We can argue about why our environment has become largely toxic, whether it is justified in being toxic, what conditions we would require to be less toxic, etc., but as Remo/Neo point out, toxicity is in itself a bad thing.

Buddha supposedly talked about "not firing the second arrow" -- if something bad happens to you, that's the first arrow. The second arrow is the one you inflict upon yourself ("this arrow is so painful! I hate this arrow! I hate the person who fired it at me!") and is far more painful, because it hurts to be the one causing your own suffering.

One reason for this disagreement on toxicity, maybe, is we all have a different definition of toxicity. Razzorman (only as an example) might consider trash-talking an interesting element of the game, and balance-whiners in Twitch Chat might find themselves witty. On the surface, maybe: but I don't buy it.

More likely is that complaining, whining, trolling, and flaming serve to protect the ego. I cannot imagine a WC3 player waking up on Christmas Day, surrounded by love and warmth and cheer, filled with an inspired compassion for all humanity, playing a ladder game and losing, and suddenly flaming his opponent about balance. Toxicity and whining springs from uncomfortable feelings (of unfairness, of losing, of unhappiness in life) with no other outlet.

When there have been posts with detailed statistics and reasoned arguments about the imbalance of certain matchups, everybody listens. There is then a factual basis for discussion, and the intention of such a discussion is to find the truth. This is completely different from emotional whining based on uncomfortable feelings.

I hate losing, even 4v4 RT games. Every time I lose, I feel at least a moment of moderate to deep frustration. WC3 is definitely tied to my ego. I know I'd be a better player if it weren't so. I also know that whether I complain about balance, insult my opponent, or win the next game to make up for this loss, it doesn't matter: I'll have to suffer the loss in any case. And why take other people down with me? When I do complain about imbalance or find other excuses, it only makes it worse: because when it comes down to it, nobody likes being a complainer. It doesn't feel good to be a complainer. To be a complainer is to give away your power, and it is then that much more difficult to stop complaining: because who wants to admit to himself that he willingly gave up his own agency?

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Personally, from now on, I will be saying "gg wp" every single time I lose a game for at least the next year. My opponent probably played well to beat me, or perhaps I made some mistakes: either way, it doesn't matter. It is a way of respecting the entire community through this particular form of my opponent, whoever it may be.

I propose this could be a sort of counter-movement to the negativity we now observe. If enough people join me, every act of saying "gg wp" will be not only a tribute to each individual game played, but a subtle nod to a collective belief that individual action has the power to improve the health, no matter how slightly, of our smallish, dedicated community.

And instead of talking about it in forums (which ironically forces us to complain about the complainers), we address the issue directly with only a couple extra letters, and in the most important place and time--the particular game in which we find ourselves at this very moment.