This is what I’m a little bit worried about. Maybe it won’t actually come to this on the regular or will take some time to sort the system out so that it’s not that extreme, but it’d be a shame to see all even slightly hostile open RP go to private chats.
A story world without conflict feels a lot less immersive, and I’m afraid of RP becoming cliquish out of necessity for anything outside of perpetual sunshine and happiness RP (which is very fun, but variety is important, too!) will vanish.
Open RP is a lot of fun, and it would be unfortunate if most of the RP went underground and became hard for players new and old to the server to find. Since they mentioned that private chats have much more leniency with moderation, I could see even the strictly friendly interactions becoming private just to avoid taking risks, especially if the system ends up getting abused really badly.
I’m not trying to doomsay or anything, I’m hopeful that the flaws will be worked out over time, but those are just my concerns, is all.
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i feel like a roleplayer version of a zoomer, like just don’t be stupid or paranoid and you’ll be fine in public spaces roleplaying
Yeah, with the visibility and attention the reporting system has now, I personally wouldn’t risk my account just to have an argument in /say, especially knowing all too well how psychotic some of the toxic operators on MG and WrA have been.
The MG thread is anecdotal but so is the opposite sentiment. Just not worth it IMO.
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raises hand
I have.
And now you won’t find me RPing in a city out of fear of being reported for having fun, harmless IC arguments. I come into Org to use the AH or go to the guild faire, otherwise I’m going to stick to server events and guild RP from now on.
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Yep. Gone are the days when you could publicly cannibalize a goblin or tell an elf to eff off without fear of repercussions.
I’m gunna miss the good old days.
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do I need to be the reminder that blizzard can also see your mrp and trp profiles, and has been able to since bfa’s prepatch
like this is just a refresher of the TOS, maybe it’s because I haven’t touched the game in about a year but this seems like over the top, hyperbolic paranoia
Just popping in to say I appreciate the conversations happening, I think these discussions are important to have regardless of what your take on the situation is. I’m purposely avoiding interacting with posts because I don’t want my own personal opinions to taint the conversations, but please know I’m reading everything that’s being posted.
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You shouldn’t hold back your own opinions. If you got thoughts to share you should.
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So I think there is some reason to have some concerns. I don’t think this will be the end of rp or the end of conflict in rp. I think the amount of reporting that will realistically bring action to account will be small. But it does have that roll of the dice feel.
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After following this topic for a bit now across this thread, the thread in the customer support forums, and Discord conversations, I’ve found myself asking a few important questions.
From what I’ve seen so far, the most credible report of someone being reported for IC interactions is Lovi’s post just a few up from this one. I’m incredibly curious if action was actually taken and a warning/suspension/ban or whatever actually issued. However, such details are for Lovi to reveal if desired and not for anyone to demand. The other report I’ve seen of action being taken against IC actions is the post on the MG forums. That poster seems far less-credible, and I get a distinct sense their story could be a bad-faith fabrication designed to spread paranoia in the form of fake news that people immediately accept without question and consider adequate proof all for the sake of lashing out against a certain perception of what the social contract is and what it means.
With that said, since it seems there have been heavy implications that actions against IC dealings have been happening with noticeable frequency across the conversations I’ve been watching, I’d love to see more evidence of this. I just can’t take every anecdote posted on the Internet as unquestionable truth, so pardon me for really wanting to see some screenshots or emails or other proof that this is happening to the people it’s happening to. Getting the context of those incidents might also make things a little clearer.
Otherwise, I tend to be in agreement that this isn’t really introducing anything new. It seems like things aren’t really going to change for the most part, unless of course these anecdotes about being actioned for IC interactions start receiving some substantiation. In the meantime, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to take some RP to party chat or other more private venues. Though, I will say that if there is substantial truth to this sudden crackdown, it strikes me as horribly hypocritical in a lot of ways. To not even be able to RP out some of the exact same themes and concepts that the game itself puts right in front of every player who plays it is just…frustratingly stupid.
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I’m not too concerned about it.
Until Blizz introduces some actual real human moderation, I don’t expect things to change.
People will still be awful and other people will be petty and abuse the reporting tools. I have heard complaints of opposite faction hate happening in group content and the new social contract didn’t stop that.
I do want moderation to be better but I don’t really think anything will change and if there are changes it won’t be very dramatic.
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My situation resolved itself considering I hadn’t broken any rules and had plenty of chat logs to prove it.
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Ah! Well that’s good to hear then and to know that no action was taken against you despite a bad-faith report. It also offers a small bit of relief to the topic of concern.
At this point, the only outstanding claim of bad-faith reporting of IC interactions having negative consequences against anyone is the story conveyed in that MG thread I mentioned before. And as I also mentioned before, that story is one I take with a grain of salt.
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so if nothing actually changed but them basically reminding everyone, ‘hey this is a thing you agreed to and we are going to crack down on bad behavior’, then it’s a load of bunk to me
not that i plan on spamming swears or slurs in /yell all over shattrath or anything like that, and i believe it behooves blizzard to cultivate the game environment they want through some kind of encouragement (which they have barely done), but this is essentially meaningless posturing until they create and prove numerous positive results and few negative results
seems a little late in the game for them to be making such a big deal now, and it makes me wonder if i have missed a point in the past eighteen years where they have done this exact same thing
Talk is cheap.
Actions speak louder than words.
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I don’t think you’re going to get evidence from people you don’t know about anything.
I know that any dealing I’ve had to resolve issues with GM/CS people has been a total nightmare and I would avoid it at all costs.
The worst wasn’t even a false report or report spam, though I’ve gotten those plenty just due to hater-stalkers from these forums.
I even had someone trying to steal Sef’s name back in Legion, or make me lose it, reported for being a ‘slur’. I log in to see the name mangled with numbers and a rename prompt. That was fun to resolve.
But the worst one was when I swapped alts for the GM role of a guild bank with millions of gold worth of rare items. The contents of the guild bank changed to the contents of the swapped-in alt’s old guild bank that had been deleted years prior.
The gaslighting, brush-offs and number of tickets I had to put in made me not want to deal with in-game moderation/help ever again. It took MONTHS to resolve.
So again, I barely RP so I’m personally not worried about this, but I wouldn’t brush anything off just because the contract itself hasn’t changed (which would be a nightmare for them if it did) – the visibility, tools, and seeming thrust towards actual enforcement is enough.
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I’m sorry you’ve had such bad experiences dealing with customer service and game masters. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had mostly positive experiences with them. At least you were able to keep your name in the wake of a report it didn’t deserve as you described. I’d call that a positive outcome even if it was an inconvenient pain to have to deal with.
Also, I’m well aware I’m not likely to see any proof of suspensions or bans due to IC interactions being reported. But at the same time, I’m not going to succumb to confirmation bias and trust every unverified claim made just because it might happen to align with a feeling I already have. I do hope that no one has to deal with actually being suspended or banned in the manner we’ve been speculating about; but thus far I maintain that considering the concerns raised and the limited evidence we have of those concerns actually being fully realized, there’s not much here to truly be afraid of.
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Yeah it was definitely good to keep the name, though I have doubts the false report resulted in any repercussions for the harasser. Glass-half-full viewpoint is that it was a relief, but the other side of it is I just hate having my time wasted (unless I’m wasting it myself by playing I guess!)
Another weird thing is that I noticed way more talk than usual about reporting people in BGs this weekend, though it could just be a coincidence. Had some really annoying people in the TM brawls – though from what I’ve always understood, telling people to report others is reportable in itself??
I think it is considered targeting and harassment to tell people to report others, yeah, though I don’t know how seriously they action that these days or have in the past. I know someone tried to get me chat silenced that way a few years ago for petty rp reasons, but I didn’t see them get reprimanded in any way until I put a ticket in for them actively disrupting my rp.
The reporting system was also expanded on in this patch, with a heavy emphasis on PvP griefing, alongside the social contract. So reporting bad actors is something fresh on the minds of PvPers as well as roleplayers.
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