The fight against toxic players in Overwatch is taking on new dimensions. Therefore, many now have to forgo new features for the time being.
A topic in Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch consistently overshadows all other discussions surrounding the game: the toxic community. In the official forums and on Reddit, more and more players are calling for action against those who only insult, quit games prematurely, or generally behave like the worst trolls. Blizzard has repeatedly assured that they have the problem on their radar and are addressing it.
A reporting feature has recently been activated on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, for instance.
Now, Game Director Jeff Kaplan has spoken out in a new “Developer Update” video with clear words. Disruptive players are a serious problem, and more and more resources are being allocated to contain the issue.
Other games, such as Heroes of the Storm, ensure that toxic players can only play against other toxic players for a while until they improve their behavior. However, that is not sufficient for Overwatch. Here, Blizzard wants to implement a significantly stricter approach:
“If you’re a bad person playing Overwatch, then we don’t want to create a place where you can play Overwatch against other bad people. We don’t want you in Overwatch at all.” – That sounds very much like the requested permanent bans.
Toxic players cost Overwatch new features
At Blizzard, they are also quite saddened that so much time and resources must be spent punishing the bad players. Meanwhile, the development of such systems is even causing other planned features to be postponed further into the future. A match history and a replay function should have been worked on a long time ago, but the developers responsible have to deal with toxic players now.
Additionally, they have now launched a small test run and sent emails to 20,000 players informing them that their reports have led to penalties. Furthermore, he wanted to strengthen players’ trust in the reporting system and explained: of the 480,000 sanctioned players, 340,000 result from reports made by other players. So, something is indeed being done.
In the end, Kaplan reiterates clearly that Overwatch should provide fun for all players. This is only possible if the community also takes a critical look inward. If you have a nasty remark on your lips, you should hold back and instead see if you can say something positive or just stay silent.
