Career Profile = Hidden = Throwing?

General Discussion
1

People that, shall not be named for reasons of privacy (among other things) are discussing why they think the new ability to hide profiles CREATES toxicity.

The usual argument is that people will assume “you’re hiding something from me because it’s a bad thing”. By “bad” thing, they usually mean that you have a lot of hours into 1 hero, but want to play another. I have three accounts. THREE. Why? Because I was NOT allowed (by others) to play what I want. It took me roughly 3 seasons to climb out of Gold in solo-queue as a Reinhardt main with probably the worst teams I could imagine, but that’s not the point.

These people, are insisting that hiding your profile creates a negative stigma. But if hiding your profile is a NORMAL thing, that the majority of people do, then there won’t be such a stigma against it. In fact, the DEFAULT is to be hidden except to friends.

“But you have a bunch of hours on this hero, so playing insert hero is throwing!” Or they say “basically throwing”. This is, false.

(https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/overwatch-ptr-patch-notes-march-24-2018/42826)

Please read the BOLD text that was stated by Blizzard employees.
Please keep in mind the fact that you can NOT edit a Blue/Dev post, without it turning to a normal block-quote, so you know this is legit. This has NOT changed.

Blizzard said this and I even provided a link.

If you FALSELY REPORT someone, because they are playing a hero that isn’t working, or because they are doing badly on a hero, you are FALSELY reporting them and YOU deserve to be suspended/banned.

That’s how this works.

PSA to people hiding their profiles:
Never resort to toxicity or insults. If someone tries to pressure you into it and you don’t feel comfortable with it, or you are being harassed- mute them, leave voice chat, leave text chats.

This means they can NOT report you for abusive chat, and if that’s what you’re suspended for: a GM can look and see you weren’t in the channels. As for griefing, if you play strongly (although you may not be very good), if you are actively trying, you will recieve results. Worst case scenario, record your games with a free application such as OBS. Welcome to the One-Trick issue.

*Disclaimer: Do not discuss One-Tricks here, that’s not what this is about. This is for people who are too stubborn to listen to what the Devs have pointed out.

3 Likes
2

GM’s look at game chats and see you weren’t toxic then tell you “your suspension is upheld” anyway.
(automated) Reporting is the worst thing to happen in OW.

As for hiding your profile, you would be silly not to hide it. Showing the enemy team what you play is worse than the toxic bullies on your own team, cause you can ignore them.

3 Likes
3

Profile hiding is not throwing however it will help me understand who you play and main so I can switch or ask other to accordingly but as long as a hero fits our team and they play it well I don’t care about the number of hours they have

1 Like
4

Wish more people had this mentality, although something I could see as a solution to the problem it causes for you, is, ask them directly if they’re in chat? As Enki stated, there’s also the thing of: most (smart) players in Competitive, see who their enemies “main” is so they can counter-pick.

Hiding your profile makes this go away.

1 Like
5

UI think it’s disingenuous to assume that the “norm” is to buy another profile to hide your stats to play on another hero. While this is certainly the case for some situations and players, I’d be less than inclined to call it the “norm” or even insinuate that hidden profiles stem from this belief.

Personally I’m proud of the nearly 400 hours I have on Pharah. While my other stats (specifically time played) don’t compare, that doesn’t mean that I can’t flex if needed.

I play with a set of interchanging players who I’m comfortable with and have proven their worth as DPS, Tank, Support and Flex roles. I continue to play with them because I know they will fill those roles as will I and we will have fun and succeed in doing so.

Solo queue or anything short of a 6 stack is a roll of the dice every time you queue up. The newest option to limit some of that uncertainty is definitely a godsend, however I do think that the hidden profile thing is going to cause more problems than it’s actually worth. Blizzard is taking a huge step forward with role queue and a commendation system, but an equally huge step backward with hidden profiles. I haven’t read much about the system that’s being implemented, but I assume you can filter out the hidden profiles if you want to, and for good reason too. In a competitive job field would you want the individual with glowing reviews and an equally stellar resume? Or would you stick with the individual that has glowing reviews but keeps their resume censored and redacted?

I don’t think it’ll create much new toxicity as much as reinforce the original toxicity surrounding players who do take steps to hide their prowess in fields they don’t wish to participate in. Either way hidden profiles is not much different than giving a person with strep throat a bandaid.

6

But note how nowhere in there you mention their profiles. Instead you strictly talk about how they act in game. And that’s how it should be. It shouldn’t be dictated by how many hours they spent filling an off role.

The fact that you’re comparing something as serious as a job application to playing a single match on a video game is just silly. No one is applying for a job here, you don’t need to do a full background check to see if I’m “worthy” of playing with you. Just queue up, see if we click, and if we don’t, we go out separate ways, no harm done.

1 Like
7

Well I’m glad I never said it was the norm then! Isn’t it great how that works?

I’m referring to solo-queue predominately, thought that much was obvious but I didn’t explicitly say it, so I can’t fault you there.

8

Career Profile = Public = Showing enemy info = insta report. careful what you wish for my dude

2 Likes
9

To me it doesn’t matter what’s in your profile, and it should never matter what’s in your profile. The actions speak for themselves.

1 Like
10

I’m lost here. I know I talked about it being a bad thing in that regard, but that hasn’t changed at all. If your profile is public, enemies can still see it. Just like in the past, before this. That’s never been a reportable thing and it still isn’t.

11

Well I wish more people had that mindset but the fact of the matter is the VOCAL population on Overwatch, tends to be strongly negative.

It could be a vocal minority, but I’m unsure.

12

Their profiles are implied. I know which ones play what heroes, knowing that info I can then decide what role I’ll fit into, much like you’d do with a random you get queued with.

Also it’s an analogy. I’m not comparing it to a job in terms of importance, I’m drawing parallels in a way to connect two similar situations to best describe the fallacy in the argument presented. It’s asinine to even think that I what I was trying to do was say that Overwatch is as important as a life sustaining employment opportunity. However that doesn’t preclude that similarities between the two don’t exist.

So I ask again in terms of a clear analogy, in an employment position where you have to choose between two employees: would you choose individual A with a stellar reputation and an impressive resume? Or individual B with a stellar reputation and a clearly censored and redacted resume?

13

With the paragraph referring to your multiple accounts followed by the paragraph talking about “normalizing” hidden profiles, I was under the assumption that you had meant to tie having multiple accounts to the idea of hidden profiles normalizing that trend.

Not trying to come across as a doosh but isn’t that what you meant? Just want some clarification if that’s what your pointing out in my argument is all.

14

I mustn’t have been very clear. My point of bringing that up was the fact that, because I could not hide my profile, because both my teammates and enemies alike could see who my most played was (by a VERY large margin). I was forced into playing that hero, to the point that I quit Overwatch until I could buy alternate accounts for the express purpose of playing heroes that AREN’T my glorious crusader.

Being as I (was Gold, and) am now Platinum- I’m not exactly paired with the most understanding of people in solo-queue, top this along with the fact there are very few Tank mains nowadays and you can see what my problem is. That was the old system.

This new system means I can play other heroes, without harassment or the thread of being reported as they have no grounds to report me on, even falsely.

It was moreso saying “Hallelujah, the solution to my problems has arrived”. And I mentioned those examples BECAUSE I knew that other players have gone through similar situations and some of them have even taken it to the level I have (that is to say, buying alternate accounts).

15

You can just ask them too.

1 Like
16

In regards to one tricks who are getting countered and won’t switch hero for the benefit of their team… well thankfully there’s ‘avoid as teammate’, although somewhat limited. There’s now endorsements (on the PTR for now), which means some players won’t endorse those who weren’t team players. I’ll be endorsing team players. Finally there’s ‘looking for group’, which should help with finding a more ideal team setup.

I’m still on the fence as to whether I’ll have my profile ‘public’ or not, for now it’s set to public on the PTR.

17

Going with the analogy, obviously when given the choice I would go with A.

However, in this hypothetical, you’re assuming that I absolutely have to make a choice. And this is where your analogy falls apart. In reality, or rather in the actual game, if A and B were to both ask, I would invite both to my group if I have the room. Because, again, this is a game and not a paid position, so I don’t care. So long as they say they’ll fill the role I need, that’s good enough for me.

1 Like