Ok well id say those forums are that-a-way —>
I dont play tbcc all that much. Im too lazy to read quests for directions
I’m on the phone hold on ill be on Mt desktop in a bit and I can reply properly. Phone is being stupid
Join a good guild and you don’t have to deal with LFG.
The app is free, but you can’t link it to an account anymore without a valid SMS text link to the account. That linked phone number can only be used for one account, has to be a contract phone, and has to be in the country listed for the account address. That makes it a tiny bit harder, but only a tiny bit. You need both the App and the SMS text set up to use custom group finder text (or get the 4 backpack slots).
Agreed. Only paid Blizz staff following policies, with oversight to prevent abuse/personal actions, should be handing out penalties.
We can all report of course. I really do wish they had some improved auto filtering on the Group finder though. Some of that is blatant and not even an attempt to get around filters. How hard is that to block?
3 Likes
That’s the problem.
An actual underpaid $14 an hour QA employee or two is needed with a full time job of scouring posts.
If Blizzard can throw millions at (unsuccessfully) improving their PR, they can create a few jobs to improve the player experience. Their largest competitor is FANTASTIC at this sort of thing.
If you reported something back in the heyday of WoW, back when there were 10x the current playerbase, you could expect a GM to contact you within about 10-20 minutes most of the time, just enough time to clear trash to the next boss, before they reset the one that was bugged. Now that there are only 10-15% the amount of players it takes about a day for a response most of the time, sometimes rarely a full week. It’s completely illogical that less work takes longer to do… and those were back in the SusanExpress days where there was lots of reporting 24/7.
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I am a bit confused here. They did contact you for actual in-game issues back in the day. They had to. The tools they used required them to log in and interact with the game environment and often, with the player.
These days the updated tools don’t require a GM to enter a game or interact - and they mostly don’t have time.
They don’t have WoW specific GMs now. They have a team who handles tickets for every single game and service Blizzard has. They have a LOT more games now than they did back in Vanilla, BC, etc. The huge increase in support tickets led to streamlining tools to go faster with less interaction. No more ticketing when bored, or asking for GM jokes, or game hints that Blizz is not allowed to give. That is a positive in getting things done, and a negative in terms of player experience.
Rarely though, they will still need to log into your character or account, in which case they do tell you. Heh. Usually…
They also have a lot of player self help tools now so players don’t have to wait on a GM. Item restore, char undelete, char unstuck, etc. Those handle what a lot of the tickets used to be.
That’s the problem though. I understand that this is more efficient, but in my mind the in game GM is supposed to be 1/2 in game tech support and 1/2 in game customer service. All my experiences with GM tickets, and there were a LOT of them, were amazingly positive up until around the WoD era, which I would guess is when it switched over to this?
End of the day, I stand by what I said, and I think that their streamlined way of doing things for multiple titles might work for them, but doesn’t work for their remaining players.
As a customer, I should feel that I am working with the GMs to address problems, not working against them. Many times something like “It won’t let me trade this item to this player who was there for the kill. My item is 15 ilvls higher. there is no reason for me to not be able to trade it.” ends up being a 5 message back and forth until they eventually concluded that the reason was because she wasn’t in the dungeon for the boss fight… even though I linked them the Raider IO for it… and we eventually just gave up.
That’s a bigger issue than the posts, but it all comes together as hiring extra GM’s and focusing on customer service in an era where customers feel neglected might be a fix for quite a lot of their lost player goodwill.
2 Likes
I don’t know why people even buy gold from these people anyways. They risk getting a virus from the site, scammed, your credit card being sold on the black market etc. I would rather spend a little more money and buy a token knowing it is 100% legit and safe.
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Correct. That is around the time they switched. It is also when they were releasing more games. D3 was out, RoS expansion just released, SC2 was going on, Hearthstone and Heroes were around? Or were soon after.
I last talked to a GM/CS person during WoD and it was about a forum issue, of all things. Anyone who got the D3 license from the Annual Pass contract for WoW lost D3 forum access one day. I put in a ticket through the website stating that I had a hunch that the issue was the Annual Pass and that I was not the only one. Just the first… GM from Texas connected via chat in game to discuss the forum issues. Confirmed I was right. Manually gave me back my access to D3 forums (I was doing tech/game MVP stuff). Then they fixed it for everyone.
I don’t disagree with this. They have managed to get the BULK of tickets taken care of, but anything that requires a bit more investigation tends to be a bit of a mess because it takes a long time and a lot of back and forth.
They are not allowed to use anything except Blizzard’s logs. So external or third party tools and addons are not accepted as evidence. The GM is not trying to work against you, just trying to work within the limits they have. A whole lot of things would be smoother if people did not put in tickets for things that GMs don’t do (fix bugs, take feedback to Devs, give game hints, etc.) and focused on things the GMs CAN do.
Setting realistic expectations reduces frustration quite a bit. The ticket system I find does a poor job of that. It is not clear what they can do or how to get help.
This is covered on the CS forum. There is a great thread on what GMs can, and can’t do. The CS forum also serves a an Information Desk where people can ask exactly what can be done, how to use the ticket system, what policies are, etc.
Reading it at least gives a better over view of what to expect.
1 Like
I got posts mixed up I thought this was the post regarding the new players and boosting and this was centered around trade chat. Sorry I got a cold so things are a little fuzzy and sometimes blur together. Hehe… fuzzy… I’m a vulpera… vulpera joke… SQUIRREL. With a topic like this, it’s easy to see too cause how many threads are open now about this subject?
Anyway, if it’s in the LFG? Blizzard flat out said regardless of if it’s gold only or w/e it’s not allowed. Twitch streamers advertising their twitch and streams is also counted in this. One of the streamers I watch got reported and canned for a week for advertising his twitch in the description of his arena listings. If I see ANYONE advertising in the LFG I right click report it. Classic the LFG channel I assume is under the same ruleset, so people advertising boosts in that LFG channel will most likely get canned too. Not too sure about classic. I don’t play it all too much.
They do ban for this. Idc if it’s gold only and that really means just using an addon isn’t helping at all to actually fix the problem. Most if not all the ones in the LFG are RMT and this behavior is harmful to players.
Shoving the poo to the bottom of the litterbox just means others are going to have to deal with the poo.“I don’t see any cat poo in this litter box, you can just add litter! See? The poo is gone.” “But it’s still there.” “Do you SEE the poo? No? Then it’s gone!”
No it’s just underneath all the litter. How about “I squished 1 roach and put down a sticky trap… I don’t see them about my house due to the sticky pad so they must be gone.” as they set up a new nest past the sticky trap in order to bypass it and breed more roaches. Oh no what if the roaches got into the litter box and went under the litter… oh no o_o
And regarding the trade chat ones, excessive spam (in general not just boosting) is against their rules as well and if anything I’m following the instructions set forth by blizzard.
“To report a player for inappropriate advertisement, use the right-click option. You will not receive a direct response but we take all reports very seriously.”
“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.”
So, I don’t want to see all the spam, so I report it as spam and don’t see it and a report goes in. Problem solved. If someone is doing the insert lewd joke regarding ‘for the children’ here constantly I can report that too for language and / or spam.
Also even though addons are allowed, I go by this:
Is Third Party Software Allowed?
Updated: 1 year ago
Article ID: 13078
Relevant Products:
Common Problems
- Are mods allowed?
- Can I get banned for using Addons?
The use of third party programs may not always be authorized in-game. We recommend you carefully read the Anti-Cheating Agreement before you install add-ons or mods. Customer Support cannot confirm whether a particular software is allowed or not.
If the forum really cared about this issue as much as they claim they’d have figured out that it’s impossible to get rid of sellers. Blizzard can ban every one of them right now and in 3 hours more will be there to take their place.
You guys should be advocating for Blizzard to start perm banning players accounts who are caught sharing their accounts and buying gold/items for real money. A business knows they will need to keep rebuying accounts, players won’t keep rebuying accounts. After a few perm bans happen on players it will be enough to scare most of the potential buyers into not buying these goods.
Without customers there wouldn’t be sellers.
I’d wager that players who don’t like this idea are apt to using these “services”.
2 Likes
Can I be on the council so I can go full on Palpatine?
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Oh I agree to an extent. I think a 6 month as a first offense then a perma if caught again would be enough. Reason being is a 6 month will make the person most likely not resub, a perma they may resub with another account. It will make em think about it.
I know it used to be 3 days for buying gold with all the stuff taken away now it’s 14 days. Old school rune scape is going with the tactic of punishing gold buyers equally if not more than the gold farmers, helping reduce the market. It would be the same thing here with the RMT boosting. If caught, 6 months. Second time you’re done. You get a 1 2 then you’re done.
Edit: that is also why right click reporting them in LFG is better than using something to mask it. Anyone that whispers that toon anyone that interacts with it will be logged and the particular thing they are trying to get people to funnel to will also be logged on blizzard’s end. I just hope things get better / improve in time. That’s all you can do really (aside from that right click report thing).
1 Like
Totally get that. Been there!
No, we’re talking trade chat.
I’m not wasting my time reporting spam when it’s just going to pop back up again. I don’t use trade chat. If people want to advertise boosts, I don’t care. Half are legit gold, half aren’t. It doesn’t matter. If people want to get banned for RMT, that’s fine. Easier to catch them when someone pays for it anyway. So let people do dumb stuff.
Addons are absolutely NOT part of that. You are NOT getting banned for ignoring someone or blocking what words you see. Let’s be a little logical here.
The orignal post was about LFG. That’s why I said earlier what I did. We got the posts mixed up. There was another post I had mentioned something about trade which was a diff post that came up around the time this one did. That’s why I went and reread and saw that as “wait a minute, two totally different discussions.”
Then why does it say
With
It explicitly states addons and people have been caught up in a false ban wave before with an addon within the last year. I can 100% see the ban for imorph (it was a TOS breaking addon that changed files etc) but console port a lot of people used it to have better accessibility with a controller cause the in game controller support is hot garbage. I tried it and it was just a mess and I’ve heard from others it’s a mess.
https://tbc.wowhead.com/news/180-day-ban-wave-targets-imorph-and-consoleport-some-overturned-on-appeal-322531
And also they can break the API or do anything with that at any time. One day the addon works, next day an update happens and it doesn’t.
I’m not installing something on my machine without knowing what it is or where it comes from either. I’m being logical in the sense of not what the addon does (to a point some addons are bad) but how it’s written / where it comes from. Most likely not you’re right that it won’t lead to a ban or anything weirdo happening, HOWEVER, with the current state of how things are, rather just avoid downloading something all together. If I stick with what is advised then I do not have to worry about it.
The reason console port caused a false ban wave is due to how it was coded to work. If the addon works in a way that can cause something weird to go off , I don’t want any part of it. I’ve heard of that Follow Me addon causing some issues for players too. Lot of players used it in boosting so whoever was the booster would type !follow me (or something akin to that) and it would make the boostee (if they had it installed) follow behind them with a separate command to stop follow. Dunno how true that actually is, but that may be me being paranoid regarding addons etc. After console port, I’m hesitant to install new addons. I personally don’t use a controller, however, the idea of just installing something that is suddenly a “no no” is a little concerning. I have DBM, bagnon, and a few misc addons for ah stuff. That’s it.
And however you want to handle spam etc is how you want to handle it. I’m going by what blizzard has directly released for us to do, and how to handle it. That’s how they explicitly stated how to handle the spam and language. I join trade in order to see if anyone is buying or selling items. I was shocked someone was actually looking for laestrite ore this morning. I didn’t have any, but things like that you know? I whispered him and asked if he took COD and he did, so now I got someone I can COD ore to if I want to go that route. If you want to use an addon, that’s your choice to do so however it’s just a bandage fix that doesn’t fix the problem like I stated before.
Think of it like this. If it was properly done and policed, the addon wouldn’t even be necessary unless you want to filter out EVERYTHING in trade that you set it to. I believe the addon also works for LFG too, so it filters that stuff out too.
The LFG issue, it’s an easy right click report. That’s what blizz has stated to do and that’s what I do. I don’t see em anymore while I’m logged into that character and it takes 2 seconds to right click left click advertisement boom gone and with the whole RMT issue, it allows for those players participating and asking whoever is advertising in LFG to be caught, hopefully getting rid of the need of the addon to start with. That way the spammers market buyers dwindle so they (hopefully) start dwindling too.
I understand where you’re coming from on the aspect of “I just don’t want to see it or deal with it.” and a lot of folk are like that. I get it. It’s easy to install an addon, I don’t have to deal with it, and keep on going. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure (I think that’s the phrase? idk… wish I could cure this stupid cold though).
Because people ask the question frequently, but absolutely no add-on changes game files, which is the ONLY way you can get banned for third party software. There’s an entire add-ons forum and many many blue posts confirming add-ons are NOT against ToS.
Third party software is not the same as add-ons.
Only if they decide they just don’t want an add-on working that way. And your article about ConsolePort is because it triggered multiboxing third party software flags.
You’re creating a false narrative and drama here. We’re talking about an add-on that simply blocks words you see. It doesn’t change the game.
You don’t seem to understand add-ons at all. I’d suggest reading more in depth, along with the official forum before more false information is spread.
I absolutely do not want to create drama. That never once came out of my mouth and was never my intention. My intention was to discuss on this forum about the the issues pertaining to the LFG issue that the OP discussed (after realizing I was talking about the wrong forum with the trade chat issue which is a whole different ball of wax) and plenty of people have already stated in the forum that the addon doesn’t solve anything.
IF I choose what addons I want to install, that’s on me and at any point blizz could flat out say x y and z thing isn’t allowed and I would have zero say in the matter. That is in that forum thread that you had mentioned. I should be able to use a core functionality of the game, LFG, without seeing RMT advertisements or seeing very few (the ones that haven’t gotten banned yet).
Wow addons run off the in game API and should only run off the in game API only via the addon’s folder. They also cannot be paid for addons. They have to at their core be free in order to usable. Console port bypassed that with what you had stated earlier and fed into the game via steam. However, they reversed this decision at their discretion for anyone that was caught up in the false wave. Console port in game ran off the API but it piggy backed into something external. I’m not getting into semantics here on what addons are or aren’t allowed. That’s up to blizzard and blizzard only.
That’s not the point I’m trying to make here. The point is if you just right click report em in the LFG then the addon wouldn’t be necessary. If you left trade (like you had said earlier) that means you are only using the addon for LFG.
Then if you don’t care why are you going off about people advertising in trade when I tried to real it back onto the topic of LFG? We messed up earlier, thought it was a different post, it went to trade not LFG like the OP originally mentioned. The OP originally mentioned about wow council + and it being for the banning of LFG advertisements on the spot.
I found this is this what you’re refering to? I have read over that!
-
Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on. -
Add-on code must be completely visible.
The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public. -
Add-ons must not negatively impact World of Warcraft realms or other players.
Add-ons will perform no function which, in Blizzard Entertainment’s sole discretion, negatively impacts the performance of the World of Warcraft realms or otherwise negatively affects the game for other players. For example, this includes but is not limited to excessive use of the chat system, unnecessary loading from the hard disk, and slow frame rates. -
Add-ons may not include advertisements.
Add-ons may not be used to advertise any goods or services. -
Add-ons may not solicit donations.
Add-ons may not include requests for donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on website or distribution site and should not appear in the game. -
Add-ons must not contain offensive or objectionable material.
World of Warcraft has been given a “T” by the ESRB, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world. Blizzard Entertainment requires that add-ons not include any material that would not be allowed under these ratings. -
Add-ons must abide by World of Warcraft ToU and EULA.
All add-ons must follow the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement. -
Blizzard Entertainment has the right to disable add-on functionality as it sees fit.
To maintain the integrity World of Warcraft and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to disable any add-on functionality within World of Warcraft at its sole discretion. For more information…
If you are an add-on developer and have any questions about and this User Interface Add-On Development Policy and how it pertains to the add-on that you’ve developed, please don’t hesitate to email us at WoWUI@blizzard.com.
You’re completely missing the entire point of what I’m trying to say and what I stated earlier is in that forum post. They can shut an addon off, at anytime, for any reason with or without your say. I’m not going to rely on an addon that one day may break or not work anymore or potentially have something weird go on with it and cause myself headaches with their appeal system.
Long story short:
Addon = bandage fix. Reporting = adds in LFG ad gets removed, rmt gets removed in some capacity (website is found for blizz to shutdown etc), the buyers and sellers get punished (because the report system is the system that blizzard made to help combat RMT) and the addon isn’t needed anymore or to filter out maybe the 1 or two adds that pop up that haven’t gotten banned yet.
But your false information absolutely does that.
It’s a way to deal with their issue. No one said it was a solution. The add-on does work. They just want.to complain.
Reporting does nothing.
And I already gave a response to this.
If you don’t want to use the tools given to you, then enjoy having to use TFA to use chat channels.
Addon = you don’t see it anymore, which doesn’t affect you. Done and done.
Reporting = nothing happens and then people complain and you get TFA restrictions that just make things complicated and solve nothing.
Then why doesn’t blizzard just make it to where the addon is just ingrained in the game if reporting does nothing? Or, heck, just advise players in that TOS bulletin to install x y and z addon? Saying reporting does nothing is a massive chunk of false information. Reporting absolutely does do something. Issue is it’s not fast enough or there appears to be nothing done. Although to be fair, if you don’t see it then, then how can you know that something is even being done?
What false information? What I said was in that forum post you told me to go read, which I had read before. Maybe you should look at the part that states:
"Blizzard Entertainment has the right to disable add-on functionality as it sees fit.
To maintain the integrity World of Warcraft and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to disable any add-on functionality within World of Warcraft at its sole discretion. For more information…"
If they didn’t want it to conform to their EULA they wouldn’t have said this line right here and gave addon developers and email to contact them directly with. We do not know what blizzard does or doesn’t ban for to keep people from abusing the game and game systems.
In the EULA it states you’re responsible for how you carry yourself in the game, and the actions you partake in. If you download an addon that you thought was safe, but it wasn’t, that’s on you. That’s software you willingly downloaded, thought it was safe, installed in your wow folder, and broke the EULA and their anti cheating agreement if the addon is in fact not formatted correctly or creates a game issue for other players. Weak auras is REAL bad about this to where not the addon itself, but the custom scripts that can be uploaded into it can get someone into hot water.
Number 7 wouldn’t exist if that didn’t mean something. “Addons MUST adhere to blizzard’s rules, which they can update and change at anytime, which is outlined in their EULA.”
C. License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following:
- Derivative Works: Copy or reproduce (except as provided in Section 1.B.), translate, reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on or related to the Platform.
- Cheating: Create, use, offer, promote, advertise, make available and/or distribute the following or assist therein:
- cheats; i.e. methods not expressly authorized by Blizzard (whether accomplished using hardware, software, a combination thereof, or otherwise), influencing and/or facilitating gameplay, including exploits of any in-game bugs, and thereby granting you and/or any other user an advantage over other players not using such methods;
- bots; i.e. any code and/or software, not expressly authorized by Blizzard, that allows the automated control of a Game, or any other feature of the Platform, e.g. the automated control of a character in a Game;
- hacks; i.e. accessing or modifying the software of the Platform in any manner not expressly authorized by Blizzard; and/or
- any code and/or software, not expressly authorized by Blizzard, that can be used in connection with the Platform and/or any component or feature thereof which changes and/or facilitates the gameplay or other functionality;
If reporting does nothing, then why did GMS suggest for people to right click report instead of use that addon you push so hard? If reporting didn’t work, why does the button exist? It was added in by the developers to help curb a problem.
There isn’t going to be a fix all solution but not reporting them really doesn’t do anything. Not taking action = nothing happening=them becoming more and more.
At this point, you’re the one creating the drama because saying the report function doesn’t work and “people come on here to complain” means you’re saying that the people wanting to see an actual fix to the LFG tool so they can use it how it was designed without an external addon have absolutely no say because “reporting doesn’t work, install this. Use this or just stop complaining.”
No they want to see blizzard actually help fix the issue instead of create bandage fixes to an issue that is only enabled by parts of the player base and make sure that players adhere to the EULA so they can play in a fair game without hinderances due to people feeding RMT.
Only one that allows behavior is blizzard and it says right in their EULA that they can change their stances on things at any time:
“Blizzard reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you” (number 10, section B, article ii).
Again, poo in the cat litter box. Poo is still there even though you can’t see it. Instead of covering it with more litter, maybe investing in a scooper would help? You’re completely missing my original point even mentioning addons in the first place and the reason I stated what I did with the addon to start with is because we are at the trust of an addon developer that they did everything correct and worked with blizzard to make the addon what it is via that email address.
If you honestly think reporting does nothing then keep using the addon. If I see someone mention it in the newcomer chat, I’ll flat out tell them just right click report it has better lasting damage than just not being able to see it.
I’ve HAD TFA and an authenticator since LK or cata. Also the TFA isn’t on chat channels, just the LFG. To access trade and other chat channels, the starter edition has to be removed with game time and can take 24 hours or more. Other than that, TFA isn’t affecting chat channels. Hasn’t caused me any issues and in fact kept me from getting hacked at least twice. I can also freely post in the LFG channel with custom text now, I have 4 extra bag slots, and a cute pet 
If players keep ignoring stuff and not reporting, it’s going to most likely get to the point of them adding TFA to chat channels. Will It affect others (had a real bad typo there, woops)? yes. Will it affect me? No it won’t because I have TFA already set up. I hope it doesn’t get to that point honestly, cause that’s a nuclear solution(meaning that the only solution left).
So you quote a bunch of things without reading what’s been said already.
Alright, I think I’m done. I can’t have this conversation anymore.