Overwatch Voice Line Spamming Could Result in Punishment

In the latest development of “how could Overwatch possibly be screwed up?”, Blizzard Entertainment has revealed that excessive spamming of voice lines during matches could result in action taken against one’s account.

The whole ordeal began when a player complained on the official forums about being silenced in voice chat despite not even using a mic. Principal designer Scott Mercer would explain that the player was abusive on the mic and also displayed poor teamwork/griefing. Hilariously though, the actual reason for him being silenced was due to spamming voice lines.

Mercer clarified that, “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.

“So YES, if you spam character voice lines in a way that is either disruptive or would be considered harassment, then you could be actioned.”

It makes me think back to professional players who spam the “Hello!” voice line in order to keep their fingers hot rather than as a form of harassment. Sure, it can get annoying for your team but it’s not like they’re doing it to be annoying in the first place. Does that mean Blizzard will be taking action and silencing such players who spam voice lines like that?

Whichever way you look at it, this seems a bit extreme, especially when there’s already a cooldown on character voice lines. Maybe add a cooldown for voice lines that constantly tell players to attack the objective or a longer cooldown time overall? Let us know what you think in the comments.