Why doesn't blizzard crack down on boosters abusing lfg?

[rhorle]

They are implicitly giving their approval by not banning the accounts spam advertising it all over the place. This is not a grey issue. Either ban the accounts, like the rules say you should, or create a channel that is strictly for boost spam. What we have now is a middleground that is the worst of both worlds.

They do take action against accounts that break the rules. Doing it in chat is not against the rules. Advertising in the LFG tool is. Blizzard is just slow to react but you do hear stories every now and then about advertiser accounts getting in trouble.

[ankdup31]

I dont understand why ppl are arguing about the token sales, banning boosters and advertisers etc.

The topic is not about "banning advertisers that sells boosts". Its about "banning advertisers that uses LFG to sell boosts" Theres a difference between them. One is legal, the other one is not. IDK why ppl cant read

[Steelangel]

Maybe the balancing needs to be readjusted. Pvp has specific weights to it, so there's no reason they couldn't adjust it if the numbers are too high there. They used pvp loadouts to reduce the disparity before. People complained that it made gear feel like it didn't matter in pvp, but I think that's a consequence that has to be accepted to keep a pvp game mode fair, accessible, and balanced.

I would support this far more than the arbitrary lockouts at various ratings. I wasn't considering the effect on people with alts and friends. Gear should matter much less in PvP than strategy, skill or when you started PvPing in the season.

[Garymorilix]

How fucking hard is it for people to type in "/leave trade" my god?

There is literally NOTHING else in Trade chat ever. So if you don't want to see boosting shit just leave the channel.

Boom, your problem is solved.

[TheRevenantHero]

Because it is not against the rules until real money comes into the equation, that's why. They will and have acted on violations of the "real money" rule.

People are offering their time and skill to carry others through content they would not usually be able to do for ingame gold. Not very different from selling a BoE on the Auction House. I don't see a problem here, both sides get what they want.
You don't have to participate if you don't want to and the listings in the Group Finder are not limited, so it does not take anything from you. It offending your eyes is simply not a valid reason for bans.

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Do you really have nothing better to do then stalking this WoW forum for opportunities to spread lies about the game? That Final Fantasy you are praising so much must not be holding your interest a lot if you still feel the constant need to come back here.

Shadowlands is worse than WoD, dude. Which is IMPRESSIVE. And it's why Blizzard is letting the boosters run wild. They can't afford to lose more players than they already have.

[rhorle]

Shadowlands is worse than WoD, dude. Which is IMPRESSIVE. And it's why Blizzard is letting the boosters run wild. They can't afford to lose more players than they already have.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the expansion. It is just what the current player base does since it exists in Classic as well. People love to blame quality, token, and anything else they can with out realizing that it is just how the community has developed rather then any one thing the cause of it.

[TheRevenantHero]

It has nothing to do with the quality of the expansion. It is just what the current player base does since it exists in Classic as well. People love to blame quality, token, and anything else they can with out realizing that it is just how the community has developed rather then any one thing the cause of it.

Boosting is the worst it's ever been because now tokens are making it possible for players to reliably rake in gold. Shadowlands has also been hemorrhaging players so Blizzard isn't going to ban the boosters to avoid losing MORE players. Which is hilarious because boosters are starting to make people leave the game too.

[rhorle]

Boosting is the worst it's ever been because now tokens are making it possible for players to reliably rake in gold. Shadowlands has also been hemorrhaging players so Blizzard isn't going to ban the boosters to avoid losing MORE players. Which is hilarious because boosters are starting to make people leave the game too.

Which doesn't explain why it is a thing in Classic were the token doesn't exist. Stop trying to blame everything on the token when it isn't the root cause.

[TheRevenantHero]

Which doesn't explain why it is a thing in Classic were the token doesn't exist. Stop trying to blame everything on the token when it isn't the root cause.

Why do you make such a habit of picking and choosing what your respond to? Boosting in Classic is nowhere NEAR as bad as it is in retail. the fact that you mentioned Classic is nothing but a strawman.

[munkeyinorbit]

Except they do supply the gold because it's their coding that makes the gold. They create the sources for grinding the gold. Saying they have no hand on it is utterly asinine and is just you trying desperately to avoid saying anything negative about Blizzard.

Simple facts. Blizzard does not supply the gold. The player does.

It seems your mental gymnastics is desperately trying to paint Blizzard in a bad light. All Blizzard does is find hold buyers and sellers and takes a service fee. They don't provide the gold.

[Varitok]

There is nothing wrong with boosts nor should they be cracked down on. In game services are legitmate.

[Tziva]

How fucking hard is it for people to type in "/leave trade" my god?

There is literally NOTHING else in Trade chat ever. So if you don't want to see boosting shit just leave the channel.

Boom, your problem is solved.

The thread is about the LFG tool, not trade chat. Both the subject and the first post of the thread indicated this. No one is complaining about being held hostage in trade.

[Pratt]

They do. You can report those groups for selling boosts, and it not only removes it from your list permanently, but those reports feed into a GM system where they review and then ban the characters involved.

I did this but then noticed that if I reported too many boosters they would keep coming up in my searches. Basically, it seems as though once your report a certain number of groups the system ignores you. I gave up.

[arkanon]

There is nothing wrong with boosts nor should they be cracked down on. In game services are legitmate.

The only issue is their somewhat recent change where they made it against the rules to ADVERTISE your boosting service in chat. You are absolutely right that selling services for gold is acceptable. You know what WOULD work? Blizzard giving in and actually supporting the trade, and creating a system for it.

The seller loads up a certain part of LFG, which allows them to set parameters - Dungeon, difficulty, and price. The buyer finds a group they like, signs up, and when they do, the agreed gold price is taken from the buyer, and held by "blizzard". Once the dungeon is completed, the gold is automatically sent to the seller - if the buyer is kicked from the group at any stage, money is returned. If the buyer leaves the group at any stage, the seller gets the money. Unfortunately, there are two issues - one, is the players - as we can see by this thread, many would freak the fuck out over a system like this. And 2, possible issues arise from people trying to game the system in some way to rip each other off, and other issues such as what actually constitutes a completed dungeon? What if there are disconnects or server drops out? What if someone's pc implodes? Obviously with the new M+ rating system this would allow you to weed out legitimate sellers from time wasters etc, but i guess that would still be an issue.

I'm not saying i want this system, im just saying i could see a benefit for those who want to engage in such legal practices in a safe and secure way.

[kaminaris]

Boosting is the worst it's ever been because now tokens are making it possible for players to reliably rake in gold. Shadowlands has also been hemorrhaging players so Blizzard isn't going to ban the boosters to avoid losing MORE players. Which is hilarious because boosters are starting to make people leave the game too.

Tokens has nothing to do with boosting. Quantity of boosts is demand driven.

To put it simply the more lucrative rewards are available for hard or effort heavy content the more demand is for boosts.

Remove all gear/achievements/mounts/cosmetics/weekly-bingo-rewards from M+ and almost nobody would want a boost -> supply would drop to nearly zero.
(Not saying blizzard should do it, just an example.)

[TheRevenantHero]

Tokens has nothing to do with boosting. Quantity of boosts is demand driven.

To put it simply the more lucrative rewards are available for hard or effort heavy content the more demand is for boosts.

Remove all gear/achievements/mounts/cosmetics/weekly-bingo-rewards from M+ and almost nobody would want a boost -> supply would drop to nearly zero.
(Not saying blizzard should do it, just an example.)

Because of tokens, more people have more gold because now the people who hoard gold can use that gold for game time and the people who don't want to farm gold can just sell tokens. So tokens have a direct impact of boosts because now more people can afford them.

[Tziva]

They do. You can report those groups for selling boosts, and it not only removes it from your list permanently, but those reports feed into a GM system where they review and then ban the characters involved.

I did this but then noticed that if I reported too many boosters they would keep coming up in my searches. Basically, it seems as though once your report a certain number of groups the system ignores you. I gave up.

In the past, it basically auto-ignored anyone you reported for that entire session. This no longer is the case. Best I can tell, it's not based on amount of reports you make either. If you report a listing, it just hides it briefly. Them disappearing won't last for very long (maybe 5 minutes or X number of refreshes) and doesn't work if they relist the group either. It definitely isn't a whole session, and it's low enough that that I'll can end up reporting the same listing 4 or 5 times if I'm taking the time to hunt out a specific group or dungeon.

And to the person you're quoting: yes, while you can report people selling in the Tool, they do not get reviewed and banned. Anyone who uses the group finder extensively can tell you the same boost group listings by the same characters appear day after day, week after week, month after month. Other than some performative ban they did when they announced the change, I haven't heard of a single person being actioned for using the group tool this way, and never seen a thread or post here of anyone complaining about it, which is very common whenever Blizzard does a sweep of account actions, and it's clear from the fact the same people are on a regular, ongoing basis despite reports that it just does not happen.

[arkanon]

And to the person you're quoting: yes, while you can report people selling in the Tool, they do not get reviewed and banned. Anyone who uses the group finder extensively can tell you the same boost group listings by the same characters appear day after day, week after week, month after month. Other than some performative ban they did when they announced the change, I haven't heard of a single person being actioned for using the group tool this way, and never seen a thread or post here of anyone complaining about it, which is very common whenever Blizzard does a sweep of account actions, and it's clear from the fact the same people are on a regular, ongoing basis despite reports that it just does not happen.

I agree with you and believe you, but just wondering if its the same PLAYER listing the group? I know some players use a random low level toon or even alt account to advertise their group, but i suspect many of those are actually asking for real money at some point

[Crimson Spears]

I agree with you and believe you, but just wondering if its the same PLAYER listing the group? I know some players use a random low level toon or even alt account to advertise their group, but i suspect many of those are actually asking for real money at some point

With a live monitor they could easily shut down those accounts to the point it couldn't be profitable to keep creating them.

[TheRevenantHero]

With a live monitor they could easily shut down those accounts to the point it couldn't be profitable to keep creating them.

But then they'd start to lose players and they can't afford that right now.