I suppose as the game grows, so does it player base and thus the unique personalities that we encounter in-game. It's also the internet so there's really no way about it, but I am still incredibly shocked and appalled by the growing numbers of "elite" players who put down, belittle and bully players. The question is why?

Phasmophobia is the only game in my recent memory that is entirely co-op. Nothing about the game screams competitive or ranked, nor does it bestow you unique rewards for performing more exceptionally well than the rest of your teammates. What you get at the end of the game, assuming everyone survives, is what everyone else gets. It is a team-effort game. Yet, we have players who order, not delegate, people around and verbally abuse/bully players for doing things incorrectly. Here are some examples.

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• Telling players to stop taking more interaction/footprint photos
• Yelling at players for taking one or two wrong photos that do not yield any interactions
• Not involving players in the ghost discussion process aka allowing players to learn and arrive at newer discovery about previously unknown facts about certain ghosts
• Refusing to communicate with players, especially those who communicate over discord tend to leave out a solo stranger player
• Just generally being mean and uncooperative

Let me give you a few stories.

Exhibit A

Some months back, I started playing insanity. I've been playing Nightmare for a 1.5 ~ 2 years, but felt like I needed to stay in my comfort zone to familiarize with the ghost types. On my first game in Insanity, I was absolutely floored. I was not prepared for the pacing and being the easily jolted person that I am, I fumbled during my virgin insanity game. In game were two other players (we formed a group of three), where the boy and the girl were talking amongst themselves. The first thing I noticed was they clearly didn't seem interested in having players around (which begs the question to be asked, why create a public lobby?) I did politely ask if I could join them for a game. As the game started, over global chat, the girl said, "We should leave the guy in the house by himself." The guy referring to me. That was uncalled for, perhaps it was just troll humor. Seconds later, her game crashed and it was just me and the guy. The guy clearly didn't like being around me, despite not having done anything off-putting at all up to that point. The ghost was also roaming frequently, so with 2 pairs of hands, both of us were trying to be efficient. As the ghost touched doors, I took one or two photos that came up empty, and in that moment, the guy says "Omg, wtf are you doing?" The hunt started, and I panicked because I didn't even have the time to identify my hiding spots upon entering the house. I followed the other player to the kitchen with the intention of looping the ghost, at which point he remarked "Omg, why did you come here?" Suffice to say, I told him he could stick the game up his ass and left.

Exhibit B

This was another game where I had just playing insanity and it was at Grafton Farmhouse. Once again bumped into another group of "elitists." I remember exploring the house on my own on the second floor, where the ghost had a 1s red room event. I immediately snapped a few photos just to capture the ghost photo (objectives matter more to me, and it didn't matter if 1 or 2 photos were wasted in the process because the rewards are always going to be greater than not doing it at all.) A player, who wasn't even present, then decides to remark "Who's taking all these shitty photos?" I quipped back at her saying, "I did, you wanna take the photo? Go ahead, here take the camera. Take it." The player started getting defensive "No, I have a camera of my own." Hunt starts 30 seconds later, first person to die was the player who complained. In the end, everyone died.

Exhibit C

Met yet another group of players. This time, I was sufficiently confident in my insanity skills. First to go in the house, immediately detected the ghost room. Ghost did 6 door touches at the Tanglewood basement door in the span of a 40 seconds. I took photos with the intention of filling 40% of the book. The host tells me to "Stop, stop, stop." Proceeds to tell his group, it's a "Yurei" and ushered us back in. I didn't want to be rude, so I followed knowing full well it wasn't. Said group speedran the game, the answer turned out to be "Spirit."

Exhibit D

The only game that "elitists" have shown me they deserve to be assholes about the game, but in no way should it be the way to go. A bunch of players who I previously see every now and then in public lobbies and join them for a game or two. Always a stressful affair with these folks. They do not like interaction nor footprint photos, and intend to fill up their photo books with only Bone, Ghost photo and 8 photos of burned crucifixes (inclusive of the interaction, only time it's allowed). Never really understood their game style, but later understood it was for the sake of extra exp and cash, as pointed out by another player.

What do all of these games have in common? They generally have a sense of exclusivity to them (i.e. not communicating with a stranger teammate, berating players), they are unnecessarily competitive (for what exactly?), do not welcome players (despite setting up a public lobby), and don't turn away newbies or new faces (not a newbie, but a new face).

I get that it is the internet, but the game behavior continues to baffles me. At LV3000, I play the game for the logic and the cooperative elements, I still get my ghosts wrong but laugh it off and move on, and here we have people who are complete asses about it. It's intriguing. I've seen elitist in other games, but Phasmophobia is the only game where I continue and want to research into elitist behavior. If our player base continues to grow, and we hope this game gains the recognition it deserves, how are we then to teach the newer wave of players to play this game? As far as I can tell, Phasmophobia is a game worth sharing knowledge about. The players here want to learn and grow, and yet elitists prevent/stunt that growth.

I know there's the report function, but I sorta hope the devs take note of elitist behavior in the community and that the community also actively protests against the culture. At some point, as the player base grows, we're going to get toxic behavior. It's just a matter of time. But again, why elitism or toxicity in Phasmaphobia? My only guess is... if some players feel the need to flex their accomplishments in a game, it probably means they're such losers in real life that the only place they can discover their worth is through a video game where they are allowed to put willing and cooperative players down.