Neurodiversity Needs to be Communicated Between Players

Being autistic is really hard on a game like Overwatch. Like, I LOVE the game to heart, genuinely, because the game’s global, internationalized themes just come along naturally to me. And if it weren’t for that, I would still hate FPS games to this day. Sometimes, you’re supported, but other times, you’re going to get threatened very badly by others. Some people never really understand how the brain of someone on the spectrum or another disorder actually functions.

Today, I do really need to expose something I got today. I seemed to perform very poorly in a competitive Gold match today, because the other team was targeting me - but they weren’t the problem. My team was. That’s because they were getting increasingly aggressive towards me. When I was being mentioned in the voice chat, I left because I needed peace of mind. So then they decided to rampage all over me in the text chat. They literally have been threatening to rape me, to see my family die, calling me a “little kid”, someone even joked that they had my address and doxxed me (not for real). But this is HARASSMENT.

I do not want to expose their names because that is inappropriate. But likely, this all is a misunderstanding from the teammates in which they do not understand how to treat someone who isn’t neurotypical. And I personally feel like that it’d be a morally correct choice to see if there’s a possibility to add tags to our player career profiles, as well as on the competitive matchup scene if possible or elsewhere. That way, others can understand the context of their teammates and who they are going to work with.

I think there’d be tons of potential here. We can see where else people from around the world are playing with us, we can note down their playstyles, we can look into their personalities, their gender, their main character(s), and most importantly, any conditions they have. The important thing to note is that tags can never be user-defined: they have to choose from what’s available to them. Nationality would be pre-determined based on what nation they’re in at the moment (so if you’re in Australia, you’re automatically assigned the Australian nationality).

EDIT: I think an idea to just at least let us display information about us in our career profiles instead is a safer option, but it shouldn’t be displayed anywhere else to minimize the risk. Again, this is just my personal opinion.

I just think all of us on the spectrum deserve much more love and support than what we’ve got at the moment. :heart:

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Sorry that happened to you, that really sucks.

If it’s any consolation, certain people will be horrible to others regardless of how neurotypical you are, and I’ve found Comp can bring out the absolute worst in people because of how the system and game are set up. It also has baked-in frustrations that the devs simply do not improve.

For those people, acting horridly likely has extremely little to do with you, and everything to do with them. It doesn’t matter that you’re autistic or whatever else, all you are is a target for them to take their tantrum out on (so they temporarily feel better), much like a child. They either grow and improve/change, or spend their whole lives feeling and acting small. You just happen to be there to witness/endure it (and you’re likely one of thousands in their life), so keep that in mind. And it’s also ok to turn off chat for your mental health, too.

If I were you, I’d pin the comp match on your client, export the code, and open a Blizzard customer service ticket to report them, alongside using the in-game report feature on them (if you haven’t already). Don’t have high hopes of a good outcome through that ticket, though, as the systems aren’t designed to help individuals in situations such as these, and you may need either multiple tickets or multiple messages, which could take like a month.

As for your idea of tags, the same people I was mentioning will pinpoint literally any difference or identifying feature about you to attack, so I don’t think the tags would be a great idea, even if you think it’ll help you. What is a good idea is to seek out community for yourself, and group up with them. There are many discords for these kinds of things and even the forums have group-up requests. That way, you won’t have to deal with these kinds of teammates.

At any rate, I hope this helped.

You’re absolutely right. I just don’t have a great solution for you while the world is currently how it is. :heart:

Unfortunately for neurodivergents, the world doesn’t really seem to know us as anything but “stupid” or “immature”.

If they did research or cared, they’d realize that it was quite the opposite.

I have ADHD so I tend to get upset more quickly, but that doesn’t mean I’m a flamer. It doesn’t mean I can’t control my emotions. It means my brain is wired different from theirs.

Honestly in this day and age, I don’t think a neurotypical even exists anymore. Everyone has something, they just all deny it.

Anyway, yeah I’d like something to like- acknowledge that some people have a mental disorder of some sort. But, I dunno. It feels like other people would take it and abuse it to get away with saying or doing something.

But, report everyone and anyone who says things like that. It’ll do the community better if we have fewer ableist people.

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If any of you have found any neurodivergent/autistic Overwatch Discord servers I could join, that would be amazing :smiling_face:

It’d be great to post some links here to help others find the right place.

Oh God, I found one, it’s literally already yours:

:skull: :skull_and_crossbones: :skull:

Firstly, I am very sorry to hear about what happened. People say disgusting things when they’re angry, it’s very upsetting.

As for your idea about the tags, as an autistic person myself, I don’t know if its a great idea… the kind of people who devolve to saying these kinds of things will look for any and all things to use against you and unfortunately that will include neurodiversities. The less ammo you give them, the better imo. I do wish for a safer space for us though

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As neat of the idea of adding tags in a game like this is, I feel like thats only adding fuel to an everlasting fire in a game like this.

Can you imagine people looking at tags before a game starts and deciding to throw if they see a tag they don’t like?

As good as the intentions are, people are going to be vile in an online setting.

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That one, unfortunately, virtually nobody had been able to pay attention to it. :\

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:cry:

Yeah, I guess I do take the tag idea back. Even to at least share information about ourselves in-game through our career profile instead would at least make a difference so that people aren’t forced into seeing them.

This is the way, and make it about the heroes you play or the styles you like to play so people don’t need to get upset with you when you can’t counterswap their widow with your own and win the duel.

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What I’ve found so far:

Discord servers tagged with neurodivergent:
https://disboard.org/servers/tag/neurodivergent/6?sort=-member_count

The RANSS online gaming group is a Discord server where neurodivergent adults are able to talk about gaming, organise sessions with each other, and share thoughts on upcoming games or old favourites:

Neurodivergent Girlies of Overwatch

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No, it’s not. They were just angry and let it out on the guy they thought to be responsible.

It’s not that deep. Telling them you’re autistic or whatever wouldn’t have changed anything. You could’ve told them you’re going through chemotherapy and it wouldn’t have changed anything.

Though I’m not against an autist-badge, I wouldn’t care. I’d probably abuse it, though, ngl :joy:

Going to disagree. The way they acted was wrong no matter the person.

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Indeed. A lack of parental guidance will do that.

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the game got more toxic with 5v5 and more pressure on each individual player, the game being in a bad state for certain roles or heroes and some abilities being more problematic in OW2.

I have ADHD and low spacial awareness which makes me have a hard time to prioritise targets or it makes me getting stuck in terrain a lot etc. just ignore the chat or only play quickplay, you don’t need to prove yourself, I’m sure you’re a smart player.

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These people won’t be any more forgiving if said player has some kind of name card or any other symbol identifying their conditions.
If anything they will be even harsher.

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You have chosen the worst game to have communication with ppl, friend and no disability badge is going to fix that.

Disable chat or search for a game that is not heavily dependent on teamwork if you want to avoid toxicity.

This is a free game. Anyone can make a new account easily. People will, therefore, use their anonymity to harm others without consequences. Block, ctrl-shift-c to turn off the chat window, report etc.

We live in a world where neurotypical people allow racists and sexist to wield power, where “children are important!” doesn’t translate to all children being fed, and there is a lack of response to wars that kill the innocent because “It’s not making my life worse”. Us neurodiverse people aren’t likely to understand that. Plenty of people just enjoy going online to blame others - ignore them.

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IKR?!

‘Mental Health Awareness Month’? How about ‘actually doing something to support people month’? Don’t get me started, it drives me crazy (pardon the pun.) :roll_eyes:

Online videogames are a social setting, but they might as well be an active minefield for someone on the spectrum. And my god are you going to step on every single landmine in the process.

‘Are they joking? Are they serious? Did I annoy them? Am I in danger?’ All whilst dodging bullets in the kaleidescopic cacophany that is OW2.

For neurotypicals, this would be like trying to play the game whilst being repeatedly hit with a frying pan at random intervals.

In the end I muted all chats and never join voice because it’s all one huge distraction from the one thing I actually enjoy (the gameplay.) It’s not that I actually cared about what was being said, but it’s a huge energy drain trying to play during my ‘downtime’ AND navigating the many ways human beings can imitate actual garbage in chat.

They’re not saying anything worthwhile in gold anyway. Their callouts are as garbage as their personalities sometimes. It is ironic that the people who have an actual genetic reason to grasp the wrong end of the stick often see perfectly neurotypical people be the rude ones to them.