Heroes of the Storm Adds Silence Bans and a Better Report System

Well, it was only a matter of time before Blizzard realized even their MOBA was not immune to the vitriol and toxicity produced by the gaming community.

At first, Blizzard hoped that their game--which was shorter, more skill-based so there were fewer snowballing opportunities, and had no surrender option--would be intrinsically different enough from DOTA 2 or League of Legends that it wouldn’t need to worry itself with the kind of intricate anti-troll measures both their competitors use.

They were wrong Trolls will always find a way, which is as inspiring as it is depressing.

Regardless, Blizzard has recently introduced some new troll-fighting tools for their players. In addition to a more robust report system, they’re also introducing a “Silence Penalty” which… pretty much works as expected. After someone gets enough reports in a short enough span, they’ll be banned from all forms of communication (except messaging friends) for twenty-four hours. Once that twenty-four hours is are up, they can speak once more, but if they get another penalty, it will last twice as long as their last one.

That means repeat offenders could be getting silence bans of weeks or even months.

Frankly, I think it was foolish optimism that Blizzard didn’t have something like this from the beginning. But we all make mistakes, and better late than never.