Getting banned from a game you love sucks, even when you deserve it. But after receiving a ban from Overwatch for abusive language, one player says he’s realized the error of his ways.
In a heartfelt post to the Overwatch subreddit today, a user explains that he was banned for using abusive language, and immediately decided to appeal. In his post, he says he had assumed the ban process was automated, and figured it was just something to work through. But after he appealed, he got a response from a real human being at Blizzard – and it getting that human response was enough to make him question his ways, he wrote.
“I wanted to show my response to everyone who has been suspended here and [feels] as if it isn’t taken seriously (like I did),” he wrote.
By his own account, user DotaShield has “not been a good Overwatch player.”
When he appealed that ban, a Blizzard moderator wrote to him about his case.
“I understand that you are disappointed with the action taken on your account,” an Overwatch Game Master wrote back, responding to his ticket. “Sadly, they are a result of your own actions.”
The moderator listed some of the offenses DotaShield had racked up in the game.
“Saying things such as: ‘You guys are fucking terrible, holy fucking shit. How can you be this high level and this bad at EVERY character?’ is simply not OK,” the mod wrote.
DotaShield took the guidance to heart, writing “Regardless of how bad or not my teammates have performed, my conduct is not in any way okay.”
Part of what shook DotaShield into reformation was hearing back from someone who clearly was a real person familiar with his case, he said. Some of the material mentioned in the response to his appeal ticket wasn’t recent, and it was put into context by a real person who was looking at his case.
DotaShield seems intent on changing his ways – enough to post a heartfelt mea culpa to the Overwatch subreddit, along with the complete response he got to his appeal.
“I am not asking for pity or understanding,” he wrote, adding that he wanted to share his experience with fellow players like him who thought they were being handled by a faceless computer system.
“We seriously need to take a good, long look at our own behavior and do better,” he wrote. “Frustration is normal, but outbursts such [as mine] are not normal.”