Anybody who's ever played Overwatch has likely run into a "not-so-pleasant" player who'll flame, trash talk, or make jokes about poor unsuspecting moms.
That said, it's no mystery that toxicity is rampant in the game, and it's affecting not only the players but the developers too.
Overwatch Players Better Behave For Timely Updates
In the latest Developer Update titled "Play Nice, Play Fair," game director Jeff Kaplan went on to explain the current dire situation, outlining the team's plans to mitigate it and how the players can help out too.
What's happening is that the toxicity has gotten so problematic that the Overwatch team needs to focus more time and effort to address it, both of which would be better spent on working on updates, the overall development of the game, and such features as a match history system or a replay system.
"We want to make new maps. We want to make new heroes. We want to make animated shorts. That's where our passion is. But we've been put in this weird position where we're spending a tremendous amount of time and resources punishing people and trying to make people behave better," Kaplan says, which he considers a "continual process" early on in the video.
For instance, the team had to concentrate on rolling out the report feature for the console — which is important, really — and send emails to players who made reports whenever a disciplinary action has been carried out.
Overwatch Team Would Prefer Baddies To Stay Away
In one part of the video, Kaplan says that the Overwatch team's philosophy is basically that it wants to keep misbehaving players out of the game, which is the same sentiment it has for leavers.
"If you are a bad person doing bad things in Overwatch, we don't want you in Overwatch. We don't want to create areas for you or just the bad people are in Overwatch. We just don't want those people in Overwatch," he says.
Overwatch Developer Update
Now don't forget to check out the Developer Update below to get the gist of what's going on straight from the horse's mouth:
As a sign-off of sorts, keep in mind Kaplan's advice that the Overwatch "community needs to take a deep look inward" and think again before behaving poorly in the game. That way, everyone goes home happy. And hey, who else is going to bear the brunt of it all but the players, right?
