Multiplayer games typically suffer from toxicity amongst some players, where a few bad apples are enough to ruin the game for everyone. Developers have come up with all sorts of ways to try and fight this problem, Blizzard included, but it appears that in the latest update to Overwatch, Blizzard will be focusing more on positive reinforcement.
While reporting toxic players has been a feature that is available for a while now, the update to the game will introduce a new social feature called Endorsements. Basically players will now be able to endorse players who they think played well in the game, which like we said is about positive feedback.
Players will be rewarded with XP and Endorsement levels, and this also plays a role in matchmaking where players can now add parameters which includes Endorsement levels. This means that players can now try to be grouped with players that have been highly endorsed, which we suppose at the very least speaks to their competency, or even better, good teamwork.
This will also be part of the Looking for Group tool which according to Blizzard, “Looking for Group gives you the tools to find and join a team of like-minded players or lead a group of your own by creating a group with your personal preferences such as game mode, role enforcement, and more.” The changes should already be live so check it out if you haven’t done so already.