Defense Matrix encompasses our infrastructure of systems designed to help protect the integrity of gameplay and promote positive behavior in Overwatch 2.
75 Likes
Addressing toxicity in Ow? Consider me shocked.
30 Likes
Now this is what I was excited to hear!
Edit - Nothing about the report system, this is mostly anti cheat and anti smurf. Oh, and also you cannot endorse opponents anymore. I would skip the read to be honest, it is mostly filler. Levels are also going away and they hide your rank at the start to replace it with the title cards.
20 Likes
So are they going to stop the Bronze-to-GM streams and the like or are they just referring to toxicity they don’t benefit from in some form? 
63 Likes
Sounds good, I guess. Looking forward for the SMS protection.
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Yay, an official post! A very informative must read. Lots of specific questions answered too, thanks!
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I’m genuinely worried about having a ton of legit people that can’t log in on day 1, because of technical complications with SMS verification not working right.
I’m also curious how this system will interact with “Well you can just buy a cheap SIM Card”. Since those are prepaid, but they seemed to have worked in the past for Top 500 verification.
20 Likes
Until they hire people to actually view reports the system is always going to be abused. People have gotten banned for years just for getting mass reported by stacks for things like one tricking.
It’s only going to be more problematic now that most players will only have one account due to the phone number requirement.
Don’t wanna swap when a 4 stack tells you to? Say goodbye to your right to play the game.
35 Likes
“Even if you own a previous box version of the original Overwatch, you still need to activate SMS Protect to play Overwatch 2.”
Well, I guess there’s the answer for any legacy players wondering.
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Except the fact that playing any hero is not a report-able/ban-able offense. Even if you play poorly.
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It doesn’t matter. The system is automated.
Ever notice how people type slurs in chat and never get banned for it? There’s no human checking the legitimacy of their reports, and their own AI system can’t even pick up on things like slurs in chat.
All it does is calculate mass reports and ban people.
31 Likes
This is such a classic
Deadlypants is right for once. The system is automated. People mass report people in WoW to get them banned. Unless you’re a streamer, there is not much you can do about that.
Same goes for Overwatch, when there are enough people to report you, you are gone, doesn’t matter if you did something wrong.
15 Likes
Not a single word about the anti cheat? 
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Oh great because my favorite part about siege was having to unlock the base roster /s
Like i’m a veteran player but i cant imagine new players enjoying this or more impatient players wanting to deal with players not having certain characters in the base roster.
Awesomenauts also tried to have an updated new player experience and it drove all of my friends away from playing it cause the og tutorial was fine and this was just… not good at all.
10 Likes
That didn’t stop all those people in T500 having multiple accounts with different numbers
34 Likes
Oh thank god, at least some effort is finally being made to improve things. Voice chat might actually be reasonably usable if people can now get banned for toxicity in it.
Surprised they’re going that far with the SMS verification though, I expected they’d just restrict Comp. It’d be nice if they addressed current alt accounts somehow since they never discouraged them at all before.
8 Likes
I’m someone who swaps phone numbers pretty frequently because I use non contract plans, so I’m a bit concerned about getting locked out of my account during my next phone swap.
Outside from that, this seems like good stuff!
5 Likes
So you can get people to get their voice chat spied on by simply reporting them? Wow
11 Likes
Not to worry, there will be a booster pack in the shop for players who want to skip the grind!
6 Likes