Fair enough. The deserter debuff was applied to kicked players for ‘reasons’ sometime after Wrath. The result is, of course, the opposite of a solution for “bad behavior” as arbitrary kicks are hardly “good behavior.”
And this “bad behavior” started when? This change didn’t come about in Wrath, as I’ve said. It makes zero sense to give a deserter debuff to players who are kicked as a “deterrent” for bad behavior with a dungeon queue CD in place. It made even less sense when there were in game GM’s.
As I previously stated, there was a time when GM’s dealt with players like this very quickly. GM’s could see every action and every conversation that happened. Some years ago, there was an exploit in AB where players could glitch through the gate before the match started and cap bases. This happened in one of my matches and several of us reported the exploiter. A GM didn’t contact me but another player let us know he had been contacted. A few minutes into the game and “poof” that player was off the map.
I can honestly say that I never experienced these “trolls” that some of you talk about. If I had, I would have reported them. And I don’t think it was prevalent because that’s back when Blizzard had GM’s and actually did their job. The deserter debuff for being kicked was never a thing in Wrath. If these trolls were actually a thing, they became a thing when Blizzard stopped doing their job.
I have no doubt that this decision was the result of Blizzard’s increasing unwillingness to maintain oversight of their own game. And like the automatic squelch, zero in game oversight, dependency on player reports for bots, cheats, etc., they have made the game increasingly more frustrating when it comes to dealing with “bad behavior.” It may be better for Blizzard to have the players overseeing their game, but it’s not better for the game. And the deserter debuff for kicked players may deter the three idiots out there who want to be kicked (again, who cares? kick them) but it exacerbates far more toxic behavior.
Blizzard has a long history of making bad decisions. Their refusal to maintain in game oversight is just one of them, and the deserter debuff for being kicked is just an extension of that.