"In the short term, we will be imposing harsher penalties against players found to be using offensive, hateful, or other similar language, including longer periods of silence, longer suspensions, and permanently banning players after fewer repeat offenses.
you could already get perma banned for “abusive chat” before but now it seems it will be sooner. The problem with this is that the report system is more of a weapon than a tool to reduce toxicity.
The problem with the report system is that the moment you say ANYTHING in chat, you can be reported for abusive chat SINCE it basically says “if you find what they said offensive, report”
so literally
“can you please not overextend/feed?”
“can you maybe swap please?”
“X doesn’t seem to be working can we change this up?”
and other such COMMON phrases in ranked
-reported for abusive chat
AND IT COUNTS AS A REAL REPORT
ALSO in the ToS, it says that false reporting will be punished. IT IS NOT ENFORCED AT ALL. to prove this AND prove that the report system is broken a long while ago I did an experiment on literally reporting EVERY PERSON IN MY GAME FOR ABUSIVE CHAT (whether or not what they said was actually warranted for a report, so even people who said GG got reported). Made a post saying I did this and the results? No punishments and a TON of messages saying “we took action on a report”
This report system how it is now DISCOURAGES teamplay by making it to where, if you want to not have a chance at being false reported, you say and type NOTHING in chat. OR you dont play Overwatch enough so that you dont hit the number of reported needed for the auto punishment system to take affect.
also fun fact, reports are over time, not over games. So someone who plays MANY games a day and is not really toxic vs someone who plays 1 game a day and is MEGA TOXIC. the person who plays more will have the higher chance of being punished.
NICE JOB BLIZZARD discouraging team communication in a HEAVILY team oriented game 
50 Likes
I agree, some people find “gg” offensive…
13 Likes
Yeah I’ll get called “toxic” for asking people to swap or if I tell them X hero isn’t working
Don’t play a team game if you don’t want to be a team player, and if you want to just be selfish and do whatever you want then TURN OFF TEXT CHAT lol
5 Likes
I don’t know about you but that doesnt sound like offensive or hateful language to me. That’s what they’re targetting.
4 Likes
write nothing. say nothing. just mute chat.
14 Likes
Its one thing that may cause really big problems in foreign countries. Like h-rdon (a) is profanity filtered but for us this word means playing something on Hard difficulty which is an important word in PvE (not to mention that OW2 is coming)
If you’re that worried then just don’t use chat? Works for console.
1 Like
As an off meta main, this phrase by itself is not offensive. It’s a perfectly fine question to ask.
Usually the offensive stuff comes after I politely say “No”.
26 Likes
the thing is though is that the moment that you say anything in chat, you can be reported for abusive chat, also the report states “IF YOU find what they said offensive then report” (basically) so it does not matter if the statement is toxic or not, you can still be reported, and it will be a legit report that will contribute to the counter towards you being auto punished. that is how it works
Yeah. A lot of game companies these days aren’t even trying to review these reports or appeals.
It wasn’t this game, but for example I was banned for three days in another game for telling someone “don’t sweat the small stuff.” They were complaining about the size of a temporary notification window upon login being too big, even though you only saw it once. I was like “Well it’s not a recurring thing and some people don’t read the website, so this is very helpful to them. So I think it’s okay. Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
And they upheld that 3 day ban for that because the player felt I was trying to control their speech and censor them, which they felt was offensive. It kind of didn’t matter that it wasn’t what a reasonable person would find offensive. The mods told me they reported that so I was banned.
And plenty of people have reported similar kinds of punishments in THIS game. They have reported for saying things like “I’m trying to practice Torbjorn” and banned for it. Or for telling someone it was a good game, because the person who heard it disagreed.
The review and appeal system needs to work better if they are gonna get more harsh about punishments. While plenty of people absolutely deserve their bans, there is a smaller segment that absolutely did not. And that should be addressed if you’re going to be kicking them out permanently.
8 Likes
I have never been silenced or banned or had any action taken against me in game. Maybe you’re doing something wrong, champ?
13 Likes
I literally have a friend that get people banned on daily basis by reporting for abusive chat while he is the toxic one.
Literally Blizz can’t do a single good thing for toxicity. Maybe they should remove the reporting system for abusive chat and
1.make more tools for silencing chat
2.permanently silence toxic people bu oh wait that would make them lose money! …
…greedy Blizzard is greedy
1 Like
I got banned once for being a real trash person to a group. But since then i never got another ban, even while beeing a normal toxic person.
OP is doing something wrong.
5 Likes
This is gonna depend on the context and tone. I mean on paper those are non-harmful seeming phrases. Gonna depend on your attitude as you approach the circumstance.
3 Likes
how often do you type in any chat during a game that is not GG? that will affect it. Also how often do you play? The reports decay over time instead of games played.
don’t forget the SECOND you type anything in chat you CAN BE REPORTED for abusive chat. i tested it a while ago where in QP i would report EVERY PERSON on my team and the enemy team at the end of the game regardless of toxicity or not for abusive chat. i did this for 2 weeks, made a forum post saying i was false reporting, and i did not get punished for it AND i got TONS of “we took action on a report you did”. Also False reporting is punishable according to blizzards rules
I type in chat almost every day, I play almost every day, I’m active in comms every game
I just don’t say stupid things. Never had a suspension, a warning (I mean I have had several on the forums but that’s because I said stupid things) … I swear occasionally, I have gotten into heated “discussions” but I don’t say obnoxious, crude, rude or hateful things. We are talking like text-book common sense here.
5 Likes
I think what they mean is that if you’re using bad words more often (racist remarks, homophobic, swears, telling people that their dads have intercourse with them, etc), telling people to die or kill themselves, telling people that “they’re trash” and maybe even rank shaming etc., you’re more likely to get a punishment.
3 Likes
I don’t really type much. I use my mic unless it’s to tell someone on the other team that they played incredibly well
I used to play every weekend and a couple hours during the event, but I haven’t played in like two weeks cuz they made most of the heroes I enjoy hilariously ineffectual.
Maybe your issue is they you play comp and folks are more high strung there? I’d suggest just not doing that.
