One of the biggest issues in “Overwatch” is player behavior. Some players tend to leave matches early, while some resort to offensive language. Either way, this has destroyed the seamless experience of players who want nothing but pure enjoyment.
Interestingly, Blizzard announced previously that a new punishment system would soon arrive in “Overwatch.” This expected to lessen, if not totally remove, the bad behavior of some players. According to VG247, the studio is set to detail the system anytime now.
The new punishment system
The main focus of the punishment system is the game’s Competitive Play.
Players who tend to leave early will be dealt with penalties such as suspension and forfeited XP, among others. However, director Jeff Kaplan revealed that the system can do more than just those things. Although he cannot exactly say what these will be, he promised that the community would soon know.
Players have been bugging Blizzard for a revamp of the “Overwatch” penalty system. They believe that the current version of the system does not entirely threaten leavers and rather works to provide a placebo effect. This even goes without saying that there are still a good number of players harassing and bad-mouthing other players. These are just mere examples of offenders who, in one way or another, try to aggravate their teammates and opponents.
Why it is actually important
It is really a no-brainer, but for the sake of explaining, a newly revamped punishment system could do wonders in “Overwatch.” Keep in mind that some games fail to embrace a working penalty feature and as a result, players tend to lose hope. This eventually leads to the player base decreasing, as players find it ridiculous to play the game anymore.
Perhaps a good example is Ubisoft’s “For Honor,” a fighting-themed game. Like Blizzard’s game, the title also suffered from issues pertaining to leavers and/or offensive language. The problem with Ubisoft, however, is that they failed to implement a penalty system right away. Players’ experience started plummeting, as more and more leavers are ruining the game.
This is not to mention to harassment done by other players verbally.
“Overwatch” should definitely have such feature, as the players need it. It is about time that Blizzard did something about this issue and start going after toxic players. Right now, the update on PTR does not include the changes Kaplan promised, but this should be expected in the next few weeks or so. But at this time players can only wait for new punishment system to come to their rescue.
