posted by NanaKrustofski,
Valve gave the power to the people with their recently implemented Overwatch feature. However, many of the newly-assigned judges report that the system needs to be improved as innocent players can be found guilty – both by accident and deliberately. What exactly is Overwatch? Well, players can now report other alleged foul players for misbehaviour like cheating, hacking, scripting, griefing or abusive behaviour. The case is then assigned to other users who were not part of the match. Those users can watch replays of the alleged misdemeanour and decide whether the culprit is guilty or not. You can read more in the article below.



Community suggestion to improve the detective work



With great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, many users complained that they cannot make their judgement correctly and there were flaws in the system. Here is a short summary of the changes players have suggested and the problems encountered so far.

Demand to see the full replay: One of the most frequent suggestions was to see the entire replay. The system shows the moments the plaintiff marked as suspicious behaviour. But with only fragments of the game, the context is missing. One Reddit user shared their experience where the Overwatch case looked indeed like griefing. Once they tracked down the match and watched the entire game, they noticed the other teammates playing abusive and disruptive, which is why the accused decided to play on their own instead of joining the team. Unsportsmanlike behaviour from your team can trigger you and cause you to make misguided decisions. And sometimes, people are new to Dota 2 and do not intentionally grief, but a single clip might appear as griefing even though they are simply doing their best.

Show the full chat log: To gain context and see the full picture, many users have also pointed out that seeing the chat would be beneficial. Many decisions or calls are made through the chat and can provide crucial information that could influence a judgement. A major problem however is that chats can be in a language that the reviewer does not understand. Calls can also made over voice chat, which is not allowed to be recorded and sent to strangers.



Show the average mmr: Another request was to show the potential mmr. If a fairly new player wanders off into the enemy jungle alone and gets killed or buys Fluffy Hat four times, it is different from a 6k user doing so? While it is usually clear whether someone is new or not, in some cases, the average mmr might help with the decision making.

Add "smurfing" option: With smurfs being a major problem in the game, parts of the community asked for a dedicated option to mark someone as smurf. However, it can be difficult in some situations to judge this claim correctly.

Add "did not play selected role" option: Similar to the point above, voices asked for a dedicated option for players who did not play their selected role.

What happens to players who make false reports? A lot of the new sheriffs remarked that most of the cases are not suspicious as all. Allegedly, many plaintiffs file a report simply because they rage over an innocent player or against an enemy they have just lost a game to. Arguably this is the purpose of the Overwatch system, so false reports should be discarded or a verdict guilty given if necessary. However, it begs the question of whether there are any consequences for players who file false reports over and over.

Luckily, most cases seem to be rather clear-cut and people can quickly determine whether someone is guilty or not. As the system is still new, teething problems should be expected, and there will most likely be adjustments and changes in the future.



What are your experiences with Overwatch so far? Do you agree with the suggestions from the community?



Photo credit: Valve

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