So, I was playing Overwatch with my friend late one night. He can’t use Discord or voice chat, so we were texting in-game. My friend accidentally killed himself with Soldier’s rockets while facing a Genji, so they both died in a 1-for-1 trade. I just messaged him jokingly, saying “you are bad af” followed by a “hahah.” It was all in good fun between friends, no bad intentions. But then I woke up to an email from Blizzard saying I got banned for one month for inappropriate communication. I appealed, explaining it was just a friendly joke between us, but Blizzard’s support mostly gave me automated replies. Later, a human responded and said what I said was toxic, which I don’t really see. I’ve been banned before and learned not to be toxic, so I try to avoid that kind of behavior now. This ban feels way too harsh, especially since I only play a few days a week and wanted to try new game modes. I really want to get the ban lifted so I can play with my friends. Any advice on what I can do about this?
3 Answers
From my experience, Blizzard tends to hand out longer bans like a month only if you have previous offenses. If you got banned before, even if you’ve improved, their system probably flagged your past reports, making it harder to get appeals accepted. My advice? Just turn off in-game chat to avoid these issues, especially if you don’t actually need to talk that much. It sucks, but it’s often not worth the risk if you want to keep playing.
Honestly, calling someone ‘bad af’ in chat sounds toxic to the system regardless of whether it’s a joke between friends or not. Blizzard’s system can’t tell if you’re being playful or mean, and other players might have reported that message thinking it was aimed at them. If you want to joke around with friends, using Discord or private voice chat is usually the safer route. The in-game chat often leads to misunderstandings and bans like this one.
It seems like the bigger issue is that you’ve had bans before, which means Blizzard escalates the punishment when something else happens. That month-long ban is probably because of your ban history, not just this one comment. Some players get banned quickly for little things once their record isn’t clean. You might want to ask your friend to contact Blizzard and explain the context, but honestly, they usually don’t overturn these unless it was a clear mistake. If you get the account back, disabling chat might save you from future trouble.
Yeah, I figured the old bans didn’t help. I’ll probably disable chat once I’m back on. Thanks for the tip!