Dealing with Trolls in Your Gaming Community

Toxic gamers and trolls are the blight of any content creator’s comment section and stream chat. Not only are they aggravating and draining to deal with, but they also take up valuable time that could be spent engaging with genuine viewers. If not dealt with properly, they can even lead to an ingrained negativity in yourself and your audience which can be difficult to overcome.

That’s why, at MinMxD, we take tackling trolls seriously. Your mental health is incredibly important, and taking steps to handle toxicity appropriately and responsibly will ensure you can enjoy making content for years to come. In this article, we’ll give you some top tips on how to manage trolls, negativity, and stream snipers, all while creating a more positive gaming community for both you and your fans.

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The first step to cutting out negativity and building a more positive gaming community is to learn how to deal with trolls. Unlike the mythical monster, these trolls are more interested in getting rise out of you and harming your mental wellbeing. Also unlike the monster, they are human, and so can often be dealt with more easily than you might expect.

Create a Barrier.

Building a wall between yourself and your audience may seem like a drastic first step to take, but it really boils down to two things:

1. Having a divide between your personal life and your content creation. To some, this may already be the case, but what this can do is prevent trolls from hitting too close to home (or, in the worst cases, from ‘swatting’ you), while also giving you the space needed to compartmentalise any hurtful things that may be said or done.
2. Employ community moderators and managers. Vetting what gets through to you is another great way to stem the impact of trolls. With a diligent moderation team, you’re unlikely to see any direct messages from toxic gamers, unless they’re in hard-to-moderate places like in-game lobbies. By stopping trolls before they get to you, you prevent any of the hardship of dealing with them in the first place.

In-Game Reports.

In-game reports are another way of tackling trolls, especially when they’re harassing you in game. This can lead to detrimental performance, frustration, and loss of stream quality, so it is important to deal with these incidents appropriately.

It is important not to overuse or abuse the report feature. If you’re getting your community to ‘mass report’ someone, that reflects badly on you, and can even lead to penalties on your channel or game account. Make sure to abide by the community guidelines – that will put you in even better footing when dealing with people who don’t.

While using the report feature is useful – no one like being hit with a ban – it isn’t the ultimate solution to your problem. At the end of the day, trolls can always make new accounts, and there will be many more of them to take their place. The best thing to do, then, is to develop a mechanism for coping with this sort of attention.

Learn how to avoid burnout as a content creator >

Content moderators can help you deal with toxicity by blocking negative things before they reach you. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there, and sometimes things will slip through the cracks. What you need is a proper coping mechanism.

The mental health impact of being a content creator is not to be diminished. When you’re always online, and your life and personality are out there for the world to see, it can become daunting when you’re hit with negative feedback.

Social media, burnout, and a whole host of other issues can damage your mental health and, subsequently, your content. What you need to do is set aside time for yourself. Take breaks when you need them, learn to take a step back, and put resources into your mental wellbeing. Working with a partner like MinMxD can help take the edge off, allowing you to enjoy what you do and focus on the fun parts!

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The main method for handling streamers is in-game reporting features, as these can wipe them off the map.

Other features like streamer protection and hiding your username or IP are also good to take, although can occasionally fall through with particularly savvy snipers. At the same time, if you like to involve your community in your content, this can be hard to achieve while also stopping the snipers.

Stream delays are another option, but aren’t usually recommended. This is because you’ll find it harder to engage with chat, making it a less interactive experience for everyone.

For certain games like Minecraft, you can still engage in a community without the need for public servers. When you have control, it makes it a lot easier to handle snipers, but this isn’t available for every game.

At the end of the day, what you need to do is cultivate a mindset or attitude that takes stream snipers in your stride. They’re always going to come about every now and then, but they’ll quickly meet punitive action, so learn to deal with them in a way that doesn’t encourage more to take their place.

Respond in a calm, measured way, and you’ll likely find less stream snipers in the future.

Finally, you’re less likely to encounter trolls when you’ve got a positive community to begin with. There are some big streamers out there that seem to thrive on negativity, and attract all sorts of people that perpetuate that behaviour.

That setting is absolutely not sustainable for everyone. With that much negativity, even the most strong-willed people will eventually find their breaking point. Encouraging positivity in your community will lead to a much nicer environment, more enjoyable streams, and better engagement that doesn’t lead to toxicity and trolling – at least not as often.

The most positive community is accessible to everyone – learn how to improve the accessibility of your gaming content >

Take time to yourself, focus on the positivity and enjoyment your audience bring, and try to cut out toxicity without rising to aggravation. There is no immediate cure for trolls, but changing your mindset – and reaching out for support when you need it – can help stop them from having an impact on you, your content, and your life.

If you’re in need of support with toxic gamers, or with growing your community in general, then get in touch today. The team at MinMxD are always on hand to help content creators thrive with our years of experience and dedicated partners.

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