dragonbeast: sigh, what happend?
I used to play L4D2 online a lot back in the day. Heck, i even had a clan and got into some pretty awesome clan fights. But then my free time to play games became severely limited and i turned into a casual L4D2 player. Only played a match every now and then. Oh boy, i really miss my old clan friends, i had my best L4D2 gaming moments with them. Too bad that it required dedication which i really couldn't put into the game anymore and i had to leave the group.
Playing L4D2 with random people on the internet is not even close to being as fun as playing it with friends. The community in L4D2 is one of worst i've ever seen (even worse than MOBA communities, and this is quite an achievement). There's a LOT of trolling (you know, people just fucking the entire team up, like rushing till getting killed, using medikits when their health is almost full, and stuff like that), people opening up votekicks for NO reason to take you out just for fun, the RAGE QUITTERS and the usual toxicity you'd have to expect in online games (people calling you noob, faggot and the list goes on).
The fact is that L4D2 is a fucking paradise for griefers and trolls. It's REALLY easy for one guy to fuck up the entire match). Not to mention that rage quitting is a serious issue. It's nearly impossible to finish a campaign in versus mode without the enemy team or your team leaving the game. As much as i love L4D2, i have to admit that i rarely ever play it anymore due to how awful the community is. I used to play versus a lot back in the day, but now, when i do get into L4D2, i usually play coop because it's usually less toxic than the competitive nature of the versus mode. Another thing is that L4D2 is really flawed in that regard. There is no way to punish rage quitters or trolls. In LoL, for example, if someone decides to rage quit, he will have to wait till the match ends before being able to join another one, since the game forces the player to get back to that match when you log back in.
I really don't have a problem with playing with unexperienced players in L4D2. And i don't have a problem when more experienced players give advices to "newbies". I'm very open to suggestions from experienced players in the games i suck at (especially MOBAs). The problem is that instead of trying to help unexperienced players, most people just get very aggressive and start yelling insults at them.
From my personal experience, there seems to be some games that have a more mature community than others. I've never had problems on Garry's Mod, for example (even though i know that there are some griefers in sandbox mode). It might sound like a bit of a surprise, but i have never had any issues with the community in COD games on the PC. I know that the Xbox version is famous for having quite a few "annoying kids" shouting on the mic, but i really haven't encountered the same issue on the PC version.