All Monster games online

Like many gamers, I’ve recently become utterly engrossed in the role-playing adventure, Monster Hunter 4. It’s a challenging and demanding title that encourages shared experiences via its excellent co-op mode where people hunt monsters together in small groups.

What I have most enjoyed – and been pleasantly surprised by – is how friendly and helpful the community is. As an online moderator, I’ve spent years dealing with abusive, disruptive and aggressive individuals. I’ve noticed, however, that some games seem largely free of the griefing, anger and intolerance that sometimes feels ubiquitous. I started to wonder why that was. What makes certain games more likely to attract friendlier communities?

Particularly, why is Monster Hunter so welcoming?

One answer, of course, is the platform. Monster Hunter 4 is a 3DS exclusive and typing messages requires the touchscreen keyboard, which takes a long time. You can set pre-prepared phrases to use during fights but you have a limited number – it’s literally not worth wasting a slot for abuse.

A visit to the Monster Hunter subreddit shows this isn’t the only factor, though. The community is honest but constructive: a common theme seems to be “you likely suck, you will continue to suck for a while but don’t worry we all do. Here are some tips”. While there are similar guides for games with difficult learning curves like DOTA2, the tone in other communities, particularly those of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games often include a level of condescenion or elitism.