Why not lock smurfers acc forever if you get evidence of smurfs and get notification of bans anyways. Just nuke whole acc away
It doesn’t take good reception to get a text. Even if it takes a few days for some people to get that text, that’s a very small issue that is vastly outweighed by the benefits.
Yes, you can get around it, but not everyone will. Trying the find a mythical “perfect”, solution won’t end well. We’ve got to take measures that reduce the bad outcomes. Adding multiple layers of contrivance that won’t affect the layman is the way forward.
Hardware, IP etc. bans aren’t going to affect non-cheats, but it will add more layers that stop cheats from playing again. The more layers you have, the fewer cheaters you have.
I completely agree with a playtime wall.
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I agree! I think what we need to get rid of most is Smurf and Alt accounts.
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I couldn’t agree more. Annoying thing is if u ever do search for a team whatever group I join there’s always at least one smurf.
Also they have a go at ur border when u think wait a second you have like 2/3 accounts you prob have 300 more hours than me
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Then, you haven’t lived or done the work I have. Man,it sure must be nice living out in the city. While the rest of us work on a farm, and would like to enjoy our lives on the computer, after some work, instead of sitting around not knowing how the rest of the world works.
Yeah, real entitlement, right there.
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You have options for reliable internet out in the boonies. You simply don’t like the cost of those options, which is one of the trade-offs for the benefits of rural life.
Your ire should be more directed towards our leadership for not enforcing the rural telecommunications incentives that were given to the large telecom companies that were largely not deployed, rather than some random guy on the internet that doesn’t want smurfs in his games and expects people to be able to receive txt messages.
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Sorry, I really don’t know what you mean and you’re making a very fallacious assumption. What’s work got to do with this?
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The players that attempt to justify smurfing or play it down are part of the problem imo. If people would stop being ignorant about this obvious genuine issue that is ruining competitive games for so many people and get behind a thread like this then maybe the devs can stop ignoring it
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Exactly. Reguardless how little one thinks smurfing is problematic, it’s still an issue. It’s completely idiotic to say otherwise.
At worst, people are just making a mountain out of a mole-hill and it helps a little bit, at best it fixes large swaths of competitive and reduces toxicity and frustration.
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Smurfing should qualify as a reportable offense under “Gameplay Sabotage” because that is exactly what they are trying to do - join a lower level matchup and ruin it for the enemy team by concealing their identity as an expert player.
Alternatively, smurfing wouldn’t be a problem if matchmaking simply worked properly. I can handle a smurf on enemy team so long as I don’t have 2 new players on my team who have absolutely no business being in a match against that smurf or with me for that matter. It doesn’t take 100 matches to discover that the smurf belongs in a much higher MMR even in QP. It’s found out after maybe two matches that no new players either should ever be put in a match with that kind of player.
So who is worse? The smurf who sabotages fair matches by pretending to be a new player, or Blizz for letting them do that because they won’t fix the matchmaking algo?
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Smurfs and people who derank are significant issues.
Smurfs often enjoy spawn camping teams and laughing all the way. The don’t care if they lose, they just want to embarrass others. They are easy to identify by being low level yet have high level of mechanical skill.
Smurfs avoid being ranks where their skill level would rank them by throwing placements. It isn’t hard but ruins a match for members on the same team.
Those who throw to derank simply causes members of the same team to lose SR. The match isn’t fun for either side, and it hurts players unnecessarily.
There are a few ways to easily combat this. First is to map and perform IP bans. While this can be avoided by VPNs and subnet masks, it would make things more challenging. Second is to map low level players with high skill performances. For example, a Soldier getting 50+ elims yet is level 29 with no endorsements. Another is simply to monitor games where a team simply dies over and over or consistently leaves games during mid-game fights.
Now, some people may legitimately purchase a second account without intended malice. Someone who has played for years without really climbing now struggling to climb due to his/her previous skill levels, for example. These people can be ruled out because they actually tried during placements.
I know Jeff has said that consoles are the major issues for smurfs, but, from personal experience, so are PC’s
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Every match I play I find smurfs, its getting pretty anoying, I swear it makes me give up on the game
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I had two actual games with real players at their real level tonight before the barrage of smurf ruled games started. There goes any fun for another night. You pretty much have to give up every night because the “devs” won’t do anything to fix it. “play fair” lol ok blizz
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So you are saying I have ZERO right to be here, because I dont have reliable cell phone service? Yeah go work in the honeybee business in a yard filled full of about 300-600 hives on a HOT day out, 90F+, get PELTED by honeybees and soak up about 200 stings at once.
THen come back and say I dont have a right to be on this game (or any game) because SMS is supposed to be required to use the internetz and a video game!
Yeah try doing that, then hop in a semi truck, drive 8 hours IN a smelly AF bee suit, load the Cowen Honey extractor we got here, clean it up and SHUT down the shop in a 10 hour shift.
Oh and don’t forget we have to pickup the answering machine and respond to the truck stop emergency where a bee hauler left behind bees, so mitigate that problem for them!
Yeah… Id like to be able to game and forget about my miserable life for a few hours at a time, WITHOUT having to wait until a cell phone connects to the world, to attempt to get an SMS just to play a VIDEO GAME!!
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You act like you’re the only one in the world that has a “tough” job. Don’t like it? Move, change jobs, fix your life. Whining on the Blizzard forum isn’t going to help you. Nobody owes you anything.
Nice, sounds like a short day.
Realistically though; How can you stop it?
Having a smurf, there’s no way in mind they could stop it. For starters, consoles are shared systems, making hardware bans nearly impossible due to families being upset that their son can’t play because his bigger brother already does.
IP bans also don’t work since VPN’s are a thing and email bans cannot enforce literally nothing, because anyone can make a new gmail account in minutes.
I understand that I might be ruining many peoples experience, but they’re usually just to get through the lower-ranks to have a secondary account in GM. Sorry D:
The actual definition of a smurf is someone who purposely keeps their rank low to abuse other lower ranked players. And a smurf keeps their rank low by throwing games sometimes.
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Im going to be the better person here and walk away. You sound like you have a lack of respect for others in your community. VERY apparent. You also do not acknowledge other person(s) have the right to be here, except yourself and only yourself.
SMS is a really bad idea and if you think about it. Not everyone can afford to keep the latest and greatest phones or services everywhere in the U.S. and outlying countries, as well as regions.
Karma really stinks when it catches up. Please respect your community members better.
Good Day.
So long.