Anyone with experience in any of today’s top MOBA games will undoubtedly be familiar with the toxic nature of competitive communities but one developer today took steps towards punishing those that hinder the enjoyment of others. Blizzard’s award-winning free-to-play MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, is no exception to the trend of toxicity in the MOBA genre but today they announced a new program aimed at reducing the negative impact these players have on the game with the debut of the “Silence Penalty”
The Silence Penalty will come into play following multiple reports for a single player causing harm through abusive chat and behavior. Once the Silence Penalty is applied their communication tools in-game will be removed. This will mean they will be unable to use general or custom chat channels, and will be unable to whisper players that are not on their friends list. The Silence Penalty will last for approximately 24 hours with each subsequent count of abusive behavior reports seeing the penalty double in duration from the previous punishment.
There is no limit on how long a player can be under the Silence Penalty so repeat offenders could eventually find themselves silenced for incredibly long periods of time. Other players sharing the same game as those under the Silence Penalty will be made aware of such via a special orange speech bubble that will appear next to the punished individuals name.
Source: Official Website