Deadlock is starting to develop one of the most hostile communities toward newcomers, and that honestly worries me a lot. The funny clip I posted of myself dying to a Maroon 5’s Animals blasting Silver when I first started playing ended up going viral on Deadlock Intel’s YouTube and Twitter. Instead of focusing on the joke mod or the Hatsune Miku Bebop skin, people hyper focused on my non existent movement. And they weren’t even giving real advice. They were just being mean about it. Telling me to stick to bot matches to not ruin my friends games and ect. If this keeps up when the game releases, Deadlock is quickly going to earn a reputation similar to League of Legends or Dead by Daylight when it comes to community hostility. I really do not want that, because I genuinely love this game and everything Valve is building. The characters, the gameplay, the lore, it is all incredible. I want people to see Deadlock for that, not for how awful some players can be. The game is still in alpha, and it is very telling that this kind of behavior is already showing up before release. I am fine with trash talk in game. That is part of gaming culture. A lot of games have tried to overly sanitize in game interactions to an almost Orwellian degree with heavy AI moderation. That kind of big brother approach is not really really bad. But there is a big difference between competitive trash talk in a match and people going out of their way to be awful to others outside the game, especially toward new players. That kind of behavior does real damage to a growing community. Deadlock is a Valve game. It is going to live forever. What I want is for it to be known for its depth, creativity, and incredible design, not for eating new players alive before they even get a real chance to enjoy it and learn. This game is fantastic and already a masterpiece to me. I'm new I can get better. I will get better. #deadlock