Top 10 Most Pretentious Gaming Communities

“Melee or bust!” is what you’ll typically hear coming from the SSB community. Ever since the release of SSBM, the fans will not acknowledge the next two entries in the series. While Melee is known for its tight controls, consistent 60fps, and balanced character roster, the game’s creator, Masahiro Sakurai, is upset how the community treats it. He’d prefer each entry be treated as a brand new game rather than a sequel, as each iteration has introduced new mechanics and features, and changed up the character roster. Despite SSB4 increasing the pace and tightening the controls from Brawl, the community will never get over their obsession.

I hope you learned every single call-sign, map layout, and gun in the game. Counter-Strike’s competitive community is already well-known for its toxicity, but the pretentious behavior plays a huge role. Going into a competitive match, your team expects you to know… pretty much everything. If you don’t, you’re liable to be kicked, or shouted at, even if you politely ask for help. They say practice makes perfect, but if you can’t even practice, then how does the community expect you to improve? And don’t expect to learn much in Casual play.

Undertale is a fantastic game, praised by both critics and gamers alike for bringing unique gameplay features and storytelling to life while also paying homage and poking fun at all sorts of gaming tropes. Unfortunately, if you ever speak ill of even the tiniest aspect of the game, you’ll likely never hear the end of it. The community treats Undertale’s praise more as a fact rather than an opinion, seeing any review of the game below a certain threshold as objectively incorrect.

It’s almost like an essential part of a competitive game to have an elitist community. You’ve got your basic “pro” players who abide by certain strategies that, if you yourself aren’t capable of, will be reminded of your own failures. This coming from both the enemy and teammates. Of course, StarCraft 2 isn’t just about multiplayer, as even its single-player story campaign isn’t safe from fans, calling the second’s story a waste of time, and a complete load of romantic nonsense. You can’t always please both veterans and newcomers.

By now, everyone knows how difficult and frustrating Dark Souls can be, and for newcomers who may criticize that aspect, they are met with such rebuttals as the common “git gud”. According to the community, Dark Souls is enjoyable if you get better at it, but using guides or helpful hints is also prohibited, so there doesn’t seem to be a way to win, both in game and with the community. Due to the series’ high level of agency, players can tackle challenges any way they please; but the community likes to remind others that their methods are the best way.

Hideo Kojima may be known for his outstanding contributions to the gaming world, but his followers can be a bit too… “enthusiastic.” It’s no doubt that Metal Gear Solid is his creation, but it’s not like he’s the only one who worked on it. The community tends to hold not just the series, but Hideo Kojima on such a high pedestal while looking at him with their rose-tinted glasses. He’s a great developer and an interesting storyteller, but his loyal fans would have you believe that he is the greatest of all time.

Fans of games will always defend the flaws of their favorite titles - it’s inevitable, but how can a community defend something like the Kingdom Hearts series? Thanks to several spin-offs and too many antagonists to cover in one list, the story has become a pretentious, complicated, convoluted mess where one would have to read through a book just to get the basic understanding of what is going on. While most of the community understand its flaws, they continue to hold the story in high regards, criticizing complaints with responses like “you just don’t understand” - well, at least we can agree on something.

It’s no secret that gamers and critics love The Legend of Zelda series, especially its latest entry, Breath of the Wild; but with every great series, there always seems to be an elitist community behind it. While Zelda fans may not show signs of basic toxic behavior, their clamoring over what entry is the best and fan interpretations of the story gets tiresome after a while. Even after Nintendo unveiled the official timeline, the community’s arguments do not cease. Though, all this is nothing compared to the “classic” Zelda community, defending older entries in the series no matter how much their mechanics may have aged.

A fair warning before you jump into a MOBA, you can not and will not ever please your teammates. MOBAs pride themselves on the insane variety of playing methods in their game, and while patches certainly affect the way a hero is played, a player can successfully develop their own strategies… which is apparently the worst thing you can do. Even before you begin playing, players have been known to prey upon “wrong” hero choices and rejecting any playstyle that isn’t their own. And don’t even get us started on the feud between Dota 2 and League of Legends.

Before we reveal the most pretentious gaming community, here are some dishonorable mentions.

“EVE Online” (2003)

“Five Nights at Freddy's” series (2014-)

If you’re a gamer, you’ve probably heard the term “PC Master Race”. While PCs are indeed more powerful than their console counterparts, PC Gamers take their “elite” status too far, constantly boasting about their higher resolutions, framerate, and graphics overall. Aside from constantly mocking “console peasants”, PC Gamers have also been known to get upset if their game doesn’t support a wide variety of options. We get it, when you pay a pretty penny for a gaming PC, you want your money’s worth, but that doesn’t excuse this kind of behavior.