If you are a regular player in a PC game like G-Mod or Counter-Strike, you have been banned at least once in your life for the stupidest reasons in the world. Why? It’s because of Admins that don’t know how to deal or take care of anything on their server. Some even abuse their power and ban as much as possible because they had a bad day. It’s something that a lot of immature kids and adults do in the game. It’s natural. At least none of our favorite developers out there are banning people like immature adults, right? Right?
Oh no
Overwatch has been a game that a lot of people have been flocking to after hearing rumors of how great the game is. I mean, my cousin who hasn’t played a game since the SNES age bought the game because of how many people loved his shirt he obliviously bought. And I know I have said I hate the game, but the one thing I don’t think I mentioned was how much I appreciate the concept. Would I say it was great? Yes, but there are a few problems with the game that hasn’t been fixed since launch. A lot of you Overwatch fanboys out there might be really pissed to hear me say that it’s a broken game and state that they made many fixes for characters in the past year it has been out. I’ll have you know that just because the update says “Fixed” on it, doesn’t mean it’s good. D’Va used to be the one character to distract everyone, she was vulnerable and not much of a bullet sponge, but she could do enough damage to catch the eye of the enemy team. That was launch. Because she has been annoying a lot of players too often with her core mechanic, she was nerfed completely, so she could be “Playable,” as stated by the developers themselves. You can no longer flash your defense matrix at any time and her drop-off damage has been shortened to only do a fraction to what she once did before. She is no longer a tank apart of the team, she is now a speed boosting team member that stays behind cover and wait for players who ran astray from their team. How is that fixing? I don’t think the butt of a joke that is her Ult was fixed or not because you could hide behind a pole, next to the explosive mech and not take any damage as a tracer, but I hope it stayed because that’s what makes a fun game, right? Some strange piece of physics in a game that makes us all laugh, right?
Then that’s one thing I don’t like about the team taking care of Overwatch, they don’t know what’s good for the game and their community. I might have pissed off more fanboys and girls by saying that, but obeying complaints from angry players isn’t a fun option to take. I mean, if players started saying Doomfist should be a healer, would you like that? No, right? Well, that’s what they did with Mercy a couple updates back. Remember when she was the most sought after character in the game because she could revive the entire team? Well, now she’s another kind of cannon fodder for players to have a second thought for because now all the annoying Battle Mercies (which in any game with a healer is not a good idea) can have fun with their most requested character fix. I know that many more fanboys are trying to tell me she can still revive, but they don’t know I played the game multiple times with a friend that spammed invited me to the game. I played it quite a bit to see how much it changed and I don’t like what they did to the only good healer in the game. She is the same playable Mercy as before, but her core mechanic to revive everyone in one go is now gone, the reason to make a Mercy aware of where he/she is in the battlefield and the enemy’s primary target when seen. But all that is beside the point, my reason to bring these things up is because the community is pretty bad and the developers are treating them as if they know all of the game design and how a Team-Based should play, something I should have continued on with.
Recently, the team announced that the team will be watching out for reports and players that are being too “Toxic.” If you don’t know what that might mean, then let me enlighten you. Say you make a gesture (a taunt that was put into the game) too much, you are toxic and may be banned or suspended for some time. That happened to a player a while back believe it or not. And if you refuse to play a character the team is asking for you to play as, you are now toxic and deserve to never play the game again. That kind of stuff shouldn’t be heard by the developers. Developers know the toxicity of the players they attracted and they try to stay away from them in the best ways they can. I mean, criticism is always heard if said enough times, but if it’s stuff like how too many people are using a character the right way or that a healer should protect himself, those things should be ignored. I know you might not like how Hanzo is playing, but he has about 125 HP and is easy to kill if you know how to move that mouse. The whole thing just boils down to getting good at the game instead of making the game adapt to you.
I know that many of you are questioning why I care about this in a game that I don’t even enjoy, and I understand that, but I take a developer’s decision by heart and treat it like it reflects myself. And making a Toxicity Police to watch over your game and ban those who fall in the toxicity is basically a digital genocide. Laugh all you want, but that’s the only thing I can compare it to, so stop judging. Anyways, this is also giving some people too much power, having people report other players for something they didn’t like and get them suspended for not playing a healer. I know it might be a bit harder than just reporting it, but I feel this can get out of hand and the devs won’t see it until it’s too late. I mean, (I might have said this already, but who cares) a player was banned for being good as Tobjorn. He wasn’t a newb or trolling, he was a high ranking Torb that knew what he was doing. If this can happen, you can get banned for anything right now.
I know many people appreciate this whole situation saying that it’s in good intentions, but this can be so bad. If you play a match in a game and you’re afraid to even talk or let alone do something slightly offensive, that’s not a great time. I’m not saying it will kill Online Gaming, it will shorten it if others adopt this, making online games less common. It might bring some single-player games some fame, but it would make multiplayer games a cesspool of toxicity and teenage spunk. I really don’t like the fact I have to watch out what I say in games, since it has a sense of escapism in terms of speech. I love to criticize this map, but I don’t wanna offend someone on the server who loves it. I don’t wanna say this character isn’t great and offend someone who has a body pillow of her. I don’t wanna feel afraid to say anything about a game or anything in real life in a game because someone out there might hate what I have to say. I bet I offended someone with this post alone…
Am I banned now, Blizzard?
Well, I hope you enjoyed this post, which I believe no one wanted to see this, but I hope someone out there shares my opinion on this whole situation which is long ago outdated. Still, I hope someone out there enjoyed this and ‘til next time…
Play More Games!