Hey everyone, and hope you're doing very well, :) Below you'll find a challenge I've been trying out for the last few weeks, that I think has the potential to make the PVP community a little less toxic and friendlier all around. This is a big post, so if you're interested in the subject but would rather listen/watch than read, there's a video version [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrRH9EOpt-k&feature=youtu.be]here[/url]. [b]Part 1 – Disorder, Disorder, Disorder[/b] With the escalation of complaints about PVP mounting as this season approaches its end and with this season’s community challenge getting kicked off, I believe this is the perfect opportunity for the PVP community as a whole to come together and challenge itself to be and do better. Whether players are complaining about LoW, Erentil, HHSN, and Snipers, the end result tends to be the same every single time: players going after each other in and out of the game. And I think it’s time we started dealing with each other a bit differently. There’s so much wrong going around in the PVP community, so much mistreatment and disrespect that no amount of nerfs, buffs, and sandbox updates will ever be enough to solve them, no matter how much players think it will – just look at the amount of buffs and nerfs the game has gone through, and alas, toxicity is alive and well. Because Destiny mixes the power-fantasy of an MMO-RPG with asymmetrical characters to choose from and hundreds of customizable pieces of gear, with the bones of a skill-based shooter, balance can’t and shouldn’t ever be achieved – not to mention that Bungie doesn’t seem interested in that. The moment you nerf a few items, others will take their places as the most dominant ones. So this cycle continues on until players quit in frustration due to all the toxicity or the fun is nerfed out of the game. Since none of these options are desirable, I think it’s important to understand what we might be able to do to mitigate them. From the two, the only one we can have a lot of control over is levels of frustration and toxicity because I don’t believe that Bungie will nerf the fun out of the game (just look at arc and void battery) and will keep ushering in new metas with buffs and nerfs. With how much sandbox changes fail in the mid-to-long term in creating a healthier environment among the PVP crowd, we have to rely on how we deal with each other as the backbone of a healthy PVP community. As we go into a new season with Trials on the way, I think this is the perfect time for us to really come together, to re-think how we engage with one another and start creating a supportive and friendlier environment all around, something that really helps foster a sense of community, and true appreciation for the game and mode a lot of us love the most. With this in mind, I would like to challenge everyone in the community with the first ever PVP Community Challenge - at least, I think it is :). [b]Part 2 – Challenge Accepted?[/b] The idea here is simple. After every match you have in the Crucible until the end of this season, pick one of your team mates and one of your opponents and message them. The message should be positive and highlight something cool you noticed them doing. This way you’re not making stuff up and are in fact being honest about that player’s performance while still being positive. I’ve been doing this for a few days and all these interactions were positive and, for the most part, really cool. Interestingly enough, I’ve been finding that this is an awesome way to exorcise my own PVP demons. Most of the players I’ve been messaging on the opposite team, are the ones who either win a lot of 1v1s against me and/or use strats or weapons that tend to aggravate me at times, like for example, I don’t know, snipers ( I don't like them :)) . Writing positive messages to these nemeses of mine, messages that focus on great things I saw them pull off, allowed me to see a bit of the real person behind the avatar. They were cordial and nice, to the point of sending me friend request, clan invites, and asking me to join them so we could play together. And just like that, my hate for a given weapon and strat diminished, making me feel rather silly in the process. This has also exposed me to another side of the player base that’s important to take in consideration: players who are working hard on improving. One of these nemeses I contacted was this one sniper that got me a lot of times with some really impressive shots. By reaching out to him and praising his sniper skills, I found out he’s actually been working on them heavily and he seemed happy to know that his work was paying off, to the point where another player messaged him to tell him how impressed he was. So, by reaching out to other players who are trying to improve and commenting on their skills, you can, unknowingly, motivate them to keep progressing, or at the very least, make them feel great for all the hard work they have been putting in to the game, which I think is pretty damn cool. There’s potential for these interactions to backfire, of course. This is why I wouldn’t advise you to message players who you see constantly tbagging or emoting on other players’ ghosts. As they might not be the best to send a message to, even a positive one, as they might turn it on its head and make it a very toxic exchange. Mind you, that this doesn’t mean these players might be bad or toxic just because you see them emoting or tbagging. I’ve experienced fun conversations with players I traded emotes and tbags with during matches. I’m just throwing it out there as a tool for you to gauge who you should or should not message. Another thing to take in consideration before messaging someone is how your interaction with that player was during a match. If you were too dominant over him, it’s probably not a good idea to send a message because it might be perceived as a passive-aggressive move. I’ve had this one match against a team of 4 guys in lockdown where I contacted their top fragger after the match to congratulate their work as a team. We ended up matchmaking again and before we went in for a second match, I messaged him again. Due to the nature of what I wrote, the fact that we ended up dominating that second match completely and that he never replied to my second message, I decided not to message him again nor any of his teammates. I think it was the right call. So, if you decide to give this challenge a go, be mindful of your opponents when you message them so the ones you interact with might be in the best headspace to really get something out of your message. [b]Part 3 – May The Cool Be With You[/b] I was inspired to come up with this challenge because of two things: various positive interactions I had with random players in 3v3 survival and a [url=https://twitter.com/IAmCoolGuyYT/status/1223786260189339648]Tweeter post by IAmCoolguy[/url]. Because of how much comp I’ve been playing over the last few seasons, I’ve been having interactions with a lot of players post match, whether from my team or opponents, regardless if I won or lost. Except for one, every single one of them was very positive. These conversations made me enjoy my time in the game even more and I got to know some cool players even if for a very brief moment. The only exception to this rule was JediBrew. I stumbled upon Jedi one night in comp during Season of the Undying. We played in the same team and we ended up winning. After the match he messaged me and we had a cool back and forth. Surprisingly enough, that wouldn’t be the last time we’d meet. In season of Dawn, we ended up crossing paths again, but this time the game pit us against each other. My team won 4-3, it was a really close match and he was giving me a lot of headaches with his snipping and Icarus dashing. After the match we talked once more and became PS4 friends. As for CoolGuy’s Tweeter post, it resonated with me because of his remark: “do better”. Although I try to have a healthy approach to how I interact with other players in the crucible, and I try to be as positive as possible, I too have fallen prey to toxic behavior over the last few months, whether I’m being snide to other players who send me toxic messages or tbagging and dancing over players who tbag me first for whatever reason. I’ve learned through these interactions that this accomplishes nothing. I don’t feel better afterwards and it takes away from my experience. It’s just a whole lot of nothing being achieved and a lot of toxicity being thrown around. So, yeah, I need to do better. Toxicity will always be a part of any PVP game or mode. I feel like it’s inevitable because of the nature of competitive activities. But feeding it will just make everything worst and increase levels of frustration within the community and in regards to the game. A friendly word will go a long way in reducing toxicity and building a way more positive environment. I know that this type of thing won’t be for everyone, and that many won’t see the value in it, but at the end of the day, if you really want to make crucible a better place, this is one of the only things you can do that’s going to have an immediate, positive impact on the community that might have some staying power. Give it a go, and see how you feel about it. :) Thank you for your time, everyone. Cheers, and hope you have an awesome week, Janaquim