Yeah, Magic's community isn't that bad. It's definitely not "the worst."
A close friend shared a story with me recently,
he told me that after he beat another player at an FNM, the guy said to him.
"Ya now. If you would have played that right. I would have won."
I'm not going to minimize how your friend felt after that, but you're definitely overinflating its severity. Magic by and large has an incredibly positive community that by and large works to stop harassment and toxic behavior before it can become normalized. Players who cheat, bully, or abuse others are generally given warnings or banned from sanctioned play. "Brash" personalities (like you see in some sports and e-sports) are generally frowned upon and treated as unsavory. There was a guy at the store I go to that had repeated complaints about bullying, sexist statements, and other such issues. He basically acted like the stereotypical meathead "alpha male" while at the store. He got banned for six months for it. Just recently a pro player was caught purposefully misplaying a card and was banned for a year for a repeat infraction. The whole Jeremy Hambly (I think that was his name) online bullying controversy got him banned for life.The same can't be said for a lot of other communities.
Online gaming communities (League of Legends, console online communities, etc) are far and away worse. I've heard horror stories of Yugioh being incredibly toxic. I've been cussed out by players because I want to play for fun on casual games and I don't minmax characters. I'm a boxing coach and homophobic, transphobic, and sexist jokes are made all the time and applauded. Drug abuse runs rampant in the sport and in some circles are highly encouraged. Sports fans in general are absolutely awful to each other in the name of team solidarity.
Go to sites like 4chan or r/thedonald and tell me Magic's community is bad in comparison. 4chan's own Magic community throws absolute fits about the state of the game because of female and ethnic representation and say absolutely awful things about women and minorities in general in regards to the game.
I'm by no means trying to say Magic's community is perfect. It's not. But, for me, it's one of the best and most accepting communities I've been a part of.
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I'm not going to minimize how your friend felt after that, but you're definitely overinflating its severity. Magic by and large has an incredibly positive community that by and large works to stop harassment and toxic behavior before it can become normalized. Players who cheat, bully, or abuse others are generally given warnings or banned from sanctioned play. "Brash" personalities (like you see in some sports and e-sports) are generally frowned upon and treated as unsavory. There was a guy at the store I go to that had repeated complaints about bullying, sexist statements, and other such issues. He basically acted like the stereotypical meathead "alpha male" while at the store. He got banned for six months for it. Just recently a pro player was caught purposefully misplaying a card and was banned for a year for a repeat infraction. The whole Jeremy Hambly (I think that was his name) online bullying controversy got him banned for life.The same can't be said for a lot of other communities.
Online gaming communities (League of Legends, console online communities, etc) are far and away worse. I've heard horror stories of Yugioh being incredibly toxic. I've been cussed out by players because I want to play for fun on casual games and I don't minmax characters. I'm a boxing coach and homophobic, transphobic, and sexist jokes are made all the time and applauded. Drug abuse runs rampant in the sport and in some circles are highly encouraged. Sports fans in general are absolutely awful to each other in the name of team solidarity.
Go to sites like 4chan or r/thedonald and tell me Magic's community is bad in comparison. 4chan's own Magic community throws absolute fits about the state of the game because of female and ethnic representation and say absolutely awful things about women and minorities in general in regards to the game.
I'm by no means trying to say Magic's community is perfect. It's not. But, for me, it's one of the best and most accepting communities I've been a part of.