The bans have got out of control! I think blizzard is missing the point of the game. This is a game where you are supposed to be social and you’re working with others to achieve a common goal.
Other than annoying pings, how are you supposed to work efficiently as a team if you’re afraid to even say something along the lines of “ We probably need someone to switch to help get widow.”
It’s at the point now where people just don’t talk at all for fear of a ban. I got a warning from saying in group chat to a reaper “ Nice shot you got me good.” I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was actually complementing the player. Well, I’ve learned my lesson and I don’t even say GG anymore because anything could be taken as a reason to be banned or for someone to be offended.
I really don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish, yes, there are some very toxic people that say some very hateful things and those are the ones that should be investigated. From what I read in the forums and from streamers, it’s people who say something that goes along with the gameplay and isn’t even close to being hateful or rude.
Again, this is meant to be a social game with interactions between each other and now we can’t even do that. Am I missing something?
Someones missing something cause I gotta say… I haven’t even been warned in all 9 years this game has been around and I am not silent nor entirely G rated.
Is this comp? I’ll admit I’ve avoided that for a good long while.
The content of what you say isn’t considered in chat mutes or bans it seems, only the amount of reports. Thus you can have a chat ban without chatting or you can be an insanely toxic person and lucky to never be reported.
The problem as far as I can tell is outsourcing moderation to either ai or the non qualified. It’s probably a cost cutting measure that the suits don’t really care to change because money. And the amount of people that quit for being falsely flagged is likely too low for them to care to change it.
This is unfortunately a fundamental issue of Overwatch.
As you said, OW is inherently a team-based game.
Irl, the standard average person experience is solo queue, and there are no systems in place that encourage coordination. No clan system, no healthy chat system.
So, the alternative is to make the game more solo oriented at a gameplay level. By designing heroes and roles in a way that reduces the reliance on others and by allowing a greater individual skill expression.
However, this is also unfortunately not the case in current OW.
The devs have to step up their game if they want to save OW.
The satisfaction graph is going down across the years. But these red flags were constantly ignored.
I’ve been saying for years that blizzard has cultivated an extremely antisocial game because of how they enforce (punish) behavior in order to cater to those who cannot simply endure a simple “hey can the dps swap to something else?”. Could be the demographic that spends the most, who knows.
The only people who can’t see this are those who only play overwatch and not any other competitive game. Sorry if you’re one of those and this is how you’re finding out.
Should overtly toxic players take a blizzard time out? Yeah, but the net they cast seems incapable of discerning toxic and regular conversation that has a naughty word in it.
“I’ve never been banned, so it obviously never happens” - no one cares, those know, know. This has been a thing since 2009 when I told my AV group on horde side to “cross the *** bridge” at absolutely no one in particular. It was quoted to me in an email for a 24 hour ban.
You can communicate with your team without any risk of a ban whatsoever as long as you make simple suggestions instead of demands. Nobody is going to report someone who is being nice and thoughtful.
So, yeah, maybe next time say, “please, cross the bridge.” That was the lesson to learn, my friend. Not that the rich want to silence you.
The rich silencing me? What are you talking about? Nevermind.
Point is, blizzard has always been happy to ban on a word that gets filtered automatically but people who turn it off still want to see it not get typed. Yeah I can type “please honey dearest, my sweet cheeks darling honey pie, cross the bridge please sir maam, thanks!”
But I don’t feel the need to entertain thats how people should talk. People are humans and we type things that way sometimes and robots that don’t care to discern actual toxicity and just normal banter aren’t exactly a good thing.
I believe that I would enjoy my teammates a bit more if they were genuinely trying to emulate any of those figures. Even if most of them are fake. Just be humble enough to recognize that I am Overwatch Jesus and support my plays. We win for free if you just accept that I am better…
watch this post get removed. today i talked about how i got banned because people blamed me for playing haz when i didnt use a single bad word, and the post was removed after like 30 replies. its not just the game, forums is silencing everything too
To be fair, this happens because they make it clear that discussing account actions on the forums is against their code of conduct:
Discussing Disciplinary Actions
This category includes:
Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a player, including chat logs and email correspondence between a player and a Game Master (GM)
Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a character or account on the forums
If a player is found to have participated in such actions, they will:
Be given a temporary ban from the forums, depending upon severity
Most of the time the thread just gets removed, they only catch bans when they keep posting about it after being told not to.
yeah i hear you, but my thread was mostly about how toxic people can spam report and actually get someone banned. and it had 16 people commenting on it so like, huh?
I know, I was one of those people, they’re just touchy about stuff like that. It won’t actually be anything you said per se, but rather the topic in general.
I mean… you got banned for swearing. … Stop swearing. There is no need to swear especially since you have to TYPE IT OUT. Take 3 seconds and when that word comes to finger… don’t.
You… should. Cause it’s their rules and draconian implementation or not it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.
I wanna be sarcastic about it and ask if removing swearing removes most of your vocabulary… but it’s obvious HERE you’re doing fine.
There are problems, yes. But I don’t think “please don’t swear” is one of them. It’s pretty easy.
It’s really apparent that what YOU are asking is to be allowed to swear… and they said no and you can’t seem to handle this in game.
I don’t think I’m some paragon or better than you or that nothing is going wrong. But I do know that in your example if maybe you didn’t type swearwords into the video game you’d be fine.
Blizzard does a lot of crappy things. Their punishments and checks on those suck and could use improvement. I don’t think that “don’t swear” is super high on that list.
I’m not going to multiquote you, its tedious. The way you’re responding is a bit condescending so I’ll respond in kind, only fair.
Saying “just don’t do that” is a nothing comment - no value, no insight, no examination. Sorry.
So you’ve noticed I don’t type a naughty word here and seem to do fine, well unfortunately you haven’t considered context (hint; the thing I’ve been trying to put emphasis on).
I’ll lay it out for you so you’re fully on board - Context here is that in the heat of a moment during a video game, someone can type a no-no word that virtually all adults casually use outside in the real world, professionals and simpletons alike. Unlike a fun game of AV, I have to type everything out then hit reply on these forums, and there are also baked in filters that other people can’t turn off but still report others for seeing words they’ve chosen to see with their own free will.
You also, erroneously, seem to think I want to swear all I want without repercussions. This is a fabrication you invented to try and dog pile even more but believe what you want.
Maybe its my fault for not making it abundantly clear about my premise, so I’ll state it simply;
Blizzard will take action in a draconian manner which creates a culture of people not wanting to communicate for fear of being punished, irrespective of context. They have a long history of this and the results speak for themselves. I pointed out they’ll punish a benign comment pointed at absolutely no one, such as what I did from 16 years ago, and here you come charging in to tell me something I already know (that they punish for cuss words). Cool, any more sage wisdom you want to share?
Great way to try and have a dialogue with someone by the way. Have a good life. Cya.
Historically speaking, Blizzard never had an issue with profanity. Not in every single case, but far more people would use adult language without punishment. It’s the reason the profanity filter existed in the first place.
The stance Blizzard takes on swearing today is one of the oldest points of contention to their fall into undesired processes and traits. It’s a stark reminder how much less in every aspect the people who make up the company are today, compared to years ago.
It was a mistake for Blizzard to entice this audience into their game. This audience has no ability to financially support the game. This audience also both chases others away, and requires the most maintenance to keep them happy.
I am stating what has worked for me. Implying that perhaps it will work for others.
I did. Don’t swear in game ever. I’m no saint. I’m not emotionless or infallible. I get mad. I think things and SAY things I would likely be silenced/banned for… but the trick is they never make it into the game. Not only that but literal thousands of others manage this as well.
I avoid VC very tangentially for this reason. I know sometimes I can get something out of my mouth before I’ve thought about it… but I don’t think I’ve ever got something into a chat where I have to hit enter, type, and hit enter again without thinking about it at all.
It’s not an excuse.
Which we have been told are not an excuse to swear. So … still not an excuse.
Naw. I think you want to continue swearing without thinking about it. Which is very different.
I … have nobody else really backing me up here… there’s one like. How am I dogpiling? I don’t really have a team waiting in the wings. Just me and my opinions and experience.
The thing is for the most part I avoided insulting language. On purpose mind you. I even told you about the snark I thought but didn’t level and gave you the benefit of the example that you can clearly type a lot without swearing at all.
… People who manage not to swear in certain spaces?
I understand a lot of your positions and takes… not this one.
This would include me… who spends literal thousands every year on gaming and games. This isn’t about offense or agendas. It’s about having a modicum of self control.
