X2 week suspension, is this warranted? Ideas please for improving this system!

General Discussion
1

So I know I sometimes talk trash in games, and I’ve tried to get much better at it in games (League I was a giant turd.) I know too in HotS there has been issues, and I’ve tried to continue to improve, but I have yet again suffered a suspension, but no real reason why than “abusive chat.” Now I’ve had games that began with me, heading to bot lane vs going mid for a team fight, to have a person on my team, first one to say anything, ask me if I am in not so nice terms, if I was either a noob or not smart. (A LOT worse than that.)

I’ve really tried myself to not say anything inflammatory, but if someone is already getting on you before you’ve literally done or said anything, and you fire back, should you get the ban hammer so hard? I was receiving a lot of those, “How well do you feel the reporting system works?” and every single time w/out fail I say it’s the -5 most negative :frowning: face. There are far more toxic people out there. I’ve even tried to remind myself to not get heated, to even some times let people know, hey I need to take a short break from game, before I rage out…which is met with cries of “AFKer! REPORT! REPORT!” :confused:

So rather than just come on here to complain or whine, I’d like to have a discussion, as I’ve seen many on the topic, of how to actually help to shape the community to not be as toxic.

First off, as a 20+ year MOBA vet I have seen, longer games = more toxic players. If I get locked into a 20 something minute game w/ someone who is absolutely getting my goat, it becomes inevitable I will fire back at them. No matter how much patience I have in game.

My suggestion: Forgive leaver feature. Say you have x2 people going at it in game, and either one of them or you wish to leave. You could ping to alert your team, that X team mate would like to be allowed to leave. If the majority of the team (yes I know some clowns would think it’s cute if they are verbally sparring w/ you to vote note to let you leave, just to “get you”) agrees (we’ll say x3 of the x5 players) then you may leave. You would get no XP or credit for the game, would count as a “Leave Forgiven” in game stats, but not count as being an actual person who just leaves the game when things go south.

My next suggestion is that I really would like to know what chat is considered “abusive”. This is such a broad term. I could say, for example, one game I was letting a Deathwing on my team know what I thought of his play, but I wasn’t berating him in doing so. I specifically remember asking more, “What are you doing??” Is critiquing someone’s play considered “abusive?” To what degree? I feel a full on suspension should be reserved for -actual- abusive language, such as say, racism, threats, etc. Online communities will always have their not so pleasant aspects (YouTube comments, anyone?)

My 3rd & final suggestion, as a step to replace suspensions would be a two-step process, first being a chat gag. Even if instead of permanently banning any accounts, mute their in-game chat. I know this is already a thing, but it should IMO replace no being able to play the game at all. Bringing that up, an option of ONLY playing w/ the AI, w/ AI team mates. More of the punishment fitting the crime, as if someone shows they are disrupting other player’s, alright fine, play by your own.

In conclusion, no I’m not begging for a reversal of my suspension, as apparently I did get to enough people to warrant them reporting me over the last month or so. But I do want to find better solutions vs just suspensions. Online communities won’t just become magically better because you ban people from them. There has to be a better process.

3 Likes
2

I agree that a simple counter showing your account status could help to curb yourself, stop playing when at risk. (Although it could also encourage nasty behavior just exactly to the limits.)

The usual forum reply to these topics applies, I believe.

Most of these forums know that I have some mood swings while playing Heroes, and that often results in inappropriate behavior. Yet I’ve never been suspended, warned, anything. There are a few explanations:

  • It’s actually AI, and it knows.
    For example, I’ve edited every venting topic.
    In-game, I must show a behavior pattern and it’s also dependent on previous matches, i.e. I’m not toxic but unstable.
  • It considers other things, such as MVP, performance.
    So again, it figures you’re unstable.
  • People don’t actually report me, they understand.
  • The limits are actually quite high.
  • Long-standing accounts have some forgiveness.

The ultimate goal of the reporting system is to increase total sum of fun.
Suspending people just leads to smurf accounts. I’ve seen quite a few silenced accounts even below level 50.

3

I’ll keep it short, we had an empty chatlog get someone banned here. Then Blizz refused to talk about it and gave up their standard beltfed reply.

The system is not encouraging rehabilitation of bad habits, but encouraging smurfs and people to quit. It’s not a rehabilitation, it’s an inhibition. A warding-off of players they don’t particularly care for.

You ever wonder why we all just default to “turn off chat?” We could whine about “”“snowflakes”"" but the thing is, it’s more likely aggressive efforts to attack players rather than any sense of offense. People are now functionally aware the report system can be effectively gamed, and with the playerbase dwindling it’s not all that unlikely to not catch a report in a game; I’ve seen players who are good get crap, so it’s not like it’s even exclusive to performance.

So yeah. Turn off chat, play smart not hard, ping with judicious selectiveness; as I’ve told others, expect to be reported and have a strong case documented if you’re worried. What I wouldn’t suggest, sadly, is talking to players.

Not until Blizz intends to speak to the community about this because it looks mega concerns from the outside.

Edit: THIS ISN’T SHORT LMAO

2 Likes
4

If you’re the same “CrazyMage” that I saw in QM, I made one of those reports and you actually deserve it. I’ll just leave it at that.

If there are multiple CrazyMage players then I apologize, but I remember one who was particularly toxic and very much deserved disciplinary action.

5 Likes
5

Oof. Sucks to have a proponent of your punishment in your thread.

But this lends credence to my suggestion. If you don’t know if you can, or how to, curb your enthusiasm for insults, perhaps simply excepting the chance that it even COULD happen.

Hedge your bets, yanno?

1 Like
6

It sounds like a Blizzard auto generated name so maybe there’s more players named CrazyMage than just the OP. However, if the OP is the player in question I’m remembering, I did issue one of those reports and the action for abusive chat was well deserved. I don’t remember the details of why I reported it, but I very much remember the name which means the offense must have been egregious.

2 Likes
7

Not a horribly unique name, but I have seen a few players I’ve ran into in games come to forums to whine about things while they appeared to be the problem from my end. :man_shrugging:
There are a lot of people with ___Turtle or ____Pants names because that’s what the random name generator gives half of them or something.

8

Like I said, it could be an entirely different player altogether.

9

Would not work. It’s a perfect system for trolls. You troll your allies for most of the game, then you ask to leave. Which means they get a bot and lose. It’s a better system for the person at fault, but worse for everyone else.

Almost anything can be considered abusive. My advice is, mute chat.

As for going for silences over suspensions. For a lot of players, it simply won’t do anything. They will troll and ping spam instead. I’ve seen a lot of silenced players spamming pings like crazy.

10

You should be able to figure it out by looking at your saved games or, if you upload everything, your online profile match history.
Check the technical id in the battle tag, #1133557 in case of OP.

11

Will just make everyone toxic until they hit the last chance message before a ban.
This should not even be an option.

Banned players that make smurfs will just do it all over again as this is a free game so this problem will keep on exsisting as long smurf accounts are free to make and dont cost any money.

Lets say you are a toxic player that gets banned and you create a new account just to get a message that you have to pay 15 euro to make it.
That would properly solve it in some way but not 100% since some people have so much money that 15 euro is nothing to them.

3 Likes
12

The community is too quick to report people as it is. So if someone wants to leave the game, it’s as easy as threatening them to vote to have you leave. “Let me leave or else I will report you.”, Instead, that player will get mass reported.

Those types of things need to be anonymous, even then, people can just speak in chat asking who is the one wanting to leave… report the one who wants to leave.

Being told what the magic words are for not getting into trouble is called “Punishment Evasion”. You can be as toxic as possible till the very edge before you get into trouble. Kool off on an other account, and do it all over again. How about just be a pleseant person to others? Yes, others are scum but they are the ones at a bigger risk. Yes, defending yourself is what I like to promote, but if you’re in an environment where you need to be defending yourself all the time and as a result of defending yourself gets you punished, it’s not the place to hang out.
I’m practicing Killer Instinct with a fight stick and I felt myself getting frustrated with myself. I had to stop playing the game for a few so I can cool down.

Your first punishment being a chat gag is good, but to make it fair you will be put with others that are gagged too. The rest of that paragraph, is you asking to play with AI teammates, but there is this option already against other AI. No one wants to have all AI teammates against humans.

Being a nice person in general is what we are wanting others to be to us. This sometimes doesn’t apply to everyone cause they think they are special and want people to be nice to them but they can be rude to others.

The report system is severely flawed and the games environment promotes toxicity. The game is competitive and emotions run real high and this is understandable but when coupled with a flawed system of dealing with difficult people, it will only cause the game to be even worse.

I even suggested to remove the reporting system but I feel this is going a little too far. There needs to be something. I did suggest that there needs to be some sort of minimum requirement to be deemed “active” in a match based on time spent.

If a leaver likes to leave, they can do so, but are put into a leavers queue, if they leave in leavers queue they are then punished to not be able to play. Players who have a leaver in their match, lets face it, the reconnect is a joke, they should be able to leave the match too. The first leaver gets the punishment. This will promote bullying, yes, but since chat will be turned off by default this can be mitigated.

AFKs should monitored based on a lot of different stats to show they are active and is system automated; damage done, exp earned, damage taken, time spent at objectives, and what not. If those thresholds are not met, they are deemed AFK and put into leavers queue. the system should be a little lenient.

Abusive chat shouldn’t even be a thing. All chat should be turned off at the start of the match and has to be turned on if they wish to join. This is possibly the only thing that should be reportable. With the punishment being that they can’t use chat.

1 Like
13

So a perfect example of how flawed this system is. Your name also feels somewhat familiar, yet you claim I was abusive to the point of needing disciplinary action, but can’t seem to recall what it was? The name is an auto generated one, but I am the only CrazyMage. Droth I’m sorry but I don’t agree w/ your report, at least until you can remember what it was for. I do recall every person I reported in the last month, including a person who thought it was cute to call me a furry ***. Most others were people such as the one who began the game by insulting me, and continued talking down all game.

Thanks for those that gave feedback, what little we have so far. I’m saddened to hear so far the community is as well just like, “Meh” it’s a broken system. :confused: As is, yes I’ve actually before had a chat gag, and been threatened to be reported for PINGING. So sorry that me wanting my team to focus on the objective is so awful you can’t take it. :confused:

14

I don’t remember every single interaction in every single match. I don’t have an eidetic memory. However, I do remember reporting a player named CrazyMage for being toxic toward other teammates in a QM game.

I could probably play back the match and look at the chat log to see what it was, but I don’t care enough.

EDIT: Also, like I said, there’s a chance it was another person named CrazyMage too. There’s a chance it wasn’t you because that name is pretty generic.

1 Like
15

here is how the report system works

the moment you say anything in chat you can be reported, regardless of what you have said, once you reach X reports. you get punished. reports degrade OVER TIME not games, so playing more = higher chance to get a punishment. punishments dont decay, so if you are on punishment 3 then 5 years later get punished again, you are on punishment 4

1 Like
16

Potatoes are reported by everything, hopping they get banned…

17

So I did receive some feedback from a GM, and apparently almost literally anything can be taken as abusive. Even when the reports are clearly showing, I was the one who was subjected to it first, I apparently have to be inhuman, not have feelings or emotions, nor talk back at all. So like in my example, if we START A GAME w/ someone insulting me, I’m supposed to just take it, the entire time, not curse @ them, or do anything other than be verbally assaulted the entire game. I generally do “not” mute players in game, as most often wait to see how far -they- are going to take things. Not trolling them, but just as an example, if I am asking hey we really need help at objective, not whatever it was you were doing. I’ll some times be able to talk sense to someone, but a lot of the times players take this as though it is somehow an insult. Then afterwards, it escalates.

I had been considering going into ranked play here, but for obvious reasons I can’t, now. I feel there are far, far worse things that can be said in game chat vs cursing, etc. Re-evaluate what is -actually- toxic vs just firing back when someone is getting at you.

1 Like
18

Don’t want to improve this game. They want players to quit so that they can stop spending money on it. It would be trivial to design a better report system. They don’t care; they want as many accounts banned as possible. In fact, they made the system more strict recently. Those that aren’t leaving are going to get forced out.

19

Unfortunately we’re expected to be the better man and not retaliate because whole world goes blind saying or the two wrongs don’t make a right saying

1 Like
20

Two wrongs make a right? I learn something new every day…

But more seriously, yes, you do have to learn to control yourself, regardless of provocation. It isn’t inhuman, it is mature. As someone who plays tanks frequently, I am often the target of verbal or chat abuse, because it is always easy to blame the tank (or healer) when something goes wrong. I have learned to just shrug it off, as I don’t know these people, so I can’t really care about their opinions. I can easily ignore insults when they come from people I do not respect.

5 Likes