Blizzard to Begin Banning Overwatch XP Farmers

You've disappointed Jeff and made him sad.

By Matt Porter

Overwatch's new custom game browser has brought a range of wacky game types to mix up the standard formula, but some players are abusing the system.

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan took to the Overwatch forums yesterday to put his foot down on farming experience while inactive in custom games. "It’s very disappointing to us that players abused the system to gain experience while inactive," he wrote. "As some of you have noticed, Skirmish in Custom Game no longer rewards experience. Also, the AFK timer is now in place in Skirmish mode (in Custom Game only)."

Before the changes, players could simply leave the game running while skirmishing, which is essentially a team deathmatch mode that runs while the server is waiting to reach capacity. Normally an AFK timer would kick you out if you remained idle for too long, but this wasn't active in Skirmish, so once the match eventually ended, you would gain experience for doing nothing.

This is just the start of changes that will be made if the situation does not come under control. The plan Blizzard has in place will eventually lead to experience gain in custom games being turned off entirely.

"If you create a Custom Game that in any way encourages players to gain experience while inactive, you risk having your account banned. If you join any game mode – including Custom Games – with the intent of gaining experience while being inactive, you risk having your account banned. Also, do not name your Custom Game that in anyway even implies that gaining experience while inactive is OK – please do not even do this as a joke – because you are putting yourself at risk of having your account banned."

"...in a lot of ways it really makes me sad," Kaplan continued. "The feature is so much cooler and better for everyone if we do not have to put draconic restrictions on it." Players are urged to report those who are creating custom games with the intent of gaining experience while away from their keyboard, before these restrictions have to be put in place.

So there you have it. If you don't want to have your account banned, and if you want to keep earning experience in custom games, you should actually play the custom games.

The next hero heading to Overwatch is Orisa, a new tank, however we'll have to wait a few weeks for her to come to the live servers.

Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.

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