Paper Number
ICIS2025-2612
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Toxic in-game communication threatens player retention, community health, and overall gaming experience. Using data from 1,358 Dota 2 players across 51,771 player-match observations, we explore how prior exposure to toxicity influences a focal player’s own toxic behavior in subsequent games. A BERT-based natural language model identifies explicit and implicit toxicity, revealing that it spreads from both teammates and opponents, with teammate influence being overwhelmingly stronger. Surprisingly, time interval between matches does not curb explicit toxicity, and longer breaks actually increase the spread of implicit toxicity from teammates, suggesting that players tend to internalize implicit toxicity as persistent habitual response less subject to conscious inhibition. High-skill players resist opponent influence but remain susceptible to toxic teammates. Our findings highlight the asymmetric and persistent nature of toxic peer influence and underscore the need for targeted, behavior-specific interventions such as habit-disruption nudges and rapid response systems.
Recommended Citation
Qian, Sunan; Angst, Corey; and Son, Yoonseock, "GG or Rage Quit? The Effect of In-Game Peer Toxicity on Self-Toxicity in Competitive Online Gaming Across Sequential Matches" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 32.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/user_behav/user_behav/32
GG or Rage Quit? The Effect of In-Game Peer Toxicity on Self-Toxicity in Competitive Online Gaming Across Sequential Matches
Toxic in-game communication threatens player retention, community health, and overall gaming experience. Using data from 1,358 Dota 2 players across 51,771 player-match observations, we explore how prior exposure to toxicity influences a focal player’s own toxic behavior in subsequent games. A BERT-based natural language model identifies explicit and implicit toxicity, revealing that it spreads from both teammates and opponents, with teammate influence being overwhelmingly stronger. Surprisingly, time interval between matches does not curb explicit toxicity, and longer breaks actually increase the spread of implicit toxicity from teammates, suggesting that players tend to internalize implicit toxicity as persistent habitual response less subject to conscious inhibition. High-skill players resist opponent influence but remain susceptible to toxic teammates. Our findings highlight the asymmetric and persistent nature of toxic peer influence and underscore the need for targeted, behavior-specific interventions such as habit-disruption nudges and rapid response systems.
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16-UserBehavior