Alright, my last try [This will probably get deleted]

This is a post to start a constructive conversation about Overwatch and its forums, I do not mean to insult anyone or break the rules in any way.

So I’ll keep this post happy and “positive” since it seems like that’s the best way to -positively engage with others- and -avoid being suspended for justified reasons-

I noticed that Titanium, the creator of one of the best - if not THE best - Mercy post on the forums has been temporarily suspended.
[No, this post won’t be about Mercy since I’m not sure how long it would stay if it was]
So, nothing too crazy so far, since he might indeed have done something violating the rules.
However, after that people making threads about it and explaining why the suspension was unjustified were… you guessed it. Suspended.
Even new people creating threads about why it was unfair to suspend others that were trying to explain why the suspension of a member in the forums was, indeed unjustified, then ALSO got suspended, their threads being deleted.

This is -fine- and -doesn’t remind me of censorship in non-democratic countries-, however I have to thank Blizzard for keeping our forums safe from different opinions that could make us feel bad. Thanks for -listening to your community- and -acting appropiately- <3 :upside_down_face:

In all seriousness, Blizzard once used to be one of the companies I respected the most, being open about what they’re doing, creating great games and an atmosphere everyone felt welcome in. Ever since they started locking threads adressing grievances in their games or with staff moderating their forums, this respect has started to crumble.
The way mods and even the devs are acting is wrong. That’s the only word I can think of that wouldn’t cause this thread to be immediately deleted.

This post is, in a way, an experiment. I am trying to keep it polite so that we can start a discussion as equals, I’m not trying to insult the moderators or the developers or any other member on the forums.
However, in the event of this post getting deleted or locked, I truly have lost hope in this company and their team, because that would mean that they have started opressing free speech, started to prevent construcive discussions from being started and constructive criticism from being given. This is something alot of people have suspected to have already happened, I hope it didn’t.

Thank you for taking your time to read this.
Blizzard, I still believe in you and have hope for you.

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I introduced my friend to the game becasue it was the best game in my opinion but now idk what is happening… and im a little bit disappointed and this post is great and very good. :slight_smile:

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I am pretty sure this isnt the last one. Try harder might be the answer.

So far I only liked one post about Mercy that was short and this one is still Alive.

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Thing is, never insult any group of staff-members or any particular staff-member. If there has been a public statement that you find to be wrong, manipulative, or downright dishonest you can call it out by pointing towards facts or outcomes. I think you can criticize Blizzard as a company for the choices or the direction the company is taken, as long as you keep your language decent and underpin your arguments.

But don’t insult the developers or the designers, etc. I actually think the developers are doing a great job. I don’t agree with many of the design changes made to the game, but such things are likely taken based on mission statements and in larger group-meetings. So, in the end I think it’s fine to criticize Blizzard for doing a bad job, as that is your subjective opinion, but keep criticism civil.

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If they want to promote a more positive atmosphere, then they also have to start being more transparent about what is going on. They must know that people are not happy (downright furious). Titanium may have come off as harsh perhaps, but there wasn’t any vicious intent meant and I think that perhaps if they decided to be transparent and maybe even open up a dialogue between the two individuals involved, maybe the two of them could have come to a peaceful resolution on their own terms without the need for spamming the CoC guidelines at an individual without really explaining how the entire message violated the CoC. Perhaps if the person who took offense was able to talk to Titanium in a one on one initiated by a system that opens a discussion, it would allow them a few days to see if apologies and handshakes could solve the issue and the person who started the report/flag/etc could decide if they wanted to accept the person’s reasoning and maybe even decide if they did perhaps misunderstand overall what the message was trying to say.

If you offend someone in person with your words but you didn’t mean to, there is no real moderation of such a thing in the real world but if you realize that you have upset someone and you care about that, you would apologize for it. You want the other person to know that you did not intend to hurt their feelings.

The systems we have in place do not reflect this. It does not allow for forgiveness for the person who did not mean to offend someone, and was misunderstood because someone felt the words were harsh and others did not see them as such. Even in game, someone who rarely ever flames but has a go at someone once, would likely get the same treatment as someone who flames constantly. As much as I don’t enjoy someone who flames at people, I can understand that some people who rarely do but might be having such a unbelievably bad day deserve another chance to behave better.

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ITT: Passive-aggressive restating of issues that have gotten their forum posters actioned.

Discussing disciplinary action, RIP your thread.

Oh yeah, fun fact:
They suspend people stating their opinion, but don’t punish others comparing Mercy mains to cultists and people in the Naci-regime.
I had to replace a z with a c there because for some reason it’s not allowed?

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Discussing Disciplinary Actions
This category includes:

Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a player, including chat logs and email correspondence between a player and a Game Master (GM)
Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a character or account on the forums

Probably this too.

Circumventing a Suspension / Ban
This category includes:

Posting on another account
Having someone post on your behalf

Source: Blizzard Support - Forum Code of Conduct