The Four Types of Toxic Players and Why We're Seeing Fewer

Armageddon’s a different game than it was five years ago. I would argue that it’s a better game, but of course one may argue that one man’s treasure is another man’s trash.

What’s made it better? The argument has recently been made that when things are bad, it’s usually the players who are worse than the staff. Perhaps they are right. I’d like to mention four types of toxic players, and then try to answer why we’re seeing less of them.


Tom from Myspace – this guy is friends with everyone. Or he is enemies with everyone that he’s not friends with. But regardless this guy wants you to focus on his character for a moment, and to develop some sort of opinion. You better like him, or by golly, you better hate him. Nevermind that this is unrealistic. In Zalanthas, I tend to imagine that most of the castes and racial groups tend to be fairly isolated, in that it’s probably usually easy to coexist and by that I mean that it’s probably pretty common for people to ignore other’s outside of their social caste.

Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock likes to imagine himself possessed of a vastly calculating intellect. He thinks in terms of literal game code – and doesn’t role play, create narrative or abstract. When you’re telling a story, he wants to know the names of any PC’s that are involved, especially the bit players. Also he wants their sdescs. Can you...please help Sherlock to make a reasonable guess at the character’s class and hit points, as well? He probably keeps a spreadsheet of everybody’s name and what clan that they’re in, and hotkeys up a map and lists crafting/brewing recipes. Every single one of his characters knows everybody’s spell list.

Press Gang Man - wants to draft you for their pet efforts. If he’s playing in House Salarr, he wants you to join House Salarr, never mind that your last character whom just died was in House Salarr. If he’s in the Byn, it doesn’t matter that you’re playing an elf, he wants you to work for him and expects you not to steal. You...couldn’t possibly have rolled up an elf with the intention of playing a larcenous, quirky misfit could you? Press Gang Man is willing and able to solve all of your money problems as long as you work for him, no matter if you intended on playing a poorer character. He’s on his way to the top, and you’d better get on board!

Plot Ninja – Plot Ninja thinks everyone is part of The Plot. He’s usually some combination of the above archetypes. When he’s talking to you, he’s trying to figure what your connection to the plot is. If you attempt to make it clear that you’re deliberately playing a Red Shirt, he becomes annoyed and thinks that you’re holding out on him. If he discovers any game activity that’s conclusively not connected to The Plot, he becomes annoyed and tries to wind it into the plot. What’s wrong with you, don’t you appreciate The Plot?



So where are these toxic players going? Why are there less of them? I actually don’t know this, and would be interested to hear about why things appear in some ways to be getting better. Existing players seem for the most part really strong.