A couple of months ago, “Overwatch” game director Jeff Kaplan announced that Blizzard is developing new features to tackle cheaters and players with bad behavior. Kaplan said that “toxic players” are ruining everyone’s gaming experience. This is perhaps one of the reasons why new heroes, maps, and game modes are delayed. Instead of making new improvements to “Overwatch,” Blizzard has been investing time regulating toxic players.

Permanent ban

Blizzard has finally come up with a new feature that will deal with players’ poor and inappropriate in-game behavior.

In a post on “Overwatch” official game forums, community manager Josh Engen stated that there will be permanent bans in “Overwatch” Competitive Play starting September 27. Permanently banned accounts will never get a chance to play ranked “Overwatch” again.

How does it work?

Players will have to undergo three or more seasonal bans on their accounts to earn a permanent ban. Once the account is banned, it can no longer return to “Overwatch” Competitive Play. Leaving the Competitive Play early or being inactive and not reconnecting can result to a seasonal ban. The seasonal ban does not have to occur successively to accumulate and result in a permanent ban.

How to remove permanent ban?

If a player gets a seasonal ban in different game seasons, it could also result in a permanent ban (as long as the season ban reaches three).

Completing game matches without experiencing penalties and having good records will eventually restore the account to a good standing, but players should still be careful going forward.

Blizzard will also ban players that are caught cheating . The “Overwatch” system will permanently ban players if it detects that a third-party application is being used to automate any feature of the game, exploit bugs, or engage in any activity that brings unfair advantage to others.

Feature that mutes other players

In the latest “Overwatch” update, the developer added a new Xbox One in-game report system called “Avoid Me.” This is one of the features developed to combat players’ undesirable behaviors. Xbox Live players now have the capability to label other players as “Avoid Me.” Players that have been marked or labeled as “Avoid Me” will not be able to utilize in-game voice communication, but they will still be able to match-make. Players should take note that the new feature is not controlled by Blizzard, so if the player gets downgraded to “Avoid Me,” they should talk to Microsoft.
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