What will Blizzard do about toxic players?

[DEATHETERNAL]

What are they going to do about toxic players? Take their money and laugh at people like you who think they will do otherwise except in the vast minority of cases.

[jax]

If LoL can be cleaned up,

I missed it, when was LoL cleaned up? ROFL its the most toxic community out there and always has been.

[hablix]

I think it's very unlikely that Blizzard will do anything to "address" toxic player behavior in WoW. Their philosophy towards WoW has always been very hands off, even libertarian. It's up to the players to address toxic behavior, not Blizzard, would be Blizzard's stance.

[Otimus]

Nothing, because at some level, Blizzard seems to actively approve, and sort of encourage this behavior.

While what LoL does is admirable, and I applaud them for trying, I don't think they've really cleaned up that game to the level it needs either, but, again, at least they're trying. Blizzard does not try. They don't even entertain the thought of trying. Instead, they just say "Being mean isn't against the rules", then use slurs against former co-workers on facebooks.

---------- Post added 2013-06-16 at 03:18 PM ----------

Something I would like to see Blizzard do is to mute people. If people can't be reasonable then they shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone in game for a limited amount of time, with that time being increased with consecutive mutes.

I wish this'd happen to. I've ran out of places to freaking block people so I didn't have to hear them act like babies in Random BGs, the most vile of all the areas in the game! That, or let me just block more people :x

[killidan]

People like you, OP, are the problem. Complaining constantly about other players. Get over it, it's just a game.

[Kryos]

What are toxic players?

A nice word for assholes.

[Arrashi]

They should add ability to post meme images on chat, finishing process of turning LFG/LFR into 4chan.

[Wycked]

Blizz isn't gonna do shit. //close thread

[Dispersedshadow]

2. Cant ignore a ninja puller or an afker wanting a carry if they don't say something.

You absolutely can – just manually add their name-server to the ignore list in the Social pane.

[Yunru]

They should add ability to post meme images on chat, finishing process of turning LFG/LFR into 4chan.

You can do that with macros. (but creating a macro-picture takes time)

[Arrashi]

Hehe i still have "Rush Van" from old days in alterac valley.

[Venant]

Another angle on this is the ability of players to enforce any type of rule of law within the game, which does not exist in WoW because there is virtually no penalty for being player killed, and you cannot be killed by members of your own faction.

Back in the early days of MMOs, in games like Ultima Online (I played a game very similar to UO that was created by somebody who worked on the early Ultima games), there were no set factions so you could pretty much kill any other player in the game if you were on a pvp server. Back then it was also common practice to have much harsher penalties for being player killed, like randomly dropping pieces of your gear that could be stolen by other players. Of course this would result in groups of player killers going around and looting other players, it created a feeling of suspense unlike anything WoW has ever had because there was a real risk of losing something that had taken you a very long time to attain.

There were still players that trolled back then, but there were far fewer because your literal survival within the game was often dependent upon your cooperating with other players. Helping other players carried risks to your own character, so most likely you were only going to risk your own neck for your friends. This type of game built incredibly strong communities, but unfortunately games nowadays are going for mass appeal, which completely changes the dynamic and allows in a much higher percentage of toxic players.

[MoanaLisa]

If LoL can be cleaned up, so can WoW.

It's a bit much to say that LoL either can or has been cleaned up. They're seeing some improvements there by their own measurement but there's still a very long way to go. I think that Riot's efforts are commendable though and hope they continue to push forward with this and report publicly now and then.

No idea what Blizzard will do. They need to do something though.

[foxHeart]

Player tribunals. lol

Fuck no. We don't need a cute little round table of self-righteous, wannabe internet badasses who police WoW cause they have absolutely nothing better to do. There are enough already, what with the mods on this forum and Most Valuable Tryhards on the official site.

[Paladin885]

I 100% disagree that LoL cleaned up its toxic players.

data proves otherwise; they even showed it in a presentation on that very subject.


but even though the ban's and length of the ban's have been reduced they'll never go away. Since the birth of the troll everyone has wanted to be one and everyone who feels anonymous on the internet will eventually want to do something sadistic towards someone else. The only thing that matters is that those players get punished instead of continuing to be a cancer to the rest of us.

[Amerissis]

That's pretty easy to define.

A player is "toxic" to the community when his behavior has a negative impact on multiple players' desire to remain in the game.[COLOR="red"]

Oh. But you make me want to leave, with your odd 'toxic' player whining. Are you now toxic too? Is it chemical or radioactive toxicity btw?

[shise]

I don't think there's any problem in the game. As any time you'd do IRL, whenever you find a douche, ignore it. There's no better way to hurt them than this.

[jimbojonez]

As long as money are already paid - blizz could just flag account so it cannot pay anymore for next month. If they wanted

Wouldn't work. They would have 2 options: Either notify the player at the end of their subscription cycle ( 30 days, 4 months, 1 year, etc...), which would be kind of pointless, or notify the player that at the end of the cycle they could not renew. Which means that the player would have free reign to be an even bigger jerk for the rest of their sub.

[The Madgod]

They're going to make it worse. The way you build a good community is to make player reputation matter and make it impossible to achieve things alone. That way players have incentive to work together. LFD/LFR do the exact opposite: you can achieve everything alone, so you're free to be as big of a douche as you like.

LoL has a toxic community and the entire game's essentially about players working together.

[Normie]

Blizzard aren't going to lose those subs over a little griefing.

When one player's behavior is enough to put several other players (generally new ones) off the game, then the "sub loss" is because that one player ISN'T banned.