There are two types of gamers in an FPS: Those that aim to kill, and those that aim to win. Neither are toxic to the FPS community.

While enjoying myself on the glorious game that is Medal of Honor: Warfighter I encountered a teammate who refused to play the objective. For the duration of the round, he was being flamed (quite hard) by the rest of our team which prompted me to investigate. Are his or her intentions good/helpful in nature? Are they positioning themselves in an area that could be of help to the team now or in the future? Are they generally contributing? All of these are questions you should ask yourself if there is a toxic player in question. In the mentioned player's case, they were not the least bit toxic. In fact, they were quite helpful. Oh, and by the way, they didn't make a single attempt to "play" the objective throughout the whole match.

In my early days of gaming, I recall raging at the first hint of a teammate pretending to be ignorant of the objective. Raging is far more toxic that being, what some gamers refer to as, a "slayer". As with any other genre, first person shooters have roles that need to be filled, but are not necessarily required. For instance, the sniper is a class aimed at achieving nothing but kills and thus it's the first player class to catch flak. The sniper should be engaging enemies at medium-long distances, preferably picking off important targets such as a player who is defusing/arming at bomb. While some may complain that the sniper is not contributing to the team, the sniper is indirectly affecting the outcome of the game. It is essentially the Butterfly Effect on a smaller scale. As a human, the sniper may grow antsy and look away from the objective for a moment. Perhaps their looking away allowed the enemy to plant the bomb. Perhaps their looking the other direction allowed an enemy player to sneak up on them and ultimately killing them. Anything can happen. That is just the nature of an objective based game. Unfortunately, players accuse others of being a blight on the team when really it is coincidence, itself, that they should be blaming. Of course, other outcomes may occur such as the sniper staring at the bombsite, but misses his shots. I could go on as the list is never ending. What makes a sniper a toxic player then? As a sniper, it is all about positioning. It would generally be considered toxic if the sniper is in a position where they are not able to affect the outcome much at all: i.e. laying prone in a bush that is quite a distance away from the actual objective. All in all, racking up kills helps the team by reducing the resistance that the enemy team provides. Though, generally, a team mainly consisting of kill focused players is more than likely to lose.

I'm sure we are all aware at how beneficial it can be to have objective minded teammates, but what about the downsides? Let's say that the defending team is camping crucial approaches to the objectives, and doing a damn fine job at it. Your team (the attackers) is comprised of mostly objective focused players who's style of play highlights running into battle and trying their hardest to plant the bomb (or capture the flag, etc.). I hate to break it to you, but things aren't going to end so well for your team if the opposing force is destroying you left and right until your forces are depleted. Your team's style of play essentially cost you the game as you weren't using the most cautious of strategies. The important thing to understand here is that, while being a downside of having more of an objective minded team, this isn't necessarily toxic. It's more unfortunate if anything. Still, your team didn't win. That's what matters (to most).

Finding a balance between playing the objective and killing enemies is the ideal style of play. I do understand that some of you may be resistant to changing your playing style so this statement can be applied to either yourself, the player, or to the entire team. Overall, I believe that having a mix of the two is the best way to go. The slayers are there to thin the enemy's numbers, while the objective junkies are there to do the dirty work. In the end, the two roles benefit from the other's existence.

With that being said, let's not be so hasty in focusing our rage towards other players who are not only enjoying themselves, but are also contributing to the best of their ability.