Blizzard Gearing Up To Take Overwatch Toxicity Seriously

Last we heard from the Overwatch Toxicity problem, the company was unloading the Play Nice, Play Fair update for consoles, which allowed players to report each other when playing on non-PC software, and we also heard an impassioned plea from developer Blizzard that their fight against trolls and rage has only managed to slow the development of the things players actually want to see, such as maps and characters.

Sadly, it seems the community haven't been moved by the statement, as people continue to be a jerk in-game. And it's gotten to the point where Blizzard has revealed they've taken the step they really should have taken from the beginning - taking the war against toxicity seriously.

To that end, game director Jeff Kaplan recently told Kotaku that fighting toxicity is officially more a priority than ever before, and they've even formed a strike team in order to put the problem in their crosshairs, pun intended.

We're not sitting here with our heads in the sand. You have concerns, and your concerns are now one of our top priorities. If that means the thing we're gonna focus on as much as Moira and Blizzard World is toxicity, then we're gonna do it.

Also, I did not know Blizzard World was a thing. That's honestly kind of gross.

Anyway, this strike team, which is made up of game designers, support staff, data specialists, and Risk members who fight cheaters and hackers, has devised short, medium, and long-term plans for tackling the toxicity issue. And while he wouldn't go into too much detail as to what those were, he did say that sterner punishments for rule breakers and better ways to communicate that your report leads to a punishment of unsavory characters were very early ideas they would likely implement. He also said they might imply machine learning solutions that could produce an anti-toxicity apparatus, which sounds like it could be messy.

For what it's worth, Kaplan expressed lament that he and his team didn't tackle this sooner, but assured Kotaku that his people are all fired up and ready to deal with the issue head-on. And you know, that's good enough for me.

Let's see if it's good enough to get the job done.