Wrongfully Silenced for 2 weeks

Support Site Feedback
1

So I’ve gotten silenced for 2 weeks, to my surprise. I rarely ever speak in chat, if anything I will say “gg” or something along the lines of “hey, this hero would be a good counter”, etc. I have been playing since BETA, and I mostly just play with friends. I do not use a mic, as people are just too toxic most of the time.
Well, I got into a competitive match and joined voice chat to listen to call outs, etc. Nobody was talking, that is until we capped first point (a couple minutes into the game). I was playing Kiriko, and had the most healing, dmg, and least amount of deaths. I felt I was playing pretty well. Apparently the Hanzo did not think so, as he died behind me without calling for healing. I simply didn’t notice. It was not intentional. He then says in voice chat - “Kiriko, are you mentally ill? Mentally challenged? Are you retarded?” I then left he voice chat, as his tone was very aggressive and I didn’t want it to ruin my game. Then he types in team chat - “Kiriko, you don’t deserve this win” and so I respond with “It’s alright, we can just lose this one and I already reported you.” I was not saying that I was going to throw, I kept playing like I normally would, but the game was clearly going to be a loss because everyone was getting upset. Someone else in chat writes “Reporting is lame” and I respond with “There are kids on this game lol” saying that obviously, I’m going to report this guy for abusive language because I don’t want kids to be around it. He then writes in team chat “Actual brain damage is what you have” and just kept going on about it. “You’ve been diagnosed” etc. I didn’t say anything after that. The game ends and he says “I’ll buy a rope for you g” insinuating that I should kill myself. I then asked the enemy team to report him, as he was using abusive language and is “toxic af”.
So, after this game and seeing that I got silenced, I figured that my team mass reported me since they must have been grouped with the Hanzo. I then submitted a Support Ticket, well…this is their response -

**"**During a review of the silence on this account, we have found some comments from it that are unacceptable and so this penalty was applied. Based on our review of the evidence, we will not overturn it. Below are examples of chat that led to this.

“It’s alright, we can just lose this one and I already reported you.”
“There are kids on this game lol”
“Obviously smurfing, only 82 hours in comp”
“And is toxic af”

So…this has to be incorrect…How are any my responses ABUSIVE chat? How did I possibly get silenced for THIS? As 3 of the 4 reasons were a response to a guy who was ACTUALLY being abusive and deserves a perma ban.
I then wrote another ticket, asking for a second opinion and to review the chat logs again.

" This penalty has already been upheld. We will not be taking another look at this. Have a good rest of your day and stay safe out there.

If you continue to experience issues, you can reopen this ticket. If you have a new or separate issue, please submit a new ticket. "

And so, I submitted another…and got the same response. They refuse to look at my chat logs again. It is clearly a bot responding to me, and I can’t do anything about it.
I’m absolutely losing my mind at how unhelpful the support system is. I feel so defeated. I’m a long time player, been playing since BETA, and have never been silenced or banned. I feel like quitting the game now, honestly. I feel like I can no longer speak to anyone without my words getting taken out of context, and it seems as though people will report you for anything - and you WILL get punished, no matter what actually happened.
This is no longer a “team game” like the dev keep saying. This is a “keep your mouth shut and don’t speak to your team about anything” type of game now.

Has anyone else experienced a silence like this? Any luck with the support system?

1 Like
2

Blizzard games all have the same rules for player created content (names and chat text). Violation of those rules all falls under “abusive chat”. As in abuse of the game rules. Those rules require us to avoid:

  • profanity, masked profanity, slurs, hateful comments, most insults, sexual comments, inuendo, spamming, advertising, etc.

When they send you the text sampling, it is just that, a sampling of the lines of chat near when you got penalized. It is not always the exact line that you got in trouble for.

In your case, the mods may have taken it as:

  • Throwing a game
  • Maybe calling someone else a kid?
  • Insulting others
  • Masked profanity

They don’t care about context, or even check it. Never ever let someone bait you into saying things that are going to get you into trouble if reported.

If the other person said what you claimed he did, then he will probably also end up with a penalty. Blizz won’t discuss that with anyone but the account holder though.

Last, the only way to appeal is to put in a ticket, which you did. I doubt that they are going to overturn it. Also, posting about Account Actions on the forums, esp with GM comments, is against the forum rules. I get you want clarification about the policy, but just letting you know the forum mods may end up removing it.

3

I understand your point, but isn’t the whole point of appealing a suspension, for the support team to look into the chat logs to GET the context? I guess I don’t understand why there even is a support team, if they can’t do anything to fix the situation.

1 Like
4

No, that is not what an appeal is for. I get why you would THINK so, but no. Blizzard does not care what the context is or who started it. They only care that the words reported violate the rules. If yes, they apply the account penalty. If no, you never even know you were reported.

Blizzard sees an appeal as a chance for a GM to double check the logs and make sure the logs do support the account penalty. In your case, they likely feel that the logs do support it, for the reasons I listed above.

I know in context you feel you were not the “bad guy” and it was mild, but Blizz really does not take that into consideration.

The support team exists to get those initial reports, determine if an account action is needed, and issue it. They also review the appeals to make sure they did not hit the wrong button and suspend someone when they meant to just close the report with no action.

Of course, they also handle billing, account access issues, account compromises, and everything else you can put in a ticket for.

5

LOL, so I should not try to protect children - saying “There are kids on this game lol” and I should not mention that it’s alright to lose a game. That’s complete insanity. They need to change their system, and when reading a chat log - to READ the context. Because at this point, anyone can report you for anything and you’ll be punished. Absolutely unfair.

2 Likes
6

It is far more likely the masked profanity was what they acted on. It was not every line you said.

The masked profanity is 100% against the rules.

7

Just saying “af” gets you silenced for 2 weeks? People say that all the time. People literally have insanely sexual gamertags for years and don’t get punished for it. Saying “af” is such a small offense. And they put those texts in my ticket response, “There are kids on this game lol” was one of the 4 reasons they gave me. So yes, they must have used that against me. Completely unfair.

It really seems like you’re completely on their side when it comes to my silence. You don’t have to keep responding. I got spoken to in an extremely abusive way, and I got punished. No sympathy from anyone. The aggressor did not get banned. The R word is extremely offensive, and I have a mother with a brain injury so saying I have brain damage is completely cruel. The fact that I was so incredibly offended and responded that respectfully and get silenced for it, disgusting.

1 Like
8

Yes, it will. IF you get reported then you end up being penalized. The duration of the penalty depends on past account history.

None of the other things you mentioned are ok either. REPORT them.

The appeal system gives you a snippet of the chats around the time you are reported. Not every line in that snippet was a penalty. They don’t tell you which one. Sometimes the inserted lines don’t even include the report that caused the violation, esp if you got a lot of reports.

I see your edit. Insults about brain functions are indeed against the rules. You should have reported that and left it at that. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I am sure someone taught you that too. The person who said stuff you was breaking the rules, but so did you. Never get baited.

My opinion on it is irrelevant. My role is to explain how the system works so that you have a better understanding of it. It is not about what I like or not. It is simply information.

9

Why would they not tell you which one? That is so confusing and unhelpful.

And I’ve never been silenced before, a week seems like a long time for a first offense.

10

History of penalties:

  • Used to be suspensions back in the day before OW even existed.
  • They went to Silences starting at 24 hours, and doubling after that. Hoping that a social penalty would have the proper impact on a social infraction.
  • A couple years ago they found that the Silence system was not having the impact they wanted and changed it again. It now starts at a week for a first offense, and then goes to Suspensions.

Any and all can go straight to an account closure of course, if warranted. That usually take a lot of penalties on an account, or something really really bad.

So anyway, that is how you got a week silence for a first offense.

EDIT found one of the CS posts I was looking for. Stating that a single use of the masked profanity was enough for a strike on an account IF reported.

11

I see. Well I guess if it was just me saying “af” I do feel a bit better about that. Still seems like an extremely long duration, but whatever.

Thank you for the helpful information.

1 Like
12

It sucks, no doubt about it. Glad the info is helpful though. Never let them get to you! Just report them and put them on Ignore.

1 Like
14

I feeel you my guy. I got silenced. Put in appeal, denied. They silence and push “safety and enjoyment” so silence thousands of people. I would prefer they put that energy and resources into getting rid of the hackers…But I digress.

3 Likes
15

This game is full of weirdos who will mass report you, even though they say WAY worse things and don’t get reported.

Pretty ridiculous how suspensions work in this game, if they actually cared about the game they would manually, not a robot, look through every single message involved over the entire day, not just a single 5 minute time frame

16

I am sorry Dean, but Blizzard is unlikely to review a full day worth of chat logs, when the reports capture what players feel violates the rules. They then decide if it is a real violation, or not. If not, players never know they were reported. If it is a violation of the rules, then the account history determines the duration of the penalty. If someone has past penalties then the next is longer. It starts around a week Silence now, and then goes to a week suspension, then two weeks, etc. Of course, anything really egregious can still result in instant account closure.

What other people do does not justify also breaking the rules. Much like speeding. Not everyone gets caught, but when they do, they usually get a ticket. If you see others breaking the rules, do NOT let them bait you. Just report and put the account on Ignore.

Keep in mind, while Blizzard’s content is rated Teen, the player made content (chat and names) is not rated. It has to adhere to the EULA and Blizz policies, which are very family friendly for all Blizzard games. They don’t allow profanity, masked profanity, slurs, hateful comments, spam/advertising, etc.

17

they dont check them thats the issue, they just leave a generic response and instantly close it without even providing evidence

2 Likes
18

They use templates when responding to appeals. They do check the logs to verify that yes, the account was flagged, and if it was a chat violation, that it really was a violation.

Keep in mind that Blizzard games are rated by the ESRB (or other rating agency depending on country) for the pre-made content the company produces. That can be reviewed and given a rating.

PLAYER created content and interactions (names and chat) are not rated. Those fall under the EULA and game company policies. The ones you agreed to - which means legally they don’t have to tell you anything besides notifying you that your account has a penalty. Usually they give you the category though - so you know if it was chat related, related to third party software, botting, cheating, etc.

The player rules are very very family friendly. No profanity, no masked profanity, no slurs, hateful comments, sexual comments or innuendo, references to bodily functions/parts, harassment, spam/advertising, etc. If you do any of those things and get reported the GMs will issue a penalty. They don’t care why you did it, only that you did.

The Forum Code of Conduct does a good job giving some detail on Blizzard’s chat rules. Rules that apply to all Blizzard products and games, regardless of game rating.

Hopefully reading through that gives you an idea what you might have said that was reported and penalized.

And here is an example from today of a Forum Support Agent (not a GM), clarifying for someone why they got suspended.

19

How are you guys even getting evidence of your chat logs. I’ve had the same exact problem of being silenced or banned for “behavior” and submitted multiple tickets asking to be given chat logs of what I said that was toxic or abusive and only get the “we will not look into this further” message as well. So what did you say to them that actually got them to send you the evidence?

2 Likes
20

I’m sorry but that’s just not the reality of any of the silencing or ban situations. Most of the time you aren’t even shown what the logs were that show the “abusive” behavior being reported. And even when they DO add them, it doesn’t matter what you say because they’ve already predetermined your guilt.

1 Like
21

While mistakes do happen, that is not the case that they are pre-determined. The GM does check the logs. Invariably the person has done something against the game conduct rules. Such as use profanity, masked profanity, spamming, advertising, sexual innuendo, insults, etc.

If someone feels that is incorrect, they can always open the appeal again.

Recent example of one that was double checked in the WoW CS forum recently.