Most of the community have decent manners - don’t focus on the few bad apples out of the many dozens of good ones and call the entire batch toxic - don’t milk a bad experience for the rest of the day
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Go to your room. 
I mostly play 3 de because most players are more cordial, what I find annoying is when you you have a really good game that you battle it out in with the opposing team and they finally win, then they don’t give you good game or anything
That’s why I always try to commend players that did a good job whether they are on my team or the opposing team
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Yeah, I only played single player too until AOE 3 de came out, I do play AOE 2 DE MP some but I am terrible and always loose 
I find it more fun to play against other people but definitely get where you are coming from, add to that unbalanced teams on multi
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When a game has a smaller playerbase, you’re reputation matters more and word spreads more easily. You’re much less anonymous in smaller crowds
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One thing that we should probably improve is the forums. We’re always complaining about how change X is unbalanced or unfair or upsets the meta.
Meanwhile all I ever play is 3x or 9x or 256x cause I want a low stress game where I can trounce the AI; I think a lot of folks are similar: we play games for fun and don’t really want to do high stress ranked games.
Maybe an “against AI” mode for ranked players would be fun; we need more collaboration and fun in this game. 
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Tbh you can do that with lobbies
Well i think you need to understand others frustrations, i have been losing 16 of my last 20 games played and not a single one was determined by my performance, from those 20 games i think i won 3 arabias and one arena, funny enough arabia is my favorite map but only managed to get it like 4 times.
The frustration comes when i had to play megarandom, nomad, the volcanic map, islands, black forest,etc, with guys that after almost 2 years have no idea how to play those maps and the level of my allies was really too low compared to the opponents, so imagine the feeling of being dragged to a team that i would have never chosen to play with cause of the big elo disparity on maps that i don’t really enjoy, losing like 4 of those games to early quitters cause they were attacked before they could finish their walls, or the guys being annoying flaring and asking for help cause they lost 1x1 vs their enemy and don’t let you do any damage cause you have to baby sit’em, after the third loss in a row something grows in me, something evil, so i have no other alternative than expressing my frustration towards those allies and i know it is not their fault, but i need to let that anger go.
The current system pushes you to play unfair matches on maps you don’t like too often, if you ask around solo players they will share that frustration cause its very very common, on a functional multiplayer i wouldn’t have called anyone noob cause on first place i shouldn’t have teamed up with them, but the devs that once defended low elo players over the noob bashers, have been implementing their system that forces noob bashing just by joining to any queue.
So i hope you now get an idea of why people is angry, most people let it go their frustrations by playing videogames and yelling at everything and cursing everything, the community should behave that’s right but we shouldn’t be forced to face those nasty game situations.
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Totally understand, it is really annoying when you loose because your team mates are idiots and don’t know how to play, granted I am not a very good player I am usually one of the weaker players when I play age 2. That’s why I play noob games but most of the players for sure not noobs on those lobbies But it happens to me all the time when I play 3de
Until recently, I think there was an unwritten “etiquette” on how to behave, for example greeting an enemy at the start or writing gg. I always liked that mature way of interacting, but i see way more toxicity lately in my 1v1s.
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Well, maybe I exaggerated a bit, because I played Age II for many years and observance to unwritten rules is important. It would be nice if everyone would remember to write glhf or just gl or reply simple “u2”, because respecting Your opponents leads to make healthy community.
This unwritten etiquette is still ( mostly ) respected, but as high You go in ladder, people cares less about it.
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It’s always been like this. You shoulda seen Voobly. Perhaps your rating has increased enough to pass into the ratings band where people are trying to improve and get pissed at other people’s ineptitude dragging them down.
I’ve been trashed many a time, and, admittedly (I’m far from proud of it) I’ve been frustrated and done some trashing myself back when I was really trying to improve. Best thing you can do is open up lines of communication early (ideally in the pre-game lobby), come up with a plan, and continue to communicate throughout the game. I always found I couldn’t be mad at someone who, at the very least, explained why they’re not fulfilling their role, and looked like they were trying to do so.
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There is definitely level of being toxic with chat but also I find it toxic when people join team games way higher than their level. Of course there is wide variety of levels in this game but when someone opens “2K+ TG” game, you should not join and make waste others’ time. Maybe they do not know what the title means, maybe they have not noticed but still.
2K+ team game rating is not high yes, but still when similar level people play, having extra 200 pop helps a lot.
Maybe ELO rating system and wins/losses should be scrapped, and people just play to have fun 
Or a different way of evaluating rating that places a ton more emphasis on personal contributions and actions per map, and far less (or none) on teammate performance and win/loss record.
I know it’ll never happen, but with one of the Battlefield games, I could care less how good or bad teammates are. I’ve played quite a bit of it. Part of that is because I’ve unlocked everything there is to unlock. My medals, badges, and military ranking just increase over time based on personal performance or achievements, never going down. And my personal stats are just that – personal; so, I’m personally responsible for whether they go up or down based on my skill level and individual performance. I never look at win/loss record for this game and, honestly, don’t know if it’s even tracked
I know AoE is a whole different ball of wax… and there will always be toxic players (there are definitely in Battlefield, since many are passionate about just wanting to win)… but maybe there would be marginally less toxicity if the AoE stats were based a ton more on personal/individual performance within games (there are many stats that could be tracked and rewarded), rather than the final score at the end of the buzzer, so to speak. I think there are some things that could be adopted from other games, like Battlefield. I’d be prone to playing it more if there were achievements/badges/medals-type of mechanic in-game. Steam achievements that AoE has don’t feel as rewarding or immersive as in-game achievements like Battlefield has
EDIT: Additionally, devs should maybe implement a clamped-down chat for online, where players in online multiplayer matches can only send and receive pre-scripted chats from opponents and teammates. I’m definitely not a fan of this, but the issue is sounding more and more like it maybe will end up being a classic case of nobody getting to chew bubble gum in class because someone screwed it up for everyone 
For the record - not resigning just because you’re near dead and retreating into ally territory or walling so much you can’t be invaded as well as fighting until the very last villager is not toxic. So is ‘hiding’ vills which is usually attempting to find a place to rebuild or to just have a good laugh cause the opponent was more often than not enjoyable and the last moments of the game might as well have laughs on both sides
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I think the real problem is not the rating or matching system. I just want to ask, does anybody believes that report system does anything? Does anybody check there and make anything about it? NO, I don’t think so. It is not my fault you get a bad map or match up etc… If you talk bad, say bad, if you are respectful, you should be kicked out.
in 1v1 it absolutely is.
doesn’t matter how much fun the game was, if i have to go hunt down your villagers because you decided to wall in a mill and a farm in the corner of the map, at that point it isn’t fun anymore. you’re wasting my time and i consider that griefing.
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In a team game, if you’re down and rebuilding, I guess it’s fine if the team overall isn’t too behind. But in a 1v1, when you’re like 90 pop and the enemy is clearly looking like he’s fully popped, it’s time to throw in the towel
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For myself I tend to build a defensive base in the corner if optimal so an army can have an easier defense and maintain a strong offense with minimal eco available if the time comes where I have the opportunity - this is usually at the point where an opponent might consider me ‘dead’ and think I’m griefing - never assume that’s the intention until the game is actually over.
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It’s pretty simple why the community is becoming more toxic. It’s kinda like comparing StarCraft 1 to StarCraft 2.
StarCraft 1 is a very slow paced game compared to StarCraft 2, and the units/structures are much more friendly to set up and do complex strategies with in PvP. Which means a slower player has a reasonable chance of outmanuvering or outplaying a faster player. StarCraft 2 went the E-Sports route, catered too much to the pro scene, and ended up making PvP in lower ranks into a never-ending cheese fest. Although clicking speed should be an advantage, making It the defining make or break factor is never good for the casual playerbase. The majority of of RTS players want a fun time playing something they enjoy, not an upcoming heart attack.
AOE2 unfortunately has been going much the same way towards becoming more of an E-Sports. Everything from making quick ranked matches, to nerfing defencive strategies, to absolutely shitting on balance in slower gamemodes like FFA and Diplo.
AOE2 was designed to be good for both the pro and casual playerbase, as well as the different gamemodes. At the moment it’s catering to pros and streamers, and is screwing over the casual playerbase, which is the lifeblood of all good RTS games.
So that’s why the game is getting more toxic.
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