This thread is about blizzard’s approach to dealing with people who have a negative impact on the community and the game through the actual gameplay.
Wether it’s through cheating, griefing, toxicity what have you.
I want to first state that I am by no means exempt of these. We all have bad days or bad games that push us over the limit. That’s life.
However, I want to share with blizzard and the community my thougts on why their approach to dealing with these problems seems rather ineffective.
First off, blizzard has taken a punitive approach. Which means that they approach the problem of bad behaviour though punishement. However, although in some cases that may work like bad battletag or cheating. In more subtle problems like general bad behaviour it’s not so effective.
It is my belief that blizzard should change its policy from seeking to punish to rather controlling and managing the problems effectively.
So like ,for example, instead of banning people for toxic behaviour in the chat they should get chat restrictions up to a chat ban. I also dont believe in the whole permaban approach, nor the account ban approach. Simply cause it just deteriorates the relations between the community and blizzard further. People lose faith in blizzard, blizzard loses credibility and it becomes a vicious circle. The goal of online gaming is to promote relations and socialisation. Not punish people for failing at it.
Also, remove the automated systems in the game. Automation is terrible in this sort of sensitive ehtical problem specially when it can cause suspensions based purely on number of reports regardless of legitamacy. Not to mention it breeds injustice which just promotes more bad behaviour. No report system at all would actually be better than an automated punishement system. Yes, that’s how bad it is.
So yeah, plz reconsider. I think kaplan is right. The toxicity in any community is the communities problem. However, the way that problem is handled is in fact your responsability blizzard.
One side note. Although I’m against permaban and account bans. I do believe that account bans are a good solution for people who use third party software ie hack and cheat. As this is a serious deterioration of the gaming environnement and one to which there is no other solution.
it’s already a thing, if you’re toxic you lose access to both text and voice chats.
can’t post pictures here, so google “overwatch silenced”
Well ok but then tell me why isnt there a feature to toggle the chat on and off. Because you can bind a button to do it within each game but there is no global setting for this.
Also, why can’t we disable auto-queu. That seems a grosse oversight on blizzard’s part that only contributes to toxicity.
How does auto que cause toxic behaviour.
Really bugs me that people blame everything for toxicity other than the person being toxic.
There is no excuse for it and it is solely that players issue. Not blizzards, not the game… just the player spouting nonsense.
Disagree with this post. It seems to want to place blame rather than combat the problem. I’d rather assume that people are fundamentally good rather than be spiteful and bitter. We can’t change people, unless u want to go around threatening people to behave. But we can make the system work a way that reduces and mitigates bad behaviour without sacrificing playerbase or customer/company relations.
One last side note. I never said we should’t blame people for being toxic. That’s your interpretation. What I mean is so you blame people for being toxic then what?
What does that achieve? Ultimately, it achieves nothing. Since placing blame doesn’t really fix anything it just attributes responsability for harm done. But doesn’t stop it from reproducing itself in the futur now, does it?
P.S. You think the auto-queu is no big deal but i beg to differ. Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the biggest change.
Oh and btw nightwing people who are what you call toxic are usually people that are very unhappy in their lives or suffering. So yes focusing your intolerance on them only makes the situation worse.
I’m placing blame??
You are trying to blame Blizzard and in game features for people’s bad behaviour…
People behave badly in game, because that’s what they do.
Changing in game features and all that won’t stop people from being stupid.
Plenty of people sre suffering IRL and come to play video games and behave normally… because they are decent people. Life circumstances are not an excuse for how you behave.
If you don’t want auto que, just leave the match before it kicks in. You can then get into a que quicker, or go off to do something else sooner.
This summarises you in a nutshell. Basically you think you are entitled to judge who is decent and who isn’t through a computer game. Interesting. Also, you seem to like taking justice into you own hands. I remind you only god’s justice is fair. So wrong there also.
Your explanation of the problem is amazing. Thank you for your insight into the problem adressed by this thread.
So let’s get this straight you make no positive contribution to the thread. Except for repeating the problem stated by the OP. And then instead, you attack the OP by questioning his good nature and well meaning intent.
P.S. I guess your a decent person then?
How am I judging?
I am simply saying you can be having the worse experiences. You play games to escape, at that point it is your choice how you behave. Nothing is stopping you being a decent human being and just being nice to people.
If you are having the best or worst times, it is still on you to behave in game. You have already agreed to do that in the terms of service.
God? I wasn’t aware there was some alien being dictating what we could or couldn’t do.
You pick your own path to walk.
Yeah, I’ve flamed people and been toxic in game. And I was a crappy person to do that and have no one other than myself to blame for my actions. So I don’t do it anymore.
Attacking you? You have accused Blizzard of not doing enough… It isn’t on them to parent people. They ban those who are reported and deserve action. What more do they need to do.
This thread is about ways to reduce toxicity in the game through simple changes to the game. That’s what this forum is for. Overwatch related issues and solutions. If you want to go preach on how people should live you are in the wrong place.
So you are off topic.
How do you reduce toxic behaviour…
You don’t. The game can’t.
Done.
I see your a fighter. Problem. Solution? Give up.
You’ll go far in life, kiddo.
Who said give up.
I report the toxic player and continue enjoying playing a video game.
Blizzard will deal with them when they get round to it, I have done my bit.
If a crime is committed IRL… You report it to the Police and let them get on with it.
Same works in game.
This thread is not about how to deal with toxic behaviour in game. It’s about how to best approach the problem of people not respecting the TnCs in game. By which, i mean blizzard’s policy. How best to handle it without destroying the playerbase and the customer/company relationship. I believe this is possible. You do not. So can you please move on.
P.S. Btw you make it sound like i am doing something wrong by suggesting changes to the games features and settings. I don’t believe making a suggestion is a crime. So please stop whining about my thread. If u feel threatened by my ideas to the point that you have to contest them even when they are just a form of input and suggestion then there is something very wrong.
How do you handle it? You report issues you come across and move on.
Because if you do anything else, like engage with it or such like, you are yourself committing and offence.
So just report, block, avoid. That is all you need to do.
I don’t think you are doing wrong. But all the features are there.
Block
Avoid
Report
Filters
Turning match chat off
Turning team chat off
Hiding all chat
Not sure what more they can do for people. Reports get actioned and you can hide everything if you don’t want to see any of the nonsense.
If there was some big solution, it probably would have appeared after 5 years…
This is innacurate. You can’t disable auto-queu which from any sensible perspective should be a disabled “option” by default.
And the visibility of the chat window should also have an on and off option.
These are common sense. The fact that you are arguing with me about this is simply ludicrous. You clearly have no common sense.
How does auto-que increase toxic behaviour? only quick play has auto-que anyways (i think)
There is a button to hide chat. So your problem there is already solved. (for me it is the # key… but I use a US keyboard for some reason).
Again you dont read previous posts before posting.
I clearly already stated that the “binding” to hide chat is refreshed back to its original setting when the game ends. So no there is no button to turn off the chat. Only a button to deactivate it temporarily (i.e. for one game).
And yes that is correct. There is only auto-queu in QP. That is indeed what i am referring to. 
I know you don’t understand but you don’t have to. You just have to trust others and have faith that they may understand something you dont. Just as the opposite may be true.
If you press the hide chat button (# key for me). That make it stay invisible until I press either # or enter to type something.
You are thinking of the little buttons in the left when you press P. They want you to communicate, that is why the default is on. You then have to make the conscious decision about what you want to do.
I don’t understand, because it is an incredibly weird thing to link. I don’t know how auto-que would make someone tell their team they are bad for example. But there is an easy solution for you. Just press ‘Leave Game’. Sorted.
This is innacurate. Sorry.
You can’t understand everything. Otherwise you would be god. And also, if u did there would be no space left for other people.
Well. It works for me, so I am not sure how inaccurate that can be.