Overwatch aims to promote positive interactions. Therefore, there are rewards on the PTR for players who behave exemplary.
Toxicity is a major issue in Overwatch. However, Blizzard prefers not to always talk about the negative aspects of the community and instead wants to highlight the positive and friendly players. Therefore, all players will soon have the chance to recognize particularly nice or helpful teammates with “Endorsements.”
What are Endorsements? Endorsement is a new value that you can see on your player profile. It indicates how other players evaluate you in specific categories and whether they believe you are a friendly, helpful, or simply valuable team member. Those who are positive members of the Overwatch community will be able to accumulate Endorsements over time in various categories.
What categories are there? In total, there are three categories in which you can recognize players.
- Fairness: For players who were simply nice and behaved respectfully. Perhaps they praised great shots or it was just fun to talk with them and they lifted the mood of the players. Can be awarded to players on both teams.
- Teamplay: A player stands out by effectively working as a team. They may fill roles that others didn’t want to play or even switched heroes at the request. Can only be awarded to teammates of their own team.
- Leadership: A player takes charge of the team, calls important objectives, or clarifies the strategy that then led to victory. Can only be awarded to their own team.
What rewards are there? The exact rewards are not yet known. However, there will be two different types of rewards. A small, minimal reward for all players who award others an Endorsement. This is to ensure that Endorsements are also utilized.
Greater rewards will be given to players who can accumulate many Endorsements over time and do this “at regular intervals.” However, specific details are still not known.
Punishments lead to loss: Endorsements are meant to highlight positive players. Conversely, this means that a player who receives an account penalty loses all Endorsements and must start again from 0. Furthermore, Endorsements “expire” over time, so players cannot rest on a high level.
The system is currently active on the PTR of Overwatch and will likely rollout to the live version in the coming weeks. What do you think of Blizzard’s plans to reward positive behavior?
