Boosting Communities Deleted from Discord, Remote FollowUnit Script to be Disabled

[Velerios]

This is an excellent point. It's their platform. They can do anything.

I always find it funny when people think that their discord-channel no matter what they do there is their right to have; not it isn't. This was maybe the case back then when you had your own teamspeak-server, but discord like everything made it easier, but also you are dependent on the service itself. And no, discord will definitively NOT go against Activision for some boosers.

And yes, personally i'm happy when they go against the boosting-fraternity.

[bullseyed]

Holy shit, what dystopian virtual nightmare is that? What the fuck has Discord to do with it?
If Blizzard wants to crack down on them, ban their accounts in-game! Shame on Discord for actually participating in this.

I am totally against botting and that kind of boosting myself (because let's be honest, I know it's a fine line, but that's literally botting with extra steps)
The goal does not justify the means tho

Turns out using a follow script that Blizzard intentionally put into the game isn't a violation of the TOS. Bliz can't action it, as they would be sued. So they pay off another company to harass you instead, which is somehow legal and OK.

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It is against the Discord ToS to do certain things. It is no different then when MMO-Champion bans people for talking about hacks/stuff. It isn't a dystopian nightmare but simply things not existing in their own bubbles and ToU/ToS being enforced when requested.

https://discord.com/guidelines
"Do not distribute or provide access to content involving the hacking, cracking, or distribution of stolen goods, pirated content, or accounts. This includes sharing or selling game cheats or hacks."

Cool. And it's objectively obvious that no one sold a cheat or hack. Using an ingame command isn't a cheat or hack. What's next? Bliz will pay off VISA to cancel the credit card on your account?

[rhorle]

Cool. And it's objectively obvious that no one sold a cheat or hack. Using an ingame command isn't a cheat or hack.

Discord doesn't have a definition so anything they label can be one. They were not banned because they used /follow and it is honestly baffling you would even think that is the reason.

[Korvyn]

I wonder how we got here...
Back in the day up to end of MoP, buying a boost in pve was a mark of shame. It was still done, but a lot less visible, all hush hush. Now there are all these people defending boosting - what changed? Is it different people that play the game? Is it the boosters themselves that come front and center? Or are we older as players and still want stuff but don't have the time to do it anymore. Did we just forget we play a game to play and not to have? What changed?

In my view, part of the problem lies with the community. These days if you don't fit into a certain ranking or item level, you're outright excluded from progress. You don't even get the chance to prove if you're good or not. And no i'm not talking about people with 100 ilvl wanting a carry through +15 because they think they deserve it. More like people who got what they could from the catch up gear, want to start progressing, and can't because they don't have enough ilvl, ranking, curve, etc. Mind, none of this is new. There was always a way players would find to separate the "good" from the "trash", it's just now blizzard itself facilitates it, because the community wasn't fragmented enough as it was.

The other issue is the loot that goes away: curve mount , season mount...only to name a couple. At some point people will just feel frustrated of not feeling good enough to be entitled to get these time gated rewards that they will just buy a boost. For gold. Something you earn ingame. In the end it's like paying a mercenary to escort you through a dangerous zone. Fits the fantasy theme pretty well as far as i see it. Blizzard created the BMAH as a gold sink, where they put items that were removed from the game for you to sink gold into if you still want them. "Creating the problem and selling you the solution", some would call it.But spending the same gold to get those items while they are available, no no no... Smeels a bit like hiypocrisy to me :P

Me, i don't care much about the existance or not of people boosting. I agree that there should be rules about how much they can spam, because trying to find a group and having to filter through pages of boosting ads was a pain. But i don't consider it shameful. Some people like to hoard gold to the millions. They should be able to spend it as they see fit.

[bullseyed]

You realize blizzard has to ability to do this with any website or service that uses their content? Its the reason twitch bans streamers from private servers and YouTube must take down private server videos if they request a copystrike. Just because its on a discord server doesn't allow discord to not follow blizzard rules. Its blizzard's content that they allow to be used by third party platforms.

Companies working together to abuse people is because they choose to, not because they have to.

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Discord doesn't have a definition so anything they label can be one. They were not banned because they used /follow and it is honestly baffling you would even think that is the reason.

Maybe scroll up and read the post you're replying to then, since you're violating the TOS for MMO-C...

[Gorsameth]

Turns out using a follow script that Blizzard intentionally put into the game isn't a violation of the TOS. Bliz can't action it, as they would be sued. So they pay off another company to harass you instead, which is somehow legal and OK.

Hate to break it to you but Blizzard can ban you for absolutely nothing and you would not have a legal leg to stand on to challenge said ban.

Blizzard, and every other company, can deny you service whenever they feel like it for no reason other then them feeling like fucking over you personally.

[bullseyed]

Whether or not it interferes with the client has absolutely nothing to do with why they got sued or the outcome of the lawsuit. If you read the outcome of the trial it was specifically about ruining blizzards customers experience and ruining their reputation.

This boosting would fall almost exactly in line with the honor buddy lawsuit.

Most people who type mean things in game do it from a Windows OS. Bliz should sue Microsoft. Falls exactly in line with the Honor Buddy lawsuit (as you falsely define it).

[rhorle]

Maybe scroll up and read the post you're replying to then, since you're violating the TOS for MMO-C...

You quoted me so I'm not sure what post you want me to read. Lmao. Also discussing things that are in the news, posted by the site, is not a violation of the rules on this site. Again it is baffling that you think so even when you yourself was discussing the same thing.

[bullseyed]

And how, exactly, is removing the WoW Token going to stop people buying services with WoW Gold?

Because people who don't play the game wouldn't have gold to buy boosts without the WoWToken.

Most of them wouldn't want to put their CC into some shady Chinese site to buy gold, and the ones who do can be banned.

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I'm with you -- this sets an incredibly terrible precedent. But if we're to believe the "multiple sources" in the OP, this was a result of Blizzard putting pressure on Discord due to the boosting communities flagrantly circumventing the main purpose of the boosting community ban, mainly keeping large amounts gold in escrow. The RMT-adjacent nature of massive piles of gold is too much of a temptation for most admins of these boosting communities and this puts them in direct competition with Blizzard's own monetization of the game (the WoW token).

Hopefully it won't go further than this; though I can easily see boosting communities simply moving to a different platform (Telegram maybe?) since the demand for boosting isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Yeah, seems like more and more the real thing Bliz doesn't like is that 'someone else' is letting people move gold between servers, instead of forcing players to buy transfers or tokens.

[Somic]

Most people who type mean things in game do it from a Windows OS. Bliz should sue Microsoft. Falls exactly in line with the Honor Buddy lawsuit (as you falsely define it).

I never said blizzard would sue discord so why are you assuming that was my argument? And it doesn’t fall in line with the honorbuddy lawsuit because blizzard sued honor buddy themselves, not the platforms that they were posting on so you kind of just sunk your own argument by being dumb.

Also didn’t falsely define it because I literally quoted exactly why they sued with zero room for interpretation.

[MrFawlty]

So you think the only reason people boost is because they don't enjoy playing the game they pay for? People boost for many reasons.

Did I say that they only reason people pay for boosts is because they don’t enjoy playing the game they are paying for? Er no I didn’t, however I would suggest it is a contributing factor. Your comment however that making content fun and engaging wouldn’t at least slow down the number of people paying to skip is ludicrous.

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I'd say that's semantics.

He does alot that.

[rhorle]

Did I say that they only reason people pay for boosts is because they don’t enjoy playing the game they are paying for? Er no I didn’t, however I would suggest it is a contributing factor. Your comment however that making content fun and engaging wouldn’t at least slow down the number of people paying to skip is ludicrous.

You calling that statement ludicrous does indeed state that. I never said it wouldn't have an impact on boosting. I even stated people boost for many reasons. You are projecting your own "half talk a load of nonsense sometimes" because of whatever personal vendetta you have for posts I make.

[MrFawlty]

You calling that statement ludicrous does indeed state that. I never said it wouldn't have an impact on boosting. I even stated people boost for many reasons. You are projecting your own "half talk a load of nonsense sometimes" because of whatever personal vendetta you have for posts I make.

Are those goalposts heavy?

So let’s be clear here, would improving the quality of the game and actually making things fun again reduce boosts or not - according to you?

[rhorle]

So let’s be clear here, would improving the quality of the game and actually making things fun again reduce boosts or not - according to you?

That isn't something that can be answered because the quality of the game is not the sole reason for boosting. Improving quality could cause a greater demand for boosts because more people are playing and more people want X, Y, Z with out having to work for it. You are creating a strawman that I've already answered by clearly stating multiple times that there are many reasons for boosting.

[Polybius]

I wonder how we got here...
Back in the day up to end of MoP, buying a boost in pve was a mark of shame. It was still done, but a lot less visible, all hush hush. Now there are all these people defending boosting - what changed? Is it different people that play the game? Is it the boosters themselves that come front and center? Or are we older as players and still want stuff but don't have the time to do it anymore. Did we just forget we play a game to play and not to have? What changed?

FOMO. And i’m pretty sure it was less frowned upon by the time Wrath Naxx rolled out, if we’re talking gold boosting. Guilds would even boost for free to advertise and level their guilds to 25.

Carries don’t only exist for endgame but for tmogs, leveling, and tank/healer shortages too. People like to forget there were guilds that would tax members for services. We saw their return with Classic.

Edit: Forgot to add that it only became easier once cross-server play came out. Guilds evolved into cross realm boosting communities. Most of the ads you see peeps complain about are from irl currency boosting, they’re very spammy across all channels of communication.

[MoanaLisa]

Are those goalposts heavy?

So let’s be clear here, would improving the quality of the game and actually making things fun again reduce boosts or not - according to you?

Quality improvement and what is and isn't fun is a purely personal judgement. Arguments based on this aren't even anchored in quicksand.

I think the game could be better. I think the game could be more fun. The elements of what it would take to do that for me might be entirely different than yours or anyone else's. Indeed, what I think the game needs might make it worse for you.

It's just a dumb argument that people keep repeating because they think it scores debating points and means something. It doesn't and it doesn't.

[MrFawlty]

That isn't something that can be answered because the quality of the game is not the sole reason for boosting. Improving quality could cause a greater demand for boosts because more people are playing and more people want X, Y, Z with out having to work for it. You are creating a strawman that I've already answered by clearly stating multiple times that there are many reasons for boosting.

But you did answer it, you said "not really".

I dont think youll find someone saying "This part of the game is brilliant quality so I opted to pay more to skip it ". Also if more people are playing they arent buying boosts - Self defeating arguement 101.

[rhorle]

But you did answer it, you said "not really".

Right. As I've said from the start there are many reasons why people boost. Not sure what sherlock moment you think you are having. Besides if the game was fun and engaging in "the past" why do people boost in classic? Why did they buy gold in Vanilla? GDKP/Auction runs were a thing if not as prevalent as boosting is today across all servers.

People have always looked for shortcuts to get what they wanted regardless of how fun and engaging they thought the game actually was. How do you know that more people playing the game doesn't mean more people will buy boosts? If 1 million play now and 10% buy boosts wouldn't 10 million playing and 10% buying boosts equal more boosts? What if that number goes higher then 10% when more people are playing? The only self defeating arguments is from yourself as it is silly to try and equate the people playing the game as a reason why boosting is so popular.

[MrFawlty]

Right. As I've said from the start there are many reasons why people boost. Not sure what sherlock moment you think you are having. Besides if the game was fun and engaging in "the past" why do people boost in classic? Why did they buy gold in Vanilla? GDKP/Auction runs were a thing if not as prevalent as boosting is today across all servers.

People have always looked for shortcuts to get what they wanted regardless of how fun and engaging they thought the game actually was. How do you know that more people playing the game doesn't mean more people will buy boosts? If 1 million play now and 10% buy boosts wouldn't 10 million playing and 10% buying boosts equal more boosts? What if that number goes higher then 10% when more people are playing? The only self defeating arguments is from yourself as it is silly to try and equate the people playing the game as a reason why boosting is so popular.

" it is silly to try and equate the people playing the game as a reason why boosting is so popular" hmm what on earth does that even mean?

Right you are saying that increasing the increasing game quality and making it more fun and engaging wouldnt reduce boosting but more people would actually play it?

LOL

So what you saying, the same percentage of people would still boost?

[rhorle]

" it is silly to try and equate the people playing the game as a reason why boosting is so popular" hmm what on earth does that even mean?

Do you not know your own words anymore? You made the claim that boosting wouldn't be as popular if the game was more popular. Which means boosting is popular now because less people are playing and that if more people were playing it wouldn't be as popular.

If the game was so fun and engaging in its prime why did people still boost and buy gold? Why did people look for every advantage they could for as little as possible? Even in classic, without a token to "legalize" gold buying, boosting is still a big thing. It is just part of the game now regardless of what your personal views are on the quality.