LogFAQs > #979708729

The more niche a sub is, the less toxic it is (which is probably true for any online community, frankly). But gamers having embarrassing arguments and squabbling is not nearly as bad as the kind of stuff there's on reddit if you bother to go exploring a little. It's not just the amount of deep hatred a lot of people seem to have for just about anything, it's also reddit's very many advice subs that attempt to push buttons or push certain ideological agendas. It's the usual hot take from GameFAQs trolls becoming a craft of its own, posting ragebait with no other goal than to piss people off and start fights, which quickly escalate.

I've taken a particular interest on reddit and its trends because I find it kind of fascinating. It's like submitting stories to magazines or the newspaper in the past, except there's no filter - everything gets published. So we have weeks in which suddenly several people have stories about heavy topics like paternity fraud, incel fantasies, or women making fake sexual assault allegations, and then by next week it's all stories about fat people being delusional and trans people acting insane. Most of these stories are very obviously fiction, but the userbase doesn't realize this or doesn't care.

What's particularly interesting about reddit culture is their emphasis on the idea that you don't owe anyone anything (extreme individualism), their constant need for (often nuclear) revenge and self-validation, and that morals are almost entirely dependent on what is legal or not. It may seem like flame wars over games are more toxic on a surface level, but reddit's kind of toxicity is just a different beast altogether. Apples and oranges, but one feels far more layered than the other to me.

Most of this is outside the gaming spheres, but to be honest, reddit is famous for overreacting and jumping to conclusions, as well as starting witch hunts and harassment campaigns. I'd be surprised if GameFAQs has the ability to make an impact outside its own boundaries the way reddit often does.