An Eye on Player Behavior and Reporting Improvements in Patch 9.2.5

[Jester Joe]

False. Assuming "being a dick" is a descriptor of behavior, and assuming "Tell you" is a descriptor of the new Social Contract or existing EULA or both, then Blizzard is controlling player behavior by disincentivizing poor behavior.

You already said it.

They're discouraging it. That isn't actual control.
Get over it.

It's like getting mad at someone for going over their house to be asked to take your shoes off at the door.

[ketsui]

They've already been doing that for years before, as they should have been. They don't really need any extra justification.

Its a legal thing, just spelled out since the snowflakes (trumpers) crying about being banned from twitter got the gov to pass some dumb first amendment thing in some states to apply to social media since they couldn't handle being held accountable for their toxicity online. (read legal out for bliz when they ban people for being toxic in their game)

[chiddie]

Problem is that 'toxic behaviour' is so general it could be literally anything.

If I got a penny for every insult I took in M+ I would be now probably richer than Musk.

I don’t care, but if someone cares it’s just their right to not be insulted or harassed.

[Goatfish]

If I got a penny for every insult I took in M+ I would be now probably richer than Musk.

I don’t care, but if someone cares it’s just their right to not be insulted or harassed.

Who the fuck has the right to not be insulted? What sort of clown world are you living in?

[chiddie]

Who the fuck has the right to not be insulted? What sort of clown world are you living in?

You go around irl insulting people regularly?

Are you serious?

[Neotart]

Warmode wasn't always a thing. The previous policy was "You chose to play on a PvP realm or to enable pvp so it's your own fault if you get camped for hours by someone 40 levels higher than you." Not really much different, but they did make it more appealing to turn on PvP because almost no one wanted to take that risk for no benefit at all. I don't play with warmode because I don't want the griefing and I think that's a good option.

I personally don't understand why we need to cut mean people out of the game when they could just improve their block function to block accounts instead of characters and take off or heavily increase the blacklist cap. I don't like the Chinese restaurant culture where if you want to order you scream at the waitress, but I'm not going around petitioning to force them to change. I wasn't a fan of early 2000's online gamer culture where screaming slurs in voice chat was the norm, but I just turned off voice chat and played just fine rather than request the game company ban everyone who did it. If people want to engage that way, that's fine to me, it doesn't mean I need to engage back nor does it mean I need to prevent them from playing. We don't need giant companies enforcing rules that could easily be enforced by guilds, communities, friends, and yourself.

My guild does a lot of shit talking, and rules like this could lead to a destruction of a performance critical culture we've had for over a decade. We aren't assholes unless you have such thin skin that a statement of fact sends you into a ban frenzy state of rage. The funniest part to me is that we've raised up dozens of players to be better at the game by pointing out their weaknesses, and that these people enjoy the game more because their performance has gotten better by realizing those weaknesses. Those people playing better then make the game more enjoyable for others that they group with. Being called shit is what spurred me on to be better at the game, and even if that's not what works for you, criticism of that method is denial of the very thing that helped me enjoy playing this game for over a decade rather than just quitting back in BC.

All this reminds me of the people who fight to make Boot Camp an inclusive and kind experience when the whole point is to put you through unpleasant shit to prepare you for the future. It's just antithetical to the results that you want. A solid point of putting people through shit is to weed out weak people that you don't want on your side when it actually matters.

Main problem right now is the mass reporting players are doing, getting players banned for no reason..... my advice to everyone once this is live...don't talk in any forms of public chat, it really doesn't matter what u say, people can report u for no reason., and get u banned period...and no blizz doesn't do anything against players who false report, there are videos and reddit posts showing abuse of the current system, this upgraded system is only going to promote reporting for no good reason, as i said most reports have NO real blizzard oversight, look some of this shit up, a lot of players being silenced ingame and getting temp banned for no GOOD reason

[Zenfoldor]

Its a legal thing, just spelled out since the snowflakes (trumpers) crying about being banned from twitter got the gov to pass some dumb first amendment thing in some states to apply to social media since they couldn't handle being held accountable for their toxicity online. (read legal out for bliz when they ban people for being toxic in their game)

First I've heard of this. Are you saying that the Social Contract is a response to a legitimate legal issue in the US, and not a virtue signal to players trying to get them back by showing how much progress has been made on toxicity?

See, to me, I've seen this ordeal as starting with the general perception of the wow community being a toxic craphole. Because the company is trying everything they can to recover from their past indiscretions, they are finally addressing fans concerns that have long been unaddressed. IMO, the number one reason players wouldn't start on wow is fear of the community. They know that n00bs don't fair too well in WoW, and Blizzard is looking to put a stop to that. It's going to end and this is a signal for that.

....I thought....but if you say it is a reaction to a new law, well, I'm listening. Have any details?

edit: Also, if they can keep n00bs from being ridiculed in WoW, then they really must have a good algorithm, because I never thought I'd see that day.

[Roxinius]

wonder if there's a social contract blizz employees have to sign before entering blizz hq

[Neotart]

This new system will be abused, like the current system... BOTTOM LINE this billion $$ company needs to hire "work at home" GMs that work in REAL time to oversee problems ingame.

They took out calling Blizz
They removed Live-Chat,
They have a SHIT ticket system that BoTs reply to...

[Vandren]

The comical of irony of Blizzard trying to "Keep an eye on player behavior" when they cannot even get their own house in order.

Always quick to point the finger at the community, a hell of a lot slower at accepting responsibility for their own actions.

[Pakheth]

You know what I did back in the day when I was annoyed? Logged out.

And you know what happens if this repeats and players just keeps logging out because they are annoyed? They don't log back in, and to Blizzard that is a problem they would like to solve.

[Az0na]

what if I disagree with social contract do I get my money back for months I cannot play now when I bought sub in time this social contract was not a thing?

[Relapses]

The comical of irony of Blizzard trying to "Keep an eye on player behavior" when they cannot even get their own house in order.

Always quick to point the finger at the community, a hell of a lot slower at accepting responsibility for their own actions.

They are in the process of settling dozens of lawsuits. They're being reamed to the full extent of the law and the high visibility of their problems all but guarantees that most of the victims will be paid out handsomely. What more do you want from Blizzard? A pop-up in Battle.net that reminds people every 15 seconds that shitty people worked at the company years ago?

[Zenfoldor]

You know, if I attempted to convince my friends not to play a video game because I don't care for it they rightly would tell me to fuck off and I would deserve it. The rest of it is restating rules that have been in place forever—rules that you've already agreed to—and a mild attempt to get you to read them instead of just clicking through. Most games have rules. Most games try to control your behavior which is really a laughable phrase when you consider it for a moment. That's what rules do.

My friends and I, are friends. We enjoy debate.

As far as the social contract...I may be wrong. If this is in response to a law in the US, that's actually different. If it isn't, what is the purpose of this, specifically, that as you mentioned, a terms of service contract wouldn't provide?

[Neotart]

what if I disagree with social contract do I get my money back for months I cannot play now when I bought sub in time this social contract was not a thing?

That's the neat part, NOPE, want a good laugh? read the TOS, great read, a lot of laughs. heres a teaser for ya, You don't own your account, and blizzard can ban any account at anytime with no reason.

[Relapses]

what if I disagree with social contract do I get my money back for months I cannot play now when I bought sub in time this social contract was not a thing?

No because the previous EULA you agreed to pretty much says that they can pull this shit whenever they want anyway.

[ketsui]

wonder if there's a social contract blizz employees have to sign before entering blizz hq

yup go look up what passed in texas recently if you're wondering more about it, people of course assume things that generally don't pay attention to real reasons behind things

[Nathreim]

The only behavior that needs to be fixed is the people at Blizz fucking scumbags.

[Zenfoldor]

The comical of irony of Blizzard trying to "Keep an eye on player behavior" when they cannot even get their own house in order.

Always quick to point the finger at the community, a hell of a lot slower at accepting responsibility for their own actions.

I will say this. For many years, Blizzard games and apparently the whole company...have had some problems. Not the best gaming output on the market...to say the least.

The major problems have never been community related, unless rightful criticism is considered a problem.

Think about the games they have released. Does this company really value its community, or are they just another problem to solve for Blizzard?

[Aydinx2]

I dont like the new future where big corporations (especially american ones) try and control how people act,

1. This is NOT new

2. It is literally inside their product. Legally they are in the right