Blizzard ramps up third-party applications in Overwatch



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Users of third-party Overwatch applications such as Visor and Pursuit may soon find themselves in hot water with Blizzard, who sends warnings to players that unauthorized third-party programs may result in penalties, including possible permaban.

Visor provides statistics and alerts on the fly via overlays in the game, while Pursuit focuses more on a detailed after-action analysis, including match history, performance goals and information on how players can improve their performance. But some players, including Sabriel Mastin of Overbuff, have recently received warnings from Blizzard that "these programs offer benefits that are not normally achievable in the game" and that they could be sanctioned if they continue to use them.

Community leader Tom Powers confirmed on the Overwatch forum that warnings are legitimate. "Recently, we've been studying third-party applications designed to be used when reading Overwatch, and we want to remember which apps are not allowed in Overwatch," wrote Powers.

"For clarity, any third-party application that impairs competitive integrity in Overwatch is not allowed." For example, a third-party application offering information to users such as enemy position, enemy health, use of enemy capabilities or ultimate preparation creates an uneven playing field for all other players on the map. "

Powers said that Blizzard was drawing a hard line against cheaters, but in this case, it will contact users of these specific programs to ask them to remove them immediately, in order to avoid a possible account suspension.

"We take the competition very seriously in Overwatch," wrote Powers. "The basis of good competition is that each player is equally equipped to compete, but many third-party applications are eroding the rules of the game for Overwatch we aspire to."

The overlay of Visor's game is a little sketchy, but I'm a bit surprised that Blizzard is targeting a post-action reporting app like Pursuit. Post-match analysis is an important part of serious competition, both in conventional sport and in sports, and there is a clear difference between cheating and trying to understand what went wrong and how s & # 39; improve. Unless the Blizzard software can not differentiate third-party applications (which I suppose is possible), dropping the hammer on post-match scans seems a bit heavy.

As Gamasutra pointed out, the crackdown does not take place at a particularly opportune time for Visor: in August, it announced that it had raised $ 4.7 million in funding to "accelerate the development of our technology in real time" .

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