It seems “Overwatch” players need to think twice before spamming voice lines, as Blizzard now considers it a major offense. So if you are fond of spamming Tracer’s “Hiya,” you are likely to get punished. Although some may disagree with it, there is no stopping the studio from implementing it.
This is just one of Blizzard's strategies in keeping the level of toxicity in “Overwatch” at bay. Just a few weeks ago, the developers finally implemented the so-called seasonal bans. Now, they are looking at punishing players who spam character voice lines in the game.
An actionable offense
According to Dot Esports, spamming voice lines in the hit shooter title is considered an offense if “it is disruptive or would be considered harassment.” Community manager Scott Mercer also reminded the players on the game’s official forum site about the latest development. The issue reportedly came up after a PlayStation 4 player complained about his third in-game silencing. At first, he suggested that the punishment feature was flawed and that he did not deserve the silences. However, to his surprise, Mercer disagreed and explained to him the reason why.
The aforementioned “Overwatch” community manager said that the player received multiple reports for abusive chat. “For all these reports, you were noted as having used chat,” he said.
Mercer went to say that despite not using the chat system, the player opted to display poor teamwork and griefing. Apparently, these were enough for him to obtain said punishment.
Spamming of voice lines
Mercer also suggested that the “Overwatch” player on PlayStation 4 was fond of spamming character voice lines. He would even throw a line or two in instances when chat was not needed.
As expected, the community was surprised with Mercer’s revelation. Players did not realize that they could be punished for spamming their favorite heroes’ voice lines. Although most of them criticized the new development, Mercer announced that it has been part of the game’s official rules since time immemorial.
Basically, “any form of hateful, discriminatory, obscene, or disruptive communications” are to be considered offensive.
Threatening or even harassing another player on either team is also deemed unacceptable. Using a few voice lines will not be an issue, but spamming it repeatedly will result in a punishment. Again, this is all part of Blizzard’s ongoing efforts to destroy bad behavior in the game. The severe punishments started in September, as permanent and seasonal bans in “Overwatch" were implemented. Although toxicity still very well remains, it cannot be denied that there has been a significant improvement.
The studio revealed that there are at least 480,000 punished accounts. A good part of them already received seasonal bans.
