For me, it really depends.
It's mostly video games for me, and specifically I got good at fighting games. Like, *really* good. It became very rare that I'd lose, and even if I did, well... rematch, but with more effort should do it.
The problem to me though wasnt the experience of playing with others, mostly. It was watching how others interacted with each other, particularly new players. If you know what "scrub" means in this context, then you might have an idea as to what I'm getting at. The community around fighting games is very toxic. Always has been. And they would pick on newer players the most often, because of course those newer players would just lose immediately to the already skilled players who were the ones being toxic. And then the newer players would give up. The toxic players couldnt see why, either... to them it was always "LOL they gave up because they know they cant win", but... "no, they gave up because you're being a bag of cat turds at them" is what I always wanted to say.
Wheras for me, if my opponent isnt having a good time, neither am I. Regardless of the nature of the competition. Friendly and goofy or serious tournament, whatever, it's supposed to be a good time.
The most ridiculous thing though was that many of them seriously couldnt handle losing. Mangle that sort of player badly enough in a match, and then repeat that a few times, and... yeah, suddenly you're the new target of their very unsportsmanlike wrath. Saw THAT a lot. Particularly if you werent playing the "right" way.
Eventually all this nonsense got on my nerves a bit too much, and I mostly lost interest.
Other types of games werent much better, really. And certain specific genres (FPS), I'm like, spectacularly terrible at, and so I'd get hit with the full brunt of ALL of the insults if I tried to play in any team-based game. Needless to say, I dont play those games anymore.
And I've seriously never been able to understand that kind of attitude. Even in a bloody tournament, they're still games, they're supposed to be a good time. Supposed to be fun! Challenge and competition, friendly banter between opponents.... not the vitriolic screaming and bullying I saw so much of. WHY do so many get that way?
And that's just those games. There are some particularly famous examples out there... like League of Legends... that makes all other multiplayer experiences look like a bunch of happy fluffy kittens getting along perfectly. They are *that* bad. And I seriously cant understand why anyone would even want to play those, when all everyone does with those is type barrages of misspelled expletives into the chat over and over while banging on their mouse.
You know what's usually good fun though? Co-op games! Like Monster Hunter for instance. Yeah, sometimes you still get arguments in games like that ("you were supposed to lay the trap, Steve, not run at the boss with a hammer!") but that really didnt happen much in my experience (and those tended to devolve into giggling and in-jokes anyway, when playing with friends. Nobody would forget the time Steve finally tried to place that trap but fell off a cliff instead). And players seem much more likely to, you know, help each other learn and improve. Instead of just "LOL U SUCK" and whatnot. Not that you dont get jerks here and there, but still.
Though, these days, I still dont do much multiplayer gaming at all. The experience of having dealt with too many toxic players overall just kinda soured so much of it for me, regardless of genre.
And then there's board games, which is my other main hobby, but I only play solo, so... there's no problem there. I only have to compete with the stupid dice that just fell off the table for the millionth time, the stupid little plastic jerks...
It's not really fun until you can taste blood in your mouth and someone tries to pass you.
