Recent Actions Against Exploitative Accounts - September 2023

[Artemol]

The only possible reason blizz are suspending 130k+ accounts this month is amazing.

They probably have statistics on how many of the banned accounts - people buy new licenses and more game-time.

There's no possible way for investors to like the fact that they would be losing out on:

136.000*14.99= 2038640 (2.04m $) a month.

LETS DO SOME CALCU

based on the new assumption that at least 50% of the suspended players buy new game licenses immediately after being suspended.

How much does Blizzard lose monthly from the suspensions?
Loss per month
=
136
,
000
×
14.99
Loss per month=136,000×14.99
Loss per month
=
$
2
,
038
,
640
Loss per month=$2,038,640

How many new game licenses do they need to sell to recoup the lost monthly revenue?
Number of licenses
=
monthly loss
cost of a new license
Number of licenses=
cost of a new license
monthly loss
​

Number of licenses
=
$
2
,
038
,
640
49.99
Number of licenses=
49.99
$2,038,640
​

Number of licenses
≈
40
,
778
Number of licenses≈40,778

How much revenue do they gain from selling new licenses to 50% of the suspended players?
Revenue from new licenses
=
0.5
×
136
,
000
×
49.99
Revenue from new licenses=0.5×136,000×49.99
Revenue from new licenses
=
$
3
,
399
,
320
Revenue from new licenses=$3,399,320

So, Blizzard would gain $3,399,320 from selling new licenses to 50% of the suspended players.

How many players return each month?
Returning players per month
=
0.05
×
136
,
000
=
6
,
800
Returning players per month=0.05×136,000=6,800

How many of these players subscribe again for 1 year?
Annual subscribers
=
0.5
×
6
,
800
=
3
,
400
Annual subscribers=0.5×6,800=3,400

If each of these 3,400 players subscribes for a year at $14.99 per month, the revenue for Blizzard would be:
Annual revenue per player
=
14.99
×
12
=
$
179.88
Annual revenue per player=14.99×12=$179.88
Total annual revenue from these players
=
3
,
400
×
179.88
=
$
611
,
392
Total annual revenue from these players=3,400×179.88=$611,392

Considering just the immediate gain from the licenses and the first month's returnees:

They earn $3,399,320 from selling new licenses.
They lose $2,038,640 from the monthly subscription of the suspended players.
They gain a potential annual revenue of $611,392 from the players who return and subscribe for a full year.
Thus, even with the loss from suspensions, they stand to gain from the players purchasing new licenses and from the returning subscribers

[craigw]

The only possible reason blizz are suspending 130k+ accounts this month is amazing.

They probably have statistics on how many of the banned accounts - people buy new licenses and more game-time.

There's no possible way for investors to like the fact that they would be losing out on:

136.000*14.99= 2038640 (2.04m $) a month.

LETS DO SOME CALCU

based on the new assumption that at least 50% of the suspended players buy new game licenses immediately after being suspended.

How much does Blizzard lose monthly from the suspensions?
Loss per month
=
136
,
000
×
14.99
Loss per month=136,000×14.99
Loss per month
=
$
2
,
038
,
640
Loss per month=$2,038,640

How many new game licenses do they need to sell to recoup the lost monthly revenue?
Number of licenses
=
monthly loss
cost of a new license
Number of licenses=
cost of a new license
monthly loss
​

Number of licenses
=
$
2
,
038
,
640
49.99
Number of licenses=
49.99
$2,038,640
​

Number of licenses
≈
40
,
778
Number of licenses≈40,778

How much revenue do they gain from selling new licenses to 50% of the suspended players?
Revenue from new licenses
=
0.5
×
136
,
000
×
49.99
Revenue from new licenses=0.5×136,000×49.99
Revenue from new licenses
=
$
3
,
399
,
320
Revenue from new licenses=$3,399,320

So, Blizzard would gain $3,399,320 from selling new licenses to 50% of the suspended players.

How many players return each month?
Returning players per month
=
0.05
×
136
,
000
=
6
,
800
Returning players per month=0.05×136,000=6,800

How many of these players subscribe again for 1 year?
Annual subscribers
=
0.5
×
6
,
800
=
3
,
400
Annual subscribers=0.5×6,800=3,400

If each of these 3,400 players subscribes for a year at $14.99 per month, the revenue for Blizzard would be:
Annual revenue per player
=
14.99
×
12
=
$
179.88
Annual revenue per player=14.99×12=$179.88
Total annual revenue from these players
=
3
,
400
×
179.88
=
$
611
,
392
Total annual revenue from these players=3,400×179.88=$611,392

Considering just the immediate gain from the licenses and the first month's returnees:

They earn $3,399,320 from selling new licenses.
They lose $2,038,640 from the monthly subscription of the suspended players.
They gain a potential annual revenue of $611,392 from the players who return and subscribe for a full year.
Thus, even with the loss from suspensions, they stand to gain from the players purchasing new licenses and from the returning subscribers

12 year botter here.....^^^^this guy gets it.....
i stopped botting when i learned to multibox. way way more money to be made multiboxing. sadly it was also outlawed....only if there was a way around it......

[Altmer]

I said that because even Blizzard understands that the token doesn't stop botting. Hello? Is this on?

And that source of yours, in resume, says that they are implementing Token in WoW Classic with the intention facilitating gold to the player base, reduce illegal activities (bots included) + aid the players who needs gold (so they avoid illegal ways to purchase it).

Circling back to what was mentioned earlier about why WoW Token feels like a tool we should deploy now, we have to look at the base design of Wrath of the Lich King.

Hello? Are you even reading your own sources?. Is all there. They implemented the Token to stop illegal activities in Wrath Classic. Botting included (It’s an unwinnable war as long as there is money to be made by third parties., so they have to keep going and going to put a stop to it and the Token is one of the tools, to put a stop to bots along with the GSO).

[Relapses]

And that source of yours, in resume, says that they are implementing Token in WoW Classic with the intention facilitating gold to the player base, reduce illegal activities (bots included) + aid the players who needs gold (so they avoid illegal ways to purchase it).

Circling back to what was mentioned earlier about why WoW Token feels like a tool we should deploy now, we have to look at the base design of Wrath of the Lich King.

Hello? Are you even reading your own sources?. Is all there. They implemented the Token to stop illegal activities in Wrath Classic. Botting included (It’s an unwinnable war as long as there is money to be made by third parties., so they have to keep going and going to put a stop to it and the Token is one of the tools, to put a stop to bots along with the GSO).

Dude. You're literally summarizing the first fucking post you refused to read.

This is dumb, even for MMO-C. Deuces.

[Altmer]

Dude. You're literally summarizing the first fucking post you refused to read.

This is dumb, even for MMO-C. Deuces.

Dude, you said the Token was not intented to put a stop to bots. Who is the dumb?

[Relapses]

Dude, you said the Token was not intented to put a stop to bots. Who is the dumb?

*sigh* That's not what I said, and, for the seventh time, you would know that if you had actually read the fucking post. You misunderstood my fucking post and have spent the last 6 posts summarizing what I said in the post you misunderstood.

[Elbob]

Why Blizzard maybe manipulating the Token Prices and Sales?. Because the system is not transparent at all by design. You and I are ignorant what is truely going on with that system of theirs. Money is involved. The Token seller is expecting its gold from the sale (And they are not going to let that guy, who paid real money to hang in there, waiting forever for his gold).

How long it takes for a Token to be sold?. You can answer me that one, I have never used that system myself. But from what I have seen from friends of mine....is almost instant. The longest one took like 12mins-15min.

But like i said....the system is not transparent. We have no idea how it operates, outside of what Blizzard explained in their forums/web pages. But we have no idea who are we getting our gold from, or Token.

what? Because system A is not transparent therefore they want to manipulate the price? That makes no sense. Im asking what is the goal of manipulating the token.

A non transparent system does not mean malicious maybe token buyers dont want their names posted they are trading $$$ for gold?

[Foulfrost]

No, I'm absolutely not okay with these practices but I also understand that being mad about capitalism existing on a message board for a video game where we slay internet dragons for imaginary loot is laughably out of touch with reality.

Those people you replied to pointed out Blizzard is just making a profit from not doing what might actually help stop or significantly reduce botting. They're just banning bots when they see them and are putting the token out there with some reasoning like "Well... if people buy gold, at least they'll buy it from a legit source so the botters earn less".

Which is a convenient thing to say while introducing something that reinforces gold buying for your own profit. "This might help, or not. We hope it will but if it doesn't, it'll at least generate cash." Scummy. And people here called it out.

And you then went after these people like "Whaddaya want em to do ey, if they don't they might go bankrupt?"

Then when you get some responses saying it's still vague and unclear as to how tokens help at all, you just handwave and blame the *entire economic system* instead and say that these people are out of touch with reality for disliking Activision for leaning hard into monetisation.

Zero nuance, my dude. It is not out of touch with reality to look at numbers for ban waves of bots, wondering why the token seemingly didn't change anything and call out Activision for having used the bots as an excuse to sell us gold themselves.

[hasore]

For the conspiracy theory lunatics, if you are this delusional, you can file a complaint for investigation at the appropriate federal organization of your country if it's sold there.

[pelaaja0]

Huh, they're doing these monthly now? Nice, hopefully they can keep up the bans often enough botting isn't profitable anymore.

[Relapses]

Zero nuance, my dude. It is not out of touch with reality to look at numbers for ban waves of bots, wondering why the token seemingly didn't change anything and call out Activision for having used the bots as an excuse to sell us gold themselves.

Pray tell: In your infinite wisdom, if not the token then how should Blizzard have handled the problem of botting?

[Djuntas]

Pray tell: In your infinite wisdom, if not the token then how should Blizzard have handled the problem of botting?

Will never happen unless they price their gold token accordingly. They choose to keep bots profitable.

[Caerrona]

Just because is not imporant to you, doesn't mean is not imporant for me. I care to have a transparent transaction for something like that. Why?. Because is already a Pay to Win feature and the last thing I want is to be abused by the company that develop it.



You denied that the Token was intended to stop bots. I stop reading after that. I think you only want to be right just for the sake of it. And you are not even making a full research of why the Token was implemented in the first place. I really don't care if you believe it or not, because is pointed out in that source i posted. They intenteded to put a stop to gold farming and bots. So those points you shared are not even worth my time to read.



conspiracy theorists?. Or maybe normale people who doesn't trust a company blindly. I don't trust a transaction that is not crystal clear to me. Specially from a company that has been, so far, so polemic.

Now, you also have no legitimate evidence to trust Blizzard so blindly. I have no idea how they operate the Token behind the scenes. No one knows. No one knows the subs numbers as well, so maybe they actually doing great or maybe so poorly, that they force Token sales by creating the gold.....No one knows. Not me or you. So lets be honest....We don't work for Blizzard. I have my rights to distrust them. You may have your reasons to trust them. In my case, I think they focus on getting those sales numbers up (is a company, is normal...), but I don't trust them to play fairly.



And unless is an open source code you can see....we have no idea how it works (even if they give us a version of how it works based on the "trust me bro" source that they drop on their player base).
I don't think the devs didn't realise that they should have added the name of who is selling you the Token and Who is giving you the gold. So, my guess is that this design was intented to advert negative impacts in the process of selling the Tokens (money needs to move).

Holy hell you are a delusional retard.

Quit the game.
Seek help.
You are fucking insane.

[Itori]

Pray tell: In your infinite wisdom, if not the token then how should Blizzard have handled the problem of botting?

Botting is extremely hard to combat. Lost ark finally managed to make a dent in it by doing weekly-bi weekly purges of suspected bots.

The gold selling problem will always be an issue because there are people who would rather trade time for money. Blizzard knows this and gave their players with that mentality a way to trade disposable income for in game currency without the fear of being hacked or banned.

If the token made a dent in gold sellers then they wouldnt be selling twice the amount of gold for the same price as a token.

[Altmer]

Holy hell you are a delusional retard.

Quit the game.
Seek help.
You are fucking insane.

Is that all the argument you have, "delusional retard"?. You can't even point anything or give an argument to give your opinion?.
What a lazy answer you gave...

- - - Updated - - -

Will never happen unless they price their gold token accordingly. They choose to keep bots profitable.

The Token price went from 30k when they started up to 200k (from WOD if i remember correctly up to Dragonflight).
They manipulate the pricing of it, I don't think it just randomly goes up and down according to demand. I don't really believe they leave the price to luck/demand.

[kranur]

Another month another confirmation that 'Token is here to fight bots!' was a total lie.

Lol, did people actually buy that ... excuse? The token is there so that they can get their cut from people trading gold, otherwise the price of the token would be the same as value returned by said token, which would still be a win for them anyway.
Though I gotta admit, the classic token reasoning was even better "we're adding it cause people are not interested in buying gold". But it did solve a bit on the scamming part, gotta give them that.

[Altmer]

Pray tell: In your infinite wisdom, if not the token then how should Blizzard have handled the problem of botting?

By actually making changes to the UI and the client, to make it harder for Third-Party Automation Software to be used. It's a million dollar company with resources and people. How do you think Banks keep their systems so well protected from theft malicious programs from stealing money from them?.

[Mendzia]

Lol, did people actually buy that ... excuse? The token is there so that they can get their cut from people trading gold, otherwise the price of the token would be the same as value returned by said token.

I did not buy that excuse.
Every month of these blue posts confirms that.

[Altmer]

Lol, did people actually buy that ... excuse? The token is there so that they can get their cut from people trading gold, otherwise the price of the token would be the same as value returned by said token.

The Token and the Boost are just a lie. Created only for profit.
The Token didn't solve Gold selling and Botting.
The Boost didn't solve Leveling service sold by chinese sellers.

- - - Updated - - -

I did not buy that excuse.
Every month of these blue posts confirms that.

Like....oh yea, we implemented Token in WoW Classic, but....it didn't stop the bots, but at least we are giving the players a chance to buy gold legaly. What a joke.

[Baraden]

Isn't it strange that all these hundreds of thousands of bans does nothing to stop the bots, it's just as bad on classic and retail as it has been for the last 5 years, despite the millions of bans at this point

Could it not be that ultimately both players and blizzard benefit from bots and the dirty secret it no one reall wants to see them go