How verbally abusive the various players are to each other in this multiplayer environment.
Repeatedly swearing at one another throughout a match is already troubling enough but constantly calling each other “r*tard” and “gay” and wishing cancer on each other is really behaviour quite damaging to us all. Dismissing these rageful outbursts as “just words so they don’t matter” ignores the fact that they normalise a toxicity of relating that is leaving us all more distant and disconnected from each other and ourselves, and in poorer mental health as a mixed community of both children and adults less able to deal effectively with our difficult emotions. Venting frustration and rage at each other through unbridled aggressive online speak is making us all poorer in ways we can see and feel directly, and ways we do not even imagine.
In the UK especially there is a growing mental health crisis amongst young people, with rates of anxiety, depression and suicide rising rapidly. Is Blizzard in any way interested in promoting teamwork amongst randomly matched players, and moreover also encouraging communication that does not diminish each other so that our self-esteem doesn’t suffer individually and collectively?
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I agree, I definitely feel like we have no knowledge of how much Blizzard cares about having a positive and fun to be in community. I see more silenced people lately, so I think like they are active in some way, but I don’t know for sure and there is still a high number of people who are toxic or abusive.
Other than that, I think that we as players don’t know what right conduct is in Blizzard’s view. Is being called gay or r*tard abusive? Pretty much, although I’m sure some people don’t think about themselves as abusive when they say these things. Is being called bad or a noob abusive? Maybe abusive is a big word for this, but it’s still detrimental to the game and to you as a player. Sure, there are community guidelines, but players have to go out of their way to read those.
blizzard has no view, they let the community decide what is right or not
if the community decides that saying thank you is abusif and reports you for that you will get banned (I know extreme example, but you got the idea)
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It happens frequently. I’m pretty sure - that I encounter this in Mobas like Hots, but, a significant but, it almost never happens in a popular 1st person shooter that we play. And in world of Warcraft doesn’t happen too, but maybe I didn’t play enough team fights to know this for sure. I came to a conclusion that players that play the shooter are different from those in mobas and Hots.
Around one year & thousands of matches later, it’s now clear that Blizzard itself provokes much abusive chat in game through its appalling matching system for HOTS. Fair fights seem few & far between. Most games appear to be stomps - one side obliterating the other. What an utter waste of precious free time for players seeking to unwind & enjoy themselves only to be repeatedly matched with players wildly out of their league, mostly either winning or losing in extremes rather than readily with teammates & opponents of comparable strength & skill. And the AFKs & NPs & feeders are endlessly common, showing little respect for their assigned teammates. Frustration & anger are wholly natural responses in such uneven random setups. No wonder various players erupt in abusive chat to each other so often. Blizzard then hides behind a facade of caring about its community of players by levelling arbitrary hefty punishments on those who mouth off, while those who elicit these reactions through their disrespectful gameplay (i.e. simply messing around in game) not only escape completely free of accountability but are also first in line to report what they see as abusive chat - apparently, telling someone they’ve been reported AFK/NP or calling them a feeder is deemed punishable by this games company. Ultimately Blizzard is the perpetrator of this ludicrously volatile situation - reminiscent of the reality TV shows that purposefully antagonise participants to drive ratings & profits. In the end isn’t that the bottom line for the Blizzard corporation?
No more HOTS or even Blizzard, thank you - account deletion in process.
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ikr… u should see my blocklist 
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Usually if someone does death threat they will get banned. But anything else you mentioned won’t. I have reported so many of these guys and 0 banns because of it. The solution is to turn off chat (I have done this years ago).
Generally speaking reports do nothing, the abusive chat is literally the only one that has an effect but only in the case of grave threats and racism as far as ive heard.
You cant even give advice in hots since people take it as a personal offense on their existence.
They don’t normalize sh*t.
We need an outlet and the internet is a good such place. You people that want to close this vent and have been working your butts off to do so by lobbying corporations and organizations will reap what you sow twicefold in t he future.
People need outlets man and in this sick world of fake concerns and hollow smiles the internet with what little is left of its anonymity is a vital resource for our sanity.
what i hate even more than toxic players is that the developers isnt even responding in the forums on feedback
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