Yes, spamming voice lines can be actionable in Overwatch

People have been debating what is and isn’t something you can get reported — and even draw a suspension — for in Overwatch ever since the new reporting system came into being. Now a new forum thread has clarified that yes, even just spamming voice lines can get you a black mark.

Scott Mercer, a principal designer on Overwatch, made this forum post in response to a series of escalating discussions on just what is and isn’t actionable. And it turns out that it doesn’t just have to be you screaming obscenities into a microphone or typing abusive lines in chat to warrant action. See for yourself:

The original discussion was from a player who claimed that he’d been silenced in Overwatch unfairly, with Mercer responding to explain how the team comes to ban players. They do, in fact, check to see if their silence ban is necessary, if the player being reported has used chat or voice communication, and yes, even if you’ve been spamming character voice lines.

Now, I’m not a big Overwatch player, but I do think harassment is something that destroys communities and ruins fun for everyone. I also think Blizzard has learned from their experiences in WoW, Heroes of the Storm, and even Hearthstone in a case like this. We’ve all seen that one Hearthstone player who just spams Uther’s dialogue until we just want to throw our tablet out the window. It absolutely can, and often does, ruin the game for people. {PB}

Based on my own experience with Blizzard, I know they keep extremely detailed logs of just about everything going on in their games. When people are reporting harassment, they make sure they know exactly what was happening. In other words, you can probably trust them when they say they look into a report before issuing a punishment.

But regardless, if you play Overwatch and don’t want to get banned? Don’t spam character voice lines. Just avoid doing it.