Hate messages and death threats from cheating

That is your opinion.

Maybe those people are done with players circumventing punishments after 4 years of this garbage. I wouldn’t do it but can’t say I blame them.

1 Like

Exactly. Delete their discord if they must and delete their accounts. Continuing to bring attention back to the issue does not help.

I can’t agree with that. Sending violent threats over a video game will never be justified.
Ban them from all online games absolutely. I just do not approve of violence over something like this.

Who cares? I get it, it’s nonsense people can cheat. It’s frustrating beyond words. But death threats? That’s absolutely ridiculous, and under no circumstance should such behavior be “understood”.

1 Like

Look I’m not saying you’re lying but, who am I gonna believe


The game director for Overwatch and all-around good guy papa Jeff

Or mr. 11 total posts with a troll meme battletag?

1 Like

Maybe that is the only way they will learn that cheating will have real consequences.

After 4 years I expect people are done that done with it. I personally think smurfs are the scum of the earth because they are actively ruining the game for everyone much like cheaters are. I wouldn’t wish death on them but I certainly want them completely gone from the community.

Except there clearly shouldn’t lol. The punishment for cheating is pretty clearly stated. It’s pretty fair–if you’re going to ruin the experience of others by cheating, then you’re not allowed to play.

If you want to argue that he deserves shaming for lying about cheating or circumventing then ban then posting about it, then go ahead. That’s a different argument. But, we’re talking about getting banned for cheating. That’s a pretty dang fair punishment. In all honesty, I find that not recognizing that someone is getting an excessive punishment because Jeff thought it’d be funny to roast him and leave the thread open, and now they’re getting death threats, is more lacking in compassion than saying that they should just get the punishment they deserve.

Well yeah that’s fair. I don’t necessarily feel sorry for the dude, but like I said, I think it’s worth pointing out that Blizzard did wrong here and that they should be scrutinized for enabling bad behaviors. It’s not the first time that Jeff has done something like this, either–there was a previous occasion in which Jeff tried to accuse some guy of lying after the guy claimed he was falsely banned for one-tricking (I believe he was a Torb one trick) and I believe said that he was banned for cheats, then the guy posted actual proof that he was falsely banned and basically BTFO’d Jeff. Like
 to me, that a developer would consider it appropriate to behave in that way is appalling. It really makes me question the goodwill of the devs. I’m sure Jeff felt totally justified in roasting a cheater (again, emphasis on I don’t actually know if this dude did or not–from what people are saying, it sounds like he did, but with the way Blizzard has falsely banned people before for peripheral programs and Jeff’s aforementioned behavior, I’d need to see the proof to be fully convinced), but I think he needs to be aware that his actions have consequences, too, and it’s not Jeff reaping what Jeff sowed :man_shrugging:

I don’t take issue with Jeff saying, “we found cheats on this account.”

I take issue with him saying “Bye” (which, let’s be fair, is an obvious jab) and then leaving the thread open rather than closing it as forum CoC outlines as the appropriate response to threads discussing punishments. That is what caused an issue here. Also, he realistically should’ve taken down the image that the dude posted w/ his personal information on it.

If he had taken down the image and just locked the thread, I don’t think we’d be in this situation. Instead, he apparently felt the need to be cheeky–which, while understandable, is also a little petulant coming from a dev.

I’m aware. Why didn’t Jeff lock it at the time? By the time the other mods locked it, the damage of what Jeff did and didn’t do was done.

Are you seriously going to try to justify death threats on the basis that it’s only affecting this dude and that, because he continues to post, it’s somehow merited?

Again, there are standards that Blizzard themselves outlined for dealing with this kind of stuff. They are not upholding them. As a consequence, this dude is dealing with consequences far beyond what he should be dealing with for cheating in a video game. That issue you mention about him persisting in talking about this ban? There’s a guideline in the forums for that: lock, and ban. That’s what should’ve happened, and it would’ve been 100% justified. Not this whole conversation about whether this guy should be dealing with death threats because he (ostensibly, based on the other thread) believes he was falsely banned for cheating in a game.

1 Like

Ugh, no. I don’t need jeff to tell or indicate what should or shouldn’t be done, and for all honesty, I’m not a fan of him. Cheating in games should receive criminal offense treatment in my mind, that thought was there for at least 10 years. And, them getting morally condemned for cheating alone is imo still very very minor punishment comparing what they are doing to the whole scene.

Selling cheats should be convictable, and therefore buying it, which is partically abidding it, should be too.

If u think it shouldn’t, just compare it to piracy, it’s the same situation but for movie industry, and is less direct.

The real lack of compassion and, from this reply alone, logic, is that u are clearly not understanding the consequences of cheaters have on the game as a whole, and players’ enjoyment of it, if not the loss it causes for companies that are forced to battle it time after time.

well you kinda blew up the news, even the german news!
https://mein-mmo.de/overwatch-chef-bringt-cheater-zum-schweigen/

Yes, he should’ve, but it was beyond stupid to post personal information in the first place.

Jeff is a human too, and he does make mistakes. He made a jab. Again developers have feeling and can be sarcastic. You cannot expect to never see sarcasm from them. He should take responsibility for not deleting the image and make sure he never leaves something like that again, but the jab was justifiable.

Let’s say you get arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. Security cameras and numerous eyewitnesses saw you do it. You have no hope of winning a trial.

Despite this, you plead “not guilty”, are found guilty by the court, and appeal it, forcing the trial to go to a higher court. Every time you appeal (Which, fun fact, in the real world, costs the government a lot of time and money each time you appeal and go to court), the court still finds you guilty. It goes all the way up to the Supreme Court, and they find you guilty.

For the trouble that you’ve caused for society, appealing a frivolous crime over and over, the punishment has been escalated each time. Now the punishment is much more severe than it would have been if you had simply pleaded “guilty” and accepted the punishment at the start.

The longer you refuse to admit your crime and waste everyone’s time arguing over it, the more you are punished for said crime.

Think about all of the cheaters who just accepted their punishment and moved on from the game without a fuss. Do they get death threats? I imagine not. You and I don’t even who they are or what their battletags are. If we encountered them in a different game or on social media, we would never know.

This guy is stirring up the hornet’s nest, over and over, and he’s suffering the consequences. He brought this on himself.

Nowhere in the guidelines does it say that the mods HAVE to do it, nor does it say exactly WHEN they need to do it. When, or if, the thread gets locked is entirely up to the mods’ discretion.

Otherwise, Blizzard would need to comb the forums for every single thread and reply that violates the Code of Conduct, and make sure every last one of them gets the appropriate punishment. Which would cost them lots and lots of time and money.

Blizzard is not responsible for the actions of its playerbase, especially those taken outside of their official platforms. Blizzard has not broken any rules, nor should they be held responsible for the death threats that this person has received outside of this platform.

Especially since all Jeff said was:

"we detected and reviewed multiple cheats on this account.

goodbye"

Calling out, ridiculing and banning a cheater isn’t wrong. And that’s literally all Blizzard did here.

Or enjoying the show.

2 Likes

Me cheatin, me killin fun of others
 others hattin me
 mimimi

Ok death threats is definitely uncalled for, but the hate messages? I mean, you kind of forfeit wanting to have ‘fun’ when you installed third party software to give yourself an unfair advantage.

Good
20 Characters


I honestly think the jab wouldn’t have been a big deal if he had taken down the image and locked the thread. It was more so dumping gas on a fire of other bad decisions on his part.

Like I said, it’s understandable, but it’s also petty coming from a dev, and it did contribute to an overarching bad move on his part.

Yeah uh, no, this a bad analogy. Trials are not forced to a higher court–upper courts can reject taking a case, particularly one where guilt is irrefutable. Punishments are often capped–you’re not going to be escalated to decades in prison for a loaf of bread, because the justice system has a sense for what is and isn’t a reasonable punishment (usually, since it’s constitutionally required). And, well
 hate to break it to ya, but we don’t actually have enough evidence to say for certain whether or not this dude is guilty of using cheats. We’re pretty much operating on his and Jeff’s word here, and some speculation from an Overbuff account. And, I hate to say it, but Jeff and Blizzard have been wrong before.

So, we’re looking at this situation where a guy who claimed he was falsely banned is continuing to post about it, we don’t actually have the evidence to say one way or another, and Jeff, rather than just following the protocol that Blizzard laid out for dealing with people posting about punishments, decided not to uphold those protocols, and as a consequence, this dude is getting death threats. Might he have gotten some if Jeff did the right thing? Maybe, possibly not. Would this dude continue to be posting if Jeff had just issued the appropriate punishment in the first place and lock the thread/banned him for A) posting about punishments, and B) admitting to circumventing a ban? Maybe, but plausibly not.

If you really want an accurate analogy, it’s like a dude showed up at your town hall claiming the police wrongfully fined him $200 for petty theft and starts throwing chairs around because he’s angry about it. He doesn’t show evidence to back up his claim, the police don’t provide any evidence that he did commit petty theft, we’re just taking them both at their word. Oh, and there’s a sorta sketchy video of him walking out of a gas station with a hot dog, but nothing proving he actually did anything wrong. And, at said town hall, the chief of police decides to say, “sorry, we have proof, get lost clown,” but doesn’t bar the guy for causing a disruption for throwing chairs about even though there’s a policy that protesters will be removed. So the dude just sticks around and throws chairs around because he’s upset about what he thinks is a wrongful fine. And, as a consequence, people get tired of him and start vandalizing his yard, sending him death threats, etc. The guy then shows up later to the town hall to complain about the vandalism and threats, and people start telling him that he deserves said vandalism and death threats for supposedly committing petty theft.

There was no “trial” here. There was a unilateral decision by Blizzard to issue a punishment, and we don’t have evidence to support either side beyond a default trust in an authority which has been known to be wrong before. Blizzard had opportunities leading up to this point to ensure that appropriate punishment was dealt (assuming they are correct that he was cheating) without allowing all this extra hoopla. Their failure to do so effectively ensured it would ensue. Is the dude making things for himself by sticking around and complaining? Sure, but if he wasn’t cheating then it’s completely understandable that he does. Furthermore, that doesn’t mean the death threats/harassment suddenly become deserved, nor that we should just excuse Blizzard for enabling extreme responses–because let’s be completely clear, death threats and persistent harassment over a game are extreme.

Which returns me to my shock that anybody would even attempt to justify death threats against someone cheating
 in a video game


Refer to the above. Outlines and standards are created for a reason. Failure to reasonably apply these is entirely worthy of criticism, especially when that failure leads to serious consequences such as those being discussed here.

Please don’t be disingenuous. There’s a distinct difference between saying, “Blizzard should’ve upheld their policies that they laid out on a thread on which they were already active,” and “Blizzard should comb the forums to find every single post that violates CoC.”

Jeff actively made decisions and failed to make decisions that allowed the situation to ferment. His negligence, or perhaps even outright maliciousness though I think that’s likely a stretch, directly allowed a situation to snowball beyond what it ever should’ve become. Yes, we as a community should absolutely scrutinize those decisions, particularly given that there are guidelines and precedent laid out for how to handle these situations that other moderators have no issue enforcing when they come across similar issues, which have happened in the past and didn’t result in these situations. Why? Maybe this is a stretch, but perhaps it’s because they took the correct course of action from the start. Folks didn’t need to engage in death-threat apologism because none were ever made because people were satisfied with how the situation had been handled. That you and others are engaging in it here is frankly disgusting.

Entirely your own fault.

And the worst part is you’ve obviously learned nothing from it as you still won’t own up to very obvious cheating.

1 Like

I recommend not further engaging with him, since imo he’s over-apologetic and unconditionally forgiving above our average forum users, which might or might not be a bad thing in general, but it feels like it is in this case.

He might be right on a pure logical aspect, but his “logical doubt” of the conviction and his pure belief of established punishment being enough on its own is a big contradiction. Not sure how u can convince a self-contradicting person, in this case.