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Toxic Chat: Overwatch got it right

Sexy Man Child·12/9/2018, 4:34:09 PM·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 P12/9/2018, 4:52:36 PM17 votes

Being babysat by a game company lol

no thanks

Mr Elessar12/9/2018, 4:39:35 PM8 votes

What if I type "Yóu'rę Trąśh"?

Will i dodge the system like in league?

R107 Games12/9/2018, 4:55:45 PM4 votes

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

FOR JUSTICE12/9/2018, 8:16:39 PM4 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?"

CapnMorganFr3man12/10/2018, 1:36:14 PM3 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?

ProExpertKing12/9/2018, 7:05:57 PM3 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.

Imperial Pandaa12/9/2018, 6:29:07 PM3 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.

Moonscourge12/18/2018, 11:08:39 AM2 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.

Punctual12/9/2018, 6:15:19 PM2 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.

ı Sona ı12/9/2018, 7:41:26 PM2 votes

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

ShinkenAiseru 12/9/2018, 8:24:49 PM2 votes

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

Sorin Alucard12/9/2018, 8:27:39 PM2 votes

I love this idea

KVbqbFsC8e12/9/2018, 8:58:04 PM2 votes

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

Stephenizgod12/9/2018, 9:04:13 PM2 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.

KennysDreamGirl12/10/2018, 6:54:18 AM2 votes

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

jv2Io3hMu912/11/2018, 9:25:53 AM2 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

Vreivai12/10/2018, 2:14:20 AM1 votes

I remember when they started this with "gg ez"

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

Ahrï NineTails12/14/2018, 5:17:44 PM1 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.

Wolfeur12/10/2018, 10:55:17 AM1 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.

420 grams12/9/2018, 5:09:57 PM1 votes

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

Full Brain12/10/2018, 1:59:46 PM1 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.

sleepysithlord12/10/2018, 6:15:36 PM1 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

Arammus12/10/2018, 6:41:18 PM1 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

Danksley12/11/2018, 4:09:57 AM1 votes

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

Quil Evrything12/9/2018, 4:42:04 PM1 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

Draught of Souls12/9/2018, 9:09:21 PM1 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'

rtbf22165141212/10/2018, 1:58:17 AM1 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.