Blizzard is taking new action with Overwatch 2. Cheating, good rapport and stream sniping in the studio’s viewfinder.
With the release of the third Overwatch 2 on February 7, Blizzard decided to step up the fight against cheating. In a blog post published just recently, the studio explains that it will begin to identify players who regularly play with known cheaters. Blizzard adds that those account holders will have to suffer the consequences, even if they are not fooling themselves. The studio is announcing “strict suspensions”and in some cases outright bans.
Blizzard is taking further action regarding Overwatch 2
Next season, Blizzard will also introduce a custom game mode moderation system. The company explains that the new technology will automatically remove games with inappropriate titles or content and sanction accounts that create or post those modes.
The system comes after a brief re-emergence last month of Overwatch’s first custom “sexual harassment simulator”mode. In this mode, players had to impregnate the game’s female characters as Cole Cassidy, a Blizzard hero rebranded as a “fraternity boy”in 2021 after accusations of corporate culture. After the mode appeared on the list of the most popular Overwatch 2, Blizzard reacted without specifying how it would prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Cheating, good rapport and a stream sniper in a studio viewfinder
Finally, Blizzard also explains that it is taking action against a measure known as stream sniping. If you’ve ever watched a popular streamer play a multiplayer game like Overwatch 2 or Valorant, you might know how frustrating it is for content creators to see players coming to their streams only to have them seen, or to spoil part of said streamer. Beginning in Season 3, players will have the option to prevent their BattleTag and any player’s tags from being displayed in the Blizzard game client, and will also allow players to hide or delay timeouts. The studio explains that these measures are to prevent anyone watching the broadcast from knowing if they are in the same lobby as the streamer.