Why I quit playing Clash Royal.

There are very few mobile game that can actually hold my attention. When I first saw KoopaTroopa play Clash Royale on his stream, I couldn't wait to play it. I'm not a huge fan of TCG's and deck building games. They just aren't my speed. But when I saw that each match only lasted 3 to 4 minutes, and that each deck contained 8 cards, I was in. In fact, it's one of the only mobile games that's hooked me into it's in app purchases. I would wait till I got paid every week and spend at minimum $5 for chests. I've probably spent well over $100 on the game since it's release, don't tell my wife, and I've pushed to over 2500 trophies, so I know the game pretty well. I really love the game, and the game-play. So what made me quit? Other players.

I have pretty thick skin. Things don't normally anger me, but one thing that really upsets me is when people treat each other poorly. It's always been something I hate. T-bagging in CoD, trash talking in Rocket League, and even flaming someone in League of Legends, these are all things I cannot stand for. I hate seeing people being treated badly. Don't get me wrong, I understand that video games can be frustrating. I can't tell you how many times I've been sniped by an AWPer in CSGO only to rage quit, but the one thing I have never done is trash talked my team or the other player. Sure, I may place blame on another player in my head or blow off some steam to my friends on Skype, but never do I call out the other player. I almost always receive some sort of boasting or trash talking from the other player. "Get rekt noob.", "Quit playing.", "Are you a dumb @#$% Blizz?" I've received all these phrases throughout my gaming career. It's a badge of honor that I can proudly say that I grew up during the time of Halo 3, when everyone wanted to get some action from my mother. But every game that I have ever played has allowed me to silence those players in some form or another.

Clash Royale has an emote system, much like that of Hearthstone's. There are a few emotes and simple words  that you can send to try to convey your emotions. Most every round of Clash that I play, I start with a "Thumb's up" or a "Good Luck!". When I lose a tower, I may throw out a cry face, even an angry face if the deck I'm facing has a Royal Giant in it! But whether I win or lose, I always say "Good Game". I saw it when I win because I am grateful for the victory and I am respectful to the other player, much like shaking the hand of an opponent after a sports match. And when I lose, I say it to show respect to the player for outplaying me and my build. What I don't enjoy is that the emotes are able to be spammed, over and over and over again.

Lately I have been losing more matches than I win (I've been trying out some new decks), and a lot of the time I see people spamming the "laughter face" over and over again when they beat me. This may not seem like much, because it's not. At the end of match I'm not mad at the player who beat me for spamming the childish laughter or crying face, I'm mad that it's happened for the 5th 6th or even 7th time during my 30 minute gaming session. Yes I'm losing, but I don't need to be reminded of that. Toxic players exist in every game and it's a reality that we all are faced with. My problem is that Super Cell has done nothing to fix it. You see in Clash Royale, there are no mute buttons, there isn't an option to turn off emotes at all.

Why has this stopped me from playing? I like to dedicate my gaming time to games that leave me feeling refreshed and optimistic after a long days work. I don't need some twerp in a video game constantly harassing me after a loss. If you played a game of Catan with your friends, and after the game was over, the winner kept constantly boasting of his victory in your face, you'd probably never play with that friend again. Those are my feelings towards Clash Royale. I have no options to turn off the constant and annoying emotes. I have no way of separating myself from the T-Baggers and Trash Talkers.

I've seen many threads on Reddit and the official forums, asking Super Cell for the ability to turn off emotes, or at least silence individual players. Each time the concern is brought up, you have a bunch of community members telling these players to "grow thicker skins" and saying things like, "just don't let it bother you" and to them I say "Bravo!" If you can play the game and those things don't affect you, good for you, but I know there is a good population of players who would rather just turn the emotes off. It's evident by just one search of "Clash Royale emotes" on Google.

 At the end of the day, I just want to grab my phone and play my $100 plus game in peace. Till they fix the emote system, I can find other games that will fulfill my needs. What do you think? What are your views on toxic players or the emote system in Clash Royale? I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments below!