Female Overwatch player changes tag amid sexist harassment to surprising results

Unfortunately harassment in Overwatch is nothing new, but one player seems to have found a way to outsmart the trolls.

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Look hard enough on Twitter or Reddit and there’s probably a good chance you’ll see some instance of an Overwatch player being harassed, whether it’s for losing a match or just because a teammate woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Sometimes it can even be for nothing more than a username, but one player seems to have found a way to slip past harassers whose main material are Battle.net tags.

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Flying under the radar

Reddit user claudiamili shared her experience of changing her name on Overwatch, which was her actual name before, to a male one.

“I was being targeted when people began to get frustrated for losing simply because I was a female,” claudiamili wrote. “I’ve come to this conclusion because I’ve now changed my name which is after a male book character and have not received any hate.”

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“I’m not even exaggerating. I accept the fact that I’m not great at the game,” she wrote. “But I’m as good as the rest of the people in my tier. (minus the smurfs)”

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It’s pretty ridiculous that all she had to do was change her username to a more masculine one to make the harassment stop, but it’s an interesting strategy for those that would be willing to try it.

Of course, a lot of players are connected to their in-game name and may not want to change it just to get the trolls off of their backs, which is where Overwatch’s block and mute functions come into play.

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Harassment: A big problem in gaming?

It’s not just Overwatch that has a harassment problem – according to a study from the Anti Defamation League, a majority of online gamers have experienced some form of harassment or another.

• Read More: Overwatch PTR update July 25 patch notes

Out of 1,000 people surveyed in the study, 74% of multiplayer players had experienced some form of harassment – and 75% of Overwatch players surveyed said they had experienced it as well.

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Harassment in online gaming has probably been a problem as long as online gaming has been around, but leave it to Overwatch fans to find some creative solutions.