Overwatch 2 Cracks Down Against Cheaters: Bans Over 250,000 Accounts
Still losing? Could be skill issue.
Cover-Credits:
Overwatch 2 has rolled out a lot of changes to combat cheating and bring about a positive change to the overall gameplay experience for all players. A huge step towards achieving this has been the zero-tolerance policy against cheating and botting, due to which over 250,000 accounts have been banned since the game's launch in October 2022.
In the latest Defense Matrix blog post, the developers have explained all measures taken by them to make the playing field fair by removing disruptive behavior, quelling cheaters, and discouraging griefing issues.
Here are how attempts are being made to make Overwatch 2 a better game by improving existing systems in tandem with finding new ways to counter griefers and bad actors.
Overwatch 2 Detects and Bans Over 250,000 Accounts for Cheating
The developers are guided by two core principles when it comes to delivering a positive experience for all players - keeping the gameplay fair for all and fostering an inclusive social experience that is also safe.
Based on the above, the following changes and updates have been made to new and existing features in Overwatch 2.
Improving Text Chat
Overwatch 2 used to have three levels of text chat settings - Unfiltered, Mature, and Friendly. Now only the latter two exist, Friendly being the default text chat settings for all new players, while those that had chosen the Unfiltered setting have been automatically moved to Mature.
The developers did state that their filters are constantly updated, similar to the online culture lexicon, which means that changes might be implemented to text chat settings in the future.
Improving Disruptive Voice Chat Detection and Action
Building on its development, Overwatch 2 has effectively used machine-learning algorithms to help identify, transcribe, and verify reports of disruptive voice chat in most regions.
They will be rolling this feature worldwide across all in-game supported languages, having witnessed positive results with this technology that corrects toxic behavior immediately.
Taking Action Against Inappropriate Naming
While developers do understand the importance of choosing what players want to call themselves in Overwatch 2, they cannot be something too disruptive, including names of Custom Games and Battle Tags.
In an effort to curb this, the eligibility criteria for new accounts to name Custom Games has been increased to 25 unranked or arcade games.
Action Against Cheater
Overwatch 2 revealed that more than 250,000 accounts have been detected and banned for cheating in the last 11 months, since the game's release in October 2022.
With a zero-tolerance policy towards cheating and botting, the developers have further taken action against those accounts that try to group with these cheaters in an attempt to benefit from the cheating.
This has resulted in the suspension and ban of several other thousand accounts that were found of grouping with the cheaters.
The developers conclude by urging players to report disruptive behavior when they come across any as it helps in the identification of emerging trends with the evolving culture of online games.
