"Mute, Report, Block.": Dissonance in Moderating Overwatch

This paper examines how player moderation tactics in Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment, 2016) have evolved following the introduction of competitive play and professional esports, a shift that raises the stakes of toxic behaviour for players whose season ranks and win rates are directly affected. The author analyses community forums and developer communications to determine which values are embedded in the game's moderation tactics, how players respond to them, and whether community feedback meaningfully shapes Blizzard's design decisions. Situating the study within the industry-wide Fair Play Alliance formed in 2018 to combat toxicity, the paper frames moderation as a response to a long-standing problem in online multiplayer games.

The study uses textual analysis of Overwatch's Battle.net and Blizzard community forums alongside developer-initiated threads and official developer YouTube updates. The data covers June 2016 to March 2019, spanning the first competitive season, subsequent seasons, and the November 2016 launch of the Overwatch League. Combining these sources produces a timeline mapping community and developer discourse around each moderation tactic, including how it was received and whether it changed over time.

A notable finding concerns the delayed deployment of a reporting system. Although players requested one after the game's May 2016 release, a console reporting system did not arrive until August 2017, and the paper notes that the delay stemmed from technical difficulties integrating the in-game client with Microsoft and Sony's platforms rather than developer indifference. The paper argues that dissonance exists between the values embedded in developer responses and those expressed by the community, and that this mismatch leads moderation tactics to have minimal impact on player satisfaction. Framing Overwatch as a live service, the author draws on concepts such as patchwork platform governance and participatory governance to explain how users' own expectations and values complicate the effectiveness of formal moderation systems.