“Overwatch” game director Jeff Kaplan has become a pretty popular icon among the fans in the community. He’s become the external “face” of the game as he’s seen in all the developer updates and usually represents the game during major events. It's his job to make the first-person shooter enjoyable for fans, be it through improving gameplay or creating a toxic-free community. In line with this, one banned player decided to take to the forums and issue a complaint about his status.
Kaplan shuts down a troll
Player Ceaya recently posted on the “Overwatch” official forums to complain about his week-long ban in the game.
He claimed that he was fired for “disruptive gameplay” in the quick play who also implied that the reports weren’t verified. He added that wasn’t even safe in quick play, possibly presuming that it isn’t safe to troll or abuse other players in that mode. “The system is clearly automated and abusable,” he claimed.
Of course, the Game Developer intervened and set him down by laying down the truth. He stated that they checked the IP address of the account and found that it was indeed suspended. Ceaya’s account has a total of 2247 complaints filed against it which makes it one of the worst offending accounts they’ve ever seen. Because of this, there is a 9216-hour ban against the player with three gameplay suspensions and seven silences for abusive chat.
Having said all of this, it’s pretty evident that Kaplan and the “Overwatch” team are serious about laying down the law to make the community less toxic as possible.
Meme reputation
The “Overwatch” game developer is so well loved among the game community that he’s been part of countless memes and fan art alongside the characters in the game.
Some popular videos about Kaplan are the parody developer updates made by the YouTuber named dinoflask. The YouTuber takes clips from all the developer updates and mixes them together to make some pretty hilarious videos which have spread among the community. The game developer has even admitted to watching this and playfully admitted that the parody captured his true thoughts about the updates.
At the end of the day, however, many fans still look up to Kaplan and the rest of the Blizzard team. Even the voice actors of the game express their admiration towards the developers for their hard work. It isn’t easy trying to maintain an online game but they seem to be pouring their heart and soul into “Overwatch.”