Well, it didn’t take Blizzard long to put the hammer down on some players’ accounts this year, as the company has just posted on their South Korean forum group of freshly banned and suspended Overwatch players in South Korea. As if this wasn’t enough punishment, the post also shows all of the players’ online Battle.net names as well. This is nothing new to Blizzard, as they have been serving bans and suspensions for years, but the number of players they nabbed this time is staggering, with over 18,000 players named on the forum post.
According to the post, the reason for so many accounts being punished is “unauthorized acts”, which is a loose term for many offenses, mainly toxicity in the chat. The company has been pushing for a long time to put an end to these online antics, which include foul language, harassing other players, and throwing matches. This comes right after the start of Competitive Season 14, where a large majority of these acts are found.
This isn’t the first time that Blizzard banned/suspended a massive number of players. At the conclusion of Season 12, they did the same to approximately 1,400 players for “account sharing”, which is another loose term for boosting. Blizzard doesn’t seem to be holding back anymore, as they also announced earlier this week that they will be implementing new Chat Moderation Program in conjunction with Twitch, where the viewers in the chat box are kept in check.
For the players who were suspended, it wasn’t made clear just how long they will be without Overwatch. As for the bans, the company has handed out non-permanent ones before, but they haven’t stated which ones will be allowed back, or how long they will have to wait. If anything, this aggressive approach has caught the attention of the gaming community. It also stands a valuable lesson for anyone who plays games online with friends and strangers, to play fair and play nice.