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Toxic Chat: Overwatch got it right

Sexy Man Child··25 votes·11,641 views

In Overwatch, the ability to flame the enemy team in chat has been made nearly impossible. They have programmed the game to recognize toxic statements and to replace them with uplifting compliments, turning things like, "You're trash," to, "I really enjoy playing with you," etc. Instead of the toxic player attempting to hurt another player, the game trolls the toxicity from the start and shuts it down before its even an issue. League should emulate this.

So here's the thought. League copies this idea, and in game keeps track of how many statements were changed. Maybe even create a "strike" system in an overlay on the screen. 3 strikes, and you lose the ability to chat in that specific game. At the end of the game you get a warning stating that you lost your ability to chat in that game, and continued attempts at toxicity will result in stricter punishments. Toxic players get punished without others even realizing they're toxic and the community silently gets better.

47 Comments

Moody P17 votes

Being babysat by a game company lol

no thanks

Mr Elessar8 votes

What if I type "Yóu'rę Trąśh"?

Will i dodge the system like in league?

Sexy Man Child1 votes

I experimented with it a bit when I recognized it and they've done a really good job at recognizing many variants of toxic statements. Examples are variants of "fuck" ... fuc, fuk. fk, fck, phuck, phuc, phuk, etc.

Mr Elessar1 votes

What about "fućk", "fÙck" etc?

Sexy Man Child1 votes

I'm sure... Now I need to go play overwatch lol

Mr Elessar2 votes

Well run some tests and tell me how "great" it really is.

Atleast it's better than the joke called "IFS".

Jo0o8 votes

The average rager isn't going to put that much effort into making sure their flames are understood. It would be a huge deterrent.

Mr Elessar2 votes

Pressing "alt+o,a,e,z,c etc" is "that much effort"?

Velzard of Koz1 votes

Ah yes, because we are one big country with one language using one keyboard with one keyboards settings.

Mr Elessar1 votes

Replacing i with ! or 1 is so hard.

Velzard of Koz1 votes

There's no i in your suggestion even lol...

Mr Elessar1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Velzard of Koz,realm=EUNE,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=000000010000000000000000,timestamp=2018-12-09T17:41:51.452+0000)

There's no i in your suggestion even lol...

"etc" guess you missed that part or you don't understand.

Cheating leagues IFS is simple.

BeatzBoyFTW1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mr Elessar,realm=EUNE,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=000000010000,timestamp=2018-12-09T16:59:20.386+0000)

Pressing "alt+o,a,e,z,c etc" is "that much effort"?

I mean you have to be EXTREMELY BORED to even bother checking up on how to make those characters.

Mr Elessar1 votes

LMAO This is basic stuff we learned in our first computer class back in 3rd grade.

Ahrï NineTails1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mr Elessar,realm=EUNE,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=00000001000000010000,timestamp=2018-12-16T13:41:37.874+0000)

LMAO This is basic stuff we learned in our first computer class back in 3rd grade.

Those symbols are a little more difficult to input for many in NA. You can't just press "alt+o,a,e,z,c, etc" as you say. It doesn't work on our keyboards and/or operating systems. I've tried. For example, for "Ú" I had to find out that it is "alt+0218" to even type it. Kind of harder to remember, when you literally never use it for anything. Just saying. So sure, those symbols are probably easy for you. But they're a little more unwieldy and difficult to remember/use here.

R107 Games4 votes

If im toxic it is intended for someone to see my toxicity. I don't want censorship.

FOR JUSTICE4 votes

would be 100% on board if it only changes them to lux/ivern lines. bonus points if we also get that player to have audio lines to play with it.

OMG PYKE FKING KILL YOURSELF "All life is precious, yes... even yours."

WOW, garen is such a braindead pick "Oh, you got me on that one!"

toxic ass rek'sai "No need to be so thorny."

can you stop taxing my farm you dumb ass jg???? "To take, one must first learn to give."

go die pyke "May you blossom."

ff15 bot fed hard "The superior tactic is to never give up."

group up bronze bitches "We're in this together!"

your ass took that fight anyway even though i pinged you off dumbass "Would it help if I apologized?"

Imperial Pandaa3 votes

I would lean towards no. It would be over bearing in certain situations and incorrectly applied in others, like 5 man teams.

Overbearing like even the boards in this example, if it still does what I believe it will. "Firing tor%%%% one" If it hasn't changed, it is censoring something that shorthand can be used as an insult.

ProExpertKing3 votes

I feel what might even be nice is if you can change your own chat from "You fucking motherfuckers" to "You fricking bunny rabbits" so that you know you're displaying your angry and getting it out of your system without them actually seeing it. Might be nice cause some people in league just make the entirety of the game unfun from like one game.

CapnMorganFr3man3 votes

Or how about- and stop me if this sounds too insane- you suck it up and use the mute button since that's literally all it takes to silence toxicity in games?

Punctual2 votes

You can learn to control yourself. Nobody is going to be beside you IRL and shut you up when you try doing something stupid.

NepgearDesu1 votes

It actually isn't too uncommon to have someone tell another to shut the hell up or it's going to get bloody, or prevent them from doing something detrimental to their or another's health. Cops do that from time to time, even if they're not always beside you (nor should they be).

ı Sona ı2 votes

Or we can go all Hearthstone style, nothing but pre programmed messages!

R107 Games2 votes

[{quoted}](name=ı Sona ı,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2018-12-09T19:41:26.525+0000)

Or we can go all Hearthstone style, nothing but pre programmed messages!

We can make it so that instead of perma banning verbally toxic players, we can just make them use pre programmed messages.

FOR JUSTICE1 votes

we call those smart pings

ModCaptainMårvelous1 votes

Even then, they had to remove one for BM

I AM SORRY I AM SORRY I AM SORRY I AM SORRY WELL PLAY- I AM SORRY.

ShinkenAiseru 2 votes

This would be so nice, omg. The toxicity would go down...in normal font tho...

Sorin Alucard2 votes

I love this idea

KVbqbFsC8e2 votes

I don't like that idea. I'm not a fan of censorship.

Stephenizgod2 votes

Mmmm no this is a bad idea, censoring what we say is a slippery slope. People are just going to find new ways to flame each other and more and more of what we say will be censored. Soon it will be safer to just have pre-programmed messages and communication will suffer. Leageu =/= Overwatch, the player-base is different and the companies have different ideology and values.

Now I think this would be a good replacement for chat restriction, instead of removing a players ability to text, they just replace everything they try to type with something positive. Even if they don't type anything, it should just randomly say positive things whenever a kill happens or if an ally gets a certain amount of gold/CS.

KennysDreamGirl2 votes

yeah how about no.id rather not be babysat by a company that doesn't listen to me anyways

jv2Io3hMu92 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sexy Man Child,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-12-09T16:34:09.589+0000)

In Overwatch, the ability to flame the enemy team in chat has been made nearly impossible. They have programmed the game to recognize toxic statements and to replace them with uplifting compliments, turning things like, "You're trash," to, "I really enjoy playing with you," etc. Instead of the toxic player attempting to hurt another player, the game trolls the toxicity from the start and shuts it down before its even an issue. League should emulate this.

So here's the thought. League copies this idea, and in game keeps track of how many statements were changed. Maybe even create a "strike" system in an overlay on the screen. 3 strikes, and you lose the ability to chat in that specific game. At the end of the game you get a warning stating that you lost your ability to chat in that game, and continued attempts at toxicity will result in stricter punishments. Toxic players get punished without others even realizing they're toxic and the community silently gets better.

Guess i'll never play overwatch

Moonscourge2 votes

Censorship is never the right approach. Let people talk as much shit as they like, you have all the tools at your own disposal to make them stop.

Ahrï NineTails1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Snake of Avarice,realm=EUW,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=pcyENcIi,comment-id=001b,timestamp=2018-12-18T11:08:39.150+0000)

Censorship is never the right approach. Let people talk as much shit as they like, you have all the tools at your own disposal to make them stop.

This. There are already tools in game to make it so you don't have to listen to someone that, for whatever reason, you don't want to communicate with. It takes literally hitting tab and clicking 1-3 times, as needed. It's not hard; I've done it. There's honestly zero reason to have further censorship than that, as every player has the ability to personally censor whoever is annoying them. There's actually no need to even have a punishment for what people type, because there's no reason anyone is actually sitting there listening to what "toxic" people say other than the fact that they must WANT to do so on some level, seeing as they haven't chosen to mute them.

My advice to the people asking for censorship? Grow a thicker skin. I used to be really sensitive to what other people had to say. But then I realized..... I could blow them off and not pay attention to them. That their opinion didn't matter to me because they were some stranger I didn't know, and who didn't know me. It's random people on the internet who you will very likely never encounter again, and, even if you do, you probably will never remember each other. It really improved my life once I realized that; give that frame of mind a try if "toxic" people get you down.

What needs to be addressed as far as punishment in game goes is things like intentional feeding in ranked games, or intentionally helping the enemy team. Or smurfing. Or boosting. Or win trading. Those are the real issues. Because THOSE issues can't be fixed with a mute button. Those are issues that actually impact the integrity of the gameplay itself. Not something that you could easily solve with a few simple clicks, or even a "/fullmute all" if it's that bad. Use the tools that are available to you.

Quil Evrything1 votes

"changed"? oh. you mean it auto-"translates"?

btw I think the client actually already keeps track of negative language to some degree. it just doenst autopunish. but it degrades your honor, or stops advancing. but, noone cares aobut that, lol

Sexy Man Child1 votes

Change, autotranslate, all the same isn't it? I didn't care too much about the honor until my friend got Midievil Twitch in an Honor 5 capsule at end of season this year

420 grams1 votes

Is it only /all chat? What if my teammate didn't pick Mercy?

Draught of Souls1 votes

I can easily evade the overwatch flame system, i can just put a space inbetween letters and it won't recognize that i said 'ggez'

rtbf2216514121 votes

Trolling a troll is still trolling.

We call it hypocrisy, double standards, and (in their case with their power) the inability to deal with the situation effectively.

Vreivai1 votes

I remember when they started this with "gg ez"

I've never spammed any phrase more in my life.

Wolfeur1 votes

People will find a way. Riot shouldn't waste their time trying to prevent the unpreventable and focus or punishing and helping reformable players.

Full Brain1 votes

Overwatch has an extremely toxic playerbase that can't even be made to look good by League's playerbase just slightly less awful by comparison. They also have had to repeatedly increase the punishments for chat violations when they have only existed for a little over 2 years because what they were doing was so ineffective. Oh and their punishment system is largely just an easily exploited tool for people to harass other players since it is automated outside of chat reports and they refuse to do actual human reviews of the bans. Not the company to be emulating in this regard.

sleepysithlord1 votes

No because Riot wants to ban accounts so they can make new ones. This way the new accounts flame the shit out of actually new players and make them want to stop playing

Arammus1 votes

i think i read this idea like 1000 times over the 6 years im playing this game now. but rito wont do cause rito lazy

Danksley1 votes

Replace detected toxicity with something like "OwO I neeko neeko neeed hecarim as my bf OwO"

Ahrï NineTails1 votes

I would honestly prefer if muting was the only way flaming or "toxicity" were addressed. No temp bans, no chat restriction... nothing.

Some people enjoy banter and/or trashtalk. I don't think they should be punished for it, or restricted from participating in it. I don't see why people honestly care when there's already a solution. You can mute someone. You don't have to participate in that form of dialogue. Just because you don't want to, however, should not enforce a restriction upon others. That'd be like me saying "I don't like pizza, so no one should be allowed to eat pizza" and expecting anyone who ate pizza to be thrown in jail. It's utterly ridiculous, and honestly disgraceful, that anyone advocates for that. It's fundamentally oppressive for no tangible benefit to anyone.

Further, why wouldn't you want people to speak their mind fully? To reveal their true nature? Then you can decide more easily if you want to associate with them or not in the future. Having a choice is valuable, and what the OP suggest takes that away to a small degree. From both the toxic and non-toxic players alike.

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