I never will buy an online game for 60 bucks.

True, $70+ is becoming the new standard...

Only if you want the peasant option, the RealGamer edition starts at 100 plus dlc.

Why would you spend any money on one, let alone play it?

Luckily I'm just a lowly fake gamer so I don't gotta worry about clout...

Ooh look, shiny skin!

Maybe spending 600 bucks on microtransactions?

neither, just play the game

Because people enjoy playing games with their friends?

You don't have to pay to do that.

Meh. Just mute people. That's what I used to do when I played online. I understand emotions run high and people get frustrated, I'm not gonna let my sensibility and their bouts of idiocy (especially when the solution is so simple!) ruin their experience forever. And honestly, they're probably just actual kids... I'm patient like that but I understand some people take things more to heart and whatnot.

let alone play it?

The problem starts with these companies feeling obligated to police what you can say over chat. Just to be clear it's advertisers and payment services that necessitate that. The whole thing about trying to force a "non-toxic community" is a gaslight.

I will never understand why the hell people tilt so hard for an online game. Aren't free time activities supposed to be fun?

I've always seen chat filters as a test in creativity. Telling someone they "misclicked when they hit install" or to "Go 0-1 irl" is way better

I played a lot of Halo on Xbox live as a teenage girl in the late 2000's. I sincerely wish they were more stringent about cracking down on assholes. A lot of the rules were in place to attempt to discourage some of the atrocious behavior I was subjected to.

Your friends are randomly-assigned ten-year-olds?

Or tell them the way to reset bugs in the game is Alt+F4

A lot of the rules were in place to attempt to discourage some of the atrocious behavior I was subjected to.

No doubt, but I don't think microsoft spends money on that because they altruistically care about your online safety, I think they do it because they are pressured by monetary reasons.

I played a lot of Halo on Xbox live as a teenage girl in the late 2000's. I sincerely wish they were more stringent about cracking down on assholes.

I appreciate your perspective, thank you for sharing your experience.

One thing I don't understand is why the built in tools for self managing are insufficient, such as mute and block. If willing, I would be open to hearing your experience with that.

I was never on XBL really, but I've been a PC users on counterstrike and league of legends since their inceptions. I can't say if one service is worse than another but I did watch the efforts to stamp down toxicity over time. I don't know how successful these efforts were, it seemed futile at best.

Would you share if you feel the current efforts from services like this are effective in making you feel like it's a safer place for you to game?