Toxicity is one of the biggest problems in online gaming. It has been around for quite some time now and despite many developers trying their hardest to remove it from their games, it has never fully disappeared. Toxic players are a more than common occurrence in Overwatch as well, especially in competitive play. None of these players has any reason to be toxic, they just choose to be. This results in many players being frustrated, which leads to some of them quitting Overwatch for good.
Like every other developer Blizzard have also tried to resolve the issue and make toxicity a thing of the past. Despite this toxicity had been rising except for decreasing in Overwatch up until just a year ago. In 2018 Blizzard introduced an effective system to reduce toxicity in-game called the endorsement system. The endorsement system allows players to commend each other by giving each other a specific type of endorsement.
The endorsement system has its own separate level feature which tells us how regularly a player gets endorsements. Increasing your endorsement level requires you to regularly get an endorsement from other players. You can level up to a maximum of 5 when it comes to endorsements although it is not so easy to level up. The game also rewards you if you have an endorsement level of 2 or more by giving you a specific number of loot boxes, depending on your endorsement level. You get 1 loot box for level 2, 2 loot boxes for level 3, 3 loot boxes for level 4 and 4 loot boxes for level 5. The best part about these rewards is as they change to event loot boxes if you get them during an event.
Overwatch Endorsement Decay:
However, this doesn’t mean that the game allows anyone with a high endorsement level to be toxic. Overwatch also has endorsement decay, meaning that your endorsement level will drop if any of the following happen:
- If you do not get an endorsement for a large number of games, however, Blizzard hasn’t given an exact number for the number of games required before your endorsement level starts decaying.
- If you are constantly reported by other players for bad behaviour or cheating.
- If you leave games before they are finished. This can also result in your account getting ‘’leaver penalties’’. Leaver penalties are another way the game tries to fight toxicity. Leaving a match before it ends puts your team at a huge disadvantage, especially in competitive play, which is why the game punishes you severely by giving you a short ban if you leave during a game of the mode.
Unlike your competitive skill rating (above gold), your endorsement level does not decay if you stop playing the game completely. Meaning if you have to leave home and cannot play the game for a while or if you just want to take a break from the game in general, your endorsement level will not be affected in any way.
If Blizzard finds you guilty of cheating, throwing games, or bad behaviour after you have been reported the game will completely reset your endorsement level, which will revert it back to zero or in the worst case, it will completely ban your account.
The endorsement decay system is a little broken though. Many players have complained about not being able to maintain their endorsement level for even a day, despite receiving regular endorsements in the games that they have played after they levelled up. Despite these complaints Blizzard haven’t released a statement regarding the issue, and the problem has become even more common in recent times.