> Just because someone returns your behavior doesn't mean they LIKE that sort of behavior, or are even okay with it.

Trash talk has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trash-talk

The whole point is for the other side not to like it and get knocked emotionally off-kilter and lose focus, giving you a competitive edge. It's part of the metagame.

It is also generally considered unsportsmanlike and in most cases does not contribute to the game or sport. It reduces the competition from, "Who is best at game strategy and mechanics?", to "Who is best at heckling away any real advantage their opponent actually had?"

For most online games I don't see how the latter could ever be considered an improvement to the game.

People have trash talked their way to millions of dollars in poker tournaments.[0]

You can "regulate" this away as a tournament organizer/gamedev company if you wanted to (i.e. allowing allied team only chat or allowing players to disable chat visibility altogether)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_gold

I know what trash talk is. The point is that not everyone welcomes that behavior.

It’s almost like there should be a flag where people could match-make into games with varying codes of conduct...

> And because people retaliate, that makes your initial act of rudeness ok, as if that's what the other party wanted.

This isn't what I said, you're putting meaning where there is none. I just think it's fun when people retaliate.

> How would you know if they did care?

I wouldn't, that's why I wrote "think".

Your comment and all the downvote tells me people at HN probably don't play PUBG that much.