Looking for Clarification on Overwatch's Code of Conduct

General Discussion
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Hello! Um this is my first time ever engaging with other on Overwatch forums, so I apologize for any mistakes I make.

Basically… My Overwatch account of six or so years just got full account banned a couple of days ago. I have had a past history with offenses; one chat ban and a month ban on two separate occasions. All of my suspensions have occurred after the release of Overwatch 2 and I was never banned for anything on the original Overwatch before 2022.

Considering this I decided to appeal my ban and ask for what evidence of my supposed toxicity and abusive chat they had on-hand to warrant a permanent account ban. I was later met with a support ticket that was marked resolved after one inquiry. The proof that I was provided are the following chats I sent that got me reported and banned.

“me and echo some real caniacs”, “bruh”, “i was fixing my hair”, “u fake ashe”, “tf u doing brig”, “get off brig”, “its ot and yall not on bot”, “holy”, “UR A** LMFAO”, “can we not winston”, “1 hs kills me ?”, “gg mercy” “dumb a** character”, “bruh”, “heal”, “ok miss pull out pistol”, “ur useless”, “pharah switch”, “lol”, “CAN YOU HEAL ME AND NOT SHOOT HIM?”.

I would like to know how most of this chats are considered “toxic” or “spam”? I know that I am pretty deserving of a ban especially given my past account history, and I have already accepted the fact that there is no coming back from this. But, I mean really? The evidence provided the Game Master Team is pretty much all out of context and benign. Especially chats like “lol”, “holy”, and “bruh”. Like that is literally just my vocabulary and stuff I say on the regular… How is it abusive in any way? I have not spammed it in a singular game and only say it in reply to certain things that happen in-game.

Also, the chats that might come off as toxic are isolated events and are for the most part out of context. Obviously chats like “ur useless” and “UR A** LMFAO” are toxic and I accept that, that is genuinely my bad. But I fail to understand how everything else violates Overwatch’s code of conduct. I feel as though it only was reviewed by an automated system or something and truly am feeling like a bit of injustice is happening here.

Please someone help clarify what I did wrong, I’ve bolded the ones that are compromising to my ban and confusing to me :cry: I really don’t want to make the same mistakes again and I genuinely can’t recognize how my six year old account can get banned over this.

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Personally i wouldnt of considered the stuff you said toxic, for me toxoc comments are anything about irl things, anything mentioned abour gameplay i coulsnt care less… because its about playing in a videogame… a lot of players in this game nowadays are sensitive about anything said and instead of muting their chat theyd rather just report everyone for everything.

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It’s just players here. We aren’t going to be able to provide you definitive lists.

All we gonna do here is judge you.

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That… is a long list.

LMFAO? really?

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Most likely those people reported you after multiple abusive things you said throughout the game. Blizzard won’t send you the entire chat logs though, they just send you the most recent thing you said in those games before being reported.

Generally, when someone reports you, it’s not because you said just ONE THING.

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the last time i asked for my chatlogs they sent " you guys sucked, no di*k for u, etc" like wym etc

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this one’s my favorite

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Not gonna lie I do worse things than that all the time for 2 years, just finally been banned for…

“You were reported multiple times by your fellow players for inappropriate communication. Some examples include abusive chat, advertisement, spamming, or other communication that violates our code of conduct.”

Get into an argument or two any time I play, not an argument starter but if anything starts I find it hard to let it go and get tore in and all these little keyboard warriors always got something to say, no need to pretend we are angels we got banned because what we do is outside of the standards they set is what it is, make a new account and play again or wait it out!

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Not a single useful callout

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…that was likely a report because the person was afk.

…fixing their hair, I guess.

(I don’t know if that’s your favorite because that’s what they said, or if it’s because they don’t understand why they were reported for being afk)

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If it’s qp, try not to police other peoples gameplay “please don’t play x” and “x switch” are stuff that some people just report in qp, because of a widespread argument of “it’s just qp, chill”.

If your team isn’t dealing with an enemy, don’t point at your team as a fault. Rather say “we need to deal with that soldier” “we need something to get that pharah with” “we need that dps shut down”.
Point at the enemy as a problem, not a teammate pick.
Often just knowing who to focus on can help enough that swaps aren’t needed.

I get it’s super annoying when people don’t contest on ot, but some folks have their sound settings so wrong that they don’t hear the ot sound effects at all.
Nothing you can do about it by pointing out the ot after the game, so why bother.

Cursing at anyone is also bad.

This is rude and someone will find an excuse to report it. All you can do is pretty much just not point at a single teammate. Instead speak in “we”.
“Can we group up?” “Can we stop feeding please?” “Please stay together”.

“I don’t think winston will work. Can you swap if it doesn’t?” This gives your opinion and a polite request before everyone is tilted in a moment once you’re all on 10 deaths.

In qp, try not to police others. That’s really the only hint that anyone can give you as advise.

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because of what they said, mostly, and that they were gone long enough that someone felt obligated to report it

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In the end it’s really simple: if enough people report you, no matter what you do, you will get muted or suspended.

Code of conduct doesn’t matter at all. Personally I wouldn’t report you for those messages, but I also won’t shed a tear any time a person who routinely says things like you gets muted or suspended.

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Swearing of any kind is not tolerated because this game is to be played only at facilities for kindergarteners. Even just abbreviating the swear words will still be considered a violation.

I recommend protesting by not playing the game until the change it. The level of hypocrisy is ridiculous.

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a whole long list that is full of chats that have absolutely nothing substantive with the exception of like two chats? they could’ve just sent the actual toxic ones and called it a day but to pull out some random stuff i said once or twice is just absolute bs. long list or not a lot of the stuff listed i said is harmless and mitigates the need for an account ban.

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You gave us a sampling of stuff you said and I hate to break it to you but several of those are in fact going to get you reported

And you’ve had prior bans before

Like I hate to say it, but it seems like you were building up to it

The only recommendation is to change the approach…and maybe consider a new account (they are free after all)

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LMFAO are we playing the same game? i appreciate the effort but attempts of robust dialogue and grouping efforts do not work in a competitive environment like Overwatch. i don’t play qp, i’m mainly a competitive player so it might be different. but many of the players i run into aren’t going to swap if you approach it like that. so ig the only real solution is just minding ur own business :woman_shrugging:t2:

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Yep. I only play ranked and keep to myself.

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oh i’m sorry, since when is it against code of conduct to simply talk to others in chat? callouts are for voice chat, text chat is something entirely different. some people actually play the game to engage with other players, you do know that right? what does callouts have to do with anything, just a complete non sequitur you’re mentioning.

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If the reporting system was moved to an external website and it took about 5 minutes to create a report, there would be 90% fewer reports and everyone would win.
Only major violations would be reported.