Overwatch 2’s profanity ban policy is an embarrassing memory hole mess

Overwatch 2’s ban system is being rightfully criticized by the community for attempting to gaslight players into believing simple swear words have never been allowed.

The Overwatch 2 community is livid at Blizzard’s response to a pro player who had been banned for writing curse words in chat, something that until very recently didn’t seem to be a problem.

In an X thread about Mason ‘durpee’ Kuehne’s month-long suspension, the official Blizzard Customer Support account claimed, “the filter is for those who wish to use it, but profanity has never been allowed in our games. If reported, absolutely actionable.”

Blizzard’s decision to crack down on all profanity is definitely worthy of criticism, considering the game’s teen rating. While slurs and harassment are another story completely, simple swearing is just common online. Banning players for saying “sh*t” or “f*ck” (as was the case here) is just over the top.

It’s not clear if there’s some miscommunication between Blizzard’s social media managers, the devs and staff reviewing ban appeals, but there needs to absolutely be some transparency about what is and isn’t allowed, because historically, this hasn’t been the case and the community knows it.

Former Overwatch League caster ZP took aim at Blizzard’s stance, accusing the company of “gaslighting” players who have never experienced enforcement like this in seven years.

“Historically, players were absolutely not banned for garden variety profanity,” ZP said. “Gaslighting people who have played the game for 7 years at this point is an awful f**king look.”

Content creator NyanSox even compared Blizzard’s actions to George Orwell’s 1984, where a totalitarian state replaced written history to better suit their agenda.

Changing the rules on the fly to suddenly ban players for minor offenses is just ridiculous, especially when there was no prior warning. To act like this policy has always been in place is just insulting to those who have been loyal to OW since its release.

To justify its decision, Blizzard pointed to the first section of its in-game code of conduct, which states: “You may not use language that could be offensive or vulgar to others.”

That’s all incredibly subjective and to make matters worse, Blizzard even suggests that swearing would only be actionable if a report is filed. But this has the community gobsmacked.

“If it’s not allowed why even present the veneer of it being acceptable by allowing people to choose exposure to that kind of language from beyond the default safety filters,” remarked fan-favorite caster Legday.

Twitch streamer Kephrii was confused about why OW2 has a filter to begin with: “If profanity as a whole is not acceptable & is actionable, the filter should not be adjustable and should be mandated with absolutely no input from the player,” he said.

This is hardly the first time that Blizzard’s OW2 bans have sparked controversy. As we’ve documented, players have been banned for typing “GG,” “yipppeee,” and “nice shot.” One player even risked losing his college scholarship for writing out his teammate’s name, “dumpsyer.”

How Blizzard is going about things right now isn’t a good look. It’s time for either Game Director Aaron Keller and Executive Producer Jared Neuss to get involved and set the matter straight or make some serious changes to how and why bans are implemented.