As the title says, I’ve put some hours into this game. I’ve been playing Overwatch since it released back in 2016. I’ve stuck with it through it’s highs and it’s lows. I have some great memories with those I’ve played this game with. All of it has equated to nothing now.
Last night, I went to log into Overwatch to play some end of season games on an off role. Only to see that my account has been banned. When I dug into my emails, I saw I was banned over " inappropriate communication." This is something I can’t really take seriously from Blizzard anymore. The report system is a joke, simply because it gets triggered by volume, instead of the content of what is being reported. Even if you don’t say a single thing in a match, if someone gets triggered enough that you’re doing better than them in a game, they can send in a report and it will count.
There’s also the pretty infamous case of a pro player getting suspended as well for saying the f-word. The Blizzard employee who doubled down on the action got deservedly dunked on for it too. It seems that the whole of Overwatch’s community agrees that the “Inappropriate Communication” section of the report system is a little dumb. Not saying there isn’t actual cases of people who need to be reported for it, but it can easily be exploited and abused.
I’m not going to say that I’m perfect and have never said anything bad in my entire life. There has been one or two instances of me saying something I shouldn’t have and I deserved a suspension for it. However, it seems lately the standards of what is considered “Abusive Chat” has certainly lowered. You can’t taunt anyone, you can’t joke, you can’t say anything without some Tilted Terry getting even more upset because he’s on a losing streak. I have seen some bad actors who deserved bans continue to play, despite throwing around slurs and derogatory things about certain genders, races, etc as if nothing happened. The double standards and laziness is getting ridiculous.
I’ve been playing this game for 9 years and I didn’t receive my first suspension until near the end of 2023. I was a little upset, because I hadn’t said anything to deserve it that I could recall. My account suspension ended and I continued to play. Then, almost a year to the date, my account was suspended again. This time, I’ll admit that I deserved the ban, because I had gone off on someone in voice chat. It was bad enough that even my duo was a little shocked by what I said. I had some personal stuff going on at the time and it boiled over. The guy didn’t deserve it and I wish I could apologize for it, but I don’t remember who it was. Then the suspension at the end of Season 13 and now the perma-ban at the end of Season 14… Neither one I can think of anything I said that would have been considered heinous.
Every time I have received a suspension and now this ban, I have reached out to Blizzard (except for the one I knew I deserved) to get some sort of understanding of what it was I did that deserved it. Every single time, I got some sort of generic, AI or ChatGPT response instead of an actual human answer. This is the core of the issue, their rules about what is considered bannable when it comes to “Communications” is so ambiguous. Blizzard just lets their Defense Matrix run rampant when it comes to issuing punishments and it seems like it’s becoming a source of frustration. Instead of banning cheaters or people who actually say something that looks like a crime against humanity, they ban people who swear.
It sucks losing an account that I put 9 years into. It also sucks having to walk away from a game that I was passionate about for so long, but I can’t support Blizzard anymore. Their ridiculous double standards and absolute laziness when it comes to policing their community has gotten to be too much. If anyone new is looking to play this game; God help your soul for one. And two, uninstall and go to Marvel Rivals instead.
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– If you got perma-banned, I guess there was a history of offenses
– So, don’t be an a-hole, they don’t perma-ban for the first time
– But Blizz, has an obsession with banning players that they’re already losing every day
– And that leads to people not using comms if they don’t want to risk it - which is dull
– Finally, use paragraphs. And TL;DR
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They said they got suspended 3 times before the final ban.
I love how whenever you look close enough at these massive walls of text in ban complaint posts, there’s always a dead giveaway
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