I play a lot of rocket league. I always have a rainbow flag on my car. Every year during pride month I always play several games where I get lots of homophobic comments from my opponents. People using slurs, ranting about how “people like me” are ruining the game. I mute and block, and report these people, but it makes me sad anyway. Why do people go into the game with the intent to ruin it for others? I only ever get those comments during pride month. There’s a reason I play with voice chat disabled if I’m playing with randos, even if it would legitimately help to communicate with teammates.

And I wouldn’t even say rocket league is particularly toxic? I encounter teammates that throw games, and smurf accounts, way more than players that say toxic things in chat. I don’t play FPS games but from what I’ve seen they seem way worse, as voice chat is crucial.

I feel only slightly better the next day, when I get a notification about how my report got a player banned for toxicity.