Article on Blizzard dealing with toxic players

[Aliessil]

Morning,

Just read an article where Red Bull interviewed one of the HotS developers and they discussed how to deal with toxic players (article is here). It's from yesterday, so pretty recent!

One of the options they're planning on implementing (among others) is a "Mute All" flag which you can set, and have it apply by default to every game you play. Gotta say I'm really not keen on this idea! The idea of a team game where you can't communicate with your team just seems all wrong. Not sure if you can still see pings from muted players, but if you can Mute All, maybe pings should still be displayed. If they did this though, should they also make it easier to use the different pings? (for instance, I've still no idea how I can ping to say I'm going to assist someone, since it's not in the keybinds menu).

One of the other options they discussed was to flag toxic players, and move them into their own matches.

Anyway, thought the article was worth a read and you guys might be interested in it too. I'm also interested in what people think Blizzard *should* do.

[AeneasBK]

Doesn't "G" + clicking the player notify your intention to assist them?

Will post more after reading the article

[Deleted]

I consider everyone a moron until proven otherwise and thus I don't really care what morons have to say about me.

[Thelxi]

Muting everybody is fine as long as you can still see pings, so they should allow you to mute someone but still see their pings imo. I have to say that simply no all chat already makes an enormous difference in the toxicity of the community.

[AeneasBK]

Muting everybody is fine as long as you can still see pings, so they should allow you to mute someone but still see their pings imo. I have to say that simply no all chat already makes an enormous difference in the toxicity of the community.

They should have both options, mute chat and mute pings. Some douchebags will realise they have been muted (or are being ignored) and spam pings until the CD kicks in over and over.

I don't play ranked yet but I'm getting to the point where I'm assuming most of my team will be clueless Rambo wannabees before the game even starts. Certainly I mute after the first moany/bitchy comment The game is more fun that way.

[Nikkaszal]

Doesn't "G" + clicking the player notify your intention to assist them?

Will post more after reading the article

I always found a G ping on a friendly to mean "this person needs help"

I use the "on my way" ping to say that I, personally, am coming - esp handy after someone pings a camp so they know exactly what it means.

[Deleted]

People are too sensitive now they have to be protected. Earmuffs!

[Acidbaron]

Bad players going to put everyone on mute and never learn how to do because every type of comment is "toxic", well nothing new from blizzard samething happend in LFG where you can't even remove anyone unless a few moons align


In random matches i'll just go hang around and not matter if they are unresponsive, their loss

[Simulacrum]

Bad players going to put everyone on mute and never learn how to do because every type of comment is "toxic", well nothing new from blizzard samething happend in LFG where you can't even remove anyone unless a few moons align

Pretty much.

Personally, I hate that there's no allchat. Seeing enemies respond to the ridiculous shit that sometimes happens is half the fun! I had a game yesterday that was such a streamroll against my team that we clearly didn't stand a chance at all, and so many hilariously stupid plays were made by us that I had tons of (obviously) great jokes to tell the enemy team in response. But instead I had to resign myself to punching my way through every wall in their base to walk up to their core and break into a dance next to it.

Then we danced away while their 100 skull golem destroyed our core. It was great, but it could've been... so much more.

[apepi]

I think the mute all idea is pretty stupid. If you don't want to hear anyone, you should have to take the time to mute everyone. I don't want to join a game and no one listens to me because everyone has turned off the talk function. I like to talk to people and be able to talk and strategize, but then a Illidan goes in the wrong lane because he has mute function on.

Other players should not be punished because some people in the community are toxic.

Here is the real interview btw.

[Deleted]

I do believe the mute all will create more damage then what it fixes. If you want to help your team by actually communicating whats the point if everyone else have chat turned off. Since they dont see you typing, they dont even know you're not trying to bash - you're trying to help

[Raamm]

The only thing that works is valves method of sticking them all together so they can squabble together.

[ophion1990]

If they disable chat but keep pings, I wouldn't be surprised to see people starting to whine about people overusing the ping. It's very offensive if I ping an objective which half the team is blatantly ignoring more than once after all.

[Nikkaszal]

If they disable chat but keep pings, I wouldn't be surprised to see people starting to whine about people overusing the ping. It's very offensive if I ping an objective which half the team is blatantly ignoring more than once after all.

I often ignore pings from people when they are a balls-out shit idea

Like someone wants to take the enemy Hard camp when 4 are alive and near it - no. Not even remotely a good idea. Have fun with that.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm in favor of a mute system. Perhaps I'm being anti tram atm, but I'm just so, so tired of all the crap that gets put up in those boxes. In my experience with games of these types, 2 out of 3 times it will just be toxic. The other time there will be nothing there anyways.

I can handle though, the ping system, so long as I can mute pings too from players who spam them.

[Aliessil]

Seems like half the games I play, no-one else speaks English anyway ><

I still don't agree with the global mute though. I probably mute one person every couple of games; there's only been 1 person in 275 who was so rude, I felt it necessary to report him.

[edit] Thinking about it, I block more people because they're so bad I don't ever want to play with them again, than because they're toxic .. (like the guy who 3 times in a row, grabs the Terror and goes farming seeds with it ...)

[Acidbaron]

I often ignore pings from people when they are a balls-out shit idea

Like someone wants to take the enemy Hard camp when 4 are alive and near it - no. Not even remotely a good idea. Have fun with that.

Even then it's better to go for it and play as a team if a few of your team members go to there.

[AeneasBK]

Even then it's better to go for it and play as a team if a few of your team members go to there.

I usually type "This is a bad idea", or say "That's a bad idea" and ping "RETREAT!" and go to lane or merc camps closer to home.

There's no point suiciding half your team just because somebody suggests it.

[Nikkaszal]

Even then it's better to go for it and play as a team if a few of your team members go to there.

Nooooope. No no no no no. No.

Ping "danger" or "retreat" and leave it.

1 person dying is a much better outcome than your entire team dying because someone picked an awful fight in bad territory.

"Always going with your team" loses games. Being smart about your team's movement is what wins games.

[apepi]

I hate when I pinged something and then get no help getting it. Pisses me off. I ping something as lili and go to take it, but then everyone is just doing their own thing and I am left soloing this merc camp.