It has. Before Blizzard could ban these people and it wouldn’t cost them much at all to start spamming again. Just another prepaid card. Now it actually costs them. Keep reporting, the more bans the faster they go away.
No, you assume that it does. Even if it does, it seems to be a tax write off, since they keep doing it. Blizzard always had the option to act on these accounts. Nothing has changed.
This was always true.
At the end of the day, the authenticator has impacted real players far more than the bots.
So we are in a situation where real players are impacted vs. bots who have a work around (or at best are just slightly hampered). So who’s experience should get priority?
Again I’m not advocating we “do nothing”.
But again if there is an issue with the group finder. Then revamp the group finder. Account security is a whole different thing.
There are a ton of shortcomings with the group finder. They range from as benign as “World Bosses” not letting you pick WHICH world boss (which is literally a dropdown with 6 static text entries), to not distinguishing between range vs. melee icons, to not specifying arena rating you are working towards, etc.
Basically bots will always find a way to abuse custom text. So Blizzard needs to figure out ways to avoid needing custom text in the first place.
Either way, they should treat all players equally whether they have an authenticator or not. Right now, if you have an authenticator you can make groups. If you don’t, you realistically can’t.
No Blizzard always DID act on these accts. But it didn’t matter because they were level 10 or 15 whatever unlocked the queue and would just immediately get another acct when they got banned. Now they’d have to get another PHONE which is a significantly higher investment. Will it still be worth it to some of the organizations? Sure or they wouldn’t be doing it. Does it significantly cut down on the spam? 100%. Your anecdotal “it seems the same to me” does not counter that basic fact.
The change to require level 60 did far more to prevent this than the authenticator has.
And yet they still do. It hasn’t actually prevented anything.
Nor does your unsubstantiated “fact”.
LOL no, leveling your 60 is trivial and these sellers had dozens of farmers to do it.
My argument (it costs them money, even if the numbers are the same which they aren’t at least they’re paying for it)
Your argument (nuh uh!!!)
No, you assume that it does.
If they are truly just “compromised accounts”, then it doesn’t cost them anything.
For all you know they are temp bans and advertisers just cycle accounts. Or they tie 1 authenticator to b.net account, but Blizzard only bans the actual account, so a single authenticator can be reused 10 times (10 accounts per b.net).
Also, also … the previous approach of banning accounts (b.net or otherwise) still cost them money.
In either case, it hasn’t cost advertisers enough so that it isn’t still profitable. Otherwise, they wouldn’t still be doing it. Quite a bit actually.
No. My argument is that it hasn’t really done enough to prevent botting or address the root of the problem. Meanwhile, REAL players are being impacted.
Never understood the issue with this. If privacy and data breaches are a concern, that’s what lawsuits are for
I recently got a class action notice from some data breach affecting Capital One from back in 2019, apparently I’m getting a little under $200 from the settlement. And that’s just one example, other big companies like Facebook also been sued for similar data breaches
The point is, if there’s any kind of data breach I’m sure the thirsty lawyers will eventually sort it out. I don’t even think about/worry about such data breaches myself (because again, the lawyers/courts will eventually punish the offending company anyways)
Yet back to high amounts, and that did affect players especially Roleplayers from being able to make groups more effectively and then of course trying to find groups for harder leveling quests is impossible.
The problem is so many groups in the premade group finder will sit up there for days at a time, and I doubt they haven’t been reported enough but since Blizzard employees sell boosts themselves it’s not surprising.
Impacted in that you have to have a phone to type a message? How dreadful. Don’t care.
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I’ve known you didn’t care for a while. How many text messages are you exchanging with Blizzard?
But maybe if you don’t care about something because it doesn’t negatively impact you, then this isn’t the thread for you.
Incorrect because I’m in this community and any gain to me outweighs your inconvenience. Get a phone or whisper people.
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Good for you.
It is still a problem that needs addressing. A better GF benefits everybody. Not just you.
No it doesn’t. It’s worked wonders.
The annoying thing is that I have an Authenticator, but they ALSO want a phone number. Which I do not want to give because dont want some idiot tricking them to get into my account… A phone number defeats the purpose of a 128bit encryption key…
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“that would appease the people who weirdly don’t have phones in 2022” As a person who is deaf and on a fixed income, I would say weirdly a cell phone is basically useless to me other than text functions. I can’t hear it ring. I would never give out the number because I cant hear to talk to people so weirdly why would I spend the expense to purchase a smartphone with a contract when I would only ever use it for blizzards authenticator? I cant arena thanks to this need apparently because everything is greyed out for me.
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I’m legally deaf, on disability and a very limited income…what good is a cell phone to me when its only feature i could use would be text and no not even gps because i cant hear the directions. Hearing people cant call me because i wont hear it ring or them even if i would answer it…and dont say vibrate either…im not taking my phone to bed with me wearing it around my neck in the shower and I certainly wouldnt want to add a strobe light feature to it so I might see it ring if its not on my person when its charging.