Permanent Bans Are Coming to Overwatch

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Blizzard warned Overwatch players that it would introduce permanent bans, and they weren’t kidding: starting September 27, any player who accumulates three or more seasonal bans may be permanently banned from Competitive Play, removing their ability to participate in any future matches in that mode.

Seasonal bans do not need to be consecutive to qualify for a permanent Competitive Play ban. For example, if a player earned seasonal bans in Seasons 2 and 4, and then earns another ban in Season 7, he or she will be eligible for a permanent ban from Competitive Play as soon as that third seasonal ban is issued. Additionally, neither seasonal bans nor permanent Competitive Play bans will decay or reset over time; once an account is permanently banned, it currently cannot return to good standing.
 
NickJames said:
Moral Police should be a feature listed on games these days. Don't yell at poor little Timmy or big bad Jeff will take your game away.
Click to expand...
It's not even about that, hell you can just mute people and even blizzard has acknowledged that.

There's always been an issue with players leaving games and screwing the whole match, and within the past few seasons there has been a growing number of people either throwing games simply by AFK'ng in a location(occasionally jiggling the mouse or whatever to keep from getting kicked for being AFK) and actively throwing matches by either feeding the other team ult intentionally or other behaviors such as Mei intentionally blocking their own team. It's gotten so bad that even some of the "pro" players have done it(I think it was "Dafran" that got banned most recently after throwing matches on his livestream and then encouraging others to do it for shits and giggles).
 
Multiplayer problems (Rage Quitting, Being "Toxic", and unsportsmanlike behavior) have existed since multiplayer has existed. Yet a lot of games seem to treat it as a new problem.

If it's not acceptable in real life then it shouldn't be acceptable on the internet.
 
The reason why blizzard has been so lenient with banning is because the community itself is so incredibly toxic people were wildly abusing the report function. For instance I was a high rank master Symmetra main in season 2 with a 65% winrate over 200 hours of competitive play. Guess how many reports I had? Over 200 in season 2 alone, and I never once got banned. I actually opened a support ticket and inquired out of curiosity. Why do I have so many reports? Because I picked symmetra, thats it. This was in the early days when she was completely written off as totally unviable, so I mained her to prove that she was playable. I had to just enter every match by muting everyone immediately because people would threaten to hold the game hostage and throw before the round even started. They'd all say "just report him" before the gate opened. And yet there I was at 3800 sr strong as if I'm just the luckiest player in overwatch to get carried for that many games.

During my inquiry in to my own tickets the game master or whomever actually said that having around 200 reports was considered average!! So basically the community brought this mess upon themselves for filing frivolous reports in a petty rage. Supposedly blizzard has some mechanisms for detecting very obvious signs of throwing such as lack of participation in the round etc. And of course the obvious vitriolic chat and constant game quitting.
 
uYKB3mY.jpg
 
viscountalpha said:
This is why I don't care about OW. It's full of toxic assholes who I don't care to play with.
Click to expand...

It's not so much the entire community is toxic as it is the young, dumb kids that just have no concept of "Working as a Team" or proper social skills that cause problems. Not saying it is all the young kids faults as I have run into a few old timers that need some social reeducation playing OW but the majority I would have to say is from the young in's.

When I play OW, I have various group of people that range for mid-20's to early 50's that I team up with and we all have fun, communicate with each other, work as a team and usually win. When I decided to roll the dice, and pug a comp match when no one is on. I always get an asshole little kid that likes to yell profanity for no reason with the mic volume cranked to 11 and then tell you to F off and F teamwork as he is soloing the match for kills.

Unfortunately it is not just OW that has this issue but almost all major multiplayer game has become this way and honestly I see the permaban hurting more good people than bad as it will be abused. :(
 
SGTGimpy said:
It's not so much the entire community is toxic as it is the young, dumb kids that just have no concept of "Working as a Team" or proper social skills that cause problems.
Click to expand...
See I kinda find it the opposite. It's usually the self-appointed "team captains" that fly off the handle if you dare disobey their orders and pick a hero thats not part of their "how to play OW" script they found off reddit. Or they'll "give you a chance" and then after you die 1 time "OMG IT'S NOT WORKING!". In fact I find the kids to usually be the most quiet, probably because they either feel intimidating conversing with adults or because they're afraid of getting made fun of.
 
Master_shake_ said:
who gets to decide what is toxic?
Click to expand...
I have a bigger issue with a team not working together and picking a shitty (I should clarify that as a someone they do not know how to play AT ALL) character because you picked "their" character than kids in chat talking shit.

Too many snowflakes in gaming these days who get butthurt at everything. Ask people to switch characters because they are not doing well and they rage and quit trying. Blizz needs to ban fuck tards like that instead of worrying about what someone types in chat. They built a profanity filter into the game for a reason. They also have a block feature.

Blizz is wasting resources on the wrong problems. Oh, and can we get some cheaters banned? I've seen more wall hackers this season already than any season combined. People say wall hacking isnt a big deal.......... Then lets remove Widowmaker's ultimate as it is worthless, right?
 
nysmo said:
See I kinda find it the opposite. It's usually the self-appointed "team captains" that fly off the handle if you dare disobey their orders and pick a hero thats not part of their "how to play OW" script they found off reddit. Or they'll "give you a chance" and then after you die 1 time "OMG IT'S NOT WORKING!". In fact I find the kids to usually be the most quiet, probably because they either feel intimidating conversing with adults or because they're afraid of getting made fun of.
Click to expand...

I too have run into a few of those types, but I personally over the past 6 seasons have had far more issues with youngsters than any other causing chaos in comp games. The Team captain dicks, I just ignore and play my roll how it should be played and it usually works out in the end.
 
Master_shake_ said:
who gets to decide what is toxic?
Click to expand...

Blizzard does, since they write the terms of service to the licensing agreement, and the unwitting player's the one who agreed to the terms. Breach of contract on the part of the offending party (player) is ground for termination of the service agreement.
 
eSports and sports since the dawn of time have had players shit talk and try to be intimidating to the other players and/or his/her own team. It's just the nature of things and if you don't like it then yeah your only alternative is to skip that game or not play at all. Do you think this doesn't happen on the basketball court or at a football game on the field? Basically if there's a competition then there will be toxic people.

/end
 
What a bunch of fucking horseshit. It's a fucking game, people need to grow up and learn to mute people that huwt thew ickle wickle feewings. People quit early too, they always have, yes it's a pain in the arse, but live with it. The fact an entire match gets canned just because someone leaves just makes it worse. When people leave my team I see it as a challenge, when people on the other site lose a player I commiserate them. Jesus Christ, what is wrong with people these days. What the hell does it matter if you lose a game.

It's the online equivalent of your mate having to leave the football game in the park early because their mum is calling them in for tea. You don't all have to go home, you can still play the game.
 
Last edited:
Rahh said:
eSports and sports since the dawn of time have had players shit talk and try to be intimidating to the other players and/or his/her own team. It's just the nature of things and if you don't like it then yeah your only alternative is to skip that game or not play at all. Do you think this doesn't happen on the basketball court or at a football game on the field? Basically if there's a competition then there will be toxic people.

/end
Click to expand...

And it's within the league operator's right to destroy the said player's career. That's the nature of things as well.
 
Blizzard needs to fix their fucking matchmaking. Getting tired of diamond players queueing with gold players.
 
doz said:
Blizzard needs to fix their fucking matchmaking. Getting tired of diamond players queueing with gold players.
Click to expand...

This is my other major gripe with the game. Balanced match making. If you have two teams and one has a clear skill advantage, that's not fun to the underdog team.

Face it, OW is a cluster fuck by yourself and is only fun with a decent team of friends.
 
doz said:
I have a bigger issue with a team not working together and picking a shitty (I should clarify that as a someone they do not know how to play AT ALL) character because you picked "their" character than kids in chat talking shit.

Too many snowflakes in gaming these days who get butthurt at everything. Ask people to switch characters because they are not doing well and they rage and quit trying. Blizz needs to ban fuck tards like that instead of worrying about what someone types in chat. They built a profanity filter into the game for a reason. They also have a block feature.

Blizz is wasting resources on the wrong problems. Oh, and can we get some cheaters banned? I've seen more wall hackers this season already than any season combined. People say wall hacking isnt a big deal.......... Then lets remove Widowmaker's ultimate as it is worthless, right?
Click to expand...

I see nothing wrong in asking a player who is doing crappy with a specific character in team play to switch to one they might be better with. My son and I often voluntarily switch to support roles to help our teams- even if I'm not the best in that role it's often better than no one doing it. The raging is purely anti-social behaviour that can be combatted by blocking communication with those players and they'll eventually be pushed to the side if they don't improve their social interaction.

On the hack/cheat side of things- How about Blizz actually fix their POS games to eliminate the "hacks", i.e. poor coding?

And forget this ban crap! Simply put in a player kick system like they have in WoW. Have a "toxic" on your team initiate a vote to boot/replace him. Eventually, they shape up, stop playing those match types or leave the game entirely;)

Or, use the kick system to demote players to lower ranks due to accumulated successful votes. At some point, players could eventually be demoted below starting ranks and have to earn their way back into higher rankings through better social play, i.e., playing support roles offers more participation points. Banning doesn't help in changing those players poor social/play skills. It simply pushes them to another games community when the gaming community as a whole should be attempting to foster better play habits.:D
 
NickJames said:
Moral Police should be a feature listed on games these days. Don't yell at poor little Timmy or big bad Jeff will take your game away.
Click to expand...

So what? This is one reason I do not waste time with online games anymore plus, there is nothing fun to play online anymore. I would rather play UT 2004 or Wolfenstein: ET if I need an online fix. (People still do play those games.)
 
I still dont get why people need to prove they are huge assholes just because they play online and got their ego broken .
 
viscountalpha said:
This is why I don't care about OW. It's full of toxic assholes who I don't care to play with.
Click to expand...

Don't do online gaming much huh? I remember the original Counter Strike days where I was often gay and everyone slept with my mother then. They just only typed it out. At least nowadays we have mute buttons.

I ignored it then, I ignore it now.
 
Chupachup said:
I see nothing wrong in asking a player who is doing crappy with a specific character in team play to switch to one they might be better with. My son and I often voluntarily switch to support roles to help our teams- even if I'm not the best in that role it's often better than no one doing it. The raging is purely anti-social behaviour that can be combatted by blocking communication with those players and they'll eventually be pushed to the side if they don't improve their social interaction.

On the hack/cheat side of things- How about Blizz actually fix their POS games to eliminate the "hacks", i.e. poor coding?

And forget this ban crap! Simply put in a player kick system like they have in WoW. Have a "toxic" on your team initiate a vote to boot/replace him. Eventually, they shape up, stop playing those match types or leave the game entirely;)

Or, use the kick system to demote players to lower ranks due to accumulated successful votes. At some point, players could eventually be demoted below starting ranks and have to earn their way back into higher rankings through better social play, i.e., playing support roles offers more participation points. Banning doesn't help in changing those players poor social/play skills. It simply pushes them to another games community when the gaming community as a whole should be attempting to foster better play habits.:D
Click to expand...

And if you do any reading about the OW community, you'd realize there's 2 problems with introducing a vote kick system.

First, you already have entire teams that will report a teammate in the hopes that they get in trouble, simply because that player picks a sub-optimal character that isn't the current pro gamer "meta". This has nothing to do with how good that player actually is, they do it because of the pick not because of the result of the selection.

Second, there's no backfill. Manage to kick the guy being a complete asshat who spent the 2nd round throwing himself off the map because your team lost the first? Yes, people do that. Well, now you're in a 5v6, and if someone else on your team leaves because the odds just went to crap(although not impossible to overcome) now it's a 4v6.
 
Kinsaras said:
Don't do online gaming much huh? I remember the original Counter Strike days where I was often gay and everyone slept with my mother then. They just only typed it out. At least nowadays we have mute buttons.

I ignored it then, I ignore it now.
Click to expand...

I don't like cs specifically for that reason. It's not for me. Just like OW. I was pissed when they put a cs like bomb mode in destiny 2.
 
If you extend this to the real life version of, say, Laser Tag. How often does a business allow a customer to act belligerent and defiant of the rules before they ban the customer from the premise?

I don't like the idea of being an asshole online prevents you from using a product offline, but being an asshole online and then being banned from online is within reason for me. At the business' discretion of course.
 
It seems lots of you think its a just mute them and move on problem. It isn't.

The problem is when they intentionally throw the match in competitive ranked game. At that point they are ruining the match for five other people and pretty much forcing those five to lose rating they have worked hard to build. Now you need two wins to get back where you were since you typically lose more than you gain. One troll costs you two wins and that sucks.

That is the issue, not some mean words. Those people don't belong in competitive and I'm glad to potentially see them go.
 
nysmo said:
The reason why blizzard has been so lenient with banning is because the community itself is so incredibly toxic people were wildly abusing the report function. For instance I was a high rank master Symmetra main in season 2 with a 65% winrate over 200 hours of competitive play. Guess how many reports I had? Over 200 in season 2 alone, and I never once got banned. I actually opened a support ticket and inquired out of curiosity. Why do I have so many reports? Because I picked symmetra, thats it. This was in the early days when she was completely written off as totally unviable, so I mained her to prove that she was playable. I had to just enter every match by muting everyone immediately because people would threaten to hold the game hostage and throw before the round even started. They'd all say "just report him" before the gate opened. And yet there I was at 3800 sr strong as if I'm just the luckiest player in overwatch to get carried for that many games.

During my inquiry in to my own tickets the game master or whomever actually said that having around 200 reports was considered average!! So basically the community brought this mess upon themselves for filing frivolous reports in a petty rage. Supposedly blizzard has some mechanisms for detecting very obvious signs of throwing such as lack of participation in the round etc. And of course the obvious vitriolic chat and constant game quitting.
Click to expand...

Back in the good old days when the hot games were RTCW and the original CoD, I got fairly good because I had no choice - horrible internet availability (I was on ISDN for Pete's sake, playing against people who had real DSL or cable, even then), particularly with the sniper rifle. Ended up joining a clan that was all sniper, all the time - we had our own server and custom designed maps. Every single one of us, if we played on other servers, would constantly get called out for cheating and aimbot crap. That's the only problem with in-game complaint systems, too many get butthurt that they aren't that good and file complaints on better players.
 
Armenius said:
It's a fucking game. Get over yourselves. You have bigger problems if your standing in ranked matches is that important to you.
Click to expand...
well it's not so much a standing as it is an evolution as a player. The higher the rank the more rewarding the games. People want a challenge and they aspire to be the best. Each game you win puts you one rung up higher on the ladder to experiencing the next tier of matches. Considering the matchmaker system is designed to average you out at 50% W/L ratio it takes a rather phenomenal amount of skill to creep up through that. A natural 75% player can struggle with a 50% winrate for quite some time overcoming his teammates ineptitude before landing where he really should be. When you're grinding out hundreds of matches just to win 54% of them or so you can see why even 1 loss can be rather aggravating.
 
nysmo said:
well it's not so much a standing as it is an evolution as a player. The higher the rank the more rewarding the games. People want a challenge and they aspire to be the best. Each game you win puts you one rung up higher on the ladder to experiencing the next tier of matches. Considering the matchmaker system is designed to average you out at 50% W/L ratio it takes a rather phenomenal amount of skill to creep up through that. A natural 75% player can struggle with a 50% winrate for quite some time overcoming his teammates ineptitude before landing where he really should be. When you're grinding out hundreds of matches just to win 54% of them or so you can see why even 1 loss can be rather aggravating.
Click to expand...

Have you read what you just wrote? And compare it to what he did? Actually read what you typed, but read it in the voice of a normal non-gaming person and see how it reads

Unless you're joking, in which case you got me!
 
davethehedgehog said:
Have you read what you just wrote? And compare it to what he did? Actually read what you typed, but read it in the voice of a normal non-gaming person and see how it reads

Unless you're joking, in which case you got me!
Click to expand...
Uhhh, wat? He seems to be dismissing people who get angry at losing competitive matches. "it's just a game!" And I'm saying people take it seriously because the game changes the higher you go, so thats why people want to win so bad.
 
Armenius said:
It's a fucking game. Get over yourselves. You have bigger problems if your standing in ranked matches is that important to you.
Click to expand...

Some people make a livelihood out of that, so they'll cut you if need be.
 
It's an issue with all cooperative team based games. Hell, I stopped playing L4D2 because of it, it just wasn't fun with one/two people always being afk, bots or just dicking around.

Sure it's always there, but if you want people to keep playing your game, you try to do something about it.

As others mentioned, shit talking is one thing, it's easy to mute people. But I play HoTS, and it really fucking blows when 1 person out of 5 on your team completely ruins a 15-25 minute game by feeding, not doing objectives, etc. Between draft, loading, etc, it's more like 35 minutes wasted.
 
They're taking themselves a little too seriously. it is just a game at the end of the day. ban em in that season maybe they'll change the next.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top