WoW Classic Alterac valley is currently plagued by large volumes of people afking, botting, and cirvumventing the queue system to the detriment of other players. It is such a recognized problem, that here is a post from Community manager Kaivax discussing it: Alterac Valley Adjustments Incoming
“Behavior that intentionally detracts from others’ enjoyment (such as griefing, throwing, feeding, etc.) is unacceptable. We expect our players to treat each other with respect and promote an enjoyable environment. Acceptable behavior is determined by player reports and Blizzard’s decision, and violating these guidelines will result in account and gameplay restrictions.”
I regularly see people in AV not only afking, but openly and flagrantly stating that they are doing so, and encouraging others to do the same. i regularly see people in AV loudly and anrgily complain that they missed their premade, and then spending the majority of the match insulting people instead of playing and encouraging others to “let them win.” This sounds like an attempt to “throw” the match which the code of conduct says is an unacceptable violation. I regularly see people openly announce that they participate in Discord premades, which delibeately circumvent the queue system, which as Kaivax explains, is now being changed to try to mitigate these, as Kaivax phrases it, “prominent pain points and unfortunate behaviors.”
Do i correctly understand that these behaviors are ToS/CoC violations which are therefore reportable and bannable offenses?
Can I get a blue post acknowledging that these are reportable violations that as the CoC describes, can result in account and gameplay restriction?
If you think some one is AFK in AV, report them AFK. If you think someone is cheating or exploiting Right click report for cheating. As for punishment, you’ll never know as its a privacy issue and that’s between the offender and Blizzard.
Report them AFK
As long as they don’t violate the language rules, they can do what every they want.
Blizzard makes that determination, not the player. Report them if you want.
So? Coordinating outside the game is nothing new, I have seen people do it back in vanilla using vent or teamspeak. Using discord to coordinate is outside Blizzard purview. Blizzard i making it harder for premades to sync queues, but there is nothing that can be done to stop them,
The problem when quoting the CoC is Blizzard has the final say on what is griefing. Most of the time, players claim anything is griefing if someone is doing something they don’t like.
Two of those three are absolutely reportable offenses. One carries deserter debuff and one can be a lot more serious. As tot he last I don’t physically see a way to circumvent anything.
Right click report afk. It is all you can do. No need for a blue to comment on this part you already have the tools you need.
It is frustrating when trying to all time a queue and it does not work. That is not a violation, however. The insulting on the other hand is. Once again right click report is at your disposal. This time for language.
As for let them win etc there is no rule that says they HAVE to participate. Or do what you want them to do. If I want to sit on a tower the ENTIRE game, or the mines there is nothing wrong with that. That is not throwing a game.
Nothing wrong with all of trying to hit queue at the exact same time. Nothing at all. Nothing wrong with being in Discord while you are doing AV with your buds either.
Point is you have the tools to utilize at your disposal already. Use them. Don’t use them. Your choice
So here we have somebody, you, who is publicly announcing that they are trying to circumvent the queue system. I once again refer you to Kaivax’s post, where he makes it clear that the AV queue is being changed to prevent people from stacking macthes…like you admit that you are doing.
So, you’re a cheater who may be subject to account action.
Right?
It appears that there is. As I quoted, the Code of Conduct specifically states that throwing a match is a violation that can result in suspension. Somebody deliberately not playing and telling people to “let them win” sounds like throwing a match to me. So far as I know, this is cross faction collusion trying to win points for the other side, which has been against the rules since forever.
Right?
Once again, that appears to not be the case. We have an official Community Manager post announcing that the system is being changed, and the reason it’s being changes is to prevent Discord premades from stacking matches. And simultaneosusly, changes are being made to make it possible for you “and your buds” to queue together properly within the system.
If you’re in Discord trying to “hit your queue at the same time” to deliberately circumvent limitations that have been put in place to prevent you from stacking matches, that sounds to me like you’re a cheater who may be subject to account action.
Not in this case no. Attempting to queue with a group is not against the rules. But as you already know, they’re making changes today to how that works.
Again, not in the context of the rules. Throwing a game would be queuing with a group with the sole purpose of losing. Telling people to “let them win” doesn’t mean that anyone has to listen to that player.
If they AFK, report them AFK.
If they insult people (using inappropriate language), report them for language.
If they tell people to ‘let them win’, continue the fight.
Whoa slow your jets there muh dude. Please link me a direct quote where I said I was trying to circumvent anything. We will wait. Newsflash though, my highest classic toon is level 4 I think? Been there done all of that and have the rank 11 original PvP title to show for it. So I think I know a little bit of what I am talking about in regards to BGs
You call it throwing a match. They call it defending the mines. That is not the definition of throwing a match. Let’s flip it a little. If you have a group and 30 of them want to bum rush the base, including you, and 10 want to defend an untracked bunker are they throwing the match? Ok now you are part of the 10 that want to defend the bunker. Are you now throwing the match?
That is why intentionally throwing the game does not mean what you think it means.
That’s the issue though. Only so far as you know. Now, I will say if you suspect this is happening, and you suspect it is cross faction collusion, by all means report it. I would rather you report it 100 times and be wrong in your suspicions 100 times than ignore it and have been correct. This is exactly why we have RCR
Show me a rule right this exact moment that says players cannot sync queues? The fact they are taking steps to prevent this is one thing, but at the moment it is not against the rules.
Like i said I don’t play classic. Sounds like they are implementing the party system queue though. Good for them. But I am speculating as I have zero knowledge of the classic changes being made. Cuz well I don’t play it.
Show me a rule that says you cannot and we will talk. Until then, no. No it doesn’t.
Blizzard is making a change to prevent players from doing large premades in Classic AV. If players are deliberately trying to circumvent the system that Blizzard is implementing to prevent them from doing this…at what point do we call this a reportable offense? The change hasn’t even happened yet, and yet we have people, in-game, on reddit, and on these publicly declaring that Blizzard can’t stop them, and they already have and will continue to circumvent the changes that Blizzard is making to stop them.
For example:
He’s calling Blizzard’s change a “fix.” And says they’re going to “bypass” it.
That sounds like willful, deliberate, intentional cheating to me. So we should be reporting these people, right?
Kaivax’s post seems to make it pretty clear that Blizzard considers what these people are doing to be not ok, and they’re taking action to stop it. But they stop short of explicitly stating that it’s against the rules.
I get where you are coming from a lot better now, and as I said I don’t play classic. So I had no knowledge of even this so I apologize if I came across crass on this
I suspect there is nothing they will be able to do to circumvent this. Gut feeling says there will be random back end delays by seconds on some queues to stop exactly this. So we coordinate and click at literally the exact same time. You queue instantly. I queue 5 seconds later. Another group pops 15 seconds later.
However the in game notification pops instantly so the player is none the wiser. Strong feeling something like this will pop on the backend. Since it is all on the back end there will be no need tk clarify. Also I suspect if they did this, the delay would be RNG as to not try to time and game it.
It’s whet I would do.
Ps. All speculation on my part. But it is the type of thing I would try and implement if I were serious about stopping this
If you read what I posted, they are removing the battleground number from the queue list. That means that groups of groups will likely not be able to group into the same battleground.
If you suspect they are circumventing rules, report them. If they are doing it, and it can be proven by internal logs, then they get actioned. If it can’t be proven or they aren’t doing it, nothing happens.
What people claim and what actually happens aren’t always the same thing. Players claim false things all the time. It is to try and instill apathy in other players so that players don’t report them. As the new system isn’t fully implemented yet they have no way of knowing one way or the other.
We saw someone in Customer Support complaining because their guild’s main account was banned/suspended. If you checked his posting history he was in one of the other forums bragging that they could account share and Blizzard couldn’t detect it.
So what?
What they are bragging and what they are actually doing don’t always match up. They could be saying it to troll others. If they are doing it in game, go ahead and report them. Reddit or Discord or any other third-party platform would not be reportable as they are not Blizzrd-controlled sources.
It’s still not against the rules. They are attempting to limit the ability to do it, but not actually ban it. It’s like multi-boxing. It’s not banned but it is also not supported. They (players) can attempt it but it doesn’t mean they would be successful.
If there isn’t an explicit statement in the Blue post I linked, you are unlikely to get one here.
That’s not at all how it reads to me. Here is the text that (I believe) you are referring to:
“Alterac Valley will now allow parties of up to 5 players to queue together. When a party queues together, they will be placed into the same battleground.”
They are allowing groups of 5 to queue together. That’s all it says. There is no saying they are ok or not ok. In fact, allowing it happen would seem to imply that they are ok with it.
But I don’t think that’s necessarily the full truth. I think it more of an acknowledgement that people like to play this game with friends, and the current system hampers that effort, plus an acknowledgement that they simply cannot stop it from happening, especially when coordination happens outside the game (Discord, TS, etc).
Also, this is for Classic. There are no Rated Battlegrounds or separate queues for premades, etc…and that is by design. People want to play Classic, this is what they get.
You can report people for any reason you like, at any time you like. Blizzard will investigate and take appropriate action. Sometimes that “appropriate action” is nothing.
You are not required to investigate, build a case, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, or anything. Simply report if you feel something is amiss, and then (and this is the important part) move on with your gaming.
Because they are not breaking any rules. At no point did Blizzard say “Premades more than 5 members in size are against the rules.”. It never has been against the rules to premade or use voice chat to do so.
Everything you dont like isnt an “exploit”. People are grossly misusing the term.
Welcome to the Customer Support forum. A public forum that is essentially a help desk for players to help other players at their own discretion with occasional Support Forum Agent oversight. Anyone with an account in good standing may post in any thread here, provided they follow the forum code of conduct.
It does not stand for “I’m the customer, support me,” and it isn’t staffed 24/7 by any SFAs. If you would like direct contact with someone at Blizzard and no player interaction, please use the support link at the top of the page to get in contact with a game master. I do not believe you’re going to find a category fitting for what you ask, however.
Please don’t assume things of others just because they’re not agreeing with you. More to the fact, just because Blizz isn’t dropping the hammer onto anyone the moment you said so doesn’t mean they’re fine with anything.
Blizz does it own thing and doesn’t jump when player a request of them.