I was just thinking, as I watched trade on A-52 flood with ads for M+ and AotC and all manner of things, shouldn’t the players and guilds who work with these advertisers be getting banned?
They are knowingly working with these now banned communities and low level advertisers despite the updated policies regarding in-game services.
So if all we do is ban the bots and stolen accounts advertising how is that going to solve the problem? What about the players profiting off of this? It’s not hard to trace back to them. Some even use the names of guilds in their ads, despite being low level characters on new accounts with zero affiliation.
Why are we only taking half measures when tons of 3rd party RMTs are still going on and being so brazenly advertised in game?
Also, how did they manage to make the new right-click report interface worse? If you type in additional info then report something else later you have to manually clear that field.
if the level 60 advertising does not have the achievement they are advertising for I report it. Not in the guild they are advertising for? I report it.
Anything that isn’t a level 60? I report it.
Level 60 with high io and M kills advertising for and they are in that same guild? Fine that’s ok. 3k io and selling +15s for gold? Ok that’s fine. Glad selling arena ques? I’m not a big fan of pvp boosting, but from my understanding that’s allowed.
The stuff wouldn’t exist so bad if it wasn’t in a high demand.
I do the same as Fuzzbutt when I am in an area with trade chat and doing something like leveling a crafting skill or restocking/reorganizing my gbank with stuff.
It’s easy to say “who cares, why bother” but if every legit player reported just one of these guys they would get squashed fast.
That’s the problem with reactionary enforcement like Blizzard does. Players get tired or apathetic about the bots, spammers, boosters, etc… and so they get away with it more. Then we get a rule change like recently, big upswing in reports being made, things briefly get better but it slowly creeps back in and business as usual.
This is why Blizzard needs to hit the other end of boosting.
Take out the people doing the boost. Nobody wants to lose their Mythic level geared account for the sake a few bucks I would think. After enough of them do, it would really impact the problem.
Who wants to risk their character/account with hundreds or thousands of hours of investment carrying a stranger?
Instead they just action the low level accounts bought with gold turned bnet balance or stolen CCs or just entirely stolen accounts in some cases.
Using a 3rd party to sell your boosting services is, and that is specifically what I was talking about in the first post.
Using a level 1 alt on a throw away account to advertise is.
Selling boosts cross realm is.
Tons of boosting that violates the updated rules still happens.
Leaving trade or ignoring the problem doesn’t fix it.
Actioning the accounts of the people profiting off those sales, the people doing the runs along with their intermediaries shuffling gold around, would likely be a huge impact on this stuff.
Stolen accounts are not a problem. Accounts are a business expense for the businesses that pay their employees to play the game. However, there is no sign of enforcement by Blizzard.
I think the “guilds” they advertise for are fake names.
They honestly should get bans if they are knowingly doing this.
It has already been illustrated that top guilds continue to do this and then say there is no other alternative for them to sell the boosts. To be clear, its through middlemen and NOT their own guild affiliated boosts.
Blizzard has only made half measures and now it appears those are mostly pointless. I do see less advertise spam in LFG and Trade BUT it does crop up again. Nobody should be exempt from punishment for boosting with a 3rd party, but unfortunately just like IRL if you are a big name you skirt the rules . In addition to that, simply banning the one spamming advertisements does nothing, you have to hurt their supply lines (i.e. the players giving the boosts).
We get that you boost but if its in Trade and I see it I will report it. I may be waiting on a key, on an arena queue, for a friend to log on, whatever the case may be if you are not level 60 nor have the credentials to give what you advertise for then bugger off.
It is against the ToS in certain circumstances, which the OP mentions and the people you are responding to have also mentioned:
Per blizzard support page: "Organizations who offer boosting, matchmaking, escrow, or other non-traditional services, including those offered for gold are prohibited, especially those who operate across multiple realms.
Accounts that are used for the primary purpose of advertising may be closed."
As per what Kaivax said in a CC thread:
That is the problem. So yes what the thread is about is against the ToS.
Trade is literally where boosting advertisements are supposed to be. Also some people post on level 1 alts because of all the hatred and tears from people like you.
Boosting is not against ToS. Being part of a boosting community is.
. In addition to that, simply banning the one spamming advertisements does nothing, you have to hurt their supply lines (i.e. the players giving the boosts).