My first experience with three toxic Alert "teammates", I still cannot process it

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Aquagirl, Jul 5, 2020.

  1. Aquagirl New Player

    Disclaimer: I just need to post this thread for venting. If you are not a fan of melodramatic complaining you can skip it as you want, I do not want to bother you. I just need to vent

    Sooo, yesterday at night I was playing on my main character (Lisa Morell) as you do. I queued for the Starro: Invasion alert. I wasn't looking for something too serious - I've queued for this thread 239812932193 times in the past, I've already farmed all of the "Everyone's a Star" feat. I was just looking for my weekly drops, since I'm F2P and a weekly additional slim chance to at least get another item for the Undersea Uprising and War of the Ocean collections since my RNG is usually legendarily bad

    So as you do, I pugged for this raid. (Important detail: I forgot to turn on role-optional alerts, this may be important because this kind of thing is crucial for higher-level raids (Silent School, Darkness Rising, Batcave Breach) since teams with all the roles tend to be better, but for Invasion and lower it wasn't that necessary since four DPS can do just fine there when most of us players tend to be of a waay higher CR. If I turned the role-optional alert thing on, I could have avoided that awful "team". Ugh)

    As soon as I warped to Star LABS, I just started kicking on all the Starros instinctively like I did 3912392139 times before, without thinking much since all I was looking for was the weekly drops, that's all. Turns out when I looked to what I was doing I was almost out of HP. I tried to hold Block on the enemies while I wait for my personal shield cooldown to finish so I could summon the Death Blossom to help me, or at least for my teammates to kill those Starros or take them off me - but my "teammates" wheren't playing. DPSs just stood still without doing anything. The healer (who was in Healer stance so I couldn't heal myself by blocking) wasn't healing me. I died within the first seconds.

    I fleed and repaired my gear and went back to the fight. I thought to myself, okay maybe I was too reckless. I will try to be more careful with my own HP next time, I'm just an average DPS. I kept on hitting, but my teammates weren't doing ANYTHING. They just stood still, watching me struggle, I hit while my personal shield was on, I blocked while it was off, then when it was on again I kept hitting 'till all those Starros were dead. I acidentally "aggro-ed" too many Starros at once too soon and ended up dead again. My "teammates" didn't hush to help and, y'know,, to be a team. Healer didn't heal me. They just stood still at the start of the alert.

    I switched my chat tab to general/group chat (since I was on the loot tab at time). My "teammates" were all like "leave", "leave", "leave", and I was like were they talking to me? They were also saying a lot of slurs on chat, and saying things like "smells like a fish", "smells ugly", and I didn't know what tf was happening. I wanted to scream at them to BE A TEAM, but instead I just hushed again to the Starros, we could do this dangit! I wanted to get that alert thing done to do more important things after.

    But they just kept being bullies on chat. "WTF" "smells like a fish" a lot of slurs I couldn't see since my profanity filter was on, and then it clicked me: they were talking to me (the "smells like a fish" thing was probably my character being all Aquaman-themed, I mean my character is all based on an one-shot Aquaman character during the Silver Age called "Lisa Morel", the daughter of an ichtyologist called Mr. Morel who spent his work at a lab ship at the sea with his daughter, and she gained Aquaman's powers for a short time (which is why the powerset of my character is Mental)). They wanted ME to leave, and I didn't know why! Maybe I was being reckless, then why didn't they tell me to wait or something? WHY WEREN'T THEY PLAYING?

    But it wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was, when they called me a "she/ma/le" (ugh all those she/ma/les *slur*). Words cannot describe how angry I felt. First because I am NOT a guy IRL ("she/ma/le" being a derogatory term against boys who like to roleplay as girl characters on MMORPGs and the like) and second because, even if I was a guy, what's the freaking problem? The term "she/ma/le" not only is misogynistic AF (implying girls or nonbinary folks like me, but still I'm "biologically" female (ugh I hate the word "biologically" but I disgress) don't play MMORPGs, and all people playing with female characters are guys, when the most likely scenario is for at least half of players here on DCUO to be female or otherwise, and a bunch of MALE toons to be GIRLS IRL but I disgress) but it's also veeery transphobic/transmisogynistic since that "term" is usually used to harass closeted transwomen who like to express their true genders virtually on MMORPGs or other games - and of course there's always a bunch of players who like to just, idk, ROLEPLAY, I mean my character was straight up based on an Aquaman one-shot character dammit! Though tbh I doubt these guys ever read a freaking comic idk I'm not trans, but I still felt soooo angry,,

    soooo I didn't know what to do, the anger burning in my veins, I didn't know what to say to these three arseholes (the three of them. ALL of them were bullying me, the THREE of them) so I just answered them whimpily, "I'm NOT a guy IRL WTF", to which they just answered "Shut up she/ma/le" which did NOT help. I wanted to SCREAM. I felt soo angry I couldn't even process what tf was happening, I JUST WANTED TO DO THAT ALERT AND GET THE WEEKLY DROPS UUUUUGH. They kept bullying me on chat, saying a bunch of slurs I couldn't read because of the profanity filter (thank goodness) and all the "smells like a fish" thing, and screaming at me to leave. No votekicking, just screaming at me to leave because that's easier apparently.

    I didn't want to deal of any of this schist. I told them, "Okay leave then, I can solo it" and they LAUGHED at me. They just said they'd stood there and watch me, and they said they'd give me 100mil if I beated the boss. I just said something like, "no I don't want 100mil and I'm f2p so I can't accept it", but to be fair I doubt I could solo the alert anyway at least not without some consummable buff or a bunch of sodas consummed or something, heck I couldn't even think straight due to the anger I was feeling. I JUST WANTED THEM TO LEAVE already. I'm not the best of players, I just wanted to play, but they just kept there, bullying and harassing me and making me feel like total S***. They could just leave! Or votekick me or smth if they didn't want me around. Or tell me WHAT TF was I doing wrong (I still don't know what I did wrong!!! I just went hitting and kicking like I always do on that alert, I went with way lower CR teams before and it was smooth! Just a little slower but still SMOOTH because we ACTED LIKE A TEAM)

    They finally left after a while, but they still left me feeling like complete schist. I quickly added them to Ignore List, but I was sooo angry I couldn't process it yet. I opened the alert for matchmaking, only 2 more teammates pugged to help, they weren't that much experienced (Healer got knocked off during Boss fight, I picked them up but they did not rally so I and the tank could not autoheal ourselves, I had to summon the Death Blossom a couple of times and consume one soda) but at least we did it only after long I realized this was because I forgot to enable role-optional alerts before pugging WHY AM I DUMB. Still, my gear was so broken I had to consume some cash reserves from drops from Amazon Fury part III Seeing Shades Again mission (that I was keeping for raids) to fix it. And my entire body, still burning with rage.

    I know I'm being at least a little too overdramatic - maybe too much overdramatic but idk. I still cannot comprehend what happened. The worst part of all of that? How UNEXPECTED all of this was. I try to solo where I can, but since the main jist from DCUO is teamwork I've played with all sorts of teams on instanced content. Most of these teams were nice people, and even though most of the time we don't exchange a single word we just instinctively... do it. Like a team. People compliment good tanking and heals, people bow and wave to their teammates after the work is done. People tend to be, idk nice. Yes, I've had to block a bunch of annoying people on chat but they just annoyed me (with those st*pid conspiracy theories and stuff) and to be fair I'm fairly used to them now, the thing is mostly not personal. Yes, there are those 300+ elitists a**hats I've met a lot of times, they may act condescending to you but they do not bully you like that. Most of them actually recognise you're trying, and they actually try to help (I've blocked the worst ones, but they didn't BULLY me personally. Well there was one who wished to me to burn my mouth with soup once, but to be fair I was being a little disruptive on that one raid it was GOME raid - I was so focused on DPSing I forgot the line-up thing TWICE ugh honestly brain I felt like s*** during the time, I blocked the person, but I totally understand where they came from so I'm not angry at them, maybe a little sad with them for being rude but not angry, especially because I WAS being a nuisance so I'm actually disappointed with myself idk).

    Still, I think comparing those three bullies with 300+ condescending schists I sometimes teamed up with is not even fair. First, because those three bullies didn't have any high CR at all - all of them lower than 270 I remember, heck I have higher CR than all of them (280) maybe my SP was lower since I only have 158sp atm but still. And second, yes, I'd rather team up with a bunch of 300+ elitists, being on background and all, heck I'd even rather to be votekicked for no apparent reason,, rather than run any instance with these three guys, or people like them, again.

    I'm not telling their names well, the names of their characters but still because I do not want to expose anyone. I already reported them to Task Force X (Exploit reports), idk if that's the right place for something like this, and I also don't know if the managers will do something about it (e.g. kick these guys from the game, because I'm pretty sure I ain't the only victim of these a**hats, seriously I recall someone on LFG saying to everyone on DC to block names that lowkey looked like them?? Idk my brain is complete bullschist). I'm also not that angry anymore, but still,, I can't help but to feel sad. I always loved playing DCUO, I always loved the different ways and mechanics and diverse teams I've been part of on instance content, I love the lores and storylines... But now I'm afraid to someday randomly pug and encounter people like them again. I don't want my DCUO experience to be tainted like that,, I feel like I need to cry. Sorry for being too melodramatic peeps I don't know how to express it properly

    Also, congrats for everyone who read this wall of text. Sorry for bothering your time, I know it's dumb and a mess and all, I needed to vent. Okay now you can take care of your life and your own toons now
    • Like x 2
  2. TheLorax 15000 Post Club

    Next time you need to report someone, take screenshots or record video. Open a ticket with support, that's where you report toxic behavior. You can attach screenshots and video to your ticket. The Task Force X part of the forum is specifically for getting an exploit (broken mechanics that could be abused) fixed. Never post names on the forums it's considered blacklisting and can get you in trouble.
    • Like x 9
  3. Melusine Midnight Rainbow Phoenix

    If you can recall roughly what time/day this happened you can still start a ticket. Screenshots and video certainly help, but the GMs can still look over chat logs if you give them a time and the player's names. Go here: https://help.daybreakgames.com/hc/en-us
    • Like x 3
  4. Aquagirl New Player

    Thank you, everybody, sincerely :) I'll file this ticket a couple minutes
    • Like x 1
  5. Aquagirl New Player

    I filed the ticket! Just copypasted what I submitted to Task Force X with a few modifications adjasdjasdadaaa

    Also,, as an aside, can someone please tell me how to delete threads? I wanted to delete that useless thread I did on TFX, I now picture the DEVs and managers shaking their heads at me for my mistake sdasdjaskdjass I am a mess, I am sorry
  6. Catastrophic Repercussion Dedicated Player

    We can't delete that, only moderators like Mepps can.
    He will delete/hide threads as he sees fit, so there's no need to worry about that.

    *looks at my record*
    • Like x 1
  7. FlawlessTime Dedicated Player

    I'm not surprised there is allot of toxic behavior in this game it's unreal how crazy it is . Allot of online games have this and some worse then other's .
    • Like x 2
  8. Melusine Midnight Rainbow Phoenix

    The Devs are human beings, they understand that not everyone will intuitively know where and how to post. Don't worry yourself over it. No one is laughing at you.

    It can sometimes be hard to remember all the good, smooth, easy runs you have on an alert, because they're just that -- smooth. So there is nothing particularly memorable about any given one. Whereas when people act negatively or in a surprising way, it really sticks out in our minds. It's such a weird, aberrant, experience that we search for ways to find a cause, in order to prevent it from happening again.

    However, if you think back, really think, I'll bet you can think of at least 5 good runs for every bad one. Probably closer to 25. It doesn't help to erase or mitigate the feelings of one of those truly awful groups, but it can help to keep it in perspective. As you said yourself, most people are nice. Most people just want to play the game and have a good time. Try to hold on to that when things feel bad.



    [IMG]
    • Like x 2
  9. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Have you joined a league? One way to help avoid the toxic players is to join a league. Not always, but sometimes you can then run with league mates through things, and completely avoid pug teams.

    Sorry you had to deal with idiots, as there are plenty, but hopefully you'll experience less as you progress further.
    • Like x 4
  10. Tenacity New Player

    That sounds like a common experience on xbox :(. Shameless plug, but if you are an Xbox player and in need of a league, I'd be happy to tell you about mine :p.
    • Like x 1
  11. xm3n3hun3 Well-Known Player

    add me - 'windborne'

    I'll help when I can, I'm on ps4, I was also a F2P for nearly 2 yrs - and I've also had similar encounters as you. The game is an escape for me.... there are good people who play this game.... it's bad ones that need more than just an ignore....
    • Like x 3
  12. Cordelia Well-Known Player

    Oh wow, nice Aquaman reference! From Adventure Comics #266, right? Great story, with a set-up for Aqualad's first appearance.

    I'm sorry you had to deal with those children. There are a lot of very toxic gamers, and it's a genuine problem in the industry. And there's also a lot of people who seem to think it's funny to hurt others. While I firmly believe their horrible behavior will rebound on them eventually, it doesn't do much for those who are attacked by them in the meantime. I hope this experience doesn't destroy your joy of the game, or your joy of Aquaman. From a fellow Aqua-fan, it can be really hard to love Aqua-characters. Some people want to tear down instead of support and build up.

    I hope you can find a league of friendly folks. I was solo/FTP for my first year or so in the game, and my first league was a neat change of pace. There are a lot of really great people in this game, but sometimes you have to slog through the mudscum to find them.
    • Like x 1
  13. inferno Loyal Player

    You say it's the first time you have experienced this, that explains a lot of how you feel and the long rant (and how upsetting it is). I've learned a long time ago that there is as much very rude people as there is good people in the game.

    My best advice that I can give you: don't engage, don't participate, don't give them the satisfaction of wasting your time, emotional stress and effort to deal with them; just leave. Flip them off, leave the instance and just remove them from your mind. The ugly truth is that some people act like that to make themselves feel superior to others. It's really pathetic and sad, if you think about it which is why I rarely give them any of my time and attention.

    Just note the names or put them in ignore, more than likely you will never come across these players in pug again. Enjoy the game for yourself as you have before. You'll even come to appreciate players that just get the job done quick with no nonsense and even see some that may be quirky and just fun to play with.

    I hope you'll see more of those.
    • Like x 4
  14. VintageWine Dedicated Player

    I honestly couldn’t even finish reading this simply because I still don’t get why (assuming they are grown adults) gotta act so messy. It is extremely draining. Im lucky enough to have good people when I randomly queue but damn. :( Im really sorry this was your experience. I did go back to reading it cause damn but no you’re not being over dramatic whatsoever. Those people were being so incredibly rude and disrespectful, also with the misgendering as well isn’t ok. Sending good vibes and hugs your way cause wtf
    • Like x 2
  15. Darth Piper Loyal Player

    Two unfortunate things...

    The first is that you had to go through that experience. There is no place in this game for that kind of crap. It creates an environment where people will find themselves unable to play because they won't have a pleasant experience.

    The second is that you can't name names, and DBG/DI is not allowed to discuss their status... because if there ever were a case for blacklisting, this would help make it.
    • Like x 1
  16. Dominic Blue Dedicated Player

    Oh boy the amount of toxic players I guess doubles when there are a lot more playing which I guess is a glass half full problem. On the one hand there's more players but on the other you get more terrible ones unfortunately. I understand there might be a lot more younger players on here too which means maturity levels are lower but it's really getting to be a clown show out there some days. Go and run the Tides of War in Metropolis and you'll hear an earful. F word this, n word that. Like what the heck is going on here with the frigging language? And it's not even in what might be construed as a joking manner. You win or lose a duel, you get called a name. Wipe in a raid, get called a name. Ask a question in any chat channel, get called a name. They don't like your style? Get called a name. And their are certain types way way too concerned about everybody's age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, skin type etc. No one cares about SP or stats it's who you identity as and when nosey trolls inquire you get derogatory names. I know online games have this problem but it really feels like the Wild Wild West with the absolute toxicity going around. Just saying
    • Like x 1
  17. Irvynnge Loyal Player

    sadly, I can't add much more than everyone else. we've all had our fair share of idiots in-game. & if you pug, as I tend to, you got more chance of it happening. join a league. shout in LFG. or take it on the chin, move on, & carry on pugging. there are nasty people out there. but don't let that get in your way. there are good people, too. good luck, matey, have fun, & @&%# the begrudgers.
    • Like x 1
  18. Eve YouTuber

    Messed up and sorry that happened to you. Also remember to put them on Ignore so you won't be ending up running with them again when you are pugging a group.
    • Like x 2
  19. Aquagirl New Player

    Thanks everyone for the kind comments <3 Y'all are amazing. Just saying


    You are right,, I've met waaay more nice people than any kind of a**hat in this game. In fact I think there are waaay more nice people over there, but they're just there in the background, quietly helping and enjoying their own gameplay. Too bad the few horrible humans out there tend to be the loudest. I just wish it weren't like that,, also the photo!!!! daaaaw thank you <333


    No,, I didn't join a league yet. I'm still holding out for something I might call "home", idk (I've posted a thread about this on the Recruitment center, I'm looking for an Atlantean-themed, f2p-friendly league,, but now I think I would be fine on a (Teen) Titans/Young Justice/New-Justice-Next-Generation-something-themed league too lol' Idk I'm actually thinking most of those tolks who are on Atlantean-themed leagues just created a solo league for their themed characters lol') 'Till them I'm just wandering around, because I'm actually p. much nervous around people sjadsjadasdaasd Being an active league member might be a responsibility I'm not ready for yet,,


    Thank you,, but I only play on PC, so I'm afraid you cannot help me with that :( Thank you for your kindness though!


    Okay, I'll add you next time I log in if I not forget it lol' I'm kinda bad at names sorry And yes,, the game is also an escape for me. The bad "teammates" deserve more than just an ignore,, at least for them to grow up and learn how to, idk, be a decent human. I hope the managers do something about it


    OMG A FELLOW AQUAFAN!!! I'M SOO HAPPY WE MANAGED TO MEET I WANT TO TALK ABT AQUAMAN LORE ASDSADDAA Who's your favorite Aqua-character??? Do you like mainland Atlantis or Xebel or one of the other kingdoms more? (Poseidonis or Tritonis if you go thru Pre-Flashpoint Aquaverse) Did you like the 2018 movie? (I found it amazing!!! I loved their rendition of Arthur most relatable one IMO Still amazed about how they managed to do underwater effects SO WELL, THE HAIR OMG looking out for the 2022 sequel!) Do you have some digitalized Aquacomics to lend?? (yeah I admit I didn't read many comics because I'm a poor mess, only New 52 and some of Rebirth, most of my knowledge come from the Wikis and random blog articles instead. Please if you got some lend to me I'm out of loop with all recent stuff and I'd like to read some of the best from the past too (like Peter David's Atlantis Chronicles series) <33)

    Okay, sorry for my fangushing asdjsadasdas I'm just excited to find another Aquafan, we're soo rare tbh it's kind of frustating sometimes (I was happy with the 2018 movie because of the new influx of fans too! Lots of good well written fanfics lol' didn't finish reading all of them but still Sadly most of the active fans when the movie was still on teather moved on to other interests due to lack of content :( can't blame them tho I'm guilty of this too) And like,, if I had membership and therefore enough character slots and powersets here on DCUO, I'd totally bring a bunch of obscure Aqua characters to life honestly (as well as soome more well-known but not THAT well-known like Garth idk if I'm making sense also some OCs because why not) If I make a third f2p account (all character slots used lol') I'm doing a Lorena Marquez with Ice powerset, and if I had access to Quantum powerset I'd do a Garth/Tempest because let's be honest the quantum power animation does look like a bunch of bubbles lol' I mean his powers are mainly thermodynamic so a bunch of bubbly attacks kind of fits idk Also I could bring Serena (another one-shot character) to life (Water powerset maybe??), do an Skartarian OC with Earth powerset I kind-of have in mind, do my own interpretation of Dolphin (Mental? Idk) or villainous character Queen Hala/Siren (Water powerset obvsly), maybe Svatt (Electricity) and ofc there's Tula which would probably be pure Precision dps but what would be her Powerset?? lol' oops I got off-topic, sorry I'll stop talking now,,



    Yep I've seen a rise of slurs and toxicity being used on the general Metropolis and Watchtower chats lately,, like too many slurs and derogatory terms for anyone's good. This is why I just keep it on LFG and loot tabs when I'm on these places (yeah there are some toxicity on LFG too sometimes but it IS kind of rarer since all the toxicity get lost on all the "LF *role* for *instance*" messages lol') The only reason I didn't just block the General chat as a whole is because I HAVE to keep an eye on it at open-world Episode contents to look for bounty groups/weekly mission groups looking for additional members lol' speaking of which I should do a separate tab for Group chat as well, but I'm lazy AF idk


    Thank you <33 this means a lot to me. All comments here do. Sincerely



    Yep :( I agree. I still think not being allowed to name names is kind of fair though,, even if those three guys ARE toxic and idk some of the worst people I've encountered ever, I still do not want to expose them,, I don't want to send an "angry mob" (idk how you'd call it) to harass them ingame. No one, even if they're the worst human alive on this planet, deserves this kind of thing. I've told their individual names on the ticket I sent to support already, one of the managers already answered me, said they're going to investigate the report and take necessary action. I hope they manage to do something
    • Like x 1
  20. Cordelia Well-Known Player

    LOL! Yes, Aquaman fans exist. There are probably more of us than you realize.

    1) Fav Aquaman character - after Aquaman himself, probably Vulko. The original version is a scholar and scientist who is nose-deep in his books, but still manages to help out Aquaman and even be a statesman at times. I'm not as fond of the later/current versions of him, but the Silver Age Vulko rocked.

    2) Definitely a Poseidonis fan, but I like 'em all. I'm an open fan who likes (almost) all versions of the lore. I enjoy everything from the Golden Age to the current book.

    3) The Movie was wonderful. As a long-time Aquaman fan I truly never expected it to happen, ever. I mean, we had the Aquaman TV show ripped out from under us, so I didn't expect the movie to ever be made. I was amused by some of the changes, but I still loved the movie.

    4) Contact me privately.

    I truly recommend getting a subscription if you enjoy the game. It not only gives you access to all the DLCs and powersets, it gives you enough character slots to play with all the powers. I very much enjoy my subscription because I love this game. Another way to enjoy trying out all the powers is to go to the test server. Then you can make the characters you want and see if they work the way you expect them to work. I don't particularly like playing on the test server - it doesn't feel real to me - but it is a good option if you can't afford/don't want to subscribe and still want to try things out.
    • Like x 1