Overwatch says ‘Play nice’ as it implements harsher punishments for bad behaviour

Blizzard has had enough of the air of toxicity that pervades Overwatch, announcing on its blog that it’s taking a much more aggressive approach when dishing out punishments. That means be kind, folks, or Blizzard will get you.

Blizzard is clear in its message that being a bit of an asshole is no longer tolerated, saying, ‘We believe that our in-game reporting and player penalty system is one of our most important features, and it’s something we want to invest in significantly over the next year. To this end, effective immediately, we will be issuing increased penalties to players in response to verified reports of bad behavior’. Even though it’s spelt ‘behaviour’ wrong, it’s obvious that Blizzard is aware the game has an increasingly negative element, which needs to be curbed.

Blizzard increasing penalties suggests that the penalty system will remain similar, except with longer bans and faster responses to bad behaviour, with players in violation potentially getting ‘silenced, suspended, or even banned from the game’. Either way, it’s clear that Blizzard’s taking this very seriously, saying it will be tweaking and improving its disciplinary process based on the community’s feedback. This’ll include ‘scaling competitive season bans, a notification system that will alert you when a player you’ve reported is actioned’, and aggressive punishments for those that abuse the reporting tool.

The take from this is to just be nice, not mean. It’s not cool to be mean.