TLDR I got banned for 20 days entirely (not just a silence) from WoW. I didn’t really (for the first time in foreverrrrrr) actually say anything bad. I opened a ticket but it’s been a few days and I’m afraid of the ticket system due to the fact that last time it took over a month to reply to a punishment that was one week.
Im here to ask if there’s some sort of automatic report system that will punish someone without even investigating. I know some of the logs it showed me when appealing were from nearly a month ago, and I just genuinely wanna know why it’s fair that I’m having to wait potentially 20 days now to play the game when I didn’t do anything that deserves a 20 day? not even a 14 or 7 honestly, maybe a silence but definitely NOT a full suspension.
Tickets are averaging 5-7 days now down from 2 weeks a month ago the fact that u got a 20 day ban usualy means its not ur first penalty they do stack. All reports are handled by a real person and nothing is automated other then the squelch.
I definitely have a history of silences/suspensions. I’m perma’d in OW and was silenced probably 3-5 times in HotS (This was from maybe 5-7 years ago though).
I did recently get silenced in like august but I really think pulling logs from months ago is super petty lol. Thank you for the info tho I really appreciate it.
What they look at is history and if there a repeat offender and if they learnt there history from the last suspension.
I could be wrong on this one and will be corrected in the morning if i am GMS cover every blizzard game they may also take into account penalties acumilated in other blizzard games.
Every suspension or ban is handed down by a real person, a GM. They investigate any and all reports. History of the account, no matter how long ago the infraction happened is taken into account and penalties can escalate to eventual account closure if the person hasn’t learned from the past penalties. The only thing that is automated is a squelch (temporary chat silence) that is generated by enough chat reports.
Social (i.e chat) infractions double, at the very least. And they do not drop off, so yes. If you were suspended for a week a few months ago, two weeks now is on track. Next time it will be for a month, so if I were you? I’d be working on not breaking the rules. They absolutely will permanently ban your account if you keep at it, for social violations alone. Just because you think it doesn’t merit a suspension doesn’t matter. You’re well past the point of gentle sanctions if you’re at two weeks.
There is absolutely no such thing, no matter what people like to screech about. There are some automated systems set up to put a stopper in bad behavior, but past those initial and temporary things? Everything else requires a real live person to push through.
A warning is just that. It’s a warning to stop doing what you’re doing that could be in breach of the CoC or ToS. These leave no black mark against your account. This part is automated.
A squelch is a temporary silence on the account. This is a temporary measure to stop any questionable chat or behavioral violations. It is only in place long enough for a GM to look over the data. The squelch in itself is not a black mark against your account. This part is automated.
Now, following the squelch, ir can go one of two ways. Either the GM disagrees, the squelch is removed and the player can enjoy the game in it’s entirety. Now, if they agree? Here is where it goes into bad territory.
A silence is the removal of all social interaction from the game. Cannot chat, cannot form groups, etc. You can play the game, but in a way so as that you cannot be repeating whatever action earned you this punishment. This will leave a black mark on your account. It also is something only a real live GM can apply. This part is NOT automated.
A suspension is when you’ve either been silenced already or what you’ve done was so heinous they jumped right to this part. It is a complete denial of Blizzard’s properties for that account for a set amount of time. For most chat and social infractions, this can double each time you’re suspended up until the time they decide you’re a lost cause and the account is banned. This leaves a black mark against your account. This part is NOT automated.
A ban is when you’ve done something so egregious or have had enough suspensions that they’re just done with the account. It is complete account closure - for good. There is no time limit on this. This part is NOT automated.
In addition, with the recent backlog of tickets it is not surprising that the infraction may have been a month (or longer) ago. It is simply a case of just now coming up in the queue as the GM’s had other tickets of higher priority (than a potential suspension) to get to.
You should have gotten an email with the general category the suspension fell under.
They won’t go into specific detail but there may be a few lines of chat dialogue from around the time the offense occurred.
If you haven’t seen the email, check your spam folder.
But, this isn’t your first rodeo if you are looking at a 20 day suspension. You’ve had plenty of time to become more cautious in your speech and behavior ingame but apparently the previous penalties didn’t make an impression which is why penalties escalate until they do.
the punishments stack, so even using foul language or saying something disparaging etc, it all adds up and compounds. And theres no time limit, in the snippet of text it should give you a prompt of the conversation happening when you were reported. If theres anything against the social contract or tos then you’l get a sanction. If you received a full block for 20 days this is not the 1st, second or third sanction youve had. Even ones from 2 years ago still count
Just to add to this, Blizzard seems to be moving away from silences. Silences have been very ineffective, so they have gone back to suspensions. A silence seems to be the first offense (ever), and then it’s straight to the suspensions.
No one here can answer that. Only you can answer that.
A Blue poster may chime in with a hint, but in the end, only you know the things you say and the things you do that may run afoul of the rules.
Again, no one here would know for sure, but if I may editorialize a bit, based on this:
I get the feeling that you have a good idea of what went wrong. It’s also worth noting that Blizzard is working hard to stamp out toxicity. With easier reporting methods and the company cracking down, things that may have gone unnoticed in the past are definitely getting noticed now.
You can certainly appeal, if you truly feel you did nothing wrong. An appeal has a second set of eyes look at the action to make sure it was correct.
Hmm interesting. A lot of F bombs I usually use with friends and there was oneeeeee scenario I used it in say by accident with a friend that kept grabbing mobs lol but I get it now at least, that penalties stack over time.
