Spamming Voice Lines in Overwatch Can Lead to a Punishment

Spamming voice lines and emotes in games to taunt or entertain other players is nothing new, but if you're caught doing it too often in Overwatch, your actions can lead to a swift punishment.

If you're dropping a quick "Hiya!" from Tracer or a similar voice line every now and then, you'll likely have nothing to worry about. However, Overwatch's Scott Mercer recently refreshed players' memories on the list of punishable offenses and said that spamming your voice lines too often would fall under the category of "harassment."

Mercer stepped in to discuss the voice line situation after a user created a post on the Overwatch forums about being silenced, a restriction that limits communication for a period of time due to violating communication guidelines. The user said that when they'd been silenced – for the third time – that the final silence was unwarranted since they weren't even using a mic at the time to talk to teammates. They theorized that they were a victim of the report system and were being targeted because of their rank, but Mercer responded with evidence of why the user had actually been punished.

"Based on the player comments accompanying the various reports, it seems even without a microphone you've been spamming voice lines, throwing, not helping, exhibiting poor sportsmanship, killing yourself, etc.," Mercer said.

For those who might attempt to debate the issue and say that spamming emotes and voice lines shouldn't be punishable, Mercer also referenced the guideline in question that would justify a report for the spam.

"I'm going to copy this from the Report Player form in the game," Mercer continued. "Abusive Chat is: Any form of hateful, discriminatory, obscene, or disruptive communications. Threatening or harassing another player on either team is also unacceptable, regardless of the words used."

Judging from that part of the report form, spamming your voice lines could certainly be seen as disruptive to some, especially if you've done something else to antagonize them. Mercer said that they do check every report though, so if you just use one or two voice lines and emotes, you should be alright.