About a month ago I was contemplating re-rolling on a new server. Like many do, I made a level one did /joinlookingforgroup. After this I simply asked in chat what the server was like.
As much of a surprise to no-one, Barman Shanker LFG channel was just filled with political chat, so I simply said, and nothing more. “I didn’t vote” to which I saw someone say “EVERYONE REPORT THIS GUY”.
~10 seconds later I’m offline with a forced name change. I try to give my character the exact same, non-offensive name I had before and i got an error that player name was already taken.
I created another level 1, only to appear right in front of someone who created a character with my name doing /wave to me a few times before logging out. Only to taunt me he stole my name.
I then say in LFG chat, “ha ha very funny whoever reported me, got me knocked offline then stole my name”
~10 seconds later I’m offline again with a 24 hour suspension.
Let’s fast forward one month to 3 days ago. I’m on a level 10 on Jom Gabber in Stormwind and replied to a question in trade chat. Someone said back to me, “great name, would be better if it were Tauren.”
My reply (in trade chat) was “thanks! I actually was but someone reported me, and stole my name, apparently it only takes ~5 votes to get someone to have to change their name”
~10 seconds later, I’m kicked offline and forced name change.
I do change my name, and I login and say “ha ha very funny all of you who spam reported me, you can get banned for false reporting”
People in chat replied saying “I’d do it again if I could” and another said “I already did”
About 3 seconds after those messages came through I was offline again.
Now please tell me @blizzard how is this fair? Those who did this will absolutely never have any repercussions, they’re still playing the game. But somehow, on two completely different realms, on two completely different factions this has happened twice.
It takes 24-48 hours to get a reply after filling out a ticket (which by the way doesn’t even work, you get errors everytime you try to do an appeal and for each one it opens and closes a ticket so you get dozens of notifications if you try it several times. You have to file a generic ticket which you get a generic response.
The most ridiculous part of all of this is that after (~5) or so people clicking “report name inappropriate” you get this email along with your suspension:
"Your fellow players reported your in-game name as inappropriate multiple times.
Suspension expires on: 2021 December 20 22:57 UTC
After a thorough investigation of the evidence, we have Suspended your World of Warcraft account."
@blizzard please tell me how a 100% automated system is capable of doing a thorough investigation of the evidence?