Overwatch 2 players take aim at Blizzard after surprise change to paid voice lines that makes them worse

Overwatch 2 has been the subject of chops and changes, spicing up the meta with new maps, character changes, and new game modes.

With each patch, notes are shared throughout the community to show whose main’s been ruined beyond repair, and what character will become burdened with the hatred of every player in the OW2 scene. Some changes aren’t mentioned, and one quiet change, in particular, has the community split this time around.

OW2 players blow up over paid voice line ‘nerfs’

That change is the number of times players can spam paid voice lines. Voice lines are a part of the microtransaction side of OW2. As a free title, the devs need to make some cash somehow, and that’s where cosmetics come in.

It’s left players a little confused though—they’re forking out for these paid additions, just to have them silenced in-game if they’re used more than a few times.

Disgruntled OW2 players have shared that they didn’t understand the grounds for creating a voice-line limit. They pointed out some players “actually enjoy hearing the voice line spam,” and they also don’t believe it’s fair to charge a player for a feature, only to remove it. One user suggested that maybe the Blizzard devs should’ve improved the squelch chat instead, meaning players could change it if they desired.

“How is it justifiable to take someone’s money, just to take [it] away?”

Some OW2 players are happy with the silence

Not every Overwatch 2 player agreed though. One even self-reported so they could speak out in favor of the nerf: “As a person who constantly spans voice lines. I see why they put the soft cap on,” the player admitted in the Jan. 18 thread.

It’s fairly easy to empathize with players who have to deal with the constant ear torture of a voice line on repeat, and so some OW2 players brewed up a new way to combat the issue with a middle ground that might make both parties.

“They should really put an option in audio settings to disable voice lines, either entirely or after a certain amount,” suggested one OW2 player. This feature would at least allow some players to get their daily dose of annoyance in without the other team writing up and sending a formal complaint to Reddit or the Blizzard devs.

The concept of banning or limiting things you’ve paid for isn’t foreign either, others argued. “You pay for a car, but if you speed they don’t let you use it,” one player pointed out.

Voice “nerf” makes OW2 harder to play, others claim

Despite a large portion of the interaction with the post being people repeating voice lines or complaining about the changes, a few people had fairly reasonable opinions.

Those that were annoyed about the change had one major point: Voice lines can be important to gameplay, and can also impact a player’s ability to hear what’s going on. The “game has no radar so sound cues are very important,” said one OW2 player.

Hopefully, the Blizzard devs take note of these Overwatch 2 complaints. Fortunately, they don’t have the power to mute community rants on other forums (yet).