47 U.S. Code § 509 - Prohibited practices (Oops Hearthstone)

(a) Influencing, prearranging, or predetermining outcomeIt shall be unlawful for any person, with intent to deceive the listening or viewing public—
(1) To supply to any contestant in a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill any special and secret assistance whereby the outcome of such contest will be in whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.

(2) By means of persuasion, bribery, intimidation, or otherwise, to induce or cause any contestant in a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge or intellectual skill to refrain in any manner from using or displaying his knowledge or skill in such contest, whereby the outcome thereof will be in whole or in part prearranged or predetermined.

(3) To engage in any artifice or scheme for the purpose of prearranging or predetermining in whole or in part the outcome of a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance.

(4) To produce or participate in the production for broadcasting of, to broadcast or participate in the broadcasting of, to offer to a licensee for broadcasting, or to sponsor, any radio program, knowing or having reasonable ground for believing that, in connection with a purportedly bona fide contest of intellectual knowledge, intellectual skill, or chance constituting any part of such program, any person has done or is going to do any act or thing referred to in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this subsection.

(5) To conspire with any other person or persons to do any act or thing prohibited by paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of this subsection, if one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of such conspiracy.
(b) “Contest” and “the listening or viewing public” defined For the purposes of this section—
(1) The term “contest” means any contest broadcast by a radio station in connection with which any money or any other thing of value is offered as a prize or prizes to be paid or presented by the program sponsor or by any other person or persons, as announced in the course of the broadcast.
(2) The term “the listening or viewing public” means those members of the public who, with the aid of radio receiving sets, listen to or view programs broadcast by radio stations.
(c) Penalties

Whoever violates subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title V, § 508, formerly § 509, as added Pub. L. 86–752, § 9, Sept. 13, 1960, 74 Stat. 897; renumbered § 508, Pub. L. 96–507, § 1, Dec. 8, 1980, 94 Stat. 2747.)


Aside from being sued for the Frat Boy, sexually abusive and discriminating environment in which female employee’s are subject to, one resulting in suicide, each and every player of Hearthstone who is being held at a specific BG rating, Tier ranking or Arena Rank due to the existence of a rigged of algorithm, individual account adjustments (and) or schemes otherwise predetermining outcomes and (or) favoring chances, has the right to sue.

10 Likes

But there isn’t a rigged algorithm. There can’t be, because if there’s a loser, there’s a winner. Why would Blizzard make someone win for no particular reason?

Also, playing BG, Ranked or Arena isn’t a contest, so… oops Dallua?

10 Likes

There has yet to be any actual proof of a rigged algorithm by anyone. The draw algorithm isn’t rigged, the results from cards with random effects aren’t rigged, the matchups aren’t rigged, going first or second isn’t rigged. There’s just so much data being gathered by independent parties that any kind of rigged algorithm would have been noticed within an hour of being added to the game and you’d see every data gathering site complain about it. And Activision/Blizzard knows this, so they have absolutely no incentive to rig the game in any way.

There are no players being “being held at a specific BG rating, Tier ranking or Arena Rank”, but there are a ton of players who are extremely quick to claim the game is rigged against them for whatever reason when they don’t win.

3 Likes

Hi Dallua,

If you were to take this much effort in battlegrounds to learn the dynamics of the game, which is free to play BG, that you did to look up this code, you might have a better chance of improving your rating.

First off… Why are you so uptight about what your rating is in battlegrounds? Is it going to get you into a better college? Battlegrounds is a free mode in hearthstone, it’s a game, its free for everyone to play. It’s not rigged contrary to what you may believe.

Would you go into a Casino at a Poker table and wave this code in the dealers face? No, you wouldn’t.

So it’s not OPs Heathstone, it’s you just being salty because you don’t have the skill to get the rating in a free game mode that you would like.

2 Likes

i usually do bgs with my wife and do okay. she went to do some ranked cuz she had that quest and i had a bg win quest and i was able to get my hangry dude at 347593847593485 hp and damage. if you tried that any higher than my actual bg rank i assume the game would auto uninstall itself for even thinking to try. XD the higher you go the better the players are. my actual ranking is garbage but since i’ve played with her so much it kinda felt like i was smurfing by playing at my actual rank. it’s not that it’s rigged. it’s just the higher you go the better your opponents are.

edit: i only do bg stuff for weeklies. same with ranked. otherwise, i i just go other stuff. she does ranked stuff and bgs all the time.

Here is the Activision patent explaining IN DETAIL rigged matchmaking.

Patent number US20160005270A1

System and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games

The gist of it is the following:

Let’s say I am ftp and spend little/no real money.

Algorithm puts my cheap rock deck against paper deck and I often lose. Rarely, I get put against a scissors deck just to keep me playing.

I finally spend real money to craft paper deck because that’s what is giving me a problem and it seems OP.

Algorithm then rewards me by putting my shiny new paper deck against a bunch of rock decks. I win a lot and I am happy I spent that money.

After I get X amount of easy games against rocks, my paper deck gets put up against many scissors decks. I start to lose again. Rarely, I get put against rock deck just to keep me happy.

So I spend more money to craft scissors deck because it seems OP.

Algorithm puts me against paper for easy wins.

Then it’s time for next expansion and new meta.

READ THE ACTIVISION PATENT I LINKED ABOVE if you don’t believe me, lol.

7 Likes

Here’s a snippet from the Activision patent itself, because I know people will be too lazy to read it.

“If the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective, giving the player an impression that the particular weapon was a good purchase. This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results.”

…lol.

4 Likes

I did. It’s about Shooters. It’s also four years old and (reportedly) never implemented in any game.

Also, a little fun fact: Whenever things concern a Blizzard game, the company is Activision-Blizzard. When it’s an Activision game, it’s Activision. And since this is an Activision patent, it has nothing to do with Blizzard.

So, yeah… oops?

4 Likes

there is no denying this game feels like they are predetermined competitions of sorts.
this company has also never declared or guaranteed its innocence or fairness.
how is this not more serious an issue, how has this game.company not been shut down.

2 Likes

Of course it feels predetermined, because it’s hard to accept you’ve either had bad luck or was outplayed. The games you won don’t feel predetermined because you played your deck the way you were supposed to play it.

And yes, this company never declared or guaranteed its innocence or fairness because that should go without saying. If they did, people would just say they’re lying and that they’re hiding something. You can’t win with this one.

It’s not a more serious issue, because it’s not a serious issue. It’s selective memory, only remembering the unlucky plays you had, forgetting the high rolls that made you win.

And you might say “well, what of all the others that have reported this issue?”

Well, what about them? Everything I just said is still valid. But those refusing to believe it will not listen, and those that want to explain things get tired of shouting against a brick wall, so they just give up. That’s the only reason why these conspiracies persist. Not because it’s true, but because people won’t accept they’re not as good at the game as they thought. If you look at each of these complaints, all these people should be high legend, but Blizzard is targetting them specifically to keep them in lower diamond or platinum. Ocram’s Razor says the game isn’t rigged, but they’re just not as good as they think they are.

4 Likes

CoD =/= hs. the fact that you conspiracy theorists don’t understand that they are two separate companies under one umbrella that do not interact with each others games, is so odd. there’s a reason you see crossover stuff with hs/wow/hots/ow but NOT candy crush.

3 Likes

People have literally posted the full details of Blizzard patent which details the algorithm for manipulating players to purchase packs to “enhance their experience”.

This just gets met with more “but no proof” comments.

Argument goes around in circles

3 Likes

a) It’s an Activision patent (and not Activision/Blizzard).
b) It’s for Call of Duty (ie. not Hearthstone).
c) There’s no evidence that it has actually been used in CoD.

But it’s certainly something the games media loved pointing at when it was found. And far too many interpreted it as proof of games being rigged against them.

This patent is NOT the proof you apparently think it is. Every single data aggregating site would show the game being rigged if it was. None of them do.

3 Likes

just stop u weird shill. u didnt even quote me. auto reply crap.

how about how solo adventures are even designed for you to lose just so you get BM’d for the story. Unforgivable.

2 Likes

Well, you didn’t quote me. I didn’t think it was necessary.

And what solo adventures are you talking about? The only one I can think of (though it is possible I forgot one) is the Death Knight Adventure, but that’s not BM.

they can cheat if they are a game master regular people cannot cheat

so where’s your law degree from

actually don’t worry about it, why not go on ahead and take this to court. what could go wrong?

Actually, the burden of proof is on you. So, how do you prove your claim?

But he’s talking about BATTLEGROUNDS… ITS FREE.

The patent describes that such a system could be extended to other games. Appaarently, you didn’t read it. If you did, maybe you’d agree that the patent describes a manipulative system to give easy matches to people who buy stuff with microtransactions. Or, maybe you’re too far gone.

Are you asserting that Blizzard is not allowed to access Activision patents/IP? Where is your proof of this? Why are you arguing about corporate structure instead of commenting on the patent itself? lol. Strawman much?

Yeah, oops.

An Activision (parent company of Blizzard) patent describing systems which reward microtransactions with easy wins (using CoD type shooters as an example to explain the patent, but also explicitly stating the patent itself is generally applicable to all matchmaking/microtransaction systems) is not enough for you. You are too far gone, sorry. I’m not going to hack Blizz and give you the server-side matchmaking script.

Proof was posted in the form of a patent. The burden was met and you choose not to see it.

2 Likes