If you’ve just wrapped up a hard-fought multiplayer match, it’s polite to say “gg” to all involved as a show of sportsmanship. Jackasses, however, have taken to corrupting it by adding “ez” to the end, essentially saying, “Beating you losers was a piece of cake.”
As of yesterday’s new test server patch, Overwatch now filters “gg ez” into, well, a bunch of really entertaining stuff. For example:
- “I’m wrestling with some insecurity issues in my life but thank you all for playing with me.”
- “Well played. I salute you all.”
- “For glory and honor! Huzzah comrades!”
- “It’s past my bedtime. Please don’t tell my mommy.”
- “Gee whiz! That was fun. Good playing!”
- “I feel very, very small... please hold me...”
In-game, it looks like this:
So basically, bad sports come off looking very, very silly. Of course, they’ll start saying something else once everybody knows about this (many people already do), so this is more of a prank on Blizzard’s part than a soothing salve for the game’s rash of toxicity.
Still, the pro-“free speech”/anti-any-sort-of-consequence-for-being-a-noxious-dick crowd is throwing a fit over this, because of course. However, many online games default to censoring curse words and things of the like, and I highly doubt that turning one phrase into a joke is the beginning of Blizzard’s Orwellian plot to replace words with other words. Or turn Overwatch into a dreaded Safe Space or whatever people continue to be on about.
It’s actually all pretty easy. Don’t be a dick. Make jokes, have fun, laugh, learn, love! Just don’t be a dick. On the bright side, many Overwatch players seem to understand this quite well, and the majority of responses I’ve seen to Blizzard’s “gg ez” gag have been positive.
It seems, then, that Blizzard wins this round. GG EZ indeed.