Title. The system has already been implemented for some time and should have enough data to see who’s been abusing it and who hasn’t.

The number values are discussable, but here’s a rough draft:

Step 1.

  • Anyone who has submitted at least 50 reports since the new system (to scale for total games played, not counting those who played 1 match and reported 4 never to be heard from again)
  • Of which the reports scale above 2.0 on average per game (hinting at mass reporting)
  • And the reports have not been found guilty in overwatch (guilty = not counted in the revocation).

= SHOULD have their report privilege revoked.

The rest (who report in moderation) should automatically have their reports be overwatch cased going forward. We might not even need the automatic system anymore since reports should drop by -90% estimated.

Results:

  • Overwatch won’t be bloated with false positives anymore
    • Guaranteeing convictions of positive cases
    • Stops wasting the overwatch reviewers’ time with false positives
  • Players will no longer abuse reports or see their BS suffer at the hands of abusers
    • Guarantees players will gradually balance out at their natural behaviour score.
    • Guarantees players won’t incorrectly be sent to LP, as has also happened.
    • Improves the situation for the false positives affected by the behaviour score’s current restrictions (chat mute, mic mute, inability to play ranked). Any false positives will be sure to climb out after some time, and could even see their behaviour score compensated for by the reports caused by those who’ve been caught as a report abuser.
    • Encourages positive behaviour going forward. The current state of perceived helplessness where some players feel like they are unjustly punished and lose behaviour score no matter they do, will dissipate. This state of perceived helplessness is undesirable since it does not reinforce positive behaviour in any way, but does the complete opposite in fact. It instills toxicity where certain players feel prone to griefing since they find themselves unjustly punished anyway. This psychology, immature but real nonetheless, can easily be combated to create an overall better gaming environemnt.
    • Encourages reporting responsibility going forward. If people want to keep their right to report real griefers, they will be less prone to submitting it at the first sign of tilt as is now.

Step 2.

Now, re-implement this check every 3 or so months to address the average report-ratio for that period.

  • For people making new accounts/buys accounts/plays on old smurf accounts who simply switch account and keep abusing the report system. Or – people who were previously reporting in moderation suddenly turning abusive. The system requires continued checks to work.

Step 3.

Now, what about those who reported 2.1 on average and are affected by this system? Should they never be able to report again? Well, luckily, short term, there ought to be at least be someone in their game who can report and overwatch case for all of them. Even on the enemy team if need be.

Long term, introduce revocation decay. Depending on how high they are up the “report-abuse scale”, introduce a checker that lowers their report abuse by -0.1 per 10 games played. So, after 100 games, they will be lowered by -1 on the report scale. Meaning after 100 games, someone with 9.0 average reports goes to 8.0. Once they are back down below 2.0 (or even better: 1.0 or even 0.5 going forward), they can report again. Remember, cases found guilty do not count!

Again, the exact numbers may be discussed. But valve should already have the information to address this issue responsibly and create an overall improved system to what is now.