Where did the "PREFER PLAYER" option go? What is the policy behind its removal?

Competitive Discussion
1

Hello OW Team,

It is clear that many of the newly implemented features are designed to keep a distance between two players, but why aren’t there more features to incentivize and promote connectivity between players?

Many of my friends and I used the “prefer player” feature immediately after a good game, and that generated great chats and discussions when we got paired together again. Plus, we telling them that they preferred usually started the game with a positive mental attitude and behavior.

Then, inexplicably, this feature was removed when the “avoid player” was released. What gives?

As of right now, in this team-based game, there is literally no way for players to commend and praise good and positive behavior. Would love to hear other’s thoughts.

Best

Another tank player with Bridgitte’s shield smashed on its forehead

4 Likes
2

Something about throwers using it to troll people, but I think it would compliment t the avoid as teammate :confused:

Right now you just have to ask to group up

3

Wait, so the community at large is the one that suffers because of “throwers” which comprise a minority of players in the community? #makesense

4

I’m not sure what happened to it either but maybe the ow team has a method to look at the use rate of the feature and analyzed that it was not heavily used and mainly used for trolling. I’m not sure, just speculating as to why it could have been removed. OR maybe they are just reworking it into a larger feature like a LFG lobby or something.

5

“minority”? Seems like you did not play between high silver and low plat. There you have a thrower nearly every game. Sometimes they are on your team, sometimes on the enemy team and sometimes in groups and in both teams :slight_smile:
Btw. This is not a whine about not climbing and s*** like this. Just the fact that the following happened in my placements so far:

  • Enemy Team started with 2 trolls that even wrote in text they throw so we can get an easy win.
  • Second match we took the first point instantly -> One player on the enemy team tilts, insults his mates in the chat and trollpicks.
  • Third match two enemy players decide that since they failed the first push for the payload they might also go attack torb and attack symetra.
  • Fourth match our 2 healers decided to DPS only and did not react at all when asked why they do not heal.
  • Match number 5 was funny: One player in our team picked mei to wall of our team to seperate tanks/dps and healers. Enemy team had a duo that was feeding by jumping in and just emoting so we won in the end
  • Match number 6 was even and nothing to report.
  • Match number 7: 4-stack that picked All DPS and wrote they will not switch what so ever. Enemy team had a good comp and we got rolled and smoked

So i have the feeling it is not the minority :wink: People just stopped to care and it is commonly seen down here. I went from bronze to plat just to discover that nothing changes and i think that blizzard realized how trollers can abuse this function and removed it

1 Like
6

I used to love that future but according to the community that throwers and trollers will prefer you to make fun of you. #BringITBack

7

Of course Blizzards has to add tools to punish bad behavior. However, if they only focus on this, it will create more toxicity. They need to start giving more credit to good behavior. Give us the option to find players that are good at their role and are willing to play as a team. Stop punishing players that group together, this is a TEAM BASED GAME.

8

Just another great feature that was ruined by a select few.

9

There is psychology behind it. They want you to add all “preferred players” to your friend list instead. They hope that you create a bond with those players.
This bond will make it less likely that you quit the game, even when Blizz is dragging their feet/ignoring huge issues that need fixed. It’s to keep you hooked and leaves Blizz room to keep doing or not doing things you dislike or don’t agree with.

10

It’s unfortunate if that is true. The game should promote teamwork and positive behavior.

11

Prefer Player: stalking

Try sending a friend request, then you can play together?

1 Like
12

You can’t friend everyone. But the larger point is that we should have tools to PRAISE and COMMEND positive players. In other words, build more bridges than walls…