While it depends on the game you play, it’s common to experience sexism, racism, and hate speech in online, multiplayer video games. I have experienced this more than I can count, specifically in Overwatch 2. Overwatch 2 has both competitive and casual or quick play game modes, with competitive game modes typically requiring the most communication between players. Although, recently I’ve noticed that most players in quickplay take the game more seriously than in competitive games and utilize text chat and voice chat more often. While Overwatch has preventative measures in place, like many other games, it’s easy to bypass the censorship they have over text chat. For example, typing “kys” with any form of capitalization and spacing, is automatically censored. Saying most other slurs is censored automatically, regardless of the spacing or capitalization. However, there are many possible ways to get around the censorship by using symbols or using a zero instead of the letter “o”. Unfortunately, the people that have the desire to say hateful things typically know the many methods to get around the censorship in place.
While I have spent many hours on Overwatch 2 (probably more time than I care to admit), I was able to find screenshots of a specific player I had the misfortune of encountering in a quick play match. This encounter was recent, as of October 28th, and happened around midnight when I was playing quick play with my boyfriend. We happened to be in a game mode that was structured as attack versus defense, and we were defending. We both queued for the support role and had been playing for a while already. After the attacking team lost a team fight, their tank began talking in text chat, calling his teammates “dumb fucks” and refusing to play the game at all, causing the majority of the team to leave the match. After the new players join, they begin to play the game, but ultimately lose because their tank has stopped playing the game. This causes him to insult the new players as well, calling them “re tar ded” and saying “these f a g s are horrible”, despite them losing because of him refusing to play. Some players from the opposing team told him to be nice, which simply caused him to double down on his insults. He then insulted someone from our team, who was playing the character Ana. He called her, along with basically the entirety of both teams, a homophobic slur even though they were simply playing the game.
Something I noticed that I thought was funny was that he was the only one talking in text chat. Sometimes people say things like that for a reaction from other people, which no one gave him the satisfaction of a reaction other than leaving the game. At the end of the game, a player on his team that joined after the other players left called him whiny, saying “you need a binky with how much you whine”. I found that comment hilarious, and it left the player speechless for once. They also called the player a “pathetic fuck”, which is true though it is rude. At a certain point, I feel that it’s fair to insult other players but only when they are being so ridiculous and offensive like the one player was. Maybe it’s a hot take, but I do enjoy watching other players communicate using text chat, whether it’s positive or negative.
After reading everything the player said in text chat, I ultimately decided to report them for abusive text chat because they ruined the game for everyone once they decided not to play the game. As of recently, I have somehow not received notice from Overwatch that actions have been taken against that player’s account.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 