Keep in mind that there’s nothing stopping you from reporting the violations you see. One report is all it takes to have something reviewed.
“They do it so why can’t I” generally isn’t a valid defense. My recommendation is to tone things down and report any violations you see.
The community, especially in PvP, is ultra-toxic and we need to work together to clean it up for the health of the game and community.
I don’t believe reporting people and trying to get others banned from the game is a productive way of acheiving anything its pathetic and will do nothing to change a persons behaviour.
If there’s something that bothers me i have plenty of tools as mentioned to deal with it.
My issue as mentioned is it is very clear that these people are targetting specific players as mentioned its all done outside of game when they decide who needs to be reported there not going to be messaging each other in your game knowing you can see it if reviewed.
It’s very disappointing to see blizzard continually decline over the years and there customer service / support is atrocious in dealing with any kind of issue especially when it comes to appealing any penalties.
Here’s to hoping Microsoft’s acquisition may have some kind of positive impact on blizzard before its too far gone
Thanks for the non existant help in dealing with a legitimate serious issue people are facing.
That generally isn’t the goal of reporting, Yunalescaa. It might be what motivates someone to report, but that isn’t why we have those penalties in place. It’s supposed to remind the reported person of the policies that we have in place, policies that every single player agrees to abide by. The penalties are there to reinforce that point and they start out pretty small, often with a 24 hours silence.
You only get to suspensions when the violation is egregious or there have been a bunch of them.
That is unfortunate, but as I said, if you aren’t violating policy then their reports would do very little. The worst that would happen would be a temporary squelch.
We’re not going to penalize folks for reporting some people that have violated policy but haven’t reported everyone that violated policy.
Enforcing our policies isn’t a decline, Yunalescaa, I’m sorry you feel that it is so. The appeals process is to review if you did or did not violate policy. You did, and it is being upheld, so it is doing exactly what it is intended to do.
I can’t speak for Microsoft, but I very much doubt that they’ll be on board to allow policy violations. They too have a Code of Conduct, very similar to ours and their enforcement appears to be similar as well.
I agree with this to an extent. Reporting people probably won’t change their real-life behavior. However, it certainly can and often does have a huge impact on their in-game behavior if they intend on keeping their account.
I don’t disagree that there are people out there who get their competitors a timeout by reporting violations. But that’s the thing…if you’re giving them ammunition to use against you, then the best thing you can do is stop giving them that ammo.
In the end if you do not violate the TOS or any of blizzards rules they can report you until the cows go home and you would not know about it! Nothing would happen.
If someone one is rude to me in game or curses I just report them and move on. I never respond to them in anyway shape or form.
And you are proving this point quite well, but not in the way you think.
As Vrakthris said, your own chat issues have been verified and you are quite high on the penalty volcano. It only gets longer and longer from this point forward, and if you won’t change your behavior, I understand how you feel others won’t change.
Yes, they are. They are “targeting” players who are breaking the rules. You honestly sound like someone in a court room, saying “Yes, I robbed the bank, but I was only caught because people called the police on me.”
Everyone can report you until the sun sets, but if you are doing nothing wrong, you’ll never know. Additionally, those players would be looked at for Abusing the Report Feature. But it’s not abusing the report feature to report chat violations. That’s what Blizzard intended, and it’s what most player want.
It seems like the only players who don’t want it are always the ones getting actioned for breaking the rules.
See, it hasn’t declined. In fact, the reporting system is relatively new, and there were very recent improvements made to it. It’s doing its job, and quite frankly, as this thread shows, it’s quite effective.
As for appealing, an appeal is not for you to plead your case, nor do they remove penalties simply because you appealed. An appeal is for a second person to look over the action to make sure it was properly applied (yes, the action was originally done by a human).
If your appeal is denied over and over, then there is evidence that you broke the rules, and it won’t be overturned.
I agree. I hope Microsoft can show Blizzard how to permanently remove rule-breakers from the game.
Alot of companies are starting to crack down on toxic behaviour.
You could literally get reported 24/7 by people, and if there was nothing to punish you for, you’d never even know about it. Giving you sanctions for behaviour thats against the policies of the game youve agreed to abide by, is good customer service and is good business. It means they are being consistent across the board. But the penalties stack over time, if your up to 14 days on the backside of an 8 day punishment, sounds like its you that needs to adjust your behaviour. because eventually you could end up with 6 months, or account closure.
You might choose to just block and move on, but the community is saying, we dont want this toxic stuff here and reporting you. But if there was nothing toxic, then nothing would happen. And Blizz has been listening to the community who have been asking for this sort of behaviour to be removed.
best bet?
If you can’t say anything without swearing or being a bit salty, then dont say anything.
Communication
When participating in communication of any kind (chat, voice communication, group finder), you are responsible for how you express yourself. You may not use language that could be offensive or vulgar to others.
Hate speech and discriminatory language is inappropriate, as is any obscene or disruptive language. Threatening or harassing another player is always unacceptable, regardless of language used. Violating any of these expectations will result in account restrictions. More serious and repeated violations will result in greater restrictions.
WoW is international. People of many different beliefs and cultures play. People of many different ages play. “Such minor words” could be major for someone else.
You were always able to report language. I remember doing it in Vanilla/TBC. You had to take the time to open a ticket to do it. It was long and cumbersome. The right-click report method is so much easier. Thanks to at least one streamer players were able to see that it does work. That means they use the tools provided. If you don’t want to be punished, don’t use even those “minor words” in chat.
Another side of the issue at hand is that these behaviors were quite often considered acceptable before. Now, not so much, and therefore far more likely to be reported and actioned.
For example, I’ve had people call me homophobic terms just because I was an arms warrior in PvP (yes, they actually said that). In the past, I wouldn’t have cared so much and maybe fired some shots back. Now, it’s just a simple right-click->report because, even if it doesn’t affect me personally, it’ll affect someone else if that behavior is left unchecked.
This is a great point. Way back in vanilla, I wouldn’t report anyone unless it was SUPER terrible. Because then, the process was open a ticket, give all the information, wait on your ticket, then get a GM responding in a whisper with “We’ll investigate, but can’t tell you anything”. Plus, you could only have one ticket open at a time, so if I needed something, I’d have to wait or cancel the report.
Now, it’s much easier. Right-click, click the reason, add optional info, and click OK. I can (and do) report any and all body part spammers almost instantly now, with just three clicks.
Expecting a politically corrupt company to do something and take a stand isnt gonna get you anywhere.
I just got muted for a week for making a funny in response to someone in the LFG chat… I didnt say anything vulgar… toxic… none of that… There was a better way to handle it… but those players did not do so… they abuse the system against me just like you because they have power over your life and your spent money.
Once Blizzard has your money its not your money… They dont beleive they owe you a product.
Arguing that they do it so its not fair is bs… That makes no sense…
However… Players banding together to abuse a system to have you removed from a game cause they got upset… I dont see how blizzard can follow that recourse.
However, as well, Blizzard will always always take the oppinion of the toxic over the individual for this one reason: There is one of you… Oh wait… now two… Me.
If we dont stand up together. Blizzard will take the noisy wheel off the cart and replace it with one that is too afraid to speak up… but not afraid to bully in the shadows.
For clarifacation… Someone said Spam will be met with a back hand… which is a physical threat. I am not threatened… so I made a joke… Let’s Go… You know what…
And cause people are so wrapped up in a tizzy over something they could have handled at their own level… and left it alone or ignored me… or you. They apply their unequal right to power over you and take from you and me.
This will continue until enough people step up, nut up and dont shut up. Take a stand. If you gonna lose it all… Throw them chips down. Cause as long as they have that power… They will continue to apply it as blizzard has thereby deemed appropriate…
So what does that mean?
Hell no its not fair… and blizzard does not want it to be. Blizzard fully expects players to band together and pvp you out of your investment and hobby. Blizzard agrees with the abusers… Blizzard themselves are abusive.
I met a very fine GM a few days ago helped me solve an in game issue… he was very very professional… nostalgically so… Base game 2005 nostalgia… he handled my problem so well.
I fully expect to offend the woke GM I am most likely to get in my appeal and be banned. So Im putting myself out there to point out… That you work for me blizzard… You work for us. We pay your pay checks.
Your game is about to capsize. You are chasing players from the game at speeds greater than that of light itself.
If my appeal fails… I will expect a refund. If that refund does not come to be. You know then what my recourse should and will be.
Good luck with your ranking bro/sis.
I have been bullied too much in my life to step down from this soap box. Outside of the game. I will not kneel.
I will not allow them to steal.
-Ryo
I doubt that. If you got hit with a week, means you have silenced several times already.
BTW, you’ll want to post you diatribe on General Discussion, you might find a sympathetic crowd there, or try Reddit
Whats my middle name? My birth date?
You cant doubt unless you know… bro.
If fun is not allowed… then maybe you should go rethink your life…
Id appreciate if you wouldnt stalk me to every post I make and try to disuade from my arguement so that you can gain clout with your homies who obviously you want to protect.
I have no idea who you are? You have 2 posts and this is my first response to you…
I would argue that anyone who’s definition of fun is any activity that can severely impact someone else’s enjoyment of something is the person that should go and rethink their life, personally.
And what’s the context behind stalking? You’ve made all of two posts on this character. In this thread.
Or if you cannot abide by the rules that Blizzard sets down and that you agree to every time the ToS updates or that you pay for your subscription, then perhaps you should rethink what game you want to be playing.
You don’t get to decide what is offensive to someone else. That’s the bottom line. People have played this game since its inception without ever earning a single warning or sanction because they understand what they agree to.
People who cannot and then go through this whole huge tangent…thing? I honestly don’t feel sorry for you. And trying to cause some sort of ‘rise up!’ thing? Surely you’ve got better things to do with your time than that.
Again, if you don’t like the rules, don’t agree to them. Just go play elsewhere where your kind of humor may be more acceptable.
To be honest, no game wants this kind of behavior. A Blue post from another thread earlier said Blizzard works with other companies to help end this kind of toxicity. (Edit: it was just above in this thread. Oops.)
So if “Rage” thinks any other game will allow their “funny” comments, there will be a lot of raging and ranting across Reddit.
Oh I know. I’m just not above hoping they’ll try and find it elsewhere than to continue to perpetuate bad behavior here and then have the absolute gall to sling the blame on people who are doing what they’re supposed to by reporting said bad behavior.
I believe it is about time to close this thread, as continued discussion of disciplinary actions runs contrary to our forum Code of Conduct, but I will provide some corrections here.
To start, the penalty you received was based on not only the content of your chat, but also the history on the account (e.g. This was by no means your first violation).
While the words you used technically wouldn’t be considered vulgar on their own, the phrase you used has a very specific and inappropriate meaning, so I’m sorry, but it would be considered both vulgar and toxic.
It is also important to point out that not only was the phrase used inappropriate but you also spammed it in chat. Spamming itself violates our policies.
We absolutely do, but we also ask that you abide by the policies that you and every other player agree to. Policies that have clear consequences if violated, which you had done in this case.
Note: At this stage in the penalty structure you have not been suspended from the game, only silenced.
There isn’t really a system in place that would remove you without the chat being verified. The best they could hope for would be to apply a temporary squelch until/unless the chat was verified as violating our policies and then a full silence, suspension, or account closure would be applied based on the content of the chat and the penalty history.
The only thing that happened here is that the folks on your realm felt your behavior violated policy, they reported it, and appropriate action was taken based on that violation.
Yes, we do, the phrase and the spam are why you were penalized. In the future, I would suggest your “jokes” not contain language/phrasing that is considered inappropriate or otherwise toxic, nor spammed.