Please Blizzard, Let me enjoy OW again

A few weeks ago, I asked what Blizzard does against sexism etc. I got a pretty basic reply, and some other players reacted to me to not expect too much.

To me, frequently being called out (‘dishwasher’, people throwing as you are a girl, etc) is tiring me out and has discouraged me from playing Overwatch the past few weeks. Today I played a few games, to be instantly called a ‘dishwasher’ and to further provoked and asked ‘what dick tastes like’, after stating I was a girl.
Enough is enough.

I feel like I should be able to play a game and enjoy it, not HIDE my gender or stay out of voicechat to make sure I do not get harrassed.

Please Blizzard, let me enjoy my FAVOURITE game again.

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What do you suggest they should do?

I at least feel like there should be something they can do about the reports, although it might take more time to handle them then. It feels like it’s worthless to keep reporting. People in my game don’t feel the need to report as it’s not towards them and one report is not strong enough on its own.

Well, keep on reporting, but don’t expect to see a difference. There are many people out there who think being like this is fun. Reporting one does not ban another, and how often do you meet the same people?

If it helps, you’d still get abuse if you were a guy, just not related to housewife-duties.

Look for a fixed group if you play during regular hours.
Looking for group and introduce you and if they are dicks leave and look for a different group.
Also ask people who are quieter during “noise” to report the noise maker, people who usually are quiet will report at least if you speak to them directly. More reports more likely that something will happen, but not for 100% guarantee.

But yeah I mainly play with fixed people or if people are unreasonable toxic and have no proper advice or aren’t doing call outs. I just leave chat.

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Boys have picked on, laughed at, insulted, criticised, and blamed girls for hundreds if not thousands of years. It comes from a place of insecurity, excitement, fun, social positioning, in-group signalling and so on.

I know you want Blizzard to ‘fix’ this because you see it as an OW problem, but it is a societal attribute/feature/complication/issue.

Try and zoom out, away from looking at OW in general, and look at society at large. You might not be old enough to put your time playing OW in perspective (and I’m certainly not saying you should, in the words of Doomfist, ‘take it on the chin!’) but it helps to understand why people act like they do.

A lot of it comes from a place of weakness. So be strong, and compassionate towards people who are so weak/insecure that they have to be a***holes. :slight_smile:

I’m not white knighting here–you can do what you want, obvs. But if you understand WHY people are like they are and not just THE FACT that they are like they are, then it will help you put things into perspective. Hopefully. GL.

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Blizzard’s reporting system is very weak and basically works off a tick system, so once a person gets x number of reports, whether they are for sexism or for playing Torb, both will result in a suspension. From the 3 years or so of playing Overwatch I’ve realized their reporting system isn’t that good and you just have to hope a bad apple gets enough reports and then maybe they’ll get a 24 hour ban.

In other words, Blizzard doesn’t really care, the reporting system they have installed is not a deterrent to behaving like a douche at all.

The best advice I can give you is to simply block and avoid the bad apples and gradually weed them out of your player pool. Much more effective than waiting for blizz to take action.

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sadly this sort of behaviour is something that happens in the online world, people dehumanise the person they are talking to as they cant see there face and therefore find it acceptable to behave this way. but there’s always two sides of the coin, I had a 3 stack of all girls just hurl abuse at me for no reason. I also don’t know why people say these reports don’t do anything ive confirmed multiple accounts banned, also don’t be afraid to report them for multiple things, majority of the people I report I report them for a minimum of 3 things. obviously this behaviour is disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated but it also stems to media products, for example the amount of YouTube videos titled “toxic girl” and that sort of ****. its such a large problem I honestly think that its something that needs to be tackled by all the major game companies simultaneously. im sorry to hear that you have to experience this, but there’s also the internet pressure that if a guy sticks up for a girl he’s considered “simping” or he’s just thirsty. I used to play with some of my friends, a bunch of them were girls and whenever there was a problem I always backed them up, but then I became the next target. but at the end of the day there’s nothing you can do about it, I understand that its awful to be targeted by this stuff but if its to much the only hing you can do is move on, mute chat and try to enjoy the game as much as you can

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Honestly, this is a fight that seems endless, and for that reason you need to pony up and get ready to call out, report and ask for accountability when it comes to any kind of intolerance. people will tell you its pointless, I’d argue doing nothing is even worse. Keep fighting it.

I don’t see it as a problem in OW particularly, I know it’s a worldwide problem and it happens everywhere. It’s just been ruining my fun in the game and sadly Blizzard could do more. I do meet a lot of people who are real fun and nice but the bad apples have ruined it all and I just don’t feel like playing if there’s not a system where it gets taken care of appropriately.

Just saying this. If one player calls you a “dishwasher” (Odd to type that out, feels weird), doesn’t mean they always treat every single girl / woman like that. Might be that they’re having a bad game and some fumes are coming out and you happened to be the target. Unfortunate? Yes.

I agree with Grendulum. If it even helps out a little bit, you still get abuse even if you’d be a guy, just not housewife-duties.

Also on an another note, you can just mute them if they’re talking in VC. Best way to deal with it is just to ignore it and live on.

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A short-term solution might just be to leave voice, team and match chat altogether. At least to see how it goes. You might not miss interactions at all eventually.

As much as it they would love to help you here, it will NEVER completely disappear. As much as i cringe over dudes doing that, just try to ignore it it’s complete bogus and it will never completely stop.