"Overwatch" is finally launching the improved Reporting and Penalty system. These features have been long awaited by the community. The game developer in the past weeks assured the players that these features would be improved to provide a better overall gaming experience for everyone.
Penalties for bad behavior
In the “Overwatch” forum, Community Manager Lylirra shared that effective immediately, Blizzard will issue increased penalties to those who have been reported for bad behavior in the game. The reports will be verified, and if proven accurate, will give penalties to the player.
As for the penalty, players found violating the rules could be silenced, suspended, or even banned from the game.
Moreover, the community manager enumerated some examples of bad behavior in the game. This includes harassment, abusive chat, in-game spam, being intentionally AFK, and griefing. This move from the game developer is a part of the bigger plan to significantly investing in the in-game reporting and penalty system.
In the upcoming months, Blizzard will release new features for the system. Among the upcoming features that fans can expect includes a notification system that will notify you when the report you filed was addressed. Competitive bans will also be scaled. The game developer will also introduce a new functionality that will enable Blizzard to penalize players who abuse the game’s reporting tool.
Console features coming
While the latest announcement is good news for PC users, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users could be dismayed as they will not yet get these features. Currently, the game developer does not have an update on the report system of the console version of the game. It is worth noting that Game Director, Jeff Kaplan has already revealed that they are having trouble in bringing the report feature to the console because it expands beyond the Blizzard team.
In order to fully integrate these features, they have to tap the people from Microsoft and Sony.
Currently, Blizzard is working on a feature that will be on the console soon. Right now, the company is conducting internal testing of several elements of the game. According to the game developer, they are aiming for the same reporting system to be rolled out to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 soon.
As to the release date of the new report system feature for the console, nothing is available.
The latest announcement from “Overwatch” is a reminder to all players that games are created so they could have fun. Interestingly, this move from the game developer is also in a way a good sign that they value the feedback and complaints that were raised by the players.
