As if there really needed to be more reasons not to play Overwatch (being boring and repetitive the chief among them), Blizzard has introduced a new rule that will see players getting banhammered if they attempt to gain experience points while inactive or away from the keyboard.

In a post over on Battle.net, [via FreedomCGC] Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explained that some players are exploiting the custom game mode in order to level up while inactive, and they will resort to banning those users for doing so.

Kaplan writes…

“Abusing and exploiting Custom Game or any other game mode to earn experience in Overwatch while inactive is NOT ok. The reason I want to be absolutely clear about this is because we are going to start to take disciplinary action against people who partake in these activities. If you create a Custom Game that in any way encourages players to gain experience while inactive, you risk having your account banned. If you join any game mode – including Custom Games – with the intent of gaining experience while being inactive, you risk having your account banned.”

The Custom Games have been used to create a wide variety of different game types in Overwatch, such as the Zombie Horde mode, which you can check out in a video below by AlexACE.

Not everyone makes derivative modes based on Left 4 Dead, though.

Some players have been logging into the custom game, setting themselves up to win a match, then earning the XP and then leveling up.

So what’s the benefit of this? Well, it’s possible to unlock some cosmetics and loot boxes, but leveling up doesn’t improve your play experience nor does it upgrade your character.

Even still, Kaplan and the rest of the team took steps to limit how much experience players will earn from the Custom Games. Skirmish, for instance, will no longer reward XP when playing through a Custom Game mode, and there’s now an AFK timer set into place so users can’t farm experience points while away from the keyboard.

If it continues, Kaplan threatens the community that experience points altogether will be turned off in the Custom Games. He implores users to snitch on others who are creating rooms just to farm XP, stating…

“The feature is so much cooler and better for everyone if we do not have to put draconic restrictions on it. To fast forward a bit, the end of the escalation plan will result in experience gain being turned off in Custom Game. I really don’t want to see us getting to that point. So I am going to ask for some help from the vast majority of you who are simply playing the game and having fun and not abusing it: please report those who are creating Custom Games with the intention of gaining experience while remaining inactive”

So there you have it. You can’t farm XP unless you’re actually grinding just so you can unlock cosmetic items and other useless things like emotes and stickers.

(Main image courtesy of Adran)