The problem is a lot of the racism/classism/e.c.t… takes place in places where there’s no record or log of it happening (think Discord or other voice chats). Does Blizzard investigate more hidden racism that isn’t as apparent as someone in a public chat channel like trade/general chat saying racist things?
For example, I was kicked from< removed >after being recruited in over a 10-minute whisper chat by a recruitment officer and told by a streamer from that guild who is an officer that I was removed because they were told, “I’m not a good person to have around”.
At no point has anyone ever approached me with problems to which solutions could be sought and applied. That implies it’s something about me that is not fixable and more about some attribute of who I am as a person that cannot be changed.
I’m sure there are several racists or equally discriminatory hateful people in the WoW community with the ability to have the ear of influential people with administrative power to manipulate them into harming people who are of a group that has been subject to discrimination or hate for their own personal satisfaction.
My concern is Blizzard only investigates the most obvious and publicly viewable stuff. Does it go deeper?
If it happens in game or blizzard text chat, report it.
I don’t think voice chat in blizzard games can be reported yet, not enough space to log it out.
If it happens outside of blizzards chat systems, like discord, you will want to see what rules they go by, and how to report, but it wouldn’t be something blizzard could track.
Also remember most private chat is at will, and there’s also some help in the ignore system as well.
The problem with discord, etc. is that they are separate from the communities they support (Blizzard games and other games for a large part) which gives them a shield from the rules in place in those games. Using strictly the in game chat and not external chats is the best way to ensure that everyone either follows the rules or can be reported for not.
I appreciate that yall do what you can to look into this stuff on your platform even when it’s not the most up-front surface-level stuff. I understand your limitations and just wondered if yall had any folks who go above and beyond to seek these sort of things out and put a stop to it.
The above responses are outstanding, but I want to add this:
This is not an example of racism or discrimination. A guild is a private “club”, so to speak, and no one is forced to include anyone they don’t want to include.
This is understandable, but I suspect you are thinking about it too much. For better or worse, players just aren’t as invested with having potential guild members “fix things”. It’s just not something many guilds want to invest time in doing.
Also, if a guild doesn’t want you there, then chances are, you don’t want to be part of their guild either. There are plenty of other guilds who you will likely have much more fun with.
This is what I mean by “thinking about it too much”. Yes, I’m sure there are many hateful people in the game. So, if you think you found a group like that, why do you care if they let you into their circle or not?
As others have said, anything that happens on a Blizzard platform, they investigate. If it’s not, then they can’t.
Something else to add: Blizzard is usually more hands-off with guild/community chats, because those groups can police themselves. But they are not immune. We just saw a thread a few days ago where someone was saying offensive things in guild chat and Blizzard stepped in with account actions. ANYTHING within their games or on their forums, even whispers amongst friends, can be actioned.
The guild belongs to the GM.
They can kick any person they want for any or even no reason.
They can kick you because they don’t like your armor, let alone not liking your attitude,
if they don’t want to play with you, Blizzard will not force them to.