If you want to play the game but don’t like the toxicity, then report it.
I do, it’s getting worse, not better, and Retail is actively unplayable because of it.
I would unsubscribe except that I play Classic, and the problem is getting worse in Classic - still not as bad as Retail, but getting there. If it continues, I will unsubscribe.
I’m asking to change a system that is clearly insufficient to stop the problem.
I just want to point out this is a player to player support forum with blue moderation you arent gaurenteed a blue post they only step in when necessary.
Sorry, but the devs simply don’t come here for player feedback or suggestions. They are the only ones that can affect a change. The CS staff here are not even liaison with the devs.
If you REALLY are need of the devs to see your “suggestion”, Post on @WarcraftDevs on Twitter.
On a side note, I find Classic Way more toxic than retail. It’s why a keep it at arms length.
Fair, but there’s no actual channel that I can find for this, so… here we are.
If people have suggestions that aren’t just “working as intended, no changes needed”, I’m happy to hear them. Reporting is insufficient; it does not stop the problem, and the problem is getting worse, not better.
Been told how/where before.
Thats what general or the ingame suggestion feature is for catch all or where u dont want other players to chime in you wont get one on one talk with the developers but ur voice would be heard.
The right forum for a suggestion like that would be general I think. Suggestions belong in whatever forum most aptly applies to the topic. Customer support is more for explaining how the game works, not collecting feedback on it. Alternately you can submit suggestions with tickets in game.
I imagine it’s server-dependent, so perhaps the Retail server I tried (Tichondrius) is worse than others, and perhaps the Classic server that I’m on (Bigglesworth) is better than the one you tried. IDK.
However, your statement right there about how you actively avoid Classic demonstrates the problem that I’m talking about. Reporting is insufficient. You actively avoid playing Classic, I actively avoid playing Retail.
The fact that good players are actively avoiding playing parts of the game because of the level of toxicity in chat means there is a problem here that needs to be solved, and we need more than “just report more”.
I never said that reporting is insufficient. I know it works judging by the “I was unfairly Banned/Silenced/Suspended” posts we get here. I avoid classic because the player base there is quite of tools in my books and I don’t wanna deal with them.
I mean… that’s just a really weird view of what “Customer Support” means, but… it’s not the first time that people have made really weird definitions for terms. I’ve posted this in General as well, based on your guys’ feedback.
I know you didn’t. I did. I’m saying the fact that you avoid Classic because of how toxic the playerbase is demonstrates that there exists a real problem here.
It’s a player caused problem. The tools are there, use them or don’t. It’s not Blizzard’s job to micromanage interactions in game.
If you want an example of micromanagement…there is always Maplestory or Club Penguin
If I recall, Blizzard did try Active Moderation on Moon Guard, that didn’t even last 2 weeks.
Employing hundreds more people specifically to sit in WoW chat channels 24/7 would certainly increase WoW costs. Player reaction to increased costs tends to be negative. A current example is the General forum right now where there are many comments and many threads about Blizzard removing some payment options for the Game Time Cards/Blocks. Players found it had some minor price impact for a few who liked getting the bigger discount blocks. There are well over 1K posts in the main thread and many many additional threads.
I did not check your math, but is that the raw salary or did you include the rest of the costs to the business for an employee? Taxes, Medical, Retirement Benefits, Other benefits, infrastructure (computer, other IT supplies, office supplies, office space when that is a thing again, etc.).
The actual cost of an employee is usually 2x or 2.5 x the base salary per year.
This is certainly valid feedback. I hope you don’t feel that anyone is saying otherwise.
Your specific suggestion to have active moderation has been tried. It caused more problems than it solved. People acted up to intentionally engage mods AND the average players stopped reporting infractions so it made it much harder for a mod to catch it all. So far, the most workable solution is to have players right click report (something developed to make it easier to report and to attach chat logs to the report for easy and fast modding).
Could it be better? Of course! Dealing with people being jerks online though is a tough problem to handle. I just wish people would stop trying to intentionally make others angry, say offensive “edgy” things, etc.
Is it so hard to follow the old fashioned rules of being polite to strangers and not engaging in divisive topics (religion, politics, salary) used to be the old ones I was taught not to bring up in polite company.
I get that it can be confusing here. Customer Service for Blizzard is contacted via the Support system in game or at the top right of the website. They have the ability to handle billing, account access, tech support, and some in-game issues. There is a pinned thread on this forum that goes into some of that.
The forums are staffed by Forum Support Agents - not GMs/CS. This forum serves as support not the actual service. I know that is pretty much semantics, but here there is a distinction. On the Support forum the goal is to provide the support to help players navigate the actual Ticket system and services. We serve as an Information Desk. Explain policies, help find the right way to put in a ticket, help explain how long a ticket might take, explain how various services work, etc.
So if they ask about the chat reporting system, they will get the system and options explained to them. If someone posts a suggestion here, they will get told how to properly submit a suggestion for WoW.
That’s fair (although I don’t feel it’s a good MO for customer support), and I appreciate your taking your time to educate me.
I do wish that it was easier to actually reach Blizzard for customer support. Their approach feels actively hostile and doesn’t make me feel like a valued customer.
That’s interesting, I’m able to play the game with no issues at all. Is there something in particular that’s preventing you from logging in and playing?
If you encounter inappropriate language right click and report it and move on.
I feel like that is a common sentiment these days with any form of customer support (other than Chewy).
Blizz has an in-house CS team that handles the tickets and reports from all their games - which means many millions of players. When it was just WoW it as a bit easier - but even then people would call in for things totally unrelated to what CS could help with (like complaints, suggestions, asking for GM jokes, ranting, etc) so it took valuable time away from waiting customers.
The current itteration is to use the in-game system or the website system to put tickets into subject buckets so they go to the proper folks faster. Some things, the CS team can’t help with - so it does stop the tickets on those subjects.
This forum exists though to be that bridge - to help explain the system, to explain policies, to explain how things work. To make it seem far more approachable so folks can work with the system and not feel blocked out.
That is what an Information Desk exists for 
I do understand you feel the current system could use improvement. Most system could. It does remain MUCH better than the original. You used to have to put in a ticket for chat violations where you included name, server, chat channel, time stamp, and example of chat - most people never bothered. Now the system lets you right click to attach all that without effort. So more people get punished now than the early years of WoW. Does it stop everything? No, but it is still a step in the right direction - in my opinion.
Is the least effective way to moderate chat. There are over 200 realms in retail. There are over 100 zones. Each zone has General and Local Defense. The cities/main hubs have Trade chat. Plus there is World Defense and Looking for Group. The instance servers also have General chat. That is a lot of channels that would need moderating.
Blizzard tried monitoring chat in a certain zone on a certain server. It made the problem worse instead of better because players flocked to the location to see how much they could post before they were actioned.
Is never going to happen. There is no way players are going to allow other players to govern chat in this manner. It would be abused.
If it requires training it becomes a job. That would make the “volunteers” employees. (For reference, look up AOL Community Leader Program)
Right-click>report player for>language or spam (depending on what they are doing) It does work. It just isn’t instant. Blizzard addresses reports in the order they are received. They only get seen sooner if more players are reporting.
Suggestions on this would need to be posted in General Discussion or use the in-game Suggestion option on the Support Menu. The Devs don’t take suggestions from the Customer Support forum and the SFAs are not liaisons with them.
Your opinion. It doesn’t mean that is what anyone else feels about the point of the game.
No, it isn’t. I didn’t start playing WoW to use it as a chat service.
With or without chat, WoW is still a single-player game with NPCs driven by other players rather than an AI. That effectively describes any online game.
You don’t know that. Any punishment other players get is between them and Blizzard and really isn’t any of your business. If you are reporting it, thank you for helping to improve the game. If you don’t report it, then you become part of the problem.
We see the results of those reports in the Customer Support forum. We have seen players posting here that have had their account silenced for 4-months and 8-months. Meaning they can’t partake in those chat channels you are complaining about.
This article says what they can and cannot do while under a Silence. The punishment doubles each time it’s applied. It doesn’t take much time for them to get to 4- and 8-month silences.
Only the players can stop that by choosing to stop being lowlifes. No system is going to magically erase player toxicity through increased policing or harsher punishments. Those methods have been tried and they don’t work.
It works, but not everyone does it. If every single player reported every instance of bad behavior they saw and didn’t engage in it themselves, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Unfortunately it’s a two-sided problem. People behave badly and bystanders do nothing. Now it seems you’re one of many people paying the price. Remember what I said about players determining the quality of their community? This is just one piece of evidence of what happens when players would rather just ignore everything or suck it up than do something about it.
It works quite well if they find that they can’t play the game or chat with others.
You’re likely right, but… the reality shows otherwise. We can continue to talk about how people should behave, or we can act based on how people actually behave.
In reality, it works quite well. As it was said, we get players coming here all the time whining they was silenced in game or suspended.
Use the tools provided.