So the description pretty much floats around the questions I would like answered so let’s get started.
With the recent removal of players with their experienced turned off it has become a problem where people are using an exploit (which I have reported) to enter into battlegrounds. Recently I made a thread stating to remove those players from battlegrounds by reporting them away and getting them kicked. A lot of the ‘Twink’ community has taken up arms against this saying - This is abuse of a Blizzard system. I disagree. Exploiting to get into the system is a clear breach of the Terms of Service, we’re just kinda cleaning things up that they miss. So is it? Is using the report away function a gross misuse of the Blizzard system when used against people exploiting into battlegrounds?
A couple of players armory links have been posted in this thread. Again, the twinks are calling it harassment and shaming and saying player armories are not supposed to be linked on the forums. I’d like an official response to “Is this considered a forum of harassment to link a players in game profile to the official forums?” (That sounds so stupid when you read it, but I want an answer so i’m gonna suck it up.)
If a player is not AFK, then reporting them as such would not be appropriate. If you think that they’ve cheated in order to get into a BG, right click on their character-pic in-game and select “Cheating”.
Calling out other players because you believe that they were somehow cheating is indeed against the forum rules. It’s been covered her in CS thousands of times. Report your suspicions in-game using the appropriate tool instead.
It’s not that you’re linking to their profile, it’s that you’re doing so while accusing them of something.
For number #1, players with XP turned off are allowed into battlegrounds. The recent change (reversion, technically) is that there are now separate queuing brackets for XP-on players and XP-off players (each are exclusively queued with their own types).
So when you say XP-off players are getting into battlegrounds, what do you mean? XP-off players are getting into XP-on battlegrounds?
I think Perl nailed this one perfectly. You are within your rights to report them, but you want to report them for the proper thing. This will accomplish a few things.
First off an akf report goes nowhere. Itnis a breadcrumb in an ocean. Is it afk yes or no. Done deal. Did we get enough odlf these to auto kick. Done.
Reporting for cheating gives you a description box, generates logs, and gets the report reviewed. Now you can explain what happened. There are logs to support or refute this. And of. They are exploiting on the regular, expect to see a punishment hammer swing in one big motion. However, most importantly, it gets the issue in front of the right people.
As to number two, it is absolutely in the context you posted naming and shaming and can result in action against the people thst did it.
If I remember right, I read folks would sigh up for random BGs with their exp turn on. Go to whomever does the exp on/off and turn that off to get into the BG with exp off.
Yeah, that’s what I imagined they might be doing. Whether or not that’s a violation of the rules, or how Blizzard could/would track such a thing, I don’t know.
I mean, they’re paying gold to toggle their XP, so at the end of the day it’s sorta the player’s call. But if they’re doing it to gain an advantage…it’s a sticky situation for sure.
One or two people I know tried this early on and said that when the XP-on/off is toggled while queued, it auto-cancels the queue. That way, one is forced to requeue which would then put them in the proper bracket.
I’ll have to ask them to make sure I understood right.
UPDATE: This is indeed the case: while queued, toggling XP either way will auto cancel the queue.
Exploits should be reported using the in-game Bug Report option on the Help Menu. That way Blizzard is informed and the information is not spread to curious players.
I personally don’t feel it was naming or shaming. I brought the person in question I was referring to by linking their armory and showing that after several games with me they were not leveling by attaching screenshots with the post of them remaining the same level after several games.
Also, I agree, let’s not post HOW the exploit is done please. It’s been reported through a bug report and in game. Let’s not help the community any more by continued posting of the exploit.
So you linked to their armory and posted a screenshot too, in an attempt to show that they were not breaking any rules? Or was it because you were trying to provide proof (if you can even call it that) of the other player using an exploit?
While you might not agree, you did exactly what is considered naming and shaming.
You pretty much just defined naming and shaming, despite what your intentions behind it were.
I know it is frustrating, however in that particar instance the player was correct. I would hate to see you get forum vacation, lose the ability for trust level three, and have the penalty double for the next infraction while you felt justified in your actions.
Especially if what led to this is a player using an exploit in the first place. Unfortunately, two wrongs don’t make a right.
I think others have already answered this sufficiently but just to make it more official. If you believe someone is exploiting please use the Right Click for: Cheating option.
The /afk system is entirely different and as noted, won’t get those players looked at.
Simply linking an armory profile of players you believe to be exploiting would be considered harassment, as it falls under “naming and shaming” or “calling out”. Neither of which we allow on these forums.
If you were having a discussion with someone in a thread and included their armory profile, much depends on the context. If you are doing so to call them out, that tends to fall under harassment.
Additional in-game screenshots should be avoided as that starts to get back into harassment.
If you believe people are exploiting, and want to report the method on which they are attempting to do so, please submit a bug report and/or write to hacks@blizzard.com.
Apologies for the need to edit my post. Was only trying to provide facts on the issue, since it had been inaccurate speculation, which seemed less useful. I’ll be careful to be less specific on the forums and use the hacks email in the future.