Overwatch dev talks about baning players over facebook posts

[TEHPALLYTANK]

What? There is rule which forbids you playing only one character?

No, there isn't. Anyone claiming that as the reason they got banned, is almost certainly lying.

[Deleted]

I understand wanting to create a pleasant enviroment in your game but if some one is playing nice then going around their social media checking to see if the guy has a potty mouth is too orwelian for my taste.

So in essence they could arbitarily ban people over things that have nothing to do with the game, such as having "wrong" political opinions?

[Doctor Amadeus]

Good idea Blizzard I just hope Overwatch is a good enough game for people to be forced to choose between being an idiot, or playing a game they really enjoy.

[Kokolums]

Demoilition Man predicted this society when people were getting fined for swearing in public.

[Trassk]

So in essence they could arbitarily ban people over things that have nothing to do with the game, such as having "wrong" political opinions?

That's what their aiming for, yeah.

[RallySix]

[QUOTE=shimerra;48771683]Guess if I come in your house at 2am and start screaming at the top of my lungs you're the word police if you want to kick me outhuh? Or if I go into a church and start ranting and raving about how Jesus was really the anti christ and all christians are evil they'd be the word police for kicking me out? If I go shouting off like that to a customer at work I get fired and I can bet your ass that half the examples @satimy is crying about if a customer was behaving like that we'd kick them out too.

Well that's a mighty fine strawman you have built there.
1) You coming in my house and shouting at 2am will be breaking multiple laws. and you be lucky if all someone did was call the cops.
2) Going into a church and yelling anti jesus things, again, breaks multiple laws (since you are going in with the purpose of causing an issue).
3) Shouting at a customer would be impacting the company's bottom line, as well as breaking the hiring agreement with that employer.
All 3 illegal, and none are even in the same vein as what this is about. Im sure you know that, so maybe you are the one who should stop "pretending" to be ignorant.

What we are talking about here is saying something "toxic" (nothing clearly defined) on a website, not related to Blizzard. If i make a private joke on discord to a friend that laughs, an no one involved is offended, their stance implies that I can still be banned because what i said is "toxic". Worst of all, it will likely be an algorithm that decides, so context doesn't play a part either.
And before you try to build another strawman, stalking on social media is harassment, which is illegal. This is not stalking, this is saying as little as one thing, one time, that could be considered "toxic", while someone who can perceive
it as "toxic" may never even see it
"bans have gone out before a single report has been made"

[Kaleredar]

People seem to think Blizzards is going to have some sort of 24/7 crew whose job it is to randomly look through every possible name associated with a battle.net account and trawl every single thing they post on for negative comments


I think that assumption is bullshit and people know it, but are making a fuss because they want to die on an imagined hill about "PC culture"

[Nathreim]

He should look at the wow forums it would probably trigger him into a coma.

[RallySix]

People seem to think Blizzards is going to have some sort of 24/7 crew whose job it is to randomly look through every possible name associated with a battle.net account and trawl every single thing they post on for negative comments


I think that assumption is bullshit and people know it, but are making a fuss because they want to die on an imagined hill about "PC culture"

Right, there is no way they could have an algorithm do it like YouTube/Twitter do. That would be crazy talk.

[chrisnumbers]

Did he even say Facebook specifically? Pretty sure Kaplan was talking about what players are doing specifically in the game of Overwatch.
And why do you even care unless you're one of the toxic assholes?

[Lynarii]

That's what their aiming for, yeah.

Aiming for? They already could if they wanted to. The EULA states they can ban you for pretty much any reason they decide, though it gives examples of common ones.

Also, if you honestly legitimately believe that they're running automated programs to search through social media sites and preemptively ban anyone with opposing political opinions via an algorithm, you need help. I mean hell, we /know/ that Blizzard peeks in on the MMO-Champion forums from time to time, since they've posted on here more'n once. And yet you're not banned for unironically comparing them to Hitler. Go figure.

[Pwellzor]

can you imagine if every business in society would be like this?

The bank "yeah we just looked at your social media profile and we decided we're going to shut down your account"
Your landlord "yeah i just looked at some of the comments you said and i don't want toxic people on my property i'm evicting you"

I'm really not going to support this type of morality and it only seems to be acceptable in the video game industry.

God, I would love that. If people had a financial reason not to be douchebags the world would be a more tolerable place.

[Osmeric]

can you imagine if every business in society would be like this?

It would be wonderful.

Unless you're an asshole.

[RallySix]

No. He said Social media websites, and he said Blizzard, not the overwatch team.
As to the "one of the toxic assholes" part: If I say, "please don't use the word retard" somewhere, will an algorithm see the context, or will it just see the word retard and flag it as toxic?
What if i jokingly say "you dumb ass" to a friend in discord? Is that toxic enough for a ban?
With their statement "often action is taken, before a report is even made" is the most troublesome part.

I will say, it all comes down to how it is enforced. If they go after people who are aggressively going after someone, or intentionally trying to offend people, then no problem. But as we've seen with Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, their systems often catch more innocent people than ones who should be looked into.

[Selastan]

From what I gathered, they aren't going to ban you based on social media, but use social media to launch investigations. If they notice someone being an asshole, they are going to look into their report history and then contemplate action.

[shadowmatrix]

Who cares about toxicity? Just give us a vote kick to punish people who actively troll (like jumping down a ledge the entire game) and leave the fucking rest to the players...

You question can be answered in one term, SWATing.

[RallySix]

Also, if you honestly legitimately believe that they're running automated programs to search through social media sites and preemptively ban anyone with opposing political opinions via an algorithm, you need help.

This has nothing to do with politics and also wouldn't be based on opinions. They target specific words and phrases, while leaving out context. These systems are already implemented on many social media sites, why would someone need to be crazy to think Blizzard would use one as well?

[Kaleredar]

Right, there is no way they could have an algorithm do it like YouTube/Twitter do. That would be crazy talk.

Except they aren't searching their own content...?

[RallySix]

Except they aren't searching their own content...?

Youtube/Twitter/Facebook just recently began using these systems, Blizz may have just recently created systems to begin searching.
But to this specific conversation, they are clearly stating they will be monitoring social media now (which may also be them starting to use the same systems to monitor their own forums since that is covered in social media). Again, it all depends on implementation. If they hit a few people that are just trying to offend people, no problem. But if the roll it out like YouTube where its hitting more innocent people than problem people (like their demonetization algorithm did...) that could be a problem

[pfbe]

The idea I got from what Jeff said was that they were going to action people's accounts based on recorded in-game behavior they saw on youtube or other video platforms.

Like, if someone posts a video of an Overwatch match on Youtube and on a chat window my toon can be seen repeatedly spamming the n-word, then they'd look into banning me. Or if I posted a video of me doing everything I could to make my team lose, or a video of me harassing another player, then I'd get banned.

Not that they'd ban me based on a youtube/facebook comment. How would they even know it was me if my youtube/facebook identity is different from my blizzard identity?