The Silence Penalty

[Shaede]

Just my two cents: I like this feature a lot. While the penalty doesn't necessarily limit you from playing the game, it does limit you from interacting with other players. Basically just a way to hold people somewhat accountable for how they conduct themselves in-game. Maybe, just maybe, after getting silenced for a couple days, trolls will be more inclined to keep their BS to themselves.

[purebalance]

World of Warcraft offers many opportunities to engage with other players in a variety of ways and to help support positive experiences in these engagements we wanted to inform you of a new silence penalty we will be implementing with the pre-expansion patch for Legion. Depending on the type of report, players who are found to be abusive in chat or engage in inappropriate chat behaviors may be silenced from engaging in certain ways within the game.

The Silence Penalty
Following the Legion pre-expansion, any player who is reported multiple times under the Spam or Abusive Chat categories will, after investigation, receive an account-wide silence penalty. While this penalty is active, the silenced player will find that their ability to chat with others is greatly limited.

Silenced Players Are Unable to:
Talk in Instance Chat (Raid, Party, and Battlegrounds)
Talk in global channels that are auto joined (such as General or Trade)
Create Calendar Invites/Events
Send in-game mail
Send Party Invitations
Send War Game Invitations
Send Invitations to Duel
Update a Premade Group Listing
Create a New List for a Premade Group

Silenced Players Are Able to:
Whisper to friends (both WoW friends and Battle.net Friends)
Reply to Whispers from Non-friends
Party/Raid Chat (with Invited Players)
Create Parties and Raids
Talk in Global Channels that have a moderator
Share Quests
Sign up for a pre-made group

The first time a player is silenced, their chat will be restricted for 24 hours. This duration will double for each silence penalty received after the first, and there is no maximum. This means that players who receive multiple silence penalties may find themselves unable to chat for a very, very long time.

Silenced players will be receiving a notification when attempting to send a message to a channel in which they have been restricted.The first time a player is silenced, their chat will be restricted for 24 hours. This duration will double for each silence penalty received after the first, and there is no maximum. This means that players who receive multiple silence penalties may find themselves unable to chat for a very, very long time.

By using the in-game report tool to identify players who may be engaging in inappropriate interactions within the various channels, you’ll be helping create the type of community we all want to take part in.

Source

From the wording it seems this will be implemented in 7.0. I love this new policy and I like that the penalty will be perpetually increased. I hope they don't back down on any of it. This has been needed for a long time.

Nope bad idea and not needed at all. It will be abused like it is in league of legends to make basically a totalitarian state. In league you pretty much can't even say anything like "you're losing your lane please sit your turret" or "I'm getting camped can you guys please do something other than farming lazily in lane" without a premade or duo then claiming you're harassing them and saying in all chat to report you which then gets you at least 3-4 reports for saying something innocuous.

Wow is full of even more people with paper skin who would report for no good reason. I plan on abusing this if they implement it just to show people how bad a system it is. I won't say a word in trade or anything once this comes out so there is no real evidence.

[BentPencils]

another convoluted idea by blizzard when a much simpler solution was there and partially in place already.

Simpler but less effective long term.

[purebalance]

Its true that in vanilla days players had to be ultra nice because any flaw would go on record and smear it for life. On the other hand today we do have some extremes esp in pvp (which is my field of interest I don't care what happens in /2).

My question is: What will be done against those who destroy a game on purpose. You play a 10 v 10 one guy afks at GY game is lost. 9 people just got screwed. So they shout some abuse at the afker. Afker reports them. Afker wins.

If we gonna do a wow penal code then we must certainly add a few more categories. Same as in a forum really. Someone provokes me in an "unreportable" way. I respond in a reportable way. My bad got flagged. The other guy walks. HOWEVER: It takes two to tango.

Again I see this from the side of the Battleground chat. I understand that /2 is a sewer in some cases and needs fixing.

This kind of crap happens in League of Legends all the time. I've gotten bans and chat restrictions in there for far less than yelling about an afker. I've even had the afker type in chat that they are not afk when in fact they were so the other team thinks I'm lying and reports me.

[Shaede]

What are you trying to prove here? If I lose the game because some idiot left a base undefended how exactly is it my fault? If you don't know when to CC and you get fake casted all the time and lose us games how is it my fault? If you don't know where to run in order not to pull trash and wipe your raid how is it my fault? If you are not accountable for your actions why do I have to suffer while you go unpunished?

Ofc its always them. And as long as there is no protection against them they will be abused by their victims. You f*ck someone's game and they f*ck your feelgood hypocritical approach of the game. Whats the problem? You mess with their day they mess with yours. Why should you enjoy special protection.

Why is it so hard for players not to suck but they demand protection against being told they suck.

Well the difference here is you're comparing verbal abuse to what could possibly be just not being good at the game. Honestly if losing a bg is that horrible, you should realistically be running rateds with other people who are like-minded. Expecting absolute perfection in non-ranked matchmaking is just silly. Also, yelling at someone and telling them they suck accomplishes very little. It neither teaches the player what they should've done, nor does it make your future experience any better. If you really cared about winning random matches you would explain the goals and help those who aren't doing well or working on objectives properly.

But if yelling you suck and being angry is your speed, then 24 hours of silence may at least help you to keep your anger problems to yourself.

[purebalance]

Simpler but less effective long term.

It was 100% effective. This system is shit. I can see people like Perculia from WoWhead getting people silenced for mentioning hush Tyrande(or Tyrande's Silence...)

[goblingirl]

So censorship? Nope, never.

It's an MMO, not the public square. Blizzard DOES have the right to determine what can and should happen while you engage with their customers within their properties.

Far too many people are completely confused about the 1st Amendment.

ETA: For those of you who haven't been to law school, here's a decent write-up on the basics of censorship. A relevant bit:

"Free speech zones (also known as First Amendment Zones, Free speech cages, and Protest zones) are areas set aside in public places for citizens of the United States engaged in political activism to exercise their right of free speech."

Hint for you: World of Warcraft is not a free speech zone.

[purebalance]

Well the difference here is you're comparing verbal abuse to what could possibly be just not being good at the game. Honestly if losing a bg is that horrible, you should realistically be running rateds with other people who are like-minded. Expecting absolute perfection in non-ranked matchmaking is just silly. Also, yelling at someone and telling them they suck accomplishes very little. It neither teaches the player what they should've done, nor does it make your future experience any better. If you really cared about winning random matches you would explain the goals and help those who aren't doing well or working on objectives properly.

But if yelling you suck and being angry is your speed, then 24 hours of silence may at least help you to keep your anger problems to yourself.

There's a difference though when you explain to these people what they did wrong the first time and they flip you the bird and keep doing it anyway. "Hey listen can you do XXXXX next time it would help" "FUCK OFF YOU FUCK" "Fine loser suck it up the rest of your life" "I'M REPORTING YOU!" and Blizzard will support them and not you just like Riot does.

- - - Updated - - -

It's an MMO, not the public square. Blizzard DOES have the right to determine what can and should happen while you engage with their customers within their properties.

Far too many people are completely confused about the 1st Amendment.

Really? Tell that to Angela Merkel who is demanding Zuckerberg silence people talking badly about refugees in Germany on Facebook. It goes both ways. You shouldn't be able to force a business to silence people either.

[Pann]

It was 100% effective. This system is shit. I can see people like Perculia from WoWhead getting people silenced for mentioning hush Tyrande(or Tyrande's Silence...)

No it is not. A player ignoring a toxic player does nothing to address the problem - the toxic player. Like it or not toxic players drive others from games and games companies are beginning to wake up to the fact that this is costing them money.

[derpkitteh]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG3oGJrdfeE

i agree with asmongold on this. it's childish, this kind of attitude shouldn't fostered.

[Pann]

There's a difference though when you explain to these people what they did wrong the first time and they flip you the bird and keep doing it anyway. "Hey listen can you do XXXXX next time it would help" "FUCK OFF YOU FUCK" "Fine loser suck it up the rest of your life" "I'M REPORTING YOU!" and Blizzard will support them and not you just like Riot does.

If your helpful advice is met with a torrent of abuse, you can report them for it and they will be silenced.

[Shaede]

There's a difference though when you explain to these people what they did wrong the first time and they flip you the bird and keep doing it anyway. "Hey listen can you do XXXXX next time it would help" "FUCK OFF YOU FUCK" "Fine loser suck it up the rest of your life" "I'M REPORTING YOU!" and Blizzard will support them and not you just like Riot does.

Well yeah I get it... I hope that the part where they say investigations will occur is actually a little in depth so people don't have this situation happen to them. But we haven't even seen the system in place yet. We can't say it's going to be as bad as it is in LoL. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about it because I rarely talk to random people unless it's to help or ask for help or to trade things. And also being a player since BC I have seen this community go into the toilet ever since the server communities broke down, so it's a relief to know that they are trying to do something about the bs.

[goblingirl]

Really? Tell that to Angela Merkel who is demanding Zuckerberg silence people talking badly about refugees in Germany on Facebook. It goes both ways. You shouldn't be able to force a business to silence people either.

She can "demand" whatever she wants. It's up to Facebook what their policies are and what they allow (for example, they ban most nudity). Now, if there are LAWS that differ in GERMANY with respect to what can be posted, then Facebook would have to either honor those laws *in Germany* and/or challenge them in German courts.

But in the United States, Facebook controls what happens on their platform, just like any other company or private property owner controls what happens on their property. You do not have the right to set up a protest anywhere you want, including chat channels in WoW.

That said, most of the people who fall afoul of this are going to get silenced for two reasons:

1) They are a gold spammer on a throwaway account, in which case the entire account is likely to be closed, not just silenced. I think we can all agree this is a Good Thing.

2) They are spewing offensive/intolerant/profane stuff in general chat. Everyone's got their own views of what is offensive/intolerant/profane, hence Blizzard's review team will be checking comments before slapping someone's account with a Silence. If the Blizzard reviewer agrees that the reported speech is offensive in some way, then Silence it is.

In either case, you are misbehaving per the TOS on Blizzard's property. Legally, for US based customers, they have the right to set and enforce the standards.

[BarosanuNr1]

Instead of using our subscription money to pay some employee to look into these matters and manually ban people, wouldn't it have been easier to first try some cheaper / easier methods, such as:
- extend the limit of the ignore list (with client-side storage if it's too much information); or
- make the /ignore command work on accounts instead of characters; or
- create a default global chat for people to talk shit in instead of /trade; or
- limit (or lower, if there is already a limit) the number of messages that can be posted by the same player in the same public chat in a certain time frame (e.g. 1 message per 2 minutes) etc.?
It's weird that we're jumping straight to the Schutzstaffel solution. Should I be worried to talk to other people when this goes live? Will I be rewarded in any way for reporting other players and collaborating with the Blizzard authorities?

[goblingirl]

Instead of using our subscription money to pay some employee to look into these matters and manually ban people, wouldn't it have been easier to first try some cheaper / easier methods, such as:
- extend the limit of the ignore list (with client-side storage if it's too much information); or
- make the /ignore command work on accounts instead of characters; or
- create a default global chat for people to talk shit in instead of /trade; or
- limit (or lower, if there is already a limit) the number of messages that can be posted by the same player in the same public chat in a certain time frame (e.g. 1 message per 2 minutes) etc.?
It's weird that we're jumping straight to the Schutzstaffel solution. Should I be worried to talk to other people when this goes live? Will I be rewarded in any way for reporting other players and collaborating with the Blizzard authorities?

The problem with implementing all of the suggestions above is that it puts the onus on every single player to block bad actors who are violating TOS, and lets the bad actors continue on their merry way, polluting the company's flagship game.

There are a whole host of reasons why Blizzard would not want the first thing a new customer sees upon running from Elwynn Forest into Stormwind for the first time to see offensive material in trade chat.

ETA: Regarding your question at the end - remember, a Blizzard employee would be reviewing the reports prior to implementing the Silence. Nobody can "gang up on you" and get you Silenced, unless you legitimately said something that is against the Terms of Service. So there's no reason not to talk to other players, as long as you observe the rules. The level of paranoia about this is cracking me up. No, you are not going to get silenced for talking to people in a normal respectful way.

[Pann]

What is Blizzard doing to protect players from toxicity by action? How many times is a player allowed to screw someone's raid/dungeon/BG deliberately before they can be punished?

You'll be pleased to know that I heard they have something to deal with this, it turns out they allow people to remove the players that ruin raids, dungeons or BGs from the their groups.

[Gadzooks]

Rise of the police state in WoW and other games. Moderation of everything just to keep the "hyper sensitive" SJW bunch happy. Mediocrity rewarded and protected while bots run abundant. What more to ask. Anything for the subs blizzard.

Regardless, the whole wow chat system can be bypassed but is this what we really want? A window noone uses because police state? And again I will ask and as many times as I have to:

What is Blizzard doing to protect players from toxicity by action? How many times is a player allowed to screw someone's raid/dungeon/BG deliberately before they can be punished?

And a final question: How many raid tiers did this idea cost us?

"Police state" - I just spit coffee all over my keyboard laughing. Yeah, it's TOTALLY a police state. Uh huh.

Cold you drama queen a little harder? If we pay you?

[Mhyroth]

I don't know what to think of this topic. Both sides have good and nice points to make and both are right in their own way, although I do have a feeling this system will be (ab)used in the wrong way.
Also some of the rules are odd and make no sense at all. And example is that I can't even send mails anymore. I can't even send myself potions,flasks or any other material I might need. What if I'm an Auction House player who got reported by some fellow campers ? Hilarous and strange stories/events will occur and I'll happily read the thread's popping up everywhere.

[Shaede]

Entitled to be noob is a new low for wow and you just advocated in its favor. Don't come back screaming about how bad the game has become when you think the problem is the whistleblowers

Not really. Comparing someone that's nerd raging in a random, meaningless battleground to a whistleblower is stretching it. Entitled to be noob is a nonsensical statement. Are you suggesting there aren't new players to the game? Either way, feel free to toss monitors and curse at the top of your lungs when a random person isn't as good as you want them to be. No ones stopping you from that. Just limiting your ability to bring that anger into chat.

[BarosanuNr1]

[...] There are a whole host of reasons why Blizzard would not want the first thing a new customer sees upon running from Elwynn Forest into Stormwind for the first time to see offensive material in trade chat.

ETA: Regarding your question at the end - remember, a Blizzard employee would be reviewing the reports prior to implementing the Silence. Nobody can "gang up on you" and get you Silenced, unless you legitimately said something that is against the Terms of Service. So there's no reason not to talk to other players, as long as you observe the rules. The level of paranoia about this is cracking me up. No, you are not going to get silenced for talking to people in a normal respectful way.

Granted as regards Blizzard's motives (they're a business after all), but do note that, as per the blue post, this mechanism will apply to both abusive behavior and spam (which, I think, is the real "issue" here).

Now, I know that spam can be really annoying in dedicated public chats (i.e. trade), but it is nowhere near as revolting to your average player as the above mentioned abuse, a trait that, in my opinion, justifies personal silencing decisions for spam rather than imposed ones (and this not even considering the fact that what we deem as spam can also encompass harmless fun discussions that engage players and strengthen the realm's community feel - maybe your realm is just unfriendlier?).

As regards abusive behavior (which is a more serious matter, but which I deem to represent the breach of a limit quite further than simply not being "normally respectful"), I can testify that each time I've reported people for this in the past Blizzard has always responded, even when I wasn't the target of the abuse. So there is already a working system in place, as such behavior has been taken seriously by Blizzard since times immemorial and abusers have short gaming life expectancies in WoW. What the planned system does is extend the sanction formerly applied for abusive behavior to other behaviors with a much lower degree of social threat. It's like being liable for arrest for jaywalking when a simple fine or warning would do the job.