How could we fight against toxicity in Overwatch?

[Jester Joe]

We need to ban people like Kaplan who is a toxic player. He posted this on a public forum 5 days before being hired by Blizz: https://web.archive.org/web/20090608...ite/arc27.html

"Whoever came up with this sheer fisting of an encounter can go fuck themselves. Do me a favor so I don't waste my guild's time on this kind of jackass shit-fest again, send me an email at tigole@legacyofsteel.net when you decide to A) Implement an encounter that wasn't designed by a retarded chimp chained to a cubicle B) Get a Quality Assuarance Department C) Actually beta test the fucking thing and D) Patch it live. And please for god's sake -- do it in the order I laid out for you. Don't worry, I won't charge you a consulting fee on that one. And for good luck you might as well E) Pull your heads out of your asses."

It's almost like people can change in 15 years, and mature.

I don't think Overwatch is nearly as bad as some people make it sound though to be honest, but that's probably because Dota 2 is what I was more used to. It doesn't help though that people think the game caused them to respond like they do, or when you get into a match with 3-4 different people trying to lead the team because Reddit told them the best option is to try to get everyone to work together, but instead you just get people calling for 4 different heroes while only one person is willing to change.

[ThatsOurEric]

Bullshit. I was once damn toxic in games and now that I am pretty happy with my life, which I wasn't back then due to leukemia at the age of 16 and only filled with negative thoughts, I know that I was toxic because I needed games in my life to compensate the bad times. I am pretty sure toxic people are those with real problems in their life. They burn their anger in games. That's why those kind of people can't deal with criticism, too, because they can't handle that stuff IRL.

To be fair, that's equal amounts of bullshit. Just because life is difficult or you are facing tough times from an innumerable
amount of ways, does NOT give you the excuse to mistreat others, period.

Those people need to vent their frustrations in either single player games or against bots. Taking it out on others is again,
not a valid excuse for being an asshole.

[Heladys]

I'm not advocating for the asstards who are constantly flaming everyone around them, but focusing solely upon them as the totality of toxicity is counterproductive and stupid. There are legitimately bad players, and there are also shit-eating trolls who are purposely fucking up their groups. I'd like to see both sides addressed meaningfully.

[pateuvasiliu]

Toxicity is not the problem.

The problem is what CAUSES it. And it's fair to say that bad players in competitive is the reason for almost all of the toxicity of Overwatch.

Solutions would be like:

- Require level 100 instead of 25 to enter Competitive, as hopefully you have a slight more gamesense.
- Some kind of proving grounds for a hero. A solo scenario that is HARD so that you truly learn a hero. Before you complete like 50% of all heroes scenarios, you can't go competitive.
- More value on personal performance. If someone is performing terribly, by having low damage, healer, or objective time, they suffer more rating loss while the people performing better lose less rating, meaning less need for toxicity, as you wont be so hurt ratingwise by a loss.

Toxicity is understandable,

and if you disagree on that statement, you have never met people who troll, play like Torbjörn on attack or simply have 0 teamplay or communication.

Dead on.

So many companies fight against curse words when they should be fighting about what causes curse words.

Sure, flaming can make you upset, but trolls waste 20 minutes of your precious time, lowering your LP while simultaneously giving the enemy time free LP. This is how Ranked Systems go to shit, where you're clearly above the rest of the players on your team but you cannot climb.

And don't give me the '' if you're better you will climb '' that shit is just like the " 8 out of 10 " statistics, you need thousands upon thousands of games for you to climb with that logic. Especially in a game like HOTS where ONE player can't carry.

[Freighter]

Get rid of in-game voice chat.

Like that helps, people still flame in text.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not advocating for the asstards who are constantly flaming everyone around them, but focusing solely upon them as the totality of toxicity is counterproductive and stupid. There are legitimately bad players, and there are also shit-eating trolls who are purposely fucking up their groups. I'd like to see both sides addressed meaningfully.

I flame people when they're playing like bronze players. I don't understand how there can be such massive difference in skill among players at the same rating, something is seriously wrong with the system. People playing really awful shouldn't be at the same rating as someone that's playing well. Bots are better than some of the players I've encountered.

[oplawlz]

Like that helps, people still flame in text.

But flaming in text is way easier to combat with automated methods. It only takes one person to report a post containing pre-defined words for a bot to confirm it and issue punishment, whereas voice chat requires multiple people to bother reporting to establish a pattern of toxicity. Bots certainly aren't the end-all solution, but they go a long way toward weeding out the blatant offenders. Plus with text there is always a log to reference when people try to appeal.

[Freighter]

But flaming in text is way easier to combat with automated methods. It only takes one person to report a post containing pre-defined words for a bot to confirm it and issue punishment, whereas voice chat requires multiple people to bother reporting to establish a pattern of toxicity. Bots certainly aren't the end-all solution, but they go a long way toward weeding out the blatant offenders. Plus with text there is always a log to reference when people try to appeal.

Like they ever do anything about text messages. I started flaming after it became obvious that they take no actions against people and have been doing so for some time now without any actions taken against me.

They don't even ban griefers, I've run into a 5-man team that's griefing plenty of times by now, first time I encountered them was like 2 months back. They're keeping themselves around 3000 rating, if you're lucky you might end up with them when they're on the way back to 3000 after they've griefed enough to drop down.

[Barnabas]

I think a fundamental change to how matchmaking works is what is needed. If a player decides to "troll" or they bought a boost it won't mean that they take everyone else down with them. Just need an algorithm that detects changes in gameplay and drops people accordingly. Also it displays warnings about fatigue and being tilted before the protocol kicks in. This way you have an incentive to not be a dick or bad. Nobody has to report you either.

[Deleted]

To be fair, that's equal amounts of bullshit. Just because life is difficult or you are facing tough times from an innumerable
amount of ways, does NOT give you the excuse to mistreat others, period.

Those people need to vent their frustrations in either single player games or against bots. Taking it out on others is again,
not a valid excuse for being an asshole.

I never said that they are allowed to do this only because of that, of course not. I just said that there is probably something more behind the attitude and toxicity. They don't rage for the reactions the receive. These are the trolls, but trolls don't rage or are toxic.

[Jagscorpion]

I think people need to remember that there is a distinction between frustration and toxicity. It's fine to be frustrated with people on your team who may be playing poorly or even possibly trolling. The moment you hit "enter" and let it pour out into chat like a bloody mist is the moment you become toxic. If you must type abuse, just don't hit "enter" first.

As far as combatting it, I think the single most effective thing would be to probably report it without fail. People get away with being abusive because a lot of people don't take the time to report them on it. If people were consistently reported and suspended/banned for abusive behavior I suspect it would result in a modicum of self-control for those who wanted to stay.

As far as trolling/poor skill players, that's a lot harder to deal with because A. it's part of the game, B. it's only silly if it doesn't work C. everyone has bad nights D. one person's troll is another person's learning player

[Keile]

Usually the best way to counter Toxicity...is by doing the exact opposite. Fight it with positivity, usually you will see a change. Toxicity only FEEDS Toxicity, and both players will just get worse and worse with eachother. And if someone is directly insulting me...I roll with it and own it. Usually if they see it's not actually effecting you they will stop....usually.

[Blacky]

To be fair, that's equal amounts of bullshit. Just because life is difficult or you are facing tough times from an innumerable
amount of ways, does NOT give you the excuse to mistreat others, period.

Those people need to vent their frustrations in either single player games or against bots. Taking it out on others is again,
not a valid excuse for being an asshole.

This is so true even in real life. Many times people just don't care how they come across to others and even though they don't have the right to mistreat others, they do it without even hesitating. What I find interesting is that some of them do realize they're being assholes and come to their senses when you simply tell them they're not being reasonable.

Unfortunately that usually doesn't work in Overwatch The only way I have found to fight toxic behavior is to make the habit of spreading positivity by yourself and hoping for the best. And when you're faced with people like that, just accept them and move on. Never forget that even if you can't change your environment, you always have the power to change the way you think about it, and that's better than just giving up.

[DeadmanWalking]

If people could stop getting emotionally invested in the game it would solve a lot of problems. Instead of tilting just detach yourself from what is irritating you. The best pro-players in the game are pro because they don't let their emotions dictate how they play the game.

It is essentially just a game. If you want to spend your days being angry when you should be having fun then your days playing won't be fun.
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[Fluffyfluff]

It does make me laugh tho when there is a full blown argument going on mid game with insults flying left right and centre you have to see the funny side of it. People care so much about the made up rank number that means diddly squat its hilarious


Or do what this London mayor has done and fine pple for being toxic

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-rele...oxicity-charge

[Blacky]

It does make me laugh tho when there is a full blown argument going on mid game with insults flying left right and centre you have to see the funny side of it. People care so much about the made up rank number that means diddly squat its hilarious


Or do what this London mayor has done and fine pple for being toxic

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-rele...oxicity-charge

One more reason to love London!

[Xargoth6634]

I just turn chat/voice off every time I fire up the game, and thus avoid all social interactions with randos altogether. When my friends are on, we communicate over vent. It's prolly hurt my W/L rate, but not having to see all of the stupid keeps my blood pressure at a reasonable level so it's worth the trade off.