OVERWATCH To Ban Players For "Toxic Behavior" On Social Media And YouTube

OVERWATCH To Ban Players For "Toxic Behavior" On Social Media And YouTube

Is this where the video game industry is heading? Banning players for what they say and do while playing a game is one thing but Blizzard is preparing to take things one step further.

By MarkJulian - Jan 27, 2018 08:01 AM EST
Filed Under: OVERWATCH
Source: Blizzard
In their latest developer update, Blizzard has revealed that they'll now be monitoring what Overwatch players say online on social media and YouTube, previously a safe space for trollish behavior or bashing of the game.  In the past, doing such behavior while streaming or talking over the mic mid-game could result in a ban but it now appears that what actions you take while you're not even playing Overwatch might also result in a ban.

Jeff Kaplan explained that it's still okay to bash the game but behavior that Blizzard deems "excessive", that would get a player banned if it was said or written in-game, will now result in a ban.  

Most recently, Blizzard implemented a number of tools to combat trollish behavior including adding a reporting option for consoles and instituting an alert that lets gamers know that someone they reported has been banned.  

Over on the Battle.net/Overwatch forum, the new policy is certainly drawing a lot of comment.  Gamers are hoping that this new policy is something that Blizzard will only enforce in extreme instances but other gamers are concerned that it gives Blizzard a broad paintbrush to get rid of anyone and anything they find objectionable.  

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