After being suspended on my main account and not feeling it was really justified, I decided to conduct an experiment on an alt account:
Play only mystery heroes (which I do normally anyway, let’s more laid back)
“gg” after every game
“gr” after every round
No chat except suggestions to coordinate teammates or respond positively to compliments, etc.
Absolutely no criticizing other players or complaining about anything.
It took 200-ish games over two weeks, but even under those carefully controlled conditions, I eventually got a two-week chat ban. This confirmed my hypothesis that the system is either completely automated or whoever is going through the reports is just mass-approving them, which enables trolls or anyone in a bad mood to carpet bomb people with reports because they feel like it.
Blizzard has successfully cultivated an environment of toxic positivity, but beyond that, you are not truly safe from suspension unless you turn your chat completely off. Even then, I don’t know if you’re completely safe–probably not–but the alternative is to just not play the game.
I’m going to miss joking around with people and having fun socially, but my main account is 8 years old with almost all of the old OW1 skins, including Blizzcon Winston, Blizzcon Bastion, Illidan Genji, and Tyrande Symmetra. I can’t afford to lose it, so the only option is to go full silent mode until someone at Blizzard reins this back. I suggest all of you do the same.
Some people REALLY don’t like being told what to do, even if it’s just a suggestion for how the team can play together. Or maybe the team followed your plan but it failed and they got mad at you for it and reported you idk
I was under the impression that someone is at least checking them, that’s all. If no one is checking them then you’re completely at the mercy of anyone in a bad mood, and that cultivates an environment of toxic positivity where the only way you can get along is turning chat completely off. So that’s what this post is about.
I was silenced for using the keybound voiceline letting my team know my ultimate was ready. I had no idea that you could get reported for that as a chat violation. It was the only communication I had on for almost 2 years, and I got a 2 week silence.
Ironically, even if you’re silenced, you can use the in game voice lines.
Its still a habit of mine to hit the button I had bound to let my team know my ultimate status. Nothing happens now of course, but it is a reminder of how awful the system is when I hit the button and hear nothing.
What I find odd about this is that by sheer coincidence you, the guy who decided to explicitly test this, gets silenced for two weeks while I, who have probably played well over 200 games since the “defense matrix” thing, never got as much as a warning just like many other people.
I’m not saying the report system is okay the way it is, I think it’s far too strict, but still… it’s a coincidence that seems very odd that the one guy who decides to test this system with a prior gripe against it allegedly gets muted for no reason at all.
I can only think that you did say more than what you claimed. Although, to be fair, I barely ever say “gg”, so maybe it’s literally all the difference there considering how this community views those two letters… but then people in my games still repeatedly say “gg”, so idk.
At the same time, saying GG after every match can be pretty lame. Like, people that say it after they completely stomp the living daylights out of the other team, even if they’re just trying to be sportsmanlike, are just sounding like complete tools.
I don’t report for that because that’s stupid, but it wouldn’t surprise me if other people did.
It has been argued to me elsewhere that saying “gg” after a one-sided game may upset people who are angry about it being one-sided. That’s a possible reason why. I do it because it’s Little League etiquette; win or lose, you say gg. I never considered that I could be getting reported for it.
It would also explain what may have contributed to my suspension on my main account; I always say gg.
So again, this just confirms my hypothesis that Blizzard has cultivated an environment of toxic positivity, because if saying “gg” after a game can at all be considered toxic then we have gone way over the edge of what’s reasonable. The only way to be safe is to just turn off chat.
Not really. Many people over many games need to report you. You have to have a pattern of behavior that people consistently report to be banned.
I’ve played this game for years, and I can be very toxic in games, I’ve never gotten as much as a warning. Just use common sense and you won’t get banned.
I report everyone who says gg because OW2 is not a good game
Consider people having to endure a stomp due to the matchmaking being broken, then after its over, you go and tell them it was a good game. Yeah, that might make them report you.
I have like 20 games played this season. Log in, play a game and remember tanking is trash and log out… I have been getting a “thanks for reporting” every single time I log in since the beginning of the season.
I haven’t been reporting anyone because I am not playing. When I first noticed it at the start of the season I turned off all chat/voice and I never report anyone for anything just to see what was happening. I am still getting those thanks after 2 months.