Graphic ‘Overwatch 2’ custom lobbies reveal problems with moderation

Content warning: This article discusses sexual harassment and adult themes

A tweet from a concerned parent claims that her 12-year-old son has found custom game lobbies in Overwatch 2 with names such as “sexual harassment” and one game that “simulated the female characters being raped”.

The tweet, from Twitter user Lynn_McGoo, states that her son “realised it was bad, closed the game” and told her. In the replies, she elaborates that “the rape game was called something ‘girls’ so he thinks it’s just female characters playing, he picked a female character, he was the only female character in the game, he was forced to lie down while the male characters lay on top of his character”.

Twitch streamer Limmy then entered the game and found screengrabs of the Overwatch 2 “sexual harassment simulator” custom games, which appear to all be set in the King’s Row map in winter, and are densely populated, with most almost at full capacity.

Here’s some screengrabs I found on Twitter of this Overwatch 2 sexual harassment simulator. Apparently it’s been going on since the first game. It would be easy for Blizzard to prevent it, but they’re not.

This is a game marketed to 12 year olds. https://t.co/xg4BtKXT8M pic.twitter.com/oLLrehkchx

— twitch.tv/Limmy (@DaftLimmy) October 23, 2022

One video found online shows the “sexual harassment simulator” running in-game, which has missions for the player in the top-right hand corner, and a “months of pregnancy” counter. The streamer enters as a female character and shortly after entering, has Cassidy’s magnetic grenade attached to her, before being “teabagged” by the opposing male character. The mission in the top-right hand corner then changes to “Wait till [yo]ur baby is here” with the months of pregnancy counter increasing.

Upon entering the Overwatch 2 custom games mode this afternoon (October 24), NME found multiple “18+” and “NSFW” lobbies, as well as “Tinderwatch” which saw multiple users discussing sex in the in-game chat. “Please be mine,” one user typed, whilst another shortly followed up with the abrupt “S3x???”

It appears these game modes can be reported, but at the time of writing NME had reported six inappropriately named or themed lobbies with inappropriate in-game chat, that remained open for at least 45 minutes following the report.

One user in the Twitter replies, Josie, tagged Blizzard Entertainment and said, “I reported this when I saw it in the game last week, however, I didn’t see this in OW1. I did see others just as bad then though and reported those then. How does something like this get through filters?!”

It does appear that creating game modes has certain words banned – as attempting to recreate the “sexual harassment simulator” is blocked, but “harassment simulator” was successfully created by Dexerto.

NME has reached out to Blizzard Entertainment for comment.

In other news, spoilers for God of War Ragnarok have begun appearing online.