There was recently a ban wave this past week. We know this because of friends being given suspensions and bans en masse. They were posted on Twitter, in Discord servers, etc. Alongside that, multiple friends (myself included) got a “Warning” when logging into Overwatch 2 about “Not communicating appropriately”.
Personally, prior to that warning, I hadn’t said a single thing that a player would consider inappropriate, harassing, or meanspirited. In the past (and yesterday), sure, but nothing within that timeframe to receive a warning from the system.
So what’s up with the report system? Why is anything and everything being flagged as “offensive behaviour”? If it’s run by AI, like I think it might be, it definitely needs to be taught on a better system than whatever it currently is. Racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia - these things don’t get punished and hadn’t gotten punished for literal years on Overwatch, but we come into Overwatch 2 and suddenly players who were never toxic or only banter are getting suspended or banned? Fix this system, please.
Being able to banter, talk a bit of smack with players, this should be healthy and encouraged on online competitive gaming. We shouldn’t be afraid of saying “omg c9 lol” and getting reported and suspended for it?
People that got used to being toxic and inappropriate for decades in online games still didn’t get the memo that those issues, such as bullying, are finally starting to get taken more seriously.
That is also why people report more 'cause the awareness raising campaigns took effect.
Adapt your behavior or take responsibility for your ban, suspension etc…
You (and many other players with less than 10 comments) typing that kind of threads only proves it is a win.
The player count is evaporating is it? Got any facts to back up that claim? Or are you just pulling numbers out of a hat and hoping people buy what you’re selling?
If the player base was actually evaporating we’d see it in the form of higher queue times. Guess what we’re not seeing? Higher queue times. Which means the player base is either stable or growing, not falling off a cliff.
So, you logged in and get a pop-up telling you you’ve been warned?
Or do you mean the orange text when you get into a game telling you that chat is being looked at, so don’t say dumb things?
There’s a difference.
Again, low player count means higher queue times, since there are less people filling potential spots in a game. If the population was evaporating like you claim, we’d see higher queues for DPS and Support. We’re not seeing that. DPS and Support queues are very low (varies depending on mode and ranking in the case of competitive).
Blizzard also just celebrated reaching over 100 million players. Which they wouldn’t be able to do if the player base was evaporating now would they?
Something tells me you’re just a forum troll who doesn’t actually play the game. Otherwise you’d know all this.
Just quit spamming EZ, GG EZ, DIFF, Trash, sexist texts, racist texts, and anything that can trigger other players into reporting you. Phrases like “wow, I wasn’t even awake for that one” has no profanity but is still taunting, so do not be surprised if the “clean” trash talk still leads to a ban.
A single report will not get a player banned – it takes a lot of players reporting the same perp to earn one, so those who do get banned often display a pattern of verbal abuse that eventually earn enough reports to get muted or perma-banned.
So yes, the system is working. Players who get banned will just make a new account anyway if they still want their OW2 fix. If they leave permanently, then the OW2 community will have shed unwanted negativity and still improve overall.
I have been suspended a couple of times in the past for defending myself, which you can’t even do. When I finally get a hold of a human, they give me the “two wrongs don’t make a right” nonsense. Man…I grew up in the era of “someone takes a swing at you, you be sure to take them down”, but that doesn’t work in OW. Blizz will tell you “if someone is mean to you, report, block and move on.”…Gross…how pathetically soft. I am not a fan of the “defense matrix” BS overwatch uses to suspend and ban ppl and the more well known it is getting, the more I am certain people, and GROUPS of people are abusing it. HUMANS need to monitor reports in DETAIL to understand exactly how situations went down and truly determine if something was TRULY toxic, or maybe someone was just having a bad day…
Someone uses a racial slur? Sure, ban them.
Someone threatens someone’s life? Sure, ban them.
Someone says “you suck” or teabags you? get over it…let the players hash it out if needed…whatever. zero further action needed.
Someone says “F you” or “F this game”…prob had a bad day…get over it.
fiction. deception declined. in terms of triple A titiles, OW likely leads the entire gaming industry in most uninstalls and shortest logins. as in, quickest app closures. internal data would likely show, uptick in shortest logins began: 2019 to present. the years of rigging.
At the end of the day, you need to realize that nobody wants to banter with you. It’s tragic, I know. I would believe a suspension would teach you this extremely basic lesson of cause and effect, but now you are blaming AI…
