Blizzard lays out concrete plans to cut down on abuse in 'Overwatch'
Overwatch isn't always the friendliest place to play, and Blizzard knows it.
After more than a year of dealing with cutting feedback and public reports of toxic behavior, Blizzard has finally responded with what amounts to an action plan. It comes in the form of a behind-the-scenes change right now and a list of more public-facing changes to arrive in the near future.
"[E]ffective immediately, we will be issuing increased penalties to players in response to verified reports of bad behavior," Blizzard community manager Stephanie Johnson wrote in a forum post on Tuesday.
"In Overwatch, that means anything from abusive chat, harassment, in-game spam, match inactivity (being intentionally AFK), and griefing," Johnson continued. "If you see someone engaging in any of these types of behaviors, report them. Players in violation will be silenced, suspended, or even banned from the game as a result."
For lots of Overwatch players, a statement like that probably rings hollow. Blizzard has owned the game's less-than-optimal reporting feature in the past, but behind-the-scenes changes -- even when delivered in forceful tones, like this one -- are invisible, and tough to buy.
Fortunately, Blizzard also plans to roll out a number of other anti-toxicity features over the next few months. There's nothing there that other games haven't offered before, but that's the whole point: Overwatch needs to catch up to those doing a better job of shutting down the trolls.
Johnson writes: "Over the next several months, we have plans to make additional improvements based on your feedback, including scaling competitive season bans, a notification system that will alert you when a player you’ve reported is actioned, and functionality that will allow us to more aggressively penalize players who attempt to abuse the in-game reporting tool."
Welcome changes, all around. Especially that second one: players that have been abused deserve some peace of mind when action is taken against their abuser.
Blizzard's proclamation also accepts that the console versions of Overwatch lag far behind even the sub-par PC reporting features. To date, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game both force players to rely on built-in console reporting -- and those reports are dealt with by Microsoft and Sony; they don't make it back to Blizzard.
"As console players ourselves, we know it’s been frustrating to not have this functionality on your platform," Johnson writes.
"We are actively working on the feature and have many elements of undergoing internal testing right now. Our goal is to implement similar reporting options as are currently available on PC, and any improvements made to PC between now and when it’s available."
Actions speak louder than words, of course -- but these words seem, at least, to be promising swift action.
Topics Blizzard Entertainment Esports Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
