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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Blizzard bans 250,000 Overwatch 2 cheaters, says its AI that analyses voice chat is warning naughty players and can often 'correct negative behaviour immediately'::Overwatch 2 has not been having a good time of it in 2023. May brought the unwelcome news that Blizzard's original plans for the game's post-launch support were being changed, mainly the pro

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[-] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 year ago

There were 250,000 “people” still playing overwatch 2?

According to steam charts, it averages about 26,000 players per day on steam, not that many but I imagine across all platforms it probably has 250,000 players that play semi regularly. Granted by those assumptions they just banned the whole player base

[-] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 13 points 1 year ago

But they definitely got all the cheaters :p

[-] Nindelofocho@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

cant have cheaters if you dont have any players

[-] CluckN@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago

Damn that’s like 120% of the active playerbase

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 47 points 1 year ago

Any game that monitors voice chats is a hell no

[-] aelius@sopuli.xyz 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why though? What expectation of privacy do you have for a moderated public platform? Why is this substantially different than ingame chat logs? How could they moderate voice chat otherwise?

In the context of online games specifically, harrasment over voice chat is an enormous problem, and it drives players away from VC (decreasing their ability to communicate with a team in a team game), or drives players away from the game entirely.

If it works even just /decently/ well and has a functional appeal process, this is an unqualified win. We need to start filtering out the harassment endemic to the broader gaming community.

[-] RadButNotAChad@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

How long until information from our conversations is recorded and sold to data firms that will in turn use it to sell to us, or hacked and personal conversations exposed.

[-] aelius@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago

That's a separate problem, though. I would of course oppose that.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

How long

0 minutes 🤭

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

It isn't, I don't use in game chats.

[-] aelius@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago

Then you don't understand the scope or nature of the problem trying to be solved.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

No, I just refuse to have some shitty company monitoring me when I'm trying to be relaxed and have fun. It's bad enough you can't do shit online without invasive bullshit, but I'll be fucked if I'm going to deal with it when I'm playing a game.

Idgaf what anyone else is doing or not doing, that's not my problem.

[-] Wade@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

If you don't use it then how is it a big deal if it's monitored?

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

That's why I don't use them. I outright object to it on principle.

[-] kboy101222@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Agreed to a point. I think the ideal system would be to locally store voice chats. If you report someone on your team for being toxic, then they're sent over for review but made anonymous (like "Blue Player 1" and "Red Player 3" instead of "xXxGunKiller69xXx" and "Purple Dream Flute"). If whatever system used to review the chats (preferably humans, but it'll probably be AI) determines that there was an actionable offense, the match identifier is pulled up and then and only then individual player names get seen so actions can be taken, otherwise it's fully deleted.

That's about the best system I can think of to balance privacy with the banning of toxic players. You could use this same system for text interactions as well. While I would love for 100% of my data in mp games to be private, it isn't possible to do that and not be surrounded by toxic assholes 24/7 afaik. And I'm personally fine giving up a bit of privacy if it means not being surrounded by assholes every match.

Now, the big issue is that gaming companies just want to record everything you say to sell it off for data collection, but that's more to do with the fact that capitalism encourages companies to have 0 ethics

[-] gruvn@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

It seems safe to assume that you are not overly respectful to your teammates in voice chat.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Has nothing to do with that. It's invasive and I object you that on principle. I don't have any alexa/siri/Google shit in my house either.

[-] gruvn@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

I absolutely agree with you on that. And I hate that you can't get a modern TV that isn't always listening.

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Isn’t that why everyone uses Discord.

[-] smollittlefrog@lemdro.id 6 points 1 year ago

Because they want their voice chats to be monitored?

[-] JTskulk@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Meanwhile they won't ban obvious StarCraft 2 cheaters. There's a guy on the ladder that admits to it, anyone can look at his history and see that he doesn't ever get a loss, just ties. And he maphacks on top of this.

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago

StarCraft 2 is not making any money so no incentive to fix it.

[-] JTskulk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Sad but true. They have a community balance team and the maps come from the community as well. How about community mods if they won't moderate their own shit?

[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

Big-Blizzard is watching you!

[-] EyesEyesBaby@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Maybe this would be a great addition to their HR or management department.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
96 points (100.0% liked)

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