It’s a shame to say it, but the beloved Blizzard shooter Overwatch has become one of the games well known for its toxic community. However, it appears as if Blizzard are now toughening their stance on the toxic behavior that has plagued the game for quite some time.
Responding to a thread outlining the failures of the report system, Overwatch boss Jeff Kaplan detailed how the team will be dealing with any unsavory behavior going on. They will be doing so by increasing the length of suspensions, and getting rid of silences, therefore only leaving suspensions and bans as punishments. To help aid reports, Blizzard has also been testing an email notification system, so you at least know when your complaint is being dealt with. There are also plans to ban repeated competitive offenders, meaning that those who have been banned for so many seasons will be banned completely from competitive.
Season 6 will see these much more aggressive stances taken on Overwatch, which will be music to many fans’ ears. Kaplan said: “It really bums us out to spend so much time punishing people for being bad sports. We like making cool, fun game systems – that’s what we do for a living. But because people seem to lack self-control or because people like to abuse anonymity and free speech we’re put in a position of spending a tremendous amount of our time and resources policing the community.”
Overwatch is now available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
