Blizzard Reports 40% Drop In Overwatch Player Toxicity

Overwatch

In June last year, Blizzard vowed to try and stop Overwatch turning into a toxic nightmare. As such, they introduced a new endorsement system and beefed up their report service.

This basically allowed players to praise others who behaved well and report those who didn’t. In regard to the latter, Blizzard has certainly been working hard to follow through on the reports with many players having received silences, suspensions or permanent bans.

Taking the system as a whole, however, in a report via PCGamesN, Blizzard has said that Overwatch has seen toxic behaviour reduced by circa 40%.

Promoting Positivity

The endorsement system, which allows players to ‘thank’ other players have proven to be a very popular function. This incentivies players to ‘behave themselves’ with a ranking system that also links into loot box rewards.

This has, by proxy, led to an overall better environment and a reported
26.4% drop in abusive language in competitive modes.

What Do We Think?

Blizzard pledged to keep Overwatch a positive place for players and, for the most part, they have been more than a little successful in this regard.

There are some who criticise the report system as too easily open to abuse. Particularly since the jury is out whether Blizzard actually does monitor the reported chat or if they simply let reports accrue to a certain point before action is taken.

It is, however, something of a minor miracle that for a first person shooter, playing Overwatch is a pretty pleasant experience!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!