I have a question regarding the above because it oftens comes up in GD and occasionally as Newcomer Guide I see questions about this sort of thing. (Note, I’m not talking about me, but about the situation in general).
What is the actual process that Blizzard has in place with regard to a player having multiple reports made against them?
I see repeated comments and statements that multiple reports can result in a player being “banned” or “suspended” for x period of time and I’ve always thought that there is no automatic system that does that. I’d really appreciate clarification of how it works so I can bookmark this for referral in the future.
Note: I’m after a Blue response so I can quote it as official.
Mass reports resulting in a ban is 100% myth the only time report results in a ban/suspenion is if a actual rule is broke at most they will get squelched till a GM can take a look at the report.
Then by all means, do a quick search of this forum and you’ll see hundreds of posts on the subject.
“Mass reporting” has been long debunked despite whatever that person responding to you in GD says. Let’s see them dig up a Blue post that supports their tinfoil theory
Yes I have tried to search but there are so many different terms used its hard to define it in the search. And many of the ones that come up are people complaining about being punished for one thing or another and the responses can be varied depending on what they did. I guess I was hoping for a clear answer but I will keep searching.
Honestly what me and perl said pretty much what vrak or orlyia would say you dont always need a blue response alot of us regulars have been around long enough to know reasonably what they would say.
Yes, I understand but if I quote something that someone like yourself has said, others can just say thats an opinion or its not proof. I’ll just keep looking I guess, but thank you. (:
The sad reality is people are more likely to disbelieve blue posts they will always says well he who shall be named debunked it so clearly the blues are lying when said player is known for blowing it out his orifices.
There is an automated SQUELCH system that has been in the game for around 15 years. Enough unique reports from different players in a short enough time period and it can squelch a player pending GM review. This was put in game to help stop gold spammers and their ilk. It CAN be triggered on purpose when someone abuses the report functions - like encouraging their followers to report them. Then they get Suspended for abusing the reporting system.
In-game warning. This is an automated system that lets a player know they recieved several reports. It is just a warning and nothing more. GMs can not see what it is for unless it escalates up the priority system. https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/301103
NOT-AUTOMATED:
Silence, Suspension, or license closure is done only by a GM. That is NOT automated. How long the penalty is depends on the number of past infractions on the account, generally speaking. So even something minor can get a long penalty if it is their 3rd or 4th infraction.
“Mass reporting” is rare and done by large coordiated groups who then end up penalized. The most it can do is cause a SQUELCH, not an actual account action that is applied by a GM. The vast majority of the folks claiming to have been “mass reported” were not. They only had a few reports and those reports showed them actually breaking the rules.
One of the better recent Blue posts on “mass reporting” fears and accusation.
has this actually been clarified in regards to cheating?
when they do a banwave, it certainly looks like the system does all the work.
it’s not the same as individuals being reported.
…and it would make sense for this aspect to be automated.
(and would go a long way to explaining why so many innocent players get caught up in the waves)
probably slightly off topic, but i’ve never seen the question asked.
Ah - good point. I was talking about the in-game chat reports and related social infraction penalties that are handled by GMs.
The Anti-Cheat is handled by the Hacks team, not the GMs. Reports to them are helpful in that they can provide data for their investigations. Those investigations tend to be long term, involve deep diving into the cheating software, figuring out how it works, figuring out how to detect it, etc. Then they update the detection software and test that. Much like antivirus. They DO check real samples to verify them and test that what they are doing is working correctly. When they are confident they are detecting the cheating method/software/exploit, they add that anti cheat detection criteria to Warden (or whatever they use now). Again, just like running antivirus with updated definitions.
That usually results in a ban wave where a lot of accounts using that cheat were detected based on the software.
On rare occasions their detection criteria are wrong and they get a false positive on something they had not tested against. In those cases they will see some sort of trend in appeals or something that makes them revisit the anti cheat software and criteria. They can then run it again once fixed, and overturn the errors along with an apology.
I think I missed something somewhere. What part do you read as mass reports resulting in auto bans/suspensions.? That is not what happens. That can get someone squelched for a chat infraction. It does not do anything else.
Cheating bans are the Hacks team. Chat/Social infractions are the GMs.
That was clarified after one of the banwaves. Blizzard uses a script to scan the accounts looking for the thing they are banning about. The identified accounts are then manually verified. Any account left on the list is then part of the banwave. Yes there are “automated” sections of this process, but the actual decision is made by a person. This process is why it can take a while before a banwave happens.
