"Overwatch" will be making some improvements to the game, and it will focus on user experience.
The game's director and developer Jeff Kaplan is aiming to address the rising trend of in-game bad behavior by improving the video game's reporting systems and realigning Blizzard's strategy in fostering a positive gaming community.
In a post, Kaplan outlined some of the plans the "Overwatch" team has placed in fighting in-game toxicity, as well as stressing why it is such a huge priority. He detailed that one of their short-term plans will include revisiting every punishment, launching a notification system that will send emails to players telling them the result of someone they reported and banning accounts that are guilty of boosting in season 5. The team is also in the phase of altering silences into suspensions with the aim of eventually phasing it out as a punishment altogether in lieu of suspensions and bans.
He added that they are also looking into adding the severity of punishments for in-game bad behavior. Repeat offenders in Competitive most likely will be banned for life from playing Competitive if they are found to have been kicked out for a number of reasons. Aside from this, players will also get banned if they try to boost or throw games after the team has placed a design system meant to identify behaviors related to Skill Rating manipulation.
Kaplan emphasized that the team is not focused on punishing bad players, adding that they also have plans for those who have been playing nice; however, no details relating to the latter have been released as of this date. He also noted that the toxicity in "Overwatch" community has hurt not only the user experience but also the game's actual development. He reiterated that "Overwatch should be an inclusive game space. It is an inclusive aspirational universe and the gameplay experience should match what Overwatch is trying to achieve."
He ended his post by saying that the team accepts their responsibility for improving the behavior of the "Overwatch" community, but also asks the community as a whole to help and do their part.
