I’ve seen some other posts that Overwatch now prevents hot keys and communication wheel responses from being used with an invisible timer. I have experienced this issue in game because I noticed that the communication wheel and shortcuts I use sometimes do not work with no warning of too many messages in chat.
Because of my physical condition I cannot communicate using voice chat even if I wanted to. Why is Blizzard actively punishing people with accessibility issues like me 
?
While I do not have accessibility issues, I too use the voice/emote wheel for basic stuff like “Yes” and “Thank You”. Since season 8 started, “Yes” has been mostly non-functional. “Thank You” still works.
It’s not even using a timer. If you try to target a teammate with some voice lines, it simply will not work, when before it used to be “to Player (character)”. I’m pretty sure it’s a bug.
For example, look at a teammate and try to press your key for “yes” or “no” or “thanks” or “you’re welcome”. You used to use the voice line “to” that character. Now you get silence, and if you keep trying then you’ll get the “too many messages” error despite having said nothing. A couple of them do still work, such as “Hello” or “goodbye” or “come to me for healing”.
I’m not sure how they keep managing to break systems that worked perfectly fine before.
Thank you for your reply.
I have made a similar post in bug report but later I found out that this might be intentionally built into the game due to people complaining about communication spam. That is why I created this post.
Being unable to communicate quickly in a team based game feels very frustrating and discriminatory towards my inability to use voice chat. Blizzard please help.
Geez, I feel like the very least they could do is give you a visible timer so you atleast know.
But yeah, that’s all around poopy.
its not a timer issue right now. whats happening right now is a bug
I don’t even have accessibility issues, but pings have been essentially removed for all intents and purposes. It’s just dumb.
You can only ping like twice, before it prevents you from pinging AT ALL for the next like, minute or two.
They are very toxic and hateful people that pretend to care about integrity and respect, but their true colors run deep.
I don’t have any physical issues, but I do suffer from social anxiety, specifically phone calls/VC. So I definitely feel you here, the ping system is an awesome addition, sad to see it nerfed
One of the things that’s stopping me from playing as much is how much Comp relies on repetative and aggressive voice comms.
I don’t really mind it as much, but my wife does. It’s also difficult to play with IRL friends without accidentally yelling at them.
I also originally started FPS gaming with TRIBES, and it’s sad how it had better voiceline menus in 1998 than Overwatch in almost 2024.
I have the opposite problem. I can use the other commands, but can’t say “Thank you” to my team mate while looking at them.
Sucks even more because there’s a daily to thank a support.
I have an inability to use any sort of headset for longer than half an hour without getting a migrane while also living with other people, so I don’t want to risk some douche screaming obscenities and slurs at the top of his lungs over voice chat.
The communication systems such as character command lines (“I’m going in”, “I’m on my way”, “I’m with you”, “Come to me for healing”, and more) and pings are a godsend and really add to the game.
Being able to quickly and easily let my team know that I’m about to head in and throw down an ultimate, or that there’s an enemy Reaper lurking and setting up to sprout a Death Blossom, or that I’m still running back from spawn and that they shouldn’t push in yet, or that they are not in range of healing, or that I still have one or two seconds before my ultimate comes online… well, it’s all rather fantastic and how it should be.
I don’t know whether it’s a bug or intentional, but the wonky command comms this patch has introduced has actively made the game more irritating for me and I hope it’s fixed soon, especially since QP has Mauga in it; I’d like to play Comp to get a grasp of the other changes introduced, and this situation hits Comp harder than QP.
Thank you for reading my rant.
Ppl have been playing with no coms for years my guy. Bringing a disability for a non issue is just lame.
Maybe don’t spam pings for every insignificant thing? (ppl are just going to ignore you anyway if you spam them all the time)
this. cant even ask for healing. Idk wtf they are doing over there but they need to clean house and hire an entire new team. these are the most incompetent amateur AAA devs ive seen in my entire life.
I’m sorry, I don’t usually tell people. I just say I have no mic but the game just got me so frustrated that I suddenly cannot communicate since the start of season 8.
I play Mercy and I try not to ping too much unless it is something important that my team should be aware of. I usually actively tell players when I can and cannot resurrect them using the in game ping system. Some people even appreciate my method of communication because it is using in game systems which instantly gets the point across without any toxicity. Being unable to communicate in a team based game like this really negatively affects my gameplay, and makes me feel helpless .
I agree on that. And I use it intensively too. Just trying to say that a bit of restricted access isn’t the end of the world. It is there to prevent spam.
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How often do you have to ping? I ping a bit and didn’t run into any issues unless I was spamming it.
The ping system is really buggy. I’ve had issues with it just plain not working between rounds. One round it’s working, the next it is totally unresponsive.
I really wish this wasn’t a thing. Between that and the characters saying thanks on their own, really amplifies my trust issues
Apologies if this is a personal question and off topic but does it physically hurt to talk? How does being mute even work it’s always intrigued me