the Rubick die because he is scared he would have died. From the Rubick's point of view VS should have turned and stunned the Bane and turn around and kill the Bane. From VS's point of view, he should have run, otherwise he would've died as well. Two different ways of thinking of how the game should be played causes conflict.

Another example would be if say, AM was farming top when his teammate gets picked at bottom. The other team is all in the bottom lane 5v3 and AM decides to TP back to fight. One of his teammates gets mad because he should've stayed top to trade towers.

Adding skill and who's better into the conversation makes this even more tricky. There are some black and white decisions in dota, but most are in the gray area like the two I mentioned previously. The better player yells at the worse player because he didn't make the right decision. The worse player thinking he is better than the better player yells back because he did (in his mind) make the correct choice. No one's winning this argument. Two players who are at the same skill level who don't agree on game choices both think they are better and right than the other even if they may be at the exact same "skill level".

All of these factors just make this kind of game a cesspool for angry people to yell at each other. The voice function of these games is probably the best and worse thing for this game. it makes people even more angry. Personally, as long as I'm not too into the argument one way or the other, I love listening to people yelling at each other back and forth.

Also, as someone mentioned before, no one wants to waste 30-50 minutes to lose.

Summary: People put time and effort to win games. Most people think they are always right. People get mad when other people don't agree.

what is a moba?

Remove internet for a peacefull world.

It's that genre that valve prefers to call ARTS

We should all call it ARTS, I think the Moba term was created with LoL.