Overwatch Director Shuts Down Unproductive Complaining in Forums

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has been very vocal lately concerning the toxicity seen in online [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has been very vocal lately concerning the toxicity seen in online communities, and what the team over at Blizzard has seen regarding their own. Kaplan shared his thoughts on players holding themselves accountable for cancerous behaviour, as well as gave a little insight as to why developers are hesitant to dive headfirst into the communities they love. Now it looks like the Kap is done explaining and is now headed straight for action.

Kaplan and the team are known for being incredibly active in the Blizzard communities, always taking in player feedback and doing a stand up job at implementing requested changes. In this case, the feedback wasn't productive at all and Kaplan has had enough. The Overwatch director went head to head with a forum member that just just wasn't understanding what was being said about constructive criticism and pushed the conversation a little to far. User Deventh started out as just a normal complaint but then requested that the entire Overwatch balancing team be replaced. The negative momentum built and Kaplan eventually stepped in:

"Make a productive post either clearly stating an issue that you're having or make a productive suggestion.We won't tolerate demands of "people being replaced" on these forums.See you in 30 days."

Though it could be seen as childish on both parts, it is understandable that the Overwatch director took a clear cut way through the mess. He and the team have been very upfront in the past few weeks about things needing to change in the community and Deventh's post was not productive; it didn't offer recommendations on how to improve, insight into what his actual issues were, or anything that could actually be turned into something to help the overall game. Instead, it just called for the removal of jobs from a team with nothing else other than "This is outrageous."

Luckily, the Halloween Terror 2017 event is right around the corner to bring some cheer into the world of Overwatch. Hopefully Deventh takes his 30 day ban and doesn't react angrily and the community can begin to take small steps to becoming more understanding. With the team as open and honest as they are, as well as involved, this isn't an impossible goal to reach.

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