Dragonflight Pricing Survey, Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5 - New Social Contract

[Grimbold21]

Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.
Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, arenas, or out questing in the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.
Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough monster, or maybe they could use a little healing!
Help answer questions others have in chat channels like General or Trade. We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!

You know what's funny and ironic about these 4 points?

It's that both Blizzard and the community, over the years, have been responsible for taking the game in the opposite direction of the sentiment these points are trying to encourage.

[LordVargK]

Who buys PC game boxes in 2022?

Collectors. I did buy every WoW edition as a physical version, since Blizzard games always had high quality boxes. Pretty sad they gave that up, that send me the signal "we don't care anymore".

[Lahis]

Wonder if someone makes an addon that blocks this popup from showing up, and since they never technically agreed to it, they can now be racist. Thats how it works for sure.

That's just their normal TOS spelled out with less legalese.

"Be an asshole bigot" has always been bannable offense.

[Delever]

It's funny how you believe both of those two situations (being good at games and having higher education/a well-paying job) are somehow mutually exclusive.

I dont know if that is the worst part or the fact he used one line of the new social contract to literally side flex his IRL success on a WoW fan forum

[Fabled]

Then why aren't they being held accountable?

Because money has a way of making problems disappear. And little Bobby has a lot of that.

As for the survey, I wish I got that, if anything just to have a laugh.

[TheMeII]

Does
negative comments that target another player's identity, including aspects like race, gender, or ability
only include physical or mental abilities as in disabilities or are we not allowed no say anything negative about players ability to play ones class?

[HASELHOOF93]

If it's REQUIRED to sign this "social contract" to even be able to log into the game..

"If you harm your fellow adventurers with any of the above behaviors, you are subject to punishment up to and including suspension of your account."

Does that mean ALL of the above, including this:

"While in Azeroth, do your best to:

- Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.

- Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, arenas, or out questing in the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.

- Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough monster, or maybe they could use a little healing!

- Help answer questions others have in chat channels like General or Trade. We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!"

If this above is bannable/a violation of this is suspensable, its just straight up fcked up.

[Trumpcat]

This social contract can also be called common decency that should have been taught by your parents. I don't get what's the noise about it.

Um....yes. It's toxic.

If someone berates my lack of skill or knowledge of the game, I will wear that like a badge of honor. While they were wasting their life learning a useless skill like being good in a video game, I went to school, got my Masters, live in a house that is worth (currently) 600k, and is paid off, and make 6 figures.

Yeah. I suck, but at least I didn't waste years of my life learning a useless skill like trying to understand if Arcane is better than Fire.

Nothing says "success" better than going into a game, being bad at it and bragging about real life achievements unrelated to said game. That's the mindset we should be walking with into any competitive team sport, right?

[Lahis]

If it's REQUIRED to sign this "social contract" to even be able to log into the game..

"If you harm your fellow adventurers with any of the above behaviors, you are subject to punishment up to and including suspension of your account."

Does that mean ALL of the above, including this:

"While in Azeroth, do your best to:

- Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.

- Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, arenas, or out questing in the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.

- Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough monster, or maybe they could use a little healing!

- Help answer questions others have in chat channels like General or Trade. We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!"

If this above is bannable/a violation of this is suspensable, its just straight up fcked up.

Dunno how "Don't be an ass" can look so hard to you.

[Mic_128]

Who buys PC game boxes in 2022?

They look nice on the shelf.

[Soikona]

Um....yes. It's toxic.

If someone berates my lack of skill or knowledge of the game, I will wear that like a badge of honor. While they were wasting their life learning a useless skill like being good in a video game, I went to school, got my Masters, live in a house that is worth (currently) 600k, and is paid off, and make 6 figures.

Yeah. I suck, but at least I didn't waste years of my life learning a useless skill like trying to understand if Arcane is better than Fire.

But it doesn’t take years. Just look at logs….

Oh god I didn’t even read the first half. That is horribly cringe. Imagine thinking making more money then someone else makes you a better person. Ole goblin Bobby must be a saint compared to you going by that logic.

[Celement]

Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.
Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, arenas, or out questing in the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.
Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough monster, or maybe they could use a little healing!
Help answer questions others have in chat channels like General or Trade. We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!

You know what's funny and ironic about these 4 points?

It's that both Blizzard and the community, over the years, have been responsible for taking the game in the opposite direction of the sentiment these points are trying to encourage.

I wouldn't say opposite... more birds of a feather flock together.

Wow has a ton of happy communities in it. Those communities just dislike one another.

[Linkedblade]

Hate speech, including negative comments that target another player's identity, including aspects like race, gender, or ability
Harassment, threats, or abusive / derogatory language and behaviors
Spamming, advertising, or other disruptive behaviors

Just disable in game chat and voice chat. It's completely arbitrary what people find as offensive or hate speech.

[Novaice]

Change the 30 days of game time to "wow token" only usable for adding game time, this way you can actually refund the game/preorder if something happens and you didnt use the "wow token".

[shise]

Thirty bucks for the Base Edition, forty-five bucks if the Base Edition also includes one month of game time...

Yeah, that´s pretty good price imo.

The higher editions would need to offer something exceptional to be worth it.. A mount is certainly not worth it lol

[Khaza-R]

Ahhh yes, the now very typical "fight toxicity with..... toxicity!!" of mmo champion.

Remember folks it's ok to be a dick, so long as you stand with the right principles..

Perhaps you think I am poking fun of people who purchase cash shop items in-game but a whale is very different. A whale is a specific type of elitist who enjoys exclusivity at the exchange of RL currency rather than for effort or time spent like typical hardcore types. They enjoy price increases because it makes things less affordable for the average player. Whales themselves are toxic individuals.

[loras]

Hmm, it could be a good change, but it depends entirely on the implementation.
Tackling genuine abuse? Go right ahead.

Stymying genuine interaction/conversation/communication/discussion just because you say something someone dislikes? Censorship, plain and simple.
And that could land them in hot water in quite a few countries too, as censorship, "woke" or not (presumptious for now, but not unreasonably so as it is a recurring theme as of late) is not looked upon kindly. Nor is changing the terms of a running agreement, which WoW definitely is with its decades of existence (yes i know the EULA exists, no it is not actually worth much when tested by the law in various countries; plenty of such "agreements" exist solely symbolically, to dissuade those who know nothing of law).

[Iain]

Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.
Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, arenas, or out questing in the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.
Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough monster, or maybe they could use a little healing!
Help answer questions others have in chat channels like General or Trade. We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!

You know what's funny and ironic about these 4 points?

It's that both Blizzard and the community, over the years, have been responsible for taking the game in the opposite direction of the sentiment these points are trying to encourage.

Yes. Sharding and auto-grouping removed any impetus to form a lasting social contract between players. In Vanilla there was toxicity, but there was no escaping your own reputation. And this worked both ways. Help people out, they remember you, piss people off, they also remember you.

In Retail none of this applies anymore. Players have a completely instrumental attitude to each other. Other players exist to serve their temporary goals and then they'll never see them again.

To try and enforce this mores top down by acting like the game's HR department while ripping apart the game's social fabric is incredibly tone deaf indeed.

[Kumorii]

Perhaps you think I am poking fun of people who purchase cash shop items in-game but a whale is very different. A whale is a specific type of elitist who enjoys exclusivity at the exchange of RL currency rather than for effort or time spent like typical hardcore types. They enjoy price increases because it makes things less affordable for the average player. Whales themselves are toxic individuals.

First time I hear that... Only heard whales being used to describe people who can and will spend lots of money on in-game stuff. Don't think I've ever heard anyone describing the act like you did. Nor have I met anyone who relish in the act and proclaim themselves superior to others who can't pay for it.

[loras]

Perhaps you think I am poking fun of people who purchase cash shop items in-game but a whale is very different. A whale is a specific type of elitist who enjoys exclusivity at the exchange of RL currency rather than for effort or time spent like typical hardcore types. They enjoy price increases because it makes things less affordable for the average player. Whales themselves are toxic individuals.

This is a very good point an sich.