Blizzard recently released an article announcing a new rule for their viewer base on Twitch. Viewers of Overwatch Contenders will be forced to link their Blizzard Battle.net to their Twitch account from December 28 until January 12. This is just in the testing phase, claiming to create “a more positive viewing experience”, which is very vague.
Cross platform moderation. Blizzard has been all about making professional Overwatch mainstream and keeping people in check, both players and viewers. Emotes like PepeHands and FeelsGoodMan are banned in Blizzard’s Twitch chat’s, not only that, but players had to remove the emote from their social medias. If chatters are now forced to link their Battle.net account with Twitch, it could mean cross-platform punishment. Hypothetically, an Overwatch Contenders viewer gets banned from chatting in the Twitch chat, it could mean consequences outside of Twitch. Blizzard could take that knowledge of the viewer and ban them from using text chat in Overwatch, or worse, ban them from playing the game. This could also work vice versa, banned in Overwatch text channels, banned in Twitch chat.
To the average viewer, no. If you are a casual viewer of the Overwatch League or Overwatch Contenders, this shouldn’t have a big impact on you. However, if you are a chatter you need to watch yourself, it could mean consequences on your Blizzard account. If you have a bad game in Overwatch and flame the Reddit Lucio for not healing your team, watch what you say and type, it could mean you can’t spam “C9” when the London Spitfire get off the point on Volskaya.
Lately it seems like Blizzard cares more about marketability and being inclusive than they do about viewing experience and quality. For example, the Overwatch League Grand Finals were on live television, in a sold out stadium in New York, but then DJ Khaled came out.
The Grand Finals were marketed amazingly, but the quality of the content was questionable. Some would say that Blizzard doesn’t have their priorities right, “Let’s make a fun viewing experience for everyone? No, someone typed TriHard 7”. Others would disagree. Either way it will be interesting to see how this new chat plays out and if there really will be connections from it to the game itself.
Follow me on Twitter @Hearin_Voices I would love to hear your thoughts.
Featured Image Courtesy of Overwatch Contenders
Featured Video Courtesy of Overwatch League
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