Interesting news here. Perhaps Blizz NA will consider growing a backbone too? I like the taking away of earned titles, rewards and all that for boosting.
That said, 27000 is not as many as say ~270k Blizz noted slamming in December 2023.
But, apparently China is going after carries and boosting across the board (pve and pvp) and those ~270k acccounts for that month were probably not exactly that, mostly bots and RMT accounts.
China may find that stopping the cheating is not so easy. Still, nice to see something being done about boosting/carries. Would love to see some boosting/carry bans in the good ol’ US of A.
Yeah, it’s pretty bad from what I’ve seen when I looked a bit ago. In fact the craziness there has a tendancy to bleed into other regions (/looks at the Illidan server chat as an obvious example). I think it is so bad currently that WoW China had to do something, or at least appear to.
Perhaps Microsoft now owning the IP adds a bit of extra pressure.
I do wonder if Blizz/Microsoft will do something like this here in the US. Would be nice, me thinks.
Need this banwave on NA badly, need to go after buyers hard. Sellers will always remake accounts easily. Target buyers hard and people will think twice about these services.
They really need to put all that type of action (rmt/sells/bots programs/win trading/macro un intended usages/exploiting current raids) under will cause you to lose attaining rewards/title for the current season if caught doing any of it for the entire account. And possible loss of previous rewards. With slaps on wrist people will keep doing it with no care in the world.
Not to mention that it seems if it isn’t happening to above 10% of the player base it seems blizzard has given the pass that is ok to do it by staying quiet on it.
BNet needs to be banned instead of just the license so people dont get to keep all their mounts/xmorgs/enchants/achieves. If you get banned now usually you just lose 1 thing and can make another battlenet with basically EVERYTHING still there bar r1 titles and probably the thing you got banned for.
Achievements like clearing high-end raids (e.g., Mythic difficulty) or earning high Mythic+ ratings require weeks or months of practice, coordination, and skill. When someone buys a boost, they bypass this grind, diluting the prestige for those who earned it through dedication—e.g., a player spending 100+ hours on a boss fight versus a buyer paying $200 for the same clear.
Erodes Competitive Integrity:
In PvP or leaderboards, boosted players can gain ranks or gear without proving their ability, frustrating competitors who’ve honed their skills. This is evident in complaints on forums like Reddit’s r/wow, where players report feeling cheated by “pay-to-win” dynamics.
Diminishes Community Value:
WoW’s social fabric relies on shared struggles and triumphs (e.g., guild runs). Boosting shortcuts this, leading to perceptions that certain titles or gear are “bought,” not earned. For instance, a boosted player in a guild might lack the knowledge to contribute, straining group dynamics.
Inflates In-Game Economy:
Boosts often involve gold trading or bot usage, flooding the market with currency (e.g., China’s 110,000 bot bans in 2020 highlight this). This devalues the time others invest in earning gold legitimately, making their efforts feel less rewarding.
Psychological Impact:
Players who grind for months to achieve a goal (e.g., a rare mount) may feel demoralized seeing others buy it instantly. X posts from WoW players often express this sentiment, with some calling boosted achievements “hollow.”
Broader Implications
Fairness Debate: The counterargument is that boosting helps busy players enjoy content, but this clashes with the game’s design, where progress is meant to reflect time and skill. Data from Blizzard’s ban waves (e.g., 2020 bot crackdowns) shows they recognize this tension, yet haven’t fully banned boosting, possibly due to revenue from WoW Tokens.
Community Sentiment: Polls on WoW forums suggest a majority favor stricter rules, viewing boosts as a shortcut that cheapens their investment—echoing China’s 2024 ban approach.
Conclusion
Yes, buying boosts devalues the hard work of others by bypassing the effort, skill, and community effort WoW is built on. This can erode the game’s competitive and social integrity, though Blizzard’s soft stance reflects a balance with player convenience. A ban, as seen in China, could restore value to achievements, but it’d need broad community support to avoid backlash.
The blatant things that are going on for months ignored to the point that regular players go into other region severs to tell their plight and blizzard stills ignores it or even in our region let some of it go…
Tinfoil hat… makes me wonder if some of these devs or whomever is suppose to monitor and take care of this, is getting payed on the side by these services.
Integrity in human competition is important. The perception that the results are untrustwothy has an effect. Boosting and carries def affect this perception of achievement.
Perhaps it would benefit pvp ranking integrity to stop the cheating?
Never thought I would see the day chinese ethics surpass our current crop of foreign employees. Actually, I kinda did since we only hire from the “other place” because chinese salaries are getting too high for our corporate overlords.
You want a living space bigger than a broom closest and red meat for dinner to work here?
WE NEED TO OPEN UP THE VISAS WE CAN’T FIND ANY TECH WORKERS, WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE BILLIONAIRES?
Some “doctors” over here on NA might be taking another salary cut. Hope you guys have a solid roth ira after 15 years of ruining everyone else’ experience.
It’s not tinfoil at all. They hired known sellers to be pvp “devs”, that are best friends with other awc sellers. They probably know the forum mod to let “coaching” threads slide and delete threads that get too hot.
Chanimals comes to mind. Literally sells RMT glad/r1 boosts for classic and even just recently broadcasted for blizz on AWC??? According to some others dude gets unbanned by his dev buddies at the company
I feel out of the local WoW loop. I will probably always be out of that.
The areas I watch are mostly the ones facilitating the bad acting, I suppose, the ones leaving fall out trails in the cyber dumb.
Well, it is what it is. Figured I mention the article. My guess is, very little changes, cause that seems to be the course the world wants to take. And so we all get a ride along until the road gets rough enough we turn direction.
I was meaning to limit my posting so I will get back to that…until I see something else interesting. I posted this in General to see what would happen. About the same, no surprise in retrospect.
Ehh, I still think the glass is half full. But just barely…gonna be a close one.