How Blizzard suppress any meaningful posts.

[question1]

The following post was made on wow forums http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/1...comes-to-this- . This was a thoughtful post. Ther person did not overly criticise anything but merely expressed himself/herself in a way a lot of us are unable to. Blizzard locked the post because it was being trolled. But there are numerous threads which 'are' actually being trolled and do not get locked. One person sums up how a lot of people feel and just because (on some servers at least) it is true, blizz lock it. It's just sad.


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I sit here in front of my PC, my main character's guild now effectively dead, a handful of the old die-hards on vent reminicing of the memories we all enjoyed in WOTLK, memories of the funny jokes, the trials and tribulations of what were for me the most enjoyable 2+ years of this shared hobby that i've had the fortune to participate in.

Friends that were made, shared experiences that were enjoyed, the feeling that we always had something to do.

'Account Cancelled' pops up on the Battle.Net webpage as I slowly go through the motions of cancelling both of my accounts and filling out the few brief question multiple choice questions.. and it's done, quite clinical really, but what was I expecting? A webpage pleading with me to just 'stay a little longer'? A concerned phone call from customer service? Hardly, i'm nothing more than a simple couple of database records whose status change from a '1 to a '0' on the logical field of 'subscribed' in that database table.

As we sign off Vent, all promising to keep in touch, I feel as if a big chapter in my life has closed, which may sound melodramatic but when you consider the many, many hours spent online in the company of friends, many of whome i've met face to face and hope to continue to keep in contact with it's an apt assessment.

Then i think of what brought me to this stage, perhaps witnessing the inexorable, slow and painful the death of our small guild that desperately tried to make it in this expansion, the unfun and frankly frustrating heroic 5 mans, the queues, the complete lack of atmosphere and the frankly terrible grindy and obnoxious content which made so many people who felt comfortable in WOTLK feel like second rate gamers.

This is my bank alt/guild, I won't post on my main.

For us, for me.. Cataclysm just doesn't feel welcoming anymore, there's no sense of adventure like there was in Wotlk and frankly things are just too damned difficult, many of our guildies left after giving it a real honest go, maybe we were never that good, maybe we were being 'carried' by Wotlk's more accessible raids and heroics etc, maybe now confronted with the higher difficulty of 'Old Schoolesque' Cataclsym we came to realise that perhaps we aren't 'good enough' to participate anymore, at least that was the sentiment that many people express on the blogsphere and on youtube commentaries, maybe we were - in the true sense of the word - lowly .... 'WrathBabies'.

I can't help but feel a tinge of anger towrards Blizzard, Ghostcrawler and their ilk who for some reason, well....perhaps not anger.. more like puzzlement...

I can't help but feel that a somewhat distant but well meaning friend has slapped me and others in the face and now seeks to hurt and humiliate instead of support and encourage and what makes me even sadder is the suspicion that this once-friend seems to take a perculiar delight in seeing people like us suffer...

I sit in Orgrimar on my main, with a guild roster that has nobody on except me, I see the names of the characters whos players once filled guild chat with lively banter not a mere six months ago and I feel sad, these people are now gone... the 'last online' column measuring once in days, then weeks.. now months...

I see my friends list also equally barren, names of people in different guilds on this and other realms which also seem to have 'gone dark' since February and who no longer ever seem to be online anymore...

The trade chat window rapidly scrolls a constant stream of purile toilet humour, racism and general filth spelt with special characters to bypass the adult language filter, almost as a eloquant underscore of just what this expansion feels like.

A tinge of sadness comes over me.

I tried to keep my chin up, had a few goes at the handful of 'pug' raids, put up with the multi-hours wipe-a-thon LFD groups and the dreadful conduct to be found therein.

I just can't do it anymore, I finally realised that the only reason I was staying online here in wow was out of a sense of loyalty to my guild, in the vain hope that 'today' would be the day in which all those people who left at the start of this dreadful expansion had suddenly come back, but alas... it was never to be.

I was asked to post a comment on the forums, so I ramble my words here...

Anyway, writing this was somewhat cathartic for me, I suppose I could write a huge flaming vent towards blizzard, but all I feel is sadness and loss...

My little dog sits here beside me wagging his tail, I think i'll go play fetch with him.

Wishing those who remain all the best, the casuals, the raiders, the hardmore superstars, the pvp'ers, the AH'ers, the pet collectors, the miners, crafters and battleground gankers and all the others.

My final words are that I really hope Blizzard can somehow bring back the 'it' factor which has been lost in Cataclysm, bring back the fun of WOTLK in a future expansion one day, until then... goodbye and Godbless ;-)

...

[iamthedevil]

Sounds like you wrote this to your journal originally...

[tobiashunter]

Out of curiousity... did you just see it was lock, read the OP then complain on here? Or did you even go through and look at the 25 pages of trolling, and a blue posting that it was locked due to said trolling. Besides, "I quit" threads (which, this is the best I quit thread I have seen) are 99% of the time locked for just their nature. This one was left probably because he provided clear, concise points and constructive criticism. Blame the trolls, not Blizzard.

[Nekosom]

It's their forum, they can lock whatever they want. Considering I'm sick of those posts on these non-Blizzard owned forums, I can't blame Blizzard for trying to filter it on their own.

The game's almost 7 years old. People have gotten sick of it over and over and over again, and every time posts like these pop up as if they are somehow new and refreshing. If you're sick of the game, just stop playing it. Don't make it a melodrama. I've canceled my subscription at least a half-dozen times, and never have I made such a production out of it.

It's a game people.

[justandulas]

Are you surprised? they are obviously in panic mode and have been banning any and all forum posts that aren't kissing their behind for the most childish reasons, they no longer accept critisism of any kind. I thought this guys post was a good one, but of course blizzard suppressed it before people could read and agree with it. People have always left during expansions, but it was usually one out of every 10 posts. This expansion, it's like 8/10 and they are all being suppressed left and right. One reason maybe that blizzard is releasing (and there will be more to come, bet on it now that the floodgate is open) the in store mount is to recoop some of their lost revenue for the majority of their playerbase leaving. Servers are emptying out, and people are leaving left and right. This expansion clearly has made WoW lose it's "It" factor and they are in full nazi gov't style suppression mode to drown out the flood of tears, if you don't agree with blizz.. dont bother posting on their forums because the post will be locked.
<Mod edit: Infracted>

[Deleted]

This sort of ''content'' if it can even be called that, belongs in a Blog, not a forum. Should have been locked for attention whoring imho. 'Goodbye, cruel world!!''

Important to note that the poster of the 'blogthread'' yearns for the ''fun of WOTLK'' to return. The more people like that who leave, the better the game will become. We don't need 3 GCD PvP and Early Learning Raid Centres to make a comeback, cheers.

[unholytestament]

Suppressed?

The topic was 25 pages! It ran its course!

Not to mention the OP didn't post in it at all past the first post.

[justandulas]

Suppressed?

The topic was 25 pages! It ran its course!

It would have ran on for afew hundred pages had it not been suppressed. So many people were agreeing with him, they couldn't have that happen. Instead of actually punishing the forum trolls with the rude comments, they suppress the voice of the customers who act with good intentions and politely. Something is definitely backwards there

[MarizzaDraenor]

Yes was a nice post but ok went on for 25 pages guess it got trolled to hell. Dont think they locked it because it could hit a nerve on us.

And yes WoW can trigger very strong emotions thats the power of MMO's. Player interaction friends, guilds, triumphs, losses and sadness.

Thats what makes MMO's wonderfull and "alive"/avolving games for this long.

I didnt read the full 25 pages btw just to clarify. But if you wanna lock a thread like this seems more reasonable to do it on page 1 then on page 25.

I feel very strong about my guild as well btw if something happens to us for whatever reason i am out and my post will look like the one in question in terms of emotions. Spend 4 fantastic years where i am and hope to spend many more.

[Shuford]

That statement seems to have been well-prepared, almost feels like the author really sat down and decided what he wanted to say in this sentiment.

I can agree with him all the whole change in game atmosphere. It seems I was killing the hardest boss in the game (LK) months ago, and now I haven't even touched any raiding.

I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind of dropping this just to move on and "close the 5-year chapter" of my life.

To me it seems as though the community is falling down, everyday on these forums I see more and more posts of quiting / leaving.

[unholytestament]

It would have ran on for afew hundred pages had it not been suppressed. So many people were agreeing with him, they couldn't have that happen. Instead of actually punishing the forum trolls with the rude comments, they suppress the voice of the customers who act with good intentions and politely. Something is definitely backwards there

So you expected the forum moderator to baby the topic and continually clean it out of troll comments on the off chance it might be a very long topic?

What's backwards here is your understanding of exactly how much shit ANYONE should care about someone's blog post on a forum they will never return to.

[Merin]

I can't believe people actually have thoughts like this, OP is literally a scary person just because his brain allows this theory to form. I always wonder if some of these folks on fox news or politics and actual issue of import altogether aren't just trolling, but I'm sadly constantly reassured that people this crazy do in fact exist.

[Nekosom]

Are you surprised? they are obviously in panic mode and have been banning any and all forum posts that aren't kissing their behind for the most childish reasons, they no longer accept critisism of any kind. I thought this guys post was a good one, but of course blizzard suppressed it before people could read and agree with it. People have always left during expansions, but it was usually one out of every 10 posts. This expansion, it's like 8/10 and they are all being suppressed left and right. One reason maybe that blizzard is releasing (and there will be more to come, bet on it now that the floodgate is open) the in store mount is to recoop some of their lost revenue for the majority of their playerbase leaving. Servers are emptying out, and people are leaving left and right. This expansion clearly has made WoW lose it's "It" factor and they are in full nazi gov't style suppression mode to drown out the flood of tears, if you don't agree with blizz.. dont bother posting on their forums because the post will be locked.

If they wanted to suppress it mate, they would simply close the forums altogether. The reason Blizzard moderates those kinds of posts is because it leads into exactly your mindset, which is this false belief that people are quitting in droves simply because of a vocal minority. It is very tiring to read because it is difficult to argue.

[U1000]

OP got trolled LOL

[Rankin]

It would have ran on for afew hundred pages had it not been suppressed. So many people were agreeing with him, they couldn't have that happen. Instead of actually punishing the forum trolls with the rude comments, they suppress the voice of the customers who act with good intentions and politely. Something is definitely backwards there

There's an auto-lock at 500 replies now. So when it was locked by Blizzard, it was 6 posts away from being locked automatically.

And he wasn't suppressed. He only posted once. And his post wasn't deleted. How is that suppressed?

[SnakeWraith]

Conspiracyfail: If they wanted to "suppress" it, why would they reply to a thread, which gives it front page visibility not only on this website's Blue-Tracker but their own blue tracking front page for the forums? If they were a) actually concerned about this and b) going to deviously brush it under the rug, moderators CAN (and frequently do) lock / delete threads without commenting on them.

This guy was being super honest, to a degree. He's making it sound like he and his friends were honestly trying to raid and failing, which I'm doubting is the case. This is another case of a group of 8 people and 2 pugs clearing the lower portion of ICC, 1 year after it's released, with a 30% everything buff and thinking that's "raiding". That isn't Greg Street's fault.

Those people he describes bailing on his guild? They're going to real guilds. That's the fate of terrible guilds that try to tackle content. They start failing, the people still want to clear the content, so they leave the guild. That's not a failure of the design of the game, that's a failure of the leadership of that guild. My guild is a "group of friends", we're all within driving distance, we have real full time jobs and kids and we barely get to raid for more than two hours on a weekday - we've been 12/12 since early February. So don't give me the "we're just a group of casual friends but the game is unfairly hard" rhetoric, I just don't believe it.

It's the idea that people feel entitled to raid content. They do Heroics until they're "done" and now they're onto raids? That's not how they work. Imagine if people were complaining about Arena because it was "too hard" and they quit because they're already "done" with Battlegrounds. That's just stupid. Arena requires comps and strategy. Raids require leadership and organization.

If your guild can't provide that... again... not Ghostcrawler's fault. That's not a design flaw, that's just a lack of understanding on your part. The death of a guild isn't the end of the game. It's a transition. If you don't have the heart to move on past the ONE guild you had, to make new friends and have NEW experiences, then you were never really an MMO player to begin with.

[revasky]

So you expected the forum moderator to baby the topic and continually clean it out of troll comments on the off chance it might be a very long topic?

What's backwards here is your understanding of exactly how much shit ANYONE should care about someone's blog post on a forum they will never return to.

Careful people are gonna be calling you a blizz fanboy soon. I didn't realize the wow community was filled with so many tinfoil hat wearers though. OMG IV SEEN 100 IQUIT POSTS ON TEH FOREMZ IT MUST MEAN 23857901 PEOPLE HAVE QUIT AND BLIZZARD IS TANKING. When really there is no proof either way. The only people who truly know the numbers are blizzard.

[Deleted]

Are you surprised? they are obviously in panic mode and have been banning any and all forum posts that aren't kissing their behind for the most childish reasons, they no longer accept critisism of any kind. I thought this guys post was a good one, but of course blizzard suppressed it before people could read and agree with it. People have always left during expansions, but it was usually one out of every 10 posts. This expansion, it's like 8/10 and they are all being suppressed left and right. One reason maybe that blizzard is releasing (and there will be more to come, bet on it now that the floodgate is open) the in store mount is to recoop some of their lost revenue for the majority of their playerbase leaving. Servers are emptying out, and people are leaving left and right. This expansion clearly has made WoW lose it's "It" factor and they are in full nazi gov't style suppression mode to drown out the flood of tears, if you don't agree with blizz.. dont bother posting on their forums because the post will be locked.

Time between 1st post and blue locking it for others trolling is 11 hours and 492 replies, how that's suppressing it even though it's still there and now advertised due to a blue response I'm not sure.

[Zka]

"fun of wotlk"... lol. That pretty much sums up the personality of the poster.
It's QQ anyway, what did you expect?

[revasky]

"fun of wotlk"... lol. That pretty much sums up the personality of the poster.
It's QQ anyway, what did you expect?

To be fair i also had fun in WotLK not because of the content but because of the people i raided with and our vent conversations. Maybe he meant something like that?