Links for the lazy: Surfshark VPN: surfshark.deals/sirswag Twitter: twitter.com/SirSwagYT Patreon: www.patreon.com/SirSwag Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/SirSwag/ Join my discord server:discord.gg/sirswag Sources used: I made it the f*** up Contact us about a story here: sirswagsources@gmail.com Business inquiries: sirswag@moreyellow.com

I think something overlooked is the simple phrase "no dwarf left behind". People adhere to that sentiment so much that many will make nigh suicidal decisions just to leave no dwarf behind in any way.

I once accidentally called escape pod before we did a machine event with a group of strangers, and the scout called me "a fool of a driller" and it haunts me to this day. A drg player being even jokingly mean digs so much deeper than any valorant player ever could.

The greatest thing that happened to me in that game was, when I was finished getting ready for my college graduation, I played Deep Rock because I had time to spare, a random joined in and I told him that I want to speedrun this mission cause I had only few minutes to go before my graduation, he was super supportive and he agreed doing it super fast. We ended up finishing the mission, and he gave me a small speech in the end, "Congrats on your accomplishments, make a world a better place, ROCK AND STONE". I never forget this tiny interaction with this person, even though it is short, but it was memorable.

I think the most telling indicator of how well this game builds camaraderie is that no one leaves Dotty behind on an escort mission. There's literally no material reason to care about lugging her head to the drop pod, no reward, but no one abandons her. "No dwarf left behind" applies to a piece of heavy machinery just as much as it does to your fellow dwarves. When a game can get four people to agree to risk sacrificing the success of their mission by slowly carrying an NPC robot's head through swarms of enemies, simply because it's the right thing to do, that's an accomplishment. Management may think Dotty is expendable, but we know better! Rock and stone!

do you even realise what it is like for an ex-league player to play deep rock galactic for the first time and NOT get yelled at for messing up once? I was in genuine shock

Fun fact: Teamwork is also emphasised in the lore of the game. One of DRG’s slogans is “Dig together or dig your own grave.” there’s also a theory that the reason we’re always repairing MINI mules in salvage missions is because they caused dwarves to split up, leading to their deaths.

One of my favourite DRG memories was whenI was playing driller, the drop pod had arrived, and one player was downed on the absolute other end of the map. So I dug a tunnel all the way to him, and there was something so beautiful about the other two players immediately knowing what I was doing, following me, and absolutely slaughtering everything around the downed player, and all four of us still getting back to the drop pod in time. That felt real good, and not a word was spoken in text chat, we all just knew what needed to be done.

DRG has a dedicated cheer button. It is the only button that works (except for mouselook) before the drop pod opens in a mission and after the drop pod leaves after a mission. The game expects you to cheer going into a mission and after completing a mission.

It also helps that the DRG community literally will push the toxic players out of severs, forms and more. The community is something else, and I love being part of it.

It massively helps that you can’t really ‘lose’ in this game. Sure you can fail a mission and you lost 10-15 minutes of your time, but you’re not losing elo or resources. When there isn’t that fear of losing, a lot of the toxicity disappears.

This is one of the few games that feels great to be the veteran surrounded by newbies because you can show them how much fun you can have by just fucking around. I had several greenbeards ask how they can get better or improve. I told them to watch closely then got piss-drunk, shoved a soccer ball, 32 barrels, and all of our beer mugs into the drop-pod. The ensuing mission was a chaotic mess of drunk-aim, nuclear bombardment, voiceline spamming, and general rambunctiousness. After we dragged each other into the drop pod and made it back station-side we got shitfaced and had a dance party. They were laughing their asses off the whole time so I think I properly indoctrinated them

I think 1 other aspect that may have reduced the toxicity in this game by a lot is also on how dreadful the common enemies can be in this game, yet our dwarves constantly mocking them for us in a very silly tone so we don't have to say it out ourselves. Like, "go meets your maker!", "No more Oppression!", "You are fast, but I'm faster!"

Once when I was a greenbeard, I accidentally downed a teammate with friendly fire. I felt so bad and apologized profusly in chat hoping to not get kicked. The person I downed said it chat "my bad I shouldn't have stood there", and everyone in the lobby cheered when we got him back up. This was my welcoming into a game I now love. I love the DRG community.

The wholesome interactions between fellow dwarves are honestly such a huge part of why this game feels great to play. No other game quite drills in the "teamwork" aspect of the game like DRG.

I had a very meaningful experience with drg a few months ago, i was playing with a random group when the scout told us that he had lost his wife recently and he just wanted to give up, in that moment the voice chat when lit with support and kindness, we ended up playing with him till 4am and having a blast of a time, he told us that he was thankful for making him laugh again, that si something i will never forget

the first time i got lost (and quickly died) trying to get back to the drop pod, and saw that all three of my teammates were already IN the drop pod, and ALL of them left to revive me and lead me back, my love for this game was cemented.

You touch on it well in the video with the valorant section, but the cusp of the issue for me really just stems from teammate liability. In Valorant, Overwatch, CS etc a bad teammate can literally cost you the match and a blow to your rank. There's stakes beyond your control, which frustrates many people. The games that avoid this the most are usually games where a bad teammate isn't necessarily a losing condition. DRG is still pretty fun even if one of your mates is ass, and failing the mission might end up with a delay in mission progress, but it also doesn't set you back the same way a drop in MMR does. You can still restart it from the same place you first attempted- unlike competitive where a loss means you are now in a queue with worse players, who are more likely to lose you your game, which makes the cycle more likely to repeat. (This is another reason why Team Fortress 2 is still a goat, since half your team being ass isn't a losing condition if you're good enough at the game. And even if you lose, you're not having any sort of metric be set back or lowered.)

I think the overall tone and atmosphere of DRG itself is what pushes players to be positive as well. The dwarves are almost always goofing around with their voice lines. There are very few times where they take a serious tone, such as calling out an elite bug or fussing at their teammate for friendly fire, and even then there's still a comedic tone to it. Game has a lot of "derpy" interactions with the objects in the hub area and you can even play space soccer. It's like the devs would want you to feel silly for taking the game too serious.

There was only 1 time that I went out of my way to shoot another dwarf. He was one of those wind bags that was hyper critical of everyone despite not being in a place to serve said criticism. I had a pretty good freeze build and I blasted him repeatedly with my cryo cannon to get him to stfu and contribute instead of critique. He tried shooting back, but I froze him so quickly it was a completely impotent attempt. After being turned into a dwarfsicle a few times he left the game and we celebrated with rocking and stoning.

The hub area before going on missions is one of my favorite features of the game. Buying a round for strangers or your friends, kicking barrels, dancing to music, and showing off cosmetics together is just so nice right after or before an excursion. I’ve never seen a game that promotes not only teamwork, but camaraderie as well.

The recorded voice lines between the dwarves quite literally make my feel like I’m having a fun party or hangout with my best friends from school or other places. The lighthearted teasing and banter feels so accurate, and it makes me feel a sense of companionship and brotherhood like no other game ever has.

Deep Rock Galactic is THE BEST live-service game currently on the market. So a massive amount of content is free, and what isn't respects your money and gives quality cosmetics in return. Fun fact, there are weapon cosmetic packs that you can buy that make all of the weapons in the game look completely different. If they create a brand new weapon, you will get that weapon cosmetic for it if you bought the cosmetic pack.

I have to admit, one of my favorite parts about the DRG community has to be the escort missions. I have done dozens of these bad boys, and every single time, without fail, we all work together to secure Dottie. There have been multiple times where we almost didn't get out in time because we couldn't find where Dottie's head lol. I have only not saved Doretta once, and I was so sad for the rest of the day lol.

There's something so simple yet complex about the phrase "Rock and Stone." It's a call to action, it's a salute, it's a celebration. It's a reminder that no matter what happens down there, we're all in it together. Rock and Stone!

I was in a group that had the drop pod called on accident. On the way back we came across an omen. Almost immediately chat popped up "Speed run?". Without skipping a beat, everyone got in position and we cleared it faster than I have ever seen and made it to the pod. What was initially a mistake became one of the most fun runs I've had.

DRG really reinforces the fact of "Never leave a dwarf behind", because you get a monetary boost when everyone is alive in the Drop Pod. The only "competitive" factor is the mining,kills, revives and deaths stats, but those don't matter, because everyone will get the same rewards, so if someone griefed by killing players, they got less stuff too.

Had a match with a scout that was trying to find the last battery for the crate. He spent around 20 minutes trying to find it. Then all of us just stopped what we were doing to try and find the battery. We found it and the scout was so happy that the we all stayed and played for 4 more matches before calling it. Never had an experience like it. ROCK AND STONE!

I think one of the important details is that you can lose only if everyone down. But even if one member of your team is still standing, they can take their time before helping the others. Which isn't make them nervous about helping you on time, and won't make you angry if their comes too late. Also, teammates won't be that angry when you're getting knocked out often, trust me on that one.

I always loved the subtle detail where during the extraction phase, if you look inside the drop pod floor it says "LEAVE NO DWARF BEHIND" which is the developers subtle way of saying "Hey, go back for your team, help them make it back before it's too late". I feel like it's just one example as to why a majority of players tend to go back for downed teammates unlike in literally any other game where people leave you behind 90% of the time. Ghost Ship proved that the best way to make players work together and care for each other, is to not try to force it with annoying game design that forces the team to stay together 24/7, but subtly guide them into a sense of brotherhood and uplifting morale. I wish more games had this type of approach cause it leads to a far more fun game where your carry potential is insanely high (unlike most games that try to force teamwork by making everyone so weak to where if nobody works together it's basically gg you lose) and the general team morale is so much higher which leads to both more fun and often success in missions. I have over 2000+ hours in this game and I can confidently say that all the subtle positive enforcement the game eases players into made this easily the only online game I can say I genuinely enjoy playing public lobbies and even enjoy helping new players regularly. Huge love to the developers who made this beautiful game, and any fellow miners who has joined my hosted lobbies over the years. I can't wait to see what more DRG adds in the future, and I hope to experience it with so many greenbeards as well. See you in game miners, Rock and Stone!

Jumping from a garbage community like League of Legends to something genuine like DRG is actually surreal. You expect people to grief and be hostile, but they just... don't. You can join a mission, fight the good fight with your fellow dwarves, and be on your merry way afterwards with no problem. Or you can stick around for a few (many) beers. Sometimes all with very little text chat, people are just on the same wavelength.

My very first experience in DRG was right before tutorial: I jumped to the official discord, got into a chat with another 3 guys, they're playing a Haz4 mission (pretty tough for a lvl 1 greenbeard like me at the moment). They welcomed me and started to guiding me into the game's mechanics, teaching me the basics, etc. for like 3 or 4 hours straight. We lost that first mission tho lol They were like 50 or 60 levels above me, that was the best and most wholesome experience I ever had in a game before Now that I'm a greybeard myself, I keep the "tradition" of helping the greenbeards in their first moments into the game. Karl would be proud of our community. ROCK AND ATONE EVERYBODY!

I think a big part as to why most if not all interactions with others are positive is because of the voice lines. They are so goofy that they make you feel like you’re playing with your best buds you’ve known for 10y, even with completely random strangers. On the note of pve vs pvp, i think its not possible to take out toxicity completely in pvp games. The whole core is about ruining some else’s fun to have fun yourself, to make you feel like you’re better than the other. Even if you take out ranked stuff you’ll still get people hurling threats and insults at each other simply because it makes you feel superior if you beat someone. Even if you took out all forms of player communications they will find a way to insult each other via animations or other things

Deep Rock Galactic struck gold on so many levels. There are so many lessons to be learned that DRG should be used as an example in future game development courses.

When I first played drg I quickly learned the culture, wait for people to vote before calling the drop pod, I learned the appropriate time to call resupplies, and I generally learned to work as a coherent team with just random people. And they never got mad at me either when I made mistakes. So now, with well over 500 missions under my belt, I enjoy doing my part, helping to teach the green beards with the kindness other players showed me when I first started playing.

One thing about Deep Rock I think is really important for the whole camaraderie aspect is how vibrantly your rank is displayed to your fellow dwarves. Upon joining you see everyone's individual rank, and even during missions you can see people's profile borders colored to their level of experience. When you join a server, you immediately know where you fall in rank compared to your other dwarves. As a greenbeard, it's comforting knowing that your teammate can carry the entire operation on his shoulders, and if you manage to save them it's even more sweet. As a greybeard, you get immediate knowledge that your fellow dwarf might make mistakes, and that you can teach them a thing or two. It feels good to get "Rock and stoned" by a superior, and it feels good to Rock-And-Stone someone doing their best to keep up with you.

I think it's notable that when downed in DRG, you cannot bleed out. So Bad Players, at most, aren't THAT bad. If a player could bleed out and then die, locking away his abilities until later on the mission, it would be very frustrating. But that doesn't happen, because a Dwarf Never dies. It also relieves some stress on the team because a Dwarf can stay downed forever, so they don't have to worry about "Carrying" their teammates as much.

You forgot to mention the overarching enemy in DRG: Management. Though you mentioned dwarves being the blue collar work force of DRG.

I think the biggest tool for non-toxicity in Deep Rock is the "Rock and Stone" button. For all the cornyness of those lines, it's a great mood reset. People press it when accomplishing something, like clearing a mission, but also when making mistakes. I've gotten frustrated at dwarves who go down all the time, or ones who get lost in some simple tunnels, but when they press it I'll go "yeah alright fine. Rock and stone, all is forgiven" It's effectively a button to say "we're all in this together"

I've only had a handful of rude players, like maybe 4, but besides that, the community is so helpful and welcoming. It reminds me sometimes of how kind and helpful the ff14 community can be. It's part of the fun, and everyone helps each other out so much. FOR ROCK AND STONE!

it digs into the desire to be stupid, it tells you no, and gives you sass, but never stops you, dancing in the lobby, playing jumpy boot, pinging gold and mushrums. the no dwarf left behind hits home, when you get to the drop pod, and see 4 seats, and 3/4 dwarves, and also you seeing yourself if you are left behind, the drop pod ascends and leaves you as you pass out. it is something that horrifies me

Whenever I run into a toxic lobby host the worst thing that comes of it is I get kicked for some minor infraction and then laugh at them with my newly found friends in the next lobby

Another element that contributes is the difficulty selection. Players that want a more casual experience can have that by selecting a lower difficulty. Players that want a challenge and are probably going to value success over goofing around will select higher difficulties. It helps set the stage for the kind of interaction and doesn’t force people with vastly different agendas into the same game

I think the sentence “Griefers have nothing to gain and everything to lose,” perfectly sums up how well Deep Rock is designed. This video said what I have been trying to tell people since I started playing, but way better than I could ever say it.

So I bought deep rock a while ago but this video made me finally sink my teeth and hit play, and god damn here I am 30 hours later and very happy. I ran into my first toxic player after 28 hours and because it was so rare it was something to laugh about rather than get angry at

I'm a green beard as of this comment and dear lord I never seen the nicest community in game. There have been multiple times I have gotten lost in the tunnels trying to find more nitra for the team. They never left me behind and risk themselves to save me. I give them my thanks and work extra hard to repay their kindness. I main the digger creating tunnels and burning everything in my path! When a dwarf goes down I made it my duty to tunnel to by brother of stone and save him.

5:00 I genuinely think this is a major part of it. A lot of games have such toxic fanbases because they're hacking your brain to trick you into playing it every day, all the time, like a second job. Anyone would get frustrated and start feeling entitled to winning. DRG is a game that I love, and I've never gotten burnt out on it because I've never felt like I *have* to play it all the time.

When playing DRG, I have so far only played it in closed multiplayer with a buddy, or occasionally in single player. Coming from other communities like LoL, I was too wary of interacting with random teammates online, getting yelled at for being slow, making mistakes and slowing my team down. After watching this video... maybe I will give it a try afterall. My beard is still a bit green, but I will do my best!

My friend introduced me to DRG a while back when it was on sale and it was one of the best things to ever happen to me. Now im about to get my first ever promotion with the driller. I love this game. ROCK AND STONE! Edit: just promoted

The closest thing I can equate to "toxic game behavior" I can think of is when other players will drop in randomly, and jump the gun on triggering the evacuation when the rest of the team wanted to complete the secondary or get some cores. And it's hard to really call that toxic when it could legitimately just be a genuine skill issue being new to the game and unfamiliar with the expected courtesies.

One of unmentioned reasons I think is just how memetic being a true dwarf is in Deep Rock Galactic

I had a very opposite experience. Once, I was trying to fulfil a side mission while some random already called the drop pod. I tried to bring it all the way to it to still get the mission, and I was killed on the last few steps before reaching the depositing spot on the drop pod by my random mates because they wanted to leave. I had no way to go around them as they were literally guarding it. It wasn't only one of them either as they all shot me...

It's also not as punishing to lose games, unless it's an elite deep dive. Time is never wasted, even on botched missions. This encourages players to either get the maximum reward by completeting all the objectives and picking everyone up before leaving or just caring less about the result overall. Fun is it's own reward. I still remember a haz 5 escort mission that almost got us all killed for trying to recover Doretta. Three of us were down, telling the last remaining player to GTFO. His response was: "LEAVE NO DWARF BEHIND", as he revives each and every one of us despite the final swarm. We even managed to actually get Doretta's head back to the extraction.

I think at the most fundamental level -- having a bad player on your team doesn't matter. If a newbie doesn't know how to do things, that's generally okay. You can get by without them. Whatever they mine is still a net positive. The tone of the game, the comradery it encourages, those help to push people in the right direction. But if the tone clashed with the mechanics/success/rewards, then it wouldn't matter.

I once solo'd the Dred Twins on haz 4 as a driller after joining a greenbeard scout mid game. He called me a guardian angel after and it genuinely made me smile lol. Sadly, I crashed a few minutes after. Hope he's doing good.

I think one thing that really propels the lack of toxicity within Deep Rock is the witty banter and obvious brotherhood the Dwarves share. I know from experience that in other multiplayer games simply calling your team mates 'brothers' or 'sisters' greatly enhances everyone's mood and teamwork and such phrases are practically hardwired into Deep Rock.

i just played my first mission in this game, no talking but we communicated with dance and the countless rock and stones shouted during the mission lol. This community is honestly the nicest i've ever been in and i can already tell im gonna love this game. R&S!

The wholesomeness of Deep Rock Galactic is so deep that it infects other games, like Foxhole. All it takes for moral to recover is someone to say "ROCK AND STONE!" in world chat.

I think a good reason why is that each class is designed to operate alone as well as with a team, meaning there are only rare cases where you NEED a teammate, otherwise you can be largely independent. So youre rarely relying on someone else to help you, meaning theres less chances to berate teammates who forget theres three other people in a lobby. Now with that said, playing engineer with a blind scout drives me buck wild i swear to god im starting to sympathize with mission control

once i was i a mission with other 3 people and the end of the mission i died very far away from the team, i just scream LEAVE ME BEHIND BROTHERS SAVE YOURSELVES, man i watch how they try to save me but i know it was too late, once in the lobby the three of them invited me a beer and stay with me for the next 3 mission, one of them say to me "we are not leaving you behind this time brother"

2:35 you forgot to mention Engineer and they leave the team. I think the video should mention that ALL the voicelines between the dwarves encourage teamwork and friendlyness, the "Rock and Stone" *motto* that triggers with a button. A good *motto* is what brings people together. Also, the background music for successful mission and failed mission is the same. Imagine DRG has a gloomy music for mission Failure, that would immediately gets people salty. The developers surely know what to do to make a positive environment for players, even on the smallest details.

One is co-op PvE, you meant to help your team. And the other is Valorant.

I think it's mostly a matter of how these games are fundamentally structured. Competitive FPSes have a tendency to instill a strong (negative?) mindset that makes people obsess over each other's failures rather than achievements. Still, DRG has those little things that seem to hotwire players into finding something to bond over. The way the game teaches you about the "rock and stone" salute button, having silly ping lines on objects, pressing E on random things, dancing in the space rig, etc. etc. -- these don't technically contribute to the mission, but it helps lighten the atmosphere and encourages friendly interactions between players.

Most FPS games: Oh well, the new guy is dead, he was useless to the team anyways. *meanwhile in DRG, a graybeard veteran driller digs through 600 meters of solid rock to revive a level 3 green beard that got killed by a cave leech*

DRG has given me the sense of being in a brotherhood more than any other game. The simple fact that you can type three simple words from a video game on an internet and recieve a chorus of typed replies makes me proud to be part of the community, even if it is a silly videogame about space dwarves.

Coming from stuff like CS:S and COD, DRG is an absolute breath of fresh air. Those previous games' communities made me quit FPS multiplayer for over seven years, so I was wary going back into even a co-op MP game. The worst player I encountered was casually dismissive and annoyed over mic. Still helped the team, still pinged nitra, still helped my stupid ass with revive after revive. It shows how good the community is when the worst encounter feels like a tired older brother helping out his clumsy younger sibling. ROCK AND STONE TO THE BONE!!

I think it is absurd to believe toxicity is an integral part of an experience, sports in general has pressure and aggression, without the level of toxicity from players towards teammates

I love this game. I don't have a super huge amount of hours into it but I can confirm this game tricks you into being your best. I once shot a dude to get his attention to get into the drop pod with the rest of the team as he didn't see all of us go in and I accidentally killed him as I didn't see how low his health was and the mission ended as the rest of the team was in the drop pod. I still to this day feel guilty for that. And it always will haunt me

A small thing I really enjoy about DRG's DLC in particular is that its not 7 bucks for one reskinned gun. Its 5-7 bucks for new weapon frameworks and color palettes for ALL weapons. They put in effort to make a DLC pack feel worth it. They even revised the Decontaminator DLC because some players were a little unimpressed. Thats dedication to quality. My only sadness us that this game didnt win Labor of Love.

Automatic callouts and improving teamwork along with improving awareness of teammates is such an underappreciated thing. This alone could easliy halve the toxicity in many games (outside of valorant which already has systems like this)

Went on a Deep Dive with a friend and 2 random dwarves, it was Extraction time and I just remembered what my "4" key does on Driller. All 3 were just standing just outside the drop pod, I didn't take the Friendly perk since I was using the slime build. It didn't matter if I even got no one down, what matters is that I tried. All 3 of them went down and we finished the Deep Dives with some Blackout Stout. Rock and Stone!

In the hardest situations in DRG all I need to hear is Gunner inspecting his missile launcher and every problem is just gone.

I think the vibe of this game is a huge part of it. Even in other multiplayer co-op shooters with similar mechanics people still get salty and mean, but how could anyone not feel like an idiot raging in funny dwarf game.

I played this solo because I assumed people would be toxic so this is genuinely so damn nice to hear

I actually started to feel exhausted from playing L4D2 VS online because of how toxic the players can be, so I decided to hop onto Deep Rock Galactic. You would not believe how much of a breath of fresh air DRG is. I felt my heart warm up as the first person that joined my game bought the beers for us

One of the reasons I love DRG is simply because of the community. Don't get me wrong, you still run into airheads and annoying slack jaws, but overall everyone is SUPER friendly. There is like an unspoken code of ethics in the game directly derived from the in game dialogue that people have just internalized. "No dwarf left behind" "Dig together or dig your own grave" "Rock and stone" And you SEE this manifest everywhere. People's weird compulsion to rescue fallen teammates during extraction even though leaving them behind incurs no penalty. People carting Dotty's head around and bringing it back to the pod when there is no reward for doing so. People forming circles to pet Steve. People forming circles to "ROCK AND STONE". People buying drinks for each other. Every crew member has their own personality, but the way the game mechanizes itself, it's like only GOOD personalities were encouraged. A guy buying a round of beer for everyone may do so and go straight to the pod; brass tax, down to business but not without doing everyone a solid. OR he might just dick around at the bar for the next 10 minutes dancing and buying weird drinks. This game is truly a feat in sociological engineering. It somehow bred one of the most wholesome communities in gaming and I could not be prouder to be a part of it. Rock and stone, brothers.

I like the score system in War Thunder. It not only counts kills, deaths and assists, but number of times you captured a control point, even the number of hits you get, and if you go around one shot kill stealing, then you will get less points than the guy who spent 5 minutes pumping the tank you just killed full of lead. But, unfortunately, the community is super sweaty, and I can’t go more than 2 minutes in a match before getting sniped from across the map by a guy who hasn’t moved since he spawned in, and then get trash talked by my own team when I can’t even SEE the guy who keeps killing me. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk

One thing that I don't think gets talked about enough is the Downed system and how the game treats it. When you reach 0 HP, you enter a downed state, fairly standard for co-op shooters. From here, most games give you a set time to be revived or you die, at which point you cannot play the game anymore, which is generally not what you want out of your leisure time. However, there is *no timer* on being downed in DRG. At no point will you be shackled to waiting for the mission to end or for an extra life to be found, you are always able to be rezzed back into the game the moment a teammate has a few free seconds. This almost completely eliminates the need for selfish survival tactics in favor of working for the benefit of the team, and ensures that everyone has a chance to play and ultimately ride the dropship home. And the game's lore encourages rezzing players, too! A major theme if you look around is the idea that you succeed as a team and die as a team. "No Dwarf Left Behind" is an often repeated phrase in the game. I've had multiple moments where I'll leap from the end of mission dropship at my own peril to revive a teammate because that motto lives rent-free in my head.

Sir swag's constant videos favouring drg make me want to buy it now

He’s not even lying I played a lot of wow, cod, league, and valorant. I was really surprised why people were so chill and nice. It almost felt weird

The most toxic I’ve ever been was when I trolled my friend by moving the mule when they were carrying something and digging the ground under them. And that’s like the worst you could do. Even if I wanted to I could not do anything worse than that.

DRG is proof that human nature is to cooperate, not compete, and when given the chance that is what we will do.

Lowkey would like competitive games do their best to enforce working as a team better. Deep Rock Galactic is so special and boy does it make me care about my team when we all shout "Rock and Stone!" After an objective!. I'm hoping Overwatch 2's PVE can do some similar. Also nice callout to Apex lmao

What I like about DRG is the biomes, which forces you to go to different areas for unique minerals, and all of the areas have something unique about them with randomized terrain. Fungus Bogs has slowing goo, Sandblasted Corridors have 1 shot sand with sand storms, Magma Core has patches of scalding magma and earthquakes where fissures in the ground. All in all, DRG has excellent gameplay. (Also, I feel as though that the perk Friendly should've been mentioned, which makes you take and deal 50% less damage to freinds)

A guy kept teamkilling my friend’s greenbeard gf in the evacuation phase. So we jumped him, and he activated iron will to try and take all of us out. We survived, killed him and left him to the bugs. I’ve seen annoying dwarves, but never a tree hugging knife-ear posing as one.

Also a major factor here is that this game is PvE not PvP. That alone snap it's toxicity factor in half. You can't use deep rock as a comparison to valorant.

It's sad that a game being this good in terms of multiplayer attracts unwanted attention of the most vile people on earth. Had a scout whine how a downed teammate is a waste of time and we need to leave, then when i pulled off the save and we were going back up to the drop pod and on a zipline because it was really vertical map generation, he came all the way back from the drop pod just to shoot us down from the zipline making us fall to our deaths, then camped out my ironwill doing the same thing, and went back to the drop pod, for all of which he magically now had the time to do it. It still doesn't sit right in my mind how he, as impatient as he was, would go trough the trouble to teamkill 2 guys instead of helping 1 guy as a class that is designed to traverse the map really easily and pull off quick safes... It wasn't even trolling, he was serious about everything he said. It's like meeting some famous disney villian for the first time, who's point in life is to just be a threat and annoying, nothing more. But this time, he's the "perfected" version of disney villian - he won't become good in the end...

I was playing a scout at a Hazard 4 and I kept dying because I'm a level 18 Greenbeard. 1 guy called me dumb*ss and the other guy immediately said "STFU" and "it's okay, keep on learning scout" 10/10 would ROCK and STONE again!

The Salute is by far the greatest part of this. Nothing brings a group together like the sound of single dwarf shouting "ROCK AND STONE!" in the distance, bringing the whole squad together to cheer together. Not to mention all the little rituals like "We're rich!" to add to it. When an entire system is dedicated solely for the purpose of thanking, congratulating, and generally just everything positive all rolled in one, it's hard not for people to rally behind it. Rock and Stone is solidarity made manifest. It binds us dwarves together in the deepest darkest places and shines the light for together, only then do we accomplish truly great things.

I feel like the enemy balance also plays into this very well. First off, enemy strength isn't just based on difficulty. Player count also causes enemy counts and strength to scale up as well. You HAVE to work with your team in a 4 man, cause 1 dwarf simply can't keep up with the swarms in that situation. Plus a lot of the tougher enemies have thick armor with their weak point being their rear. So the ideal strategy tends to be have one person (usually scout) get their attention, and bait them into exposing that weak point to your team. When even the enemy design rewards good team play, you know you've got a coop game done right.

DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE?

I started this game a few days ago and it instantly got me back from a severe depressive and quite state. I haven't felt this talkative in lobbies since Black Ops 2 Zombies. This game is legitimately one of the best multiplayer games around.

Idk if I've ever played with a toxic player. Closest I've gotten was one guy joining our team on elimination then triggering the 2nd dreadnought at the same time as ours, dying to it on his own, not communicating, then quitting. It wasn't a big deal and the rest of us got an achievement from it anyways, so ye, pretty wholesome game

I think you could reduce toxicity by a lot in Val, but never to the extent of deeprock. Because at the end of the day, even when their rank isn't on the line, the majority of people just want to win, and will be openly toxic if they're not. The game does everything it can to make winning the only fun you can have, and when you do start losing it only gets harder.

There really is nothing that brings people together more than a peice of compressed gold. And it's so beautiful 😢

Just joined a dig? That calls for a rock and stone. You placed a platform for the scout? Thats a rock and stone. Found the last fossil? That's a rock and stone. Power attack a macterra? That's a rock and stone.

The only time that I could call someone toxic is when I wanted to jump high with The ommorant heartstones push and The 2 other randoms killed me (I couldn’t even use The push of The ommorant heart stone) and they left me behind.

It's built on a foundation of really solid mechanics, easy to understand and hard to master systems, and the effects/rewards of working as a team far outweighs what one can do solo. The designers made the easiest way to play the best way to play by making natural incentives for all the good teamplay and positive attitudes we're seeing. The care and attention to detail they've invested is apparent, and it's reflected in the community.

The main factor is how you interact with your team. In Valorant pretty much the only thing you can "give" your team is in the form of Sage's revive. And that's rare. Every ability is focused on helping yourself, or hurting your enemy in some way. But never helping the team. Contrast that with Deep Rock. Scout gives light, Engineer creates platforms, Driller makes breathing space and passageways, and Gunner protects the entire team. You _give_ something to your teammates. And the best part is that because these abilities are able to benefit everyone you're able to seamlessly synergize with the entire team regardless of what class they're playing. This makes you feel like an important part of the team, while also allowing you to better respect your team, as it's easier to recognize their importance as well. Valorant runs counter to this philosophy. It is heavily reliant on separate, individual performance. You don't feel like part of a team, you feel like five different people all doing different things, trying to get as many kills as possible. You're focused on yourself. There's a reason in the few games I played I consistently picked Sage. It felt like I was able to alter the battlefield in a meaningful way not just for me, but also for my team. I could put up a wall to shield a teammate that was about to die, resurrect them, throw down a slow orb to give them a chance to run from a fight, it really is a support class in that game and it's my favorite of the few I played. But even then, the game is focused in a heavily competitive nature. You have one life and can't afford to make any mistakes. The words "Clutch or Kick" come to mind. But here's the thing. There's no "winner" in Deep Rock. No MVP. No special trophies for getting the most kills. It reminds us that no matter how different we are, we're all the same. The rewards at the end of the mission are shared, meaning no matter how many times you went down, how many times you accidentally shot a dwarf in the back, and no matter how many times you popped the Dreadnaught cocoon on accident, you all end on even ground. Because at the end of the day, when we make mistakes, there will always be someone there, ready to help us back up again. That's the true meaning of community, of family, of Rock and Stone.

I remember an extremely toxic gunner this one game I hosted. I just kind of walked over to one of my downed teammates and was like "What happened?" and there were no bugs. Then on a ledge our gunner just opens fire on me full blown and I start fighting back flames against bullets. No words exchanged. I ended up losing the fight and then I realized I could just ban him cause I was the host. Out of another cave comes another gunner and he goes "Everything ok?" And me and the downed scout explain what happened. That was the most toxic experience I've had in the game so far and yet I remember it as one of the more fond memories. See the rest of my team was rather supportive.