My 2 Cents on getting rid of boosters, gold-sellers and toxic people.

[Alicianna]

Blizzard seems to have a certain problem on how to handle this boosting and gold selling problem. Mostly because people use Trial Accounts for advertising. The discussed having a certain amount of Achievement Points, Reporting tools etc.

I think the most effective way would be to connect the Battle.NET to some sort of unique ID. I think a mobile phone number would be a good thing. Once you connect that number when you create a new account, that number is „burned“. This would not make a huge difference for most people… you could have up to 4 WoW Accounts, and never get into trouble.
But for people that create massive amounts of Trial Accounts, or behave toxic on a regular basis. This could soon turn out to be a problem. True, you could buy a new SIM-Card everytime, but it would make those thinks pretty expensive.
From the game side, they should monitor the chat and reports more closely and I‘m betting that the whole sell-Run, gold-selling and toxicity would dim down to at least BC-Levels and they could tune down monitoring again.
If for some reason phones don‘t work, drivers licence, ID, credit-card number would work as well… depending on what country your living in.

[loras]

Blizzard seems to have a certain problem on how to handle this boosting and gold selling problem. Mostly because people use Trial Accounts for advertising. The discussed having a certain amount of Achievement Points, Reporting tools etc.

I think the most effective way would be to connect the Battle.NET to some sort of unique ID. I think a mobile phone number would be a good thing. Once you connect that number when you create a new account, that number is „burned“. This would not make a huge difference for most people… you could have up to 4 WoW Accounts, and never get into trouble.
But for people that create massive amounts of Trial Accounts, or behave toxic on a regular basis. This could soon turn out to be a problem. True, you could buy a new SIM-Card everytime, but it would make those thinks pretty expensive.
From the game side, they should monitor the chat and reports more closely and I‘m betting that the whole sell-Run, gold-selling and toxicity would dim down to at least BC-Levels and they could tune down monitoring again.
If for some reason phones don‘t work, drivers licence, ID, credit-card number would work as well… depending on what country your living in.

Burner phones, ids, etcetera are a thing and hard to counteract due to great global variations in those systems.

Also it's privacy sensitive as fuck, which sounds like a moot point to some people but that's usually down to them not realising that the people behind the institutions change constantly and are always human (or ultimately human-made AI) and thus very fallible. So do not spread more info than strictly necessary.

[xpsync]

As long as Mythic plus exists in its current form, toxicity will only continue to spread, you can't solve toxicity with toxic af features, throwing timers on everything is stupid af, an unoriginal gimmick, which just breads toxicity at an alarming rate.

[Lochton]

Blizzard seems to have a certain problem on how to handle this boosting and gold selling problem. Mostly because people use Trial Accounts for advertising. The discussed having a certain amount of Achievement Points, Reporting tools etc.

They do not. You cannot trade, yell, post on channels, or whisper, or even write on the LFG tool. They use a secondary account paid for to advertise, and even that is against the rules, and if you see a level 1 advertise for boosting, report it, report all boosting advertisement outside of trade - heck - if you see a low level yell about boosting in trade, report it. Blizzard announced by banning, that people must play the actual character that is doing the boosting advertisement.

I think the most effective way would be to connect the Battle.NET to some sort of unique ID. I think a mobile phone number would be a good thing. Once you connect that number when you create a new account, that number is „burned“. This would not make a huge difference for most people… you could have up to 4 WoW Accounts, and never get into trouble.
But for people that create massive amounts of Trial Accounts, or behave toxic on a regular basis. This could soon turn out to be a problem. True, you could buy a new SIM-Card everytime, but it would make those thinks pretty expensive.
From the game side, they should monitor the chat and reports more closely and I‘m betting that the whole sell-Run, gold-selling and toxicity would dim down to at least BC-Levels and they could tune down monitoring again.
If for some reason phones don‘t work, drivers licence, ID, credit-card number would work as well… depending on what country your living in.

You already have what you are mentioning. A Battle.net account has maximum permitted accounts, I believe 8, and they can all be tracked. If they make one not connected to the main account, it isn't much of a danger, they can run around and be shit in /p and /s, nothing more. The problem is, we need stricter handling from the ranks of CMs and GMs but they do not seem to utilize them enough.

[brandolf123]

they need to change the game to where people dont want to use these services

[Lochton]

they need to change the game to where people dont want to use these services

Too late. Should've done such changes back in Vanilla.

[brandolf123]

Too late. Should've done such changes back in Vanilla.

only solution then is to end the game, sell the IP to actual good developers that can make a good WoW 2

then allow people to make private servers, so they'll actually make versions of classic and TBC that are faithful to the original, not the shit blizzard has done

[Lochton]

only solution then is to end the game, sell the IP to actual good developers that can make a good WoW 2

then allow people to make private servers, so they'll actually make versions of classic and TBC that are faithful to the original, not the shit blizzard has done

Private servers are NOT going to serve the game any good at all, and wouldn't be faithful to the IP either. And a WoW2 wouldn't solve it either. You cannot stop boosting as long as you have features that need groups. The only way to remove boosting, is to make WoW into a Warcraft RPG and close WoW.

[brandolf123]

Private servers are NOT going to serve the game any good at all, and wouldn't be faithful to the IP either.

WoWs TBC and Classic versions are heavily changed, and there existed private servers before, that were more faithful to the original.

[Stormxraven]

They need to be more proactive with bans for offenders ive seen the same people advertising (or botting) for weeks if not months just imagine the sorts of money these people are making in that time even if they do eventually get banned.

[Elbob]

As long as Mythic plus exists in its current form, toxicity will only continue to spread, you can't solve toxicity with toxic af features, throwing timers on everything is stupid af, an unoriginal gimmick, which just breads toxicity at an alarming rate.

Who hurt you? Where did the mean M+ player touch you?
This thread isn't even about toxicity but yet you forcibly inject it... why?

On topic... I don't think trial accounts can speak in general/trade chat and blizzard recently(few months ago i believe) changed the rules so you can only spam trade chat on accounts that have higher level toons. If you are caught making fresh accounts just to spam and get reported, those accounts get banned.

[xpsync]

Who hurt you? Where did the mean M+ player touch you?
This thread isn't even about toxicity but yet you forcibly inject it... why?

On topic... I don't think trial accounts can speak in general/trade chat and blizzard recently(few months ago i believe) changed the rules so you can only spam trade chat on accounts that have higher level toons. If you are caught making fresh accounts just to spam and get reported, those accounts get banned.

Awesome!!! thanks for proving my point 100%. Just mention M+ and peeps go toxic af. Thanks again my dude.

[hulkgor]

As long as Mythic plus exists in its current form, toxicity will only continue to spread, you can't solve toxicity with toxic af features, throwing timers on everything is stupid af, an unoriginal gimmick, which just breads toxicity at an alarming rate.

What an absurd notion. Or as you would say, "absurd af".

[Alroxas]

you can't solve toxicity with toxic af features, throwing timers on everything is stupid af, an unoriginal gimmick, which just breads toxicity at an alarming rate.

Nah, just have a sting operation on those kinds of groups. Then instead of banning/suspensions, just empty all their toons (from the account level) of any/all gold and reset achievements back to zero. Also back track those carry accounts to any other accounts associated with them and empty those accounts out of gold.

The seized gold can then be used as a small reward to each player who "reports" valid boosts ads in group finder (trade chat remains ok) say 1k per successful report.

[KrayZ33]

Honest question.
Where and how exactly does someone have to play to feel bothered by these things?

I haven't seen a gold-seller message in game for years.
Mythic+ Booster/Raid boost groups don't bother anyone (there is literally no reason to give a shit about it)
If they spam to much, report them.

Toxic people? Report them.
Report them, report them, report them. Again again again and again. It's not just the only useful way, it's the only way. If you have an argument with someone about something, it doesn't mean he is toxic.
If you disagree with him/her, it doesn't mean he's/she's toxic.

If he insults you, report him. Problem solved.

People have to understand that they play with other people.
People are dicks all the time. You just have to take a look outside, everyone you see is an asshole. The exception is confirming the rule.
As long as people who hate WoW play WoW, this will never change

[Elbob]

Awesome!!! thanks for proving my point 100%. Just mention M+ and peeps go toxic af. Thanks again my dude.

I mean here you are trying to force a thread onto a topic of your choosing when that wasn't what the thread was about. Taking an extreme position on a content type that tons of players enjoy seemingly without major issues, declaring the entire thing toxic. Yeah... I'm the toxic one. I think you need some self introspection on why you are so threatened by M+ and whats really driving your anxiety about it.

I think you are actually the problem in this thread, trying to state your view as a fact and declaring some one who disagrees with you instantly as toxic for having doubt to a statement with no factual basis and is little more then a pile of your feelings.

[xpsync]

As you all have proved how toxic M+ is, just mention M+ peeps go all toxic af, and it's in the thread title,

My 2 Cents on getting rid of boosters, gold-sellers and toxic people.

[Issalice]

This would just be a band-aid and wouldn't change things long term.

[Lolites]

Honest question.
Where and how exactly does someone have to play to feel bothered by these things?

some people think that if their guildmates pull them through normal raid its an achievment and feel insecure that someone paid to get the same...

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boosting and gold selling is in wow for over 16 years, if for some reason beyond my understanding you cant ignore it that sucks, but its not going anywhere no matter what blizzard will do, boosters will adapt

[nvaelz]

some people think that if their guildmates pull them through normal raid its an achievment and feel insecure that someone paid to get the same...

- - - Updated - - -

boosting and gold selling is in wow for over 16 years, if for some reason beyond my understanding you cant ignore it that sucks, but its not going anywhere no matter what blizzard will do, boosters will adapt

The problem is solo players being gated out of everything unless we as solo players are thick skinned and can handle the pug environment, which because of competition is less friendly than it could be.

Make azeroth friendly again! #Soloque