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Blizzard Dumps Overwatch ’Avoid This Player’ Feature
Overwatch is likely to go through a number of changes rapidly in its opening months. One thing getting left by the wayside already is the “avoid this player” feature.
It was apparently having a significant, negative impact on matchmaking. Blizzard still likes the idea of letting players steer away from those they’d rather not match with, however the current implementation isn’t working.
You’ll still see the button for “avoid this player” for the time being. It will be removed in a future update.
However, the “prefer this player” option remains intact. It is working mostly as intended.
[Source: Blizzard]
Our Take
When a marquee multiplayer game is finally in the hands of a millions of players, it’s time to find out if the ideas on paper match real-world use. In this case, there was a significant mis-alignment. Blizzard is making the right call, of course, but provided that other reporting features for toxic players remain intact, all should remain well.
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