Tag: toxicity

  • Overwatch Finally Sent Me A Notification About an Abuse Report

    Overwatch Finally Sent Me A Notification About an Abuse Report

    Overwatch finally sent me a notification telling me that my reports led to some action taken against a player. It’s been 20 months since the game’s release, and one since the notification system was patched in, and finally, finally, I have some sense that the reporting system might actually be doing something. Here’s the message.…

  • Overwatch’s Play Nice, Play Fair Update Misses the Point

    Overwatch’s Play Nice, Play Fair Update Misses the Point

    Recently, Blizzard released a developer update titled Play Nice, Play Fair, which attempted to address Overwatch’s fundamental problems with toxicity. Game developer Jeff Kaplan described the issue as a “rising tide,” and promised future improvements to the reporting system (which was just added to the console versions of the game, more than a full year…

  • Racist Rant Demonstrates Deeper Problems of Toxicity in Overwatch

    Racist Rant Demonstrates Deeper Problems of Toxicity in Overwatch

    Two weeks ago I wrote a long, long article about toxicity in Overwatch. This week, Matt “Dellor” Vaughn, formerly of Toronto Esports, destroyed his career by spending 30 widely publicised seconds screaming the n-word at a player who had upset him. (Content warning for racism the video within the link.) In doing so, he demonstrated…