The other day, I lost 50 SR because my app crashed near the end of a match. I sent all of the necesary material to Blizzard to show them what was wrong.
The person on the line asks me about my updates. I check my PC for any pending updates and I find I have one. He says “your client is probably not responding properly to your current operating system.” I later updated it.
Fast forward 2 days, after my OS is already updated, it crashes again. Same message and everything.
This time, I send Blizzard a stern message about why it is unfair for them to take away my SR that I have spent hours of my life trying to earn just because of an app crash.
Let me explain WHY it is unfair. The next time I get the crash, I ask Blizzard to please more broadly look into the error message and code and they say “oh… it isn’t your OS that is the problem. It is really the (yada yada yada) that needs to be upgraded. The current (yada yada yada) is outdated and doesn’t fully function with the current battle dot net app client.”
So basically, after another update on the battle dot net update, Blizzard decides to not even let the player know that based on the current state of their hardware and software and therefore give no mention to the player that not updating (yada yada yada) will put your OW game client at risk of crashing during gameplay and then they say it is MY fault that I lost that 50 SR?..
I even asked, “can I have my SR refunded”.
They didn’t even bother to respond to that question. Thy completely avoided it and I have no idea why.
If the app crashing is due to any hardware malfunctions on the player’s PC, it is 100% Blizzards job to let the player know of any necessary updates to prevent the client from crashing. I shouldn’t have to just guess and hope for the best especially when it involves things that not every single player remotely understands.
You disconnect, you lose 50SR.
Done, there is no appeal you can make, there is no ‘reasoning’ you can give to change that.
It is as it should be. I compare it to dying in hardcore mode in D2/D3 the reason behind it, even if a Blizzard employee comes up behind you and causes you to disconnect (or in the Diablo example die) there is still nothing that can, or should, be done about it.
If the app disconnected, it would have notified me (via the “blue OW screen of death”) that “app has disconnected” or whatever.
These instances displayed a regular window with the red “X” saying “app client has stopped working”.
Nothing to do with disconnection. If everyone in my house disconnected from the internet, then yes. It has to do with my ISPs which Blizzard has no control over.
That really sucks man. I’ve had something similar happen to me, and i was so angry… Unfortunately blizzard won’t do anything about it. They never do, and at this point I’m wondering if this is even something they’re capable of doing.
Sounds like an issue on your end. The client isn’t randomly crashing on people as consistently as it is for you. Blizzard should not be and is not responsible for any sort of hardware/software issues on your end.
You are responsible for keeping your drivers up to date. How would Blizzard know?
First thing I do when a game crashes is check my GPU drivers, that is almost always the issue. If not that, it is another program that is running that causes it.
If the client crashes and I send them the files and error codes describing my crash, it is on them to figure out what exactly the issue is and if it has to do with updates regardless of whether they give me a solution, it is on them to notify their players and warn them about any required updates to prevent crashes in the future (perhaps before I even launch OW) thus give me back my lost SR.
Gee idk…
How does iTunes know your version of Mac OS is out of date or not when they give you a new iTunes update?
If that is almost always the issue (according to you), then Blizzard should be more than aware of such crashing due to outdated GPU drivers and send their players a warning about such drivers before they can launch OW and prevent crashing whether the player has experienced a crash or has yet to.
Because its your hardware and your responsibility to ensure your hardware and software are up to date. Not Blizzards. They make the game and maintain the servers. They don’t maintain your hardware too.
That’s your responsibility. Not theirs.
If your hardware isn’t suited for gaming (and I don’t just mean your computer. Your modem and router are your responsibility as well) then it is a risk you are taking when you game.
If Blizzard makes changes to their game client, it is on THEM to notify their community about what has changed and what is required for the best possible gaming experience.
Why do you think company’s like Apple let their users know that they need to update their OS on their computers in order to download a certain iTunes update or a bug fix? That’s the way it should be for Blizzard.
How am I suppose to know my stuff is outdated if Blizzard doesn’t let me know? Am I suppose to find out when I actually have a crash and lose 50 SR in the process?
Unfortunately all disconnections and game crashes counts as leaving the match and will be penalized appropriately. The game server has no way to discern a legitimate disconnection or game crash from one that is forcefully caused by a dishonest player to bypass leaver penalties. You can learn about this policy here:
A single error code can be caused by a variety of problems. I once had really bad crashes in season 2 and it took a lot of back and forward troubleshooting to narrow down and identify the problem. This is the natural process of troubleshooting.
It is 100% impossible for Blizzard Customer Service to make any statistical changes to your Overwatch account.
I am sorry but this is a naive and narrow way of thinking. Computers including each piece of hardware come in a variety of forms and configurations. It is impossible and impractical for Blizzard to track literally the hundreds of different motherboards, power supplies, computer processors, ram sticks, graphic cards, hard drives, and peripherals out there. Not to mention thousands of different software programs that can cause conflicts. A few months ago, I helped a player troubleshoot his crashes, it turned out he had the old 1998 Star Wars Tie Fighter causing a conflict with Overwatch.
Blizzard does maintain a variety of common computers and components that reach from the bare minimum system requirements to the most decked-out, VR ready 300 FPS capable gaming machines and they work to make sure Overwatch is for the most part compatible with the most recent drivers for the three major graphic card/chipset providers (Intel, NVidia, and AMD), they also test many other devices along with every model of the Xbox One and PS4. So they really go out of their way to identify any possible conflicts Overwatch may have and patch the game appropriately or reach out of the software or hardware developer when there is a specific conflict that could comprise a large portion of player database.
Still it despite all of these efforts, Blizzard cannot provide detailed and intimate support to every combination possible. Troubleshooting is never instant, it is a process.
Game crashes or disconnections, either way the penalty must stand.
No they are not as I mentioned. While it was not a player’s intention for crashing or disconnecting, it is still their responsibility.
This is a poor example, the iTunes software and the Mac operating system are integrated into each other. Furthermore, the latest drivers for various generations of hardware will vary. OIder graphic cards will still be required to use older drivers because either their support from that GPU maker is ending or they have not made a driver that needs to update anything on that graphics card.
Sorry love, but the truth is that computers are more complex than you let yourself to believe. And based on the mac reference, it makes me wonder if you are not running a Windows Bootcamp on Macintosh and if that is the case, then no wonder why you are crashing.
Either way, please learn more about computers and please don’t play competitive if you are crashing.
These problems I am having relate to issues that Blizzard blatantly said was on THEIR end.
Also, referring to your last paragraph, don’t make it seem like I don’t know what I am talkong about.
Blizzard said the problem was app related and NOT disconnection and they have failed to reveal to me the actual problem until AFTER I already lost 100 SR.
They have the evidence that it was not a forceful crash yet they are so stubborn to accept it wasn’t the player’s fault and give me back my SR I spent hours trying to get.
Unless you can play several games in a non-critical mode without a problem, you should not play Competitive. It is simply not fair to the rest of the community. My personal general rule is to play out 20 games after a technical malfunction or disconnection. I will even increase the number of games if the technical issues do not occur frequently but still happens to be a noticeable pattern.
Oh i know they can’t help with this kind of stuff, since there’s tons of people asking for it and all that. I meant I’m not sure they’re capable of actually changing somebody’s sr, regardless of the situation.
The game mode itself has nothing to do with the crashes are experiencing, however say if you’re using your voice communication in competitive more than in other modes, and there is a problem which causes the game of crash because of the use of voice communication that could be a possible cause why it’s only in competitive.