Legion Beta Key Giveaway - Week 5: Warcraft GO

New Silence Penalty Coming to World of Warcraft
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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.

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.
This article was originally published in forum thread: New Silence Penalty Coming to World of Warcraft started by chaud View original post
Comments 672 Comments
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Probably saying something mean about the game and hurting all the fanboys feelings. Or valid criticism.
    Or, you know, acting like a retard... If someone feels that he's at risk by this system being implemented, chances are that person is not as eloquent and constructive as he might think.
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    Or, you know, acting like a retard...
    Ok example. "I don't enjoy the questing in Azsuna. I just felt it was boring and not very exciting to be in but the other zones were great". I bet you my life savings that the fanboys jump on that and mass report it.
  1. Paula Deen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Soulwind View Post
    You still haven't provided a reason as to why trolls would feel more powerful with this than they do with the current report tool, which isn't getting changed.

    Currently, Right click -> Report for spam may get someone banned. I don't see why silencing them would be more appealing than that.
    Are you high? I just did. A troll can have a group mass report something they cannot appeal due to the rising ticket timers.
  1. mmoc64a56cce3c's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Probably saying something mean about the game and hurting all the fanboys feelings. Or valid criticism.
    If you follow up your valid criticism with '...and that's why you're a fucking retard' then I wouldn't be surprised if people ban you.

    As much as many people find it difficult to recognise the difference between criticism and an insult, so too are people unable to string together a criticism without throwing an insult in there.

    IF the system is truly regulated by humans, you're not gonna get banned for criticising someone's play. Unless you opened by calling them a retard, of course.
  1. purebalance's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by BloodElf4Life View Post
    This is perfect. It was about damn time too!
    Not perfect if it turns into what League of Legends has where pretty much premades in League can troll you to no end and then report you if you even argue with them. I've actually had an email battle with their people who claimed "You were arguing so you got a chat restriction"
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hjalmtyr View Post
    If you follow up your valid criticism with '...and that's why you're a fucking retard' then I wouldn't be surprised if people ban you.

    As much as many people find it difficult to recognise the difference between criticism and an insult, so too are people unable to string together a criticism without throwing an insult in there.

    IF the system is truly regulated by humans, you're not gonna get banned for criticising someone's play. Unless you opened by calling them a retard, of course.
    In this day and age I wouldn't be surprised if valid criticism of someones rotation/dps got you silenced.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Ok example. "I don't enjoy the questing in Azsuna. I just felt it was boring and not very exciting to be in but the other zones were great". I bet you my life savings that the fanboys jump on that and mass report it.
    And I bet your life savings that the "fanboys" reporting that, won't have a single impact on you if you really wrote it that constructively, which is rarely the case. There's usually quite a lot of "this sucks!" and "only IDIOTS can enjoy this!!" thrown into those conversations.

    I'm very vocal on chat channels and this system doesn't threaten me at all.
  1. purebalance's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Probably saying something mean about the game and hurting all the fanboys feelings. Or valid criticism.
    Telling someone (on live not in Legion of course) "Using drain life as your filler is not optimal" I'm sure.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hjalmtyr View Post
    If you follow up your valid criticism with '...and that's why you're a fucking retard' then I wouldn't be surprised if people ban you.

    As much as many people find it difficult to recognise the difference between criticism and an insult, so too are people unable to string together a criticism without throwing an insult in there.

    IF the system is truly regulated by humans, you're not gonna get banned for criticising someone's play. Unless you opened by calling them a retard, of course.
    Exactly. People capable of giving criticism without stooping to reasoning such as "only fanboys disagree with my OPINION!" shouldn't feel at risk.

    Not that giving criticism in-game in chat channels is much more than a waste of time anyway... constructive criticism does more good on the official forums, via the Suggestion form and such.
  1. Usernameforforums's Avatar
    I like it. This is great to combat gold sellers. Something blizzard needed to do at launch of wow but better late than never
  1. schwarzkopf's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    Indeed. You can't send invites silenced but you can send invites when silenced. Dafuq?
    Start a raid/party - CANNOT
    If you are in a raid/party and you want to invite someone - CAN.

    Seems pretty simple to me.
  1. Paula Deen's Avatar
    Got a response from a GM on what abusive is:

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Things that break our code of conduct and are reported.

    Like cursing.
    Spamming.
    Harassment.

    This isn't just an automated system, our Game Masters will review under the same rules they always have.
    So basically anything that was reportable/suspendable before is now Silenceable.
  1. mmoc64a56cce3c's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleccybubb View Post
    In this day and age I wouldn't be surprised if valid criticism of someones rotation/dps got you silenced.
    I'd be surprised if it did. I don't even expect the people who truly deserve a chat ban to receive one. I think that people who reported criticism of a rotation would be pretty much ignored. I still find it hard to believe that there is someone out there sensitive enough to report someone for criticising their rotation.
  1. Jocke's Avatar
    I both like it and kinda dislike it...
    It depends on how Blizzard will react and control the reports.

    Example: trolls will report people for LFM,guild recruits and no matter how many reporters these people should not be silenced.
    I would only report gold seller probably and toxic people, but i never really look in general chats anymore so they don't really bother me.

    I hope this system can't be abused by big grps of trolls that just wanna mess with people.
  1. mmocfd328e0b6e's Avatar
    That means no more realm jumps? That was the only thing what kept me playing the game...
    How will the game punish those who silence people without no reason? 48hrs ban? Because without that I know some people who will use their 4-7accounts to silence people all day every day.

    It fits here too: ”Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
  1. mmoc66337a3447's Avatar
    0123456789
  1. Soulwind's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Paula Deen View Post
    Are you high? I just did. A troll can have a group mass report something they cannot appeal due to the rising ticket timers.
    They can do that now, with a harsher punishment, and it's not a widespread issue.

    Again, this only changes the punishment, not the report tool, which is fine as it is.
  1. Kazgrel's Avatar
    Will the debuff applied to these players be called Tyrande's Silence?
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hjalmtyr View Post
    I'd be surprised if it did. I don't even expect the people who truly deserve a chat ban to receive one. I think that people who reported criticism of a rotation would be pretty much ignored. I still find it hard to believe that there is someone out there sensitive enough to report someone for criticising their rotation.
    You would be surprised mate. Not wow but FF14 has a few sensitive ones.
  1. Zephirdd's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Paula Deen View Post
    Also, I feel like I should ask, what exactly is the definition of abusive chat? No Support Article even mentions the word in that instance and the specific blog post about it today doesn't either.

    What is abusive chat?

    Is it me calling someone a racist name?
    Is it me telling someone they are playing there class wrong?
    Is it me making a joke in LFG?
    It it me making a joke in Trade?
    Is it all of the above?

    What is Abusive Chat?
    1. yes
    2. depends on the tone you are using with the person
    3/4. Depends on the nature of the joke.

    it all comes down to "just don't be an ass". Saying "you all fucking suck" is bad. "kill yourself faggot" is bad. "wow learn to play u shitty hunter" is bad. "Look into some guides, you're playing bad" is fine. Racist jokes might be debatable and a grey area, but you can simply not do that. "Anal [Shadow Infusion]" is IMO fine, but might be debatable; it would probably be fine. Unlike "Why don't you [Feign Death] but do it for real" which would be bad(inciting suicide). "Buy character boost for 100USD" would be really bad too.

    There's very very little grey area for "abuse". Don't be an ass and you'll be fine, really.

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