Ok so this post has been censored for complaining about the problem but people in game are getting by just fine actually using the words with the intent to harm people.
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They already have a censor thing in game chat IIRC. It might even be turned on by default.
Sorry, they only can automatically filter “ez pz” to replace it with some funny random phrase.
Anything else is beyond the capabilities of team “look we failed” Titan.
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I mean given the absolute trash fire that is most automated systems… I really don’t think any one would like them auto banning people for something that got stuck in the chat filter.
Sure it blocks most swear words, but it can also block totally harmless things as well. Not to mention we as the players often have no idea what the list of blocked words even are. What was it battlefield 5 that blocked the word DLC if the word free wasn’t in front of it?
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This is the question all of the people who are about to make excuses for not having a filter in game need to be asking themselves. In the game that refuses it’s players a scoreboard, meaningful statistics, gives the option to make profiles private, and censors phrases like “ggez” all in the name of reducing toxicity and making the community a more welcoming place, why isn’t the same philosophy being applied to slurs? It’s sad that people specifically in this community will argue until they’re blue in the face for the rights of bigots to spew their hate in game.
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To further improve these systems, we’re doing a lot of exciting work to develop “machine learning” systems to assist in accurately identifying abusive chat and gameplay sabotage
~2 years ago
What a failure that was then.
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Indeed, and it could’ve been used so well…
You don’t need machine learning to find if someone is using the N-word repeatedly.
It’s like it’s part of gamer culture now.
I’m disappointed with how companies are dealing with this - not Blizzard specifically but all companies so far.
You should make a compilation video and make it public before Overwatch 2 - that’s probably the only way to ensure it’s taken seriously.
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that’s not remotely the same thing
That’s not what I meant I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. What I meant was say you typed a word like the f word and hit enter. Instead of it bleeping out the word it should simply not send any message into chat. The advantage of this is that it would save people the trouble of reporting it and Blizzard the trouble of investigating it.
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It says this is from 2 years ago? I haven’t seen any positive developments in that time besides the fact that the endorsement rating tells me WHO on my team is about to call me a slur.
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In terms of being offended no… but if it blocked every word that hit the filter and banned people for using them. You could be banned for saying some thing like hot dog if the filter blocked it.
It would be very risky to have some insta-ban system in place in the actual game. Imagine playing a game only for someone to say an inappropriate word, get kicked immediately, and you’re just stuck in a 5v6 match. That would be awful.
Furthermore, there is a strike system. You mess up once, you get warned. Twice, silenced. Thrice, suspended and so on.
Granted, the team is crap at responding to reports. Really, really slack. If the team was better at checking and actioning reports, the system would actually be quite good. But alas…
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This is a fuqqing good solution for this problem and will 100% work 
If people want to be toxic or mean they will find a way.
The game has a profanity filter and you can mute whoever you want.
If that is not enough for some people, they can use the report function.
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I’m on console so I’m free from text chat but not dumb people.
This is an issue either way though, I only get it in voice chat but text chat is so easily moderated they should start there.
Maybe do what siege did with slurs?
Maybe a bit lighter of a punishment because bans are a bit too much IMO.
but yeah blizzard need to start there.
Censoring it should be automatic but you also need to punish the player who said it because they could go onto be like that on voice chat.
Certain phrases should also be banned like “Get back in the kitchen”, obviously Overwatch would have to blacklist many variation of that phrase.
They should then do it with other phrases until chat is cleaned up a bit
You might not like or agree with it, but there are contexts where using these words is not offensive. Talking with your friends for example.
It’s a good thing professionals exist who can build these systems without making ridiculous mistakes like that.
Unfortunately because of the way the system is that doesn’t matter. All Blizzard see’s is you saying a curse word and they will uphold any suspension based on that no matter the context.
That’s a fair point. I’m just stating an argument for why phrases shouldn’t be automatically flagged, but I guess if Blizz doesn’t care about context there’s not really any reason not to