What do you want from players?

General Discussion
1

Competitive play seems very toxic for anyone to venture in on either off meta heroes or when the team is losing and they blame someone. Not only they get an suspension, but they get an forum ban as well? Don’t you think that ruling is too oppressive? Reading this poster argument I can assure this player was harassed like no other player that chooses an off meta hero, but to make it worst the can flex.

Seeing how no one is responded on the matter means the community is losing hope on that you guys won’t fix the system so should players try to appeal when automated bans won’t go?

4 Likes
2

What a shame. Blizzard really wants to shut this person up…pathetic

1 Like
3

Yes they do considering the fast response they did with the appeal. I don’t think they even consider customers well anymore once banned. Automated reports are going to eat this game alive slowly. We already seen the results that some players have left the game because of how unruly it is.

1 Like
4

What do you mean? This post is still open and can be replied too and is actively getting responses.

Not like Blizzard have locked it or anything.

1 Like
5

The thread is open yes, but the player cannot respond. The player is on suspension which also puts them on a forum ban as well. They truly want to shut this player up.

1 Like
6

And do you know what he’s been banned on the forums for? they always give a reason a ban in game does not ban you on the forums.

I have been banned before on the forums and i got shown the transcript of what got me banned.

2 Likes
7

Your in game ban applies to a forum ban. Silence or Suspension or else the player would be typing here. I know that ban method well enough.

8

their money gimme yo wallet

9

No it does not.

A forum ban does not apply to the game and the game does not apply to the forums.

If he is indeed banned on both it’s because he did something also on the forums but they will not be the same offence.

1 Like
10

I talked about this HERE

The big issue is that OW needs a clearer separation between casual and competitive. The aggressive “must win at all costs” mindset is baked into competitive play because winning is the only option, and that fine let those people have that, some enjoy that higher stress environment.

Help those of us that want to just enjoy the game for fun do so and in a way that doesn’t encroach on the competitors who want that strict zerosum environment. A lot of the issues that are blanket termed “toxicity” are just the collision of two different worlds.

11

Well I am sorry to disappoint ya in this manner, but it does. It’s been that way for quite sometime. Blizzard does this concept to make sure all " toxic " behavior are cleansed.

It can’t be helped because Overwatch Game master doesn’t want to support it. Competitive play is a no go zone especially for solo players.

1 Like
12

Im honestly okay with comp not being “for us” but right now QP is in a bad spot because heroes balanced for comp are OP in casual QP. I think this is pushing people into competitive play to avoid that.

Tweaking QP to have characters balanced differently vs their comp stats I think would lead to more people happier with QP and less likely to venture into comp to try to find a fun game.

13

I received a ban and could still play the game and post on the EU forums just not the U.S ones.

Explain.

14

Well I suppose that explains your case. You can post on EU, but not U.S ones meaning U.S moderators or whatever don’t allow ban players on their forums. Trust me on this one. If the user could reply they can considering this user started communicating yesterday. This player must of been on a silence duration seeing the gap between days. I know for sure there was no forum ban applied.

At least in QP you’re less likely to get a ban than in competitive play.

15

If you think your account has been unjustly suspended, you can appeal the suspension here:

Please bear in mind that your case will be manually reviewed by a game master. A suspension can come in three forms:

  • Abusive language.
  • Gameplay sabotage.
  • Cheating.

The way the report system works is that when a player reports you, the game will scan the match for signs of said behavior. Abusive language for instance looks at your chat lines and voice chat, while gameplay sabotage looks at your performance such as death count and fight participation.

Only a percentage of your flagged games need to have violations to trigger a punishment. All false reports are ignored, but the frequency of correctly flagged games are also taken into account. For example, your game history might look like this:

Game 1: False report. :white_flag:
Game 2: No reports. :+1:
Game 3: Abusive Chat reported and detected. :triangular_flag_on_post:
Game 4: Abusive Chat reported and detected. :triangular_flag_on_post:
Game 5: Abusive Chat and Gameplay Sabotage reported and detected. :triangular_flag_on_post:
Game 6: False report. :white_flag:

(The actual number of games required is of course much larger.) Then the algorithm will then evaluate your stats like this:

  • 50% of your games you demonstrated punishable behavior.
  • 33% of the time you were abusive you also started throwing the game.

The system will then punish the player accordingly. The punishments scale up gradually. On first offense, the player receives a simple warning. For abusive chat, players get increased silences before receiving suspensions. Each punishment starts off relatively short, and then grows if the player continue to misbehave until the player’s account is permanently ban.

If you appeal the suspension, the stat and chat lines from your flagged games are then sent to a game master when you request a review. If they are indeed false and/or the percentages are way too low, then your suspension will be lifted.

The exact quantity of games it takes to get a suspension, as well as the actual percentages are unknown to avoid players gaming the system to be toxic without consequences.

The level of violations will also accelerate the punishments: The harsher the language, the bigger the punishment. Death threats and hate speech are some of the worst offenders.

Bear in mind that one of the most common mistakes players make that get punished is evaluating what is considered abusive chat. The system is adaptive to avoid players simply dodging it with made-up words. The scan also looks for the most commonly reported words, such as:

  • “noob”
  • “ez”
  • “report (name)”

It does not matter if you don’t believe those to be insults: If they are used as a means to threaten and belittle someone, people will perceive them as insults all the same and (justly) report you.

Bear in mind Blizzard has a strict policy not to discuss your suspension on the forum: This probably has more to do with the fact that the only one who holds the evidence is Blizzard and posters are likely not going to be entirely forthcoming about their behavior.

If I would make any suggestion for Blizzard’s report system, it’s that they should implement more transparency. For example, Riot’s League of Legends gives players frequent warnings when their flagged games are detected to help reminds their players to cool down, and automatically sends the player at least 5 games worth of their toxic chat dialogue when they get silenced.

16

While abusive chat can be accurate to a certain account. I think Game sabotage reports are getting mishandled and Blizzard aren’t doing anything to correct whether light or heavy. Their evidence are quickly judge compared to Hots, WoW and other games with reasonable policies. Hots and WoW are the same company, but different game masters and you are treated better.

17

I beg to differ, as a Rein Main i have only enjoyed comp on the first seasons, then lost interest over toxicity, the loot boxes not rewarding anything, winning 20 credits every time i leveled up over a course of 4 hours while hearing it was fair. Getting shut down at the forums when tried to suggest or ask more about this issues. Stuff like this since season 1 made me stop playing until they fixed a lot of stuff, specially the reward system and some competitive issues.

But competitive play allows you to solo, specially because they enforce you that 50% win/lose ratio no matter what you do. Before solo or duo queue was the best choice to rank up in competitive because grouping increased the odds of you loosing the game placing you against people with a higher chance of winning because the system considered grouping too op.

Things have changed for the better and worst at times, you can rise in sr alone but it takes a lot of communication and teamwork. I never felt i was not supposed to go into competitive alone.

As for people not supporting this issue or deliberately censoring or silencing issues. I got no evidence of blizzard doing something like this, i think activision did on their forums, so i cannot give a good opinion.

18

It’s possible. It would be nice to know what the exact numbers need to be for something to be classified as Gameplay Sabotage, or at least for the game master to share those numbers when you appeal a suspension. They’ll probably never do it though, as I said before, to avoid players gaming the system.

However, given that most Bronze players don’t get instantly banned it’s likely that the numbers are based on your performance compared to other players in the match. So let’s say the average player has a 60% fight participation and yours is down to 20%, the system might conclude you weren’t actually joining in any fights.

A large number of suicidal deaths or an abnormally high elevated death count with low damage/heaing output compared to other players might also trigger Gameplay Sabotage.

It is however 100% confirmed and validated by Blizzard that your hero choice is by no means a variable. But playing off-meta heroes that you have no practice on in a highly competitive environment such as Competitive Play might skewer your stats enough to warrant Gameplay Sabotage. It shouldn’t trigger off simply playing bad, but it might.

19

I think that alone if a big downgrade part on Overwatch end which promotes the abusiveness of reports coming from toxic players who are quick to judge. This is why creating a clan system is better than relying on friends or lfg. They need to to open up a solo mode for competitive play, but then again the player is vulnerable for incoming false reports.

Seeing how this game has transpire from 2016. Things has gotten a lot worst and the fun spirit is gone from the game. I mean just look at this game now and when it came out. Toxicity has taken over the game and Overwatch’s developers are giving false positivity on the matter.

The thing is if we don’t support this case now. It’s going to get worst. Bad enough most appeals are ignored on those who are innocent in the manner. It’s taken a mental affect on them that they’re not being treated as valued customers, but more as wallets with legs and feet.

I frankly think they have zero video evidence when it comes to statistics. They’re just solely relying on text reports. If the player has a lot of reports on them then this must mean the player is truly guilty instead of rethinking if players who are reporting are flustered for not winning.

20

Appeal system is not set up to help customers. It’s set up to close tickets as fast as possible. You will get the same copy paste answer from a flip book 5-6 times before people actually start talking to you. They still won’t actually say anything useful though and will just close the tickets. So, you will spend a week or more just waiting on responses to your ticket(takes roughly a day per ticket response), and your punishment will be served already long before you can even get someone to talk to you without using copy pasted responses.

This depends on the category. If you get a punishment for “Disruptive Gameplay”, yes that has no evidence. That one is the code for mass reported. If you get punished for a different category, then they actually do have evidence, and sometimes might tell you a small piece of it.