About the 'random' suspension and bans?

General Discussion
1

Quite often I see people on various platforms or even on the forums talk about how they were muted without reason or suspended from Overwatch, some even being banned without doing anything.

Often the story goes that they have chat disabled, but then get suspended for abusive chat. Are these stories actually true?

I’ve had some old ex-friends that used to be really abusive in chat, almost every game. I got sick of their attitude and quit playing with them, but I still had them around on Discord etc. and suddenly they’re like “I just got suspended for no reason!”…

I feel like people are just saying they did nothing wrong, but I don’t know. I don’t use chat as I’ve become scared of getting suspended one day.

So are there any sources or does anyone know? Does getting randomly reported get you suspended? Surely it take a ton of reports within a small time frame?

Does Blizzard actually review appeals? Or is it completely up to an algorithm to ban and unban people?

2

I’m not the chillest player in the world, I sometimes get mad in chat, but I am usually a pacifist.

What I’ve noticed:

It’s easier to get silenced with the new report system, but you gotta be really toxic in order to get banned for real. All the players who said they got silenced by doing nothing were actually toxic. Their replies on this forum proved it.

Yes, I do believe that there are some players who got banned without deserving it, but those are rare exceptions in my opinion.

In my 6 years of OW I got only one warning. That warning came this Season, after a short period where in a few games I got mad in chat and sad bad things.

And I did what every player did, I came here and tried to prove I did nothing to deserve that. But after thinking for a bit, I think I deserved it.

Was it hard to see that for a few bad games I got a warning? Yea, it was, but that was a lesson for me to stop picking fights and use coms only for the game, not to express my frustration.

Did I stopped being mad? Oh, no. Just had a game where I got zero heals, and a brainless enemy sombra who smashed us into pieces. But I said nothing, and yelled in my room lmao.

So yeah, in my experience, it took lots of reports in a small time frame to get a warning (you are not going to be silenced, you first get a warning).

If you get mad occasionally, I think u are safe. Never say EZ, never say diff. You can ask players to swap, but in a polite manner. And if they don’t… well, that’s just it. Don’t argue with others, and don’t take sides in fights, and things will be okay.

And no, Blizzard don’t review appeals.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I don’t recommend closing the text chat in Comp. Not answering can be seen as throwing. You can keep it open and answer from time to time. Or say hello, or sorry, or thanks, so people in chat know you’re doing your best.

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3

There are a few forum regulars that I trust more than an AI. I also believe it is unlikely that every single person is a liar. I know for a fact Blizzard has lied about the reporting system on multiple occasions. Take that as you will.

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How do you know cause whenever receipts are given, turns out that are justified after that person claimed they did nothing wrong…

5

I got ban (cant play account at all for some time) on my alt after i been very rude in chat for some days if not weeks . Most of the time i just get chat mute.

So actual BAN requires plenty of effort to receive it

6

Let’s just say I probably know someone who got suspended and Blizzard CS cited that person was being toxic to Blizzard by calling them cheap and not paying enough for servers (using colourful language) in PROP HUNTER.

A further ban and citation was saying an f word about Torb players, while they themselves were the Torb player, in TEAM chat not match, while the Torb was doing well.

This is what Blizzard suspends and bans for now. Complaining about them and being ‘toxic’ to yourself.

The system is fully automated so it can be abused insanely easily. CSRs barely exist so they don’t actually care about appeals.

7

Yes and no.

Some are 100% false, others are the truth but leaving out crucial information, and some sadly are true.

False bans do happen, but most false ban post usally are lying/leaving out info/unaware they are toxic.

8

People without proper social skills often don’t realize that they don’t have proper social skills. (at least that seems to be the case with OW)

Maybe. But if they are suspended for abusive chat it’s just because people click that instead of whatever they are actually supposed to click, like gameplay sabotage.

Nobody is being mass reported for doing nothing though.

Think about what you just said for a minute. lol.

I think the only thing blizzard has really said about the matter is that it takes multiple different people reporting you over multiple games. And they were just saying that to clear up the myth that a group can all report you to get you suspended. That is to say - 9 reports in any given game counts the same as 1 report. And the same player cannot report you multiple times if you are in consecutive games with them. Or rather, those reports don’t all count.

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9

These companies actually do flat out lie sometimes. Like even over on runescape they ‘‘did an investigation’’ on an account I was hacked on that they botted on before I recovered it, and they were like halfway across the world in the middle east, and a simple IP check could have proved me right but they deleted it and said they confirmed I botted which I know for a fact I didn’t so they lied lmao. It was probably because they couldn’t un-delete it and wanted to save face.

Overwatch does the same, ive had accounts flat out perma banned because I was reported too much for sucking in bronze quickplay, like I was playing and everything I just can’t aim for crap and the widow smurf murking me 19 times apparently means I was throwing.

And in Classic WoW ive been silenced a few times for the most luke warm conversations in barrens chat, no option to appeal because the wait time is like 2 weeks and the silence is a week at most so no point in trying.

Many account actions are actually legit, like I have earned them fair and square, but these companies actually do straight up auto ban/suspend as well due to AI or whatever and do actually make mistakes, and good luck getting them reversed. It’s simply cheaper for them to use these programs even if they lose the occasional customer due to not having to hire humans.

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And even if blizzard did start hiring human moderators, they would probably outsource to like india or china and you’d still get banned because they could barely read what you were reported for and wouldn’t understand jokes.

11

Depends, bans are not evenly distributed, you need to be reported substantially and people have different threshold what deems inappropriate, then after you get to that threshold is what you said a violation of the subjective TOS for all we know AI bots could check entire chat history and cherry pick anything or it could look at around time of report… All i know is that everyone who whined about being banned later was outed as being justified, i forget who, someone though he was wrongly banned posted blizzard communications of there response and highlighted what he was banned for and it was deserved according to tos…

12

I’ve discovered the source of literally all of your life issues! :grin:

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13

95% of the people claiming they got silenced for no reason are lying. As long as you’re not flaming everyone every game and saying slurs you won’t get a chat ban.

14

It’s impossible to know for sure, but as far as I can tell, very few people get falsely banned/silenced. NEarly every case that I’ve seen on the forums comes down to either:

  1. The person is just straight up lying and/or completely omitting crucial information
  2. The person honestly believes they aren’t toxic, but really are and simply lacks the self awareness to understand that.

Out of my dozen+ friends that I knwo play overwatch, only a single one has ever gotten a silence/ban and they rightfully deserved it. The remainder all use chat, many of which occasionally say toxic stuff, and none have never so much as been warned. So the idea that people have chat disabled and are getting wrongfully banned just seems highly unlikely to me.

15

These guys must be extra abusive in chats bc i have said alot of gamer words in voice chat and havent been banned (yet) when i was an angry teen in this game

16

I have literally never said slurs and I never flame anyone. I also don’t insult anyone for any reason. And somehow I have been silenced 3 times, got a 2 week and a 1 month suspension. I have said some things sure, but they were very mild. So your theory doesn’t hold up buddy.

17

You already contradict yourself, you’ve said some things… But they were mild, your definition of mild aggression/flaming might be different from the rest of the community…

18

I’ve been reported plenty of times but haven’t seen any punishment yet. Maybe it’s because I rarely use chat? I get actioned more on forums than in games.