The Silence Penalty

[Seradi]

Actually not to be rude but it was the opposite for me. I see your point of view of course but for me the older and more mature I got the less I was in favor of speech being silenced for feelings. When I was young I thought anyone saying things that upset me should be silenced, Then as I said... I matured, and now I understand feelings are actually one of the least important aspects of life, something to be focused on only by the weak, and the unfiltered exchange of ideals in any form is far far more important to society as a whole, and yes, that includes opinions that to you are unacceptable, that's literally the whole point, we should all hear opposing views constantly. Keep in mind, at one point things like gay rights were considered an "unacceptable opinion". We should never deny future generations that chance to make any changes to the world like this gen did just because this gen is 1000% sure they got it right. :Eye roll:

What does this have to do with someone spamming trade or someone with PMs in WoW? You really think someone calling someone else a cunt or a faggot over and over is an exchange of ideals? Come on.

[Gentlepenguin]

What does this have to do with someone spamming trade or someone with PMs in WoW? You really think someone calling someone else a cunt or a faggot over and over is an exchange of ideals? Come on.

They may not be ideals, but you are robbing them of the opportunity to use those words against deserving individuals! In some cases they may be bound by their honor to forsake the rules and use them in anger, because you made them do it. You forced their hand, against their will, to break the rules, on purpose!

[Pejo]

They may not be ideals, but you are robbing them of the opportunity to use those words against deserving individuals! In some cases they may be bound by their honor to forsake the rules and use them in anger, because you made them do it. You forced their hand, against their will, to break the rules, on purpose!

Which you can definitely do. However, just like everything in life, you need to accept the consequences for your actions. If your honor demands you to call the guy a cunt in an online game where you can easily ignore, enjoy your silence.

[ipaq]

Which you can definitely do. However, just like everything in life, you need to accept the consequences for your actions. If your honor demands you to call the guy a cunt in an online game where you can easily ignore, enjoy your silence.

Silence is just another tool to give power to those special powerless losers.

Too much of a cunt to /ignore or GM tickets? There ya go ... a 3rd way to avenge your bruised ego.

PS: If my words hurt your "self" worth. Good.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Here is my opinion on the matter. If the investigation part of the equation is worthwhile then it will be an ok system. If it isn't it will be an utter disaster for a few reasons. Abuse being the top one of course. The next thing is the investigation needs to be timely. If they do it like they do ban waves now you might say something now and then 6 months later you find yourself silenced and confused. Weather they said anything about this or not doesn't matter. It is what actually happens that does. So I will sit, wait, and see before coming to any serious conclusion on the matter. But if it ends up having those two things wrapped up nicely than it will be a decent system to stop at the very least those people that are total cunts for no reason in 5 mans or those notorious realm trolls that spam endlessly across trade chat and whispers.

[Dug]

i did not call them that ingame
on that day
you're clearly not understanding what actually happened

out of all the days i did say something...i wasn't silenced..
out of the 1 day i was actually very calm and didn't talk much in chat or at all i got silenced..

wtf is wrong with you? it's pretty clear what i said
i am not lying about anything

the same damn thing happened to me on wow forums
i wouldn't get banned for genuine rule breaking
then i get banned for stupid shit like "can i have your stuff" they claimed i was trolling?
or posting prayer websites i didn't say anything negative yet they claim i had and i was banned for depicting religious figures negatively???

how fucking hard is this for you to understand?
i did not violate the rules on the times that i was banned, silenced, suspended for breaking the rules
and when i did break the rules...nothing happened..

it's like it's opposite day for eternity for fuck sake
everything is backwards

i'm genuinely confused about this general stuff why am i being banned for stuff that i didn't violate? yet not being punished for things i did violate?


it's like someone being arrested for "theft" when they return someones bag to the person who had it stolen from them
then when they punch an old lady in the street infront of a cop..nothing happens to them..

You realize that you don't have to be banned for something you said on the same day that you were banned? The days before you were probably being a frothing rager and promptly got reported. Enough got build up over the days, Blizzard looked at the chat logs, and boom you were silenced. I'll never believe someone was falsely reported unless they can provide the chat logs.

I've played wow for 10 years and I've never once been reported for anything. I've played Overwatch for practically the whole beta and since launch and I've yet to be silenced, why is that? Cause I'm not a flamer/rager/whiner/troll.

And even on your "quiet" day you're still lying. Why the hell would people report a complete random for not talking or being afk (when he supposedly isn't afk)? Either the most likely a) You were flaming or the delusional b) You're just that good at the game and everyone was conspiring against you. I'm sure you've convinced yourself that b) was the case. Get real dude. Take your punishment like a man and learn from your mistakes.

[uxzuigal]

Silence is just another tool to give power to those special powerless losers.

Too much of a cunt to /ignore or GM tickets? There ya go ... a 3rd way to avenge your bruised ego.

PS: If my words hurt your "self" worth. Good.

Or - it gives your superior alphas another tool to hit you over the head with when you rise your scrawny voices to annoy us. Can't wait.

[Daffan]

I hope they don't silence people for trade chat or petty comments, like basic swear words.

I cant wait until people talk even less because they are scared of being reported for almost nothing.

[aerosyne]

This is exactly what this new rule is for. People are blowing this out of proportion and think some might get silenced for the typing a few sentences. The rule is to prevent third party spamming and crap like that Orc head.

I've seen plenty stuff like this and it's almost as if people forget that Blizzard already has a feature for that: the Chat Time-out system. This new system is a waste of development time. It would've been simpler to just allow us to ignore 500 or so players since we can ignore full accounts now. Of course, leave it to Blizzard to develop a Rube Golberg machine of a solution to pick up a stick when you could just bend over.

I hope they don't silence people for trade chat or petty comments, like basic swear words.


I cant wait until people talk even less because they are scared of being reported for almost nothing.

The problem is this is exactly going to happen because Blizzard's guidelines that they appear to be using for this system right now are absurdly vague. With the guidelines the way they are now, if you and your friend just spent all day calling each other 'butthead' in guild chat, you could both get silenced because some random third-party guild member could take offense to that since it's 'hurtful language that is defamatory'.

The system is designed for games like Call of Duty and Heroes of the Storm, where silencing is a really effective measure. It's not designed for an MMO and the punishments are overly restrictive, especially since this entire change hinges on how well Blizzard handles reports and the inevitable abuse that will come, likely from a lot of the people in this very thread. Given their track record of how they don't think things through very well, I'm not happy that they're basically expanding on a system that has no punishment for repeat or incorrect tattling.

If they get this right, things may improve. If not, people will likely never use in-game chat features again. On the plus side, if you're a voice comm developer, get ready for a huge wave of downloads since people will be aiming to circumvent any possible silences by any means necessary.

[Relapses]

I've seen plenty stuff like this and it's almost as if people forget that Blizzard already has a feature for that: the Chat Time-out system. This new system is a waste of development time. It would've been simpler to just allow us to ignore 500 or so players since we can ignore full accounts now. Of course, leave it to Blizzard to develop a Rube Golberg machine of a solution to pick up a stick when you could just bend over.



The problem is this is exactly going to happen because Blizzard's guidelines that they appear to be using for this system right now are absurdly vague. With the guidelines the way they are now, if you and your friend just spent all day calling each other 'butthead' in guild chat, you could both get silenced because some random third-party guild member could take offense to that since it's 'hurtful language that is defamatory'.

The system is designed for games like Call of Duty and Heroes of the Storm, where silencing is a really effective measure. It's not designed for an MMO and the punishments are overly restrictive, especially since this entire change hinges on how well Blizzard handles reports and the inevitable abuse that will come, likely from a lot of the people in this very thread. Given their track record of how they don't think things through very well, I'm not happy that they're basically expanding on a system that has no punishment for repeat or incorrect tattling.

If they get this right, things may improve. If not, people will likely never use in-game chat features again. On the plus side, if you're a voice comm developer, get ready for a huge wave of downloads since people will be aiming to circumvent any possible silences by any means necessary.

Generally speaking, Blizzard has often sided with players when it comes to stuff said in GChat and guild operated raids. I think the reasoning is that it's "opt-in," unlike Trade/General chats which are often things you have to actively opt out from. If the system is able to properly identify these types of scenarios then I don't think we'll need to worry about watching what we say in our own guilds/raids. If it doesn't then we'll have to deal with guildies "hilariously" trolling each other by getting each other silenced. This is something we'll have to see pan out before writing off as an entirely poor idea. I personally think some of the implications you're making are vastly overstated, but I definitely understand the cynicism.

[Cooper]

The problem with the "Oh you can just /ignore argument" is that it is reactive instead of proactive. You're only going to ignore somebody after they've been abusive, which means somebody is still going to suffer that initial torrent of abuse. This system is aimed at preventing that abuse in the first place. It puts the onus on the abuser instead of the victim, which is how it should be.

[Gadzooks]

They may not be ideals, but you are robbing them of the opportunity to use those words against deserving individuals! In some cases they may be bound by their honor to forsake the rules and use them in anger, because you made them do it. You forced their hand, against their will, to break the rules, on purpose!

Robbing them of the opportunity? C'mon. Troll harder. That's THE most ridiculous thing I've ever seen posted here, and this place gets fucking ridiculous at times.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

The problem with the "Oh you can just /ignore argument" is that it is reactive instead of proactive. You're only going to ignore somebody after they've been abusive, which means somebody is still going to suffer that initial torrent of abuse. This system is aimed at preventing that abuse in the first place. It puts the onus on the abuser instead of the victim, which is how it should be.

Not so true. You have to report someone before they get silenced. Someone has to be first. Someone has to be abused. With how random groups and ques work these days odds are you wont ever see them by the time they are silenced anyway. You get the abuse. Maybe someone else gets some protection. But odds are you will still soak the abuse.

[Osmeric]

Not so true. You have to report someone before they get silenced. Someone has to be first. Someone has to be abused. With how random groups and ques work these days odds are you wont ever see them by the time they are silenced anyway. You get the abuse. Maybe someone else gets some protection. But odds are you will still soak the abuse.

But at the same time, you are protected by the reporting other people did. You are not protected if other people simply /ignore the abusers.

[Gadzooks]

The problem is this is exactly going to happen because Blizzard's guidelines that they appear to be using for this system right now are absurdly vague.

That's on purpose, and exactly what they should do, so the "Hitler did nothing wrong" crowd can't figure out ways around it.

For the most part, the majority of players of WoW are late teens, or adults. You don't need rules to know that calling someone a cunt, or telling someone to kill themselves is not permitted. We're not dealing with 5 year olds who blurt things out randomly, this is a group of people who fucking know better - and if they don't, they don't belong in a public game.

- - - Updated - - -

Not so true. You have to report someone before they get silenced. Someone has to be first. Someone has to be abused. With how random groups and ques work these days odds are you wont ever see them by the time they are silenced anyway. You get the abuse. Maybe someone else gets some protection. But odds are you will still soak the abuse.

One person and one report isn't going to get someone silenced.

Get that, and you'll understand why your doubts and fears are 100% unfounded. And, the person being reported has to actually have broken the rules.

[clevin]

The problem with the "Oh you can just /ignore argument" is that it is reactive instead of proactive. You're only going to ignore somebody after they've been abusive, which means somebody is still going to suffer that initial torrent of abuse. This system is aimed at preventing that abuse in the first place. It puts the onus on the abuser instead of the victim, which is how it should be.

Bolded the important part. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people can /ignore an abusive asshat. Or the abusive asshat can get a timeout and consider whether they want to change. If not, oh well.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

One person and one report isn't going to get someone silenced.

Get that, and you'll understand why your doubts and fears are 100% unfounded. And, the person being reported has to actually have broken the rules.

I have zero fears. They can't mute me on the guilds voice channels which are really all that matter to me whatsoever. Not to mention I was responding to someone else and not making an independent statement. So I don't understand what your approach is here.

- - - Updated - - -

But at the same time, you are protected by the reporting other people did. You are not protected if other people simply /ignore the abusers.

That also assumes they were able to damage me thus me needing protection to start with.

[Molvonos]

I love threads like this. It's like Vegan-spotting, but with assholes. And you can spot every single individual who's gonna get Silenced. :3

[Deathquoi]

It's a shame the community has degraded to this point. This isn't how the community should be policed. One of the reasons Classic WoW and its community were so superior to now is that there were no Name Changes and so if you wanted to be a successful player in whichever avenue you chose, you had to act like a human being and build a player reputation for yourself amongst your community. That very community policed itself through black lists and social stigmas. If you were ousted as a troll, ninja, etc. , you had no hope of succeeding barring grouping up with others of that nature.

Conversely, this tool will just be a way for SJWs, Trolls, and Communists to silence whoever they target. As long as there is a legitimate investigation (which I HIGHLY doubt) than we've not much to worry about though.

Yeah there was no trolling in vanilla, absolutely not

[goblingirl]

The system is designed for games like Call of Duty and Heroes of the Storm, where silencing is a really effective measure. It's not designed for an MMO and the punishments are overly restrictive, especially since this entire change hinges on how well Blizzard handles reports and the inevitable abuse that will come, likely from a lot of the people in this very thread. Given their track record of how they don't think things through very well, I'm not happy that they're basically expanding on a system that has no punishment for repeat or incorrect tattling.

It's the same system they have now. The penalty for violating chat rules is being changed from temporary/permanent account ban, over to a silence.

They already evaluate reports. They currently BAN accounts either temporarily or permanently for bad behavior.

All you peoples having a fit over it are forgetting that right now, every time you get a 1+ day ban for your behavior, in future you can still log in and play while silenced. Frankly this is a change in favor of the offender, not the other way around; hopefully after 1-2 violations you figure out what the rules are and abide by them, and you never get silenced again. Meanwhile you are able to play during your "penalty" time instead of being locked out of the game entirely.

It's beyond me why everyone thinks that suddenly there are going to be tons of people trying to get non-offenders silenced. Blizzard isn't stupid, they aren't in the habit of banning people who didn't actually do anything wrong. I don't know why you kids think you are going to be silenced if you haven't done anything wrong.