Banning someone from a game they have paid for over communication complaints , when a silence would actually solve the issue?
Even if I disagree with using an automated system to delve out silences, I cant say that a silence is a misappropriated punishment.
I have a reason I think you go for bans over silences, and it doesnt put you in a good light so I wont make accusations.
But any dev please explain to me what your internal reasoning on why you go full on ban when a silence actually solves what you consider to be the issue.
I wont hold my breath for a response and instead expect this to get locked or deleted and probably a forum ban because Blizzard has become such a lovely gaming company the last few years who strives to do their best.
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Oh now I wish we’d get to see what was said ingame to warrant a ban. Wow. Because yeah, usually you get silenced. Good for whoever was banned, maybe they’ll learn from it.
Since I assume it’s you, I doubt it somewhat. But hey, here’s to self-improvement! 
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You can say something mild and get banned according to how they work their policy. Just know that before you pump money into this game. It certainly has slowed me down and I just use it as a free game. $10 in the last 5 months since they started their ban campaign, where I had spent over $200 in the previous 2 years.
After a 2 silences they start banning. Also it never resets with time so if you get silenced 3x in a years time or even two years, you get banned.
The only things I ever say is something like “hey stop being an idiot and walking away from a full wave of xp to chase muradin”
which if you silence me over that w/e idc.
but a ban? Thats heavy handed and I can only think of one reason they would be motivated to do that…so maybe they give a reason that I am not seeing.
And again, it doesnt really matter what is said for the point. The point is if someone was saying the worse things in the world in the game, why would they not just silence them for a long time instead of ban?
How is a ban not a misappropriated punishment that is in fact denying someone access to something they have paid for?
If you ban someone for feeding I get it. You cant silence that, but chat…
Under federal anti-discrimination laws, businesses can refuse service to any person for any reason, unless the business is discriminating against a protected class .
At the national level, protected classes include:
- Race or color
- National origin or citizenship status
- Religion or creed
- Sex
- Age
- Disability, pregnancy, or genetic information
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rights to refuse service, asking customers to leave, bans, etc etc are allowed to businesses pertaining to their private property. There are exceptions if establishments are apart of ‘public accommodation’, but these games aren’t that.
Blizz has the right to ban people so long as its within the law and not under the ‘protected’ aspects mentioned above. Business tend to prefer to not utilize that outright, or will at least offer signs and reasons as a courtesy to customers, but they are’t necessarily obligated to so do.
Their playground, their ball.
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They could just issue a permanent silence, but they’d rather let you pay for everything over again via a new account. Little do they know, HotS isn’t much of a game in demand for people to come back to if you get permabanned.
Agreed. Blizzard should seriously be sued over this. Someone who has been tons of time, and money into a game. Getting banned over mild chat abuse should not even be legal. I’ve never heard of any other company doing this, its completely bizarre.
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Well, bans don’t go out to first-time offenders, so apparently someone thought you weren’t getting the hint.
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