Blizzard to fix Overwatch’s report system in patch 1.5
Overwatch hasn't had the best report system of Blizzard's games, with players often being silenced simply because they made a choice their teammates didn't agree with in the middle of a match. In a forum post by Game Director Jeff Kaplan, he's given a small glimmer of hope that a solution to this problem is on its way.In a reply to a complaint about the system being used for harassment, Kaplain says, "We're actively working on this right now. It's going to take some time for all of the changes we want to do to get implemented. But starting in Patch 1.5 you'll start to see the early beginnings of change to the reporting system. More changes will come in subsequent patches."
Overwatch hasn’t had the best report system of Blizzard’s games, with players often being silenced simply because they made a choice their teammates didn’t agree with in the middle of a match. In a forum post by Game Director Jeff Kaplan, he’s given a small glimmer of hope that a solution to this problem is on its way.
In a reply to a complaint about the system being used for harassment, Kaplain says, “We’re actively working on this right now. It’s going to take some time for all of the changes we want to do to get implemented. But starting in Patch 1.5 you’ll start to see the early beginnings of change to the reporting system. More changes will come in subsequent patches.”
We’re already seeing helpful changes to the report system leaking into the PTR. As one Reddit user posts, they’ve changed the report drop down choice from “Harassment” to “Griefing/Inactivity” and “Abusive Chat.” Hopefully the need to specify what the player you’re reporting has done cuts down on the unfair bans and silencing, and will allow Blizzard to more carefully go over these complaints to rule out the players misusing the system, and possibly punish them.
There’s currently no release date for the patch, but it’s looking to be a good one. Overwatch is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.