That is a plausible outcome in an MMO. You could in theory gather enough people to do it. I’ve seen people do it in FFXIV.
In OW it is practically impossible. Unless match, after match, after match everyone decides to gang up on you
But even if that was possible… You’d have to question what you were doing to annoy that many people.
but being annoying is subjective in many cases that’s why you can’t report someone for just being “annoying”
it might just be because someone disagrees with your decision which isn’t a reportable offense.
misbehaviour and being annoying can be two completely different things.
that’s why i said that some might have fragile egos and will report someone for simply disagreeing with them.
and as such the system doesn’t differentiate between legitimate claims and illegitimate claims like that.
someone who is worried they will get banned and have actively tried to not get involved in blame games is someone i think is atleast cognitive enough to realise when they aren’t exactly stepping out of line but still might still get banned due to negligence of the system.
and giving them a heads up what might await them if they aren’t careful around people who might simply have frail egos is something i feel is probably good enough to make them less likely to “try” to reason with people who doesn’t listen to reason.
why i’m telling them is just incase, because i’ve had prior experience with the customer support that let me get banned indefinitly for innocuous terms that they didn’t bother to look up or give proof of my own misbehaviour, in my eyes that’s no real way of actually judging someone fairly.
which i don’t wish upon others, which is also why i’m extremely annoyed when others who’ve actively broken code of conduct so many times that i feel offended not only by their presence but the lack of a presence from the very people who judged me.
and as such i don’t feel you can afford to trust these people enough to leave it up to chance.
this is the reason why i don’t chat anymore in-game, not even saying positive things because it can be misconstrued as negative.
that’s why i try to rather solve conflict with silk gloves than being upfront and outspoken about subjects on the forums or partake in talking about any actual drama or scandals.
i used to be a stark voice on showing my disapproval of certain characters in the game and how i felt some were extremely neglected, but not knowing what i was actually banned for talking about i don’t feel like i can take any chances of actually speaking my mind freely.
i can only merely hint at them.
and as such, i have very little to actually contribute to discussions with, except under extreme caution.
In OW the number of people needed to be warned/banned is revolving around the 5 ppl in your team. If they all report you, you will get warning, silence or even a ban, depends on how many automatic warnings, silences your account already have.
Only if all 5 do it in multiple games in a row, or over a period of time.
Being annoying in 1 match, will not get you any warning, if you never get report again.
This is their fail safe on a system that is far from perfect. It would take an impossibly coordinated strike to get someone maliciously banned.
You’ll have seen in your ranked games coordination isn’t a common ability in lower ranks. So you’ll be safe, of you just be polite and don’t moan to people.
Being annoying, no. Using bad language, toxicity, etc. yes you will.
I even once got auto warning for being honest about a 5 man premade being bad, and I didn’t even say one bad word. Clearly, if 5 ppl reports someone in one game, then warning is issued.
That would imply they review what is said and act when it it clearly out of line. Good sign.
As for annoying behaviour, that requires a little more nuance to deal with. And volume and time based approach is a fairly simple and fair way to do.
If you’re going to be a nuisance in many games, you’ll get a slap on the wrist. Seems fair.
Calling others bad, or saying they are playing badly… That warning is reasonable. But I suspect if they all did report you (justified in doing so) it just tipped over the limit following previous reports too. If it was just those 5 in one match as your only reports… Then you wouldn’t of got anything.
How did you come to such irrational conclusion if what was said had zero bad language?
I’ve said the same thing if different games, and even on forum, and there was no issue.
If anything, it shows that those warnings are automated and based on the amount of reports made, the same way as it is in WoW. It’s even more probable knowing that they fired most of the support staff, so they didn’t even have a one CM on forums to communicate with community, but you think they have enough staff to review minor reports by hand, lol
Language is irrelevant. Context is.
You can’t go around telling people they are bad, or playing badly. Flaming people isn’t wanted by anyone.
You are in silver right? If you think your team mates are playing badly, imagine what they think of your play.
Flaming people is never going to get you the result you want. Best bet is to focus on what you can do to help them. Or chalk it off as a lost cause, avoid them for a few games and move on.
Of cause they are automated. But after far more reports than you’d think. Otherwise everyone would be getting warnings left right and centre.
I got susoended for abusive chat, a week later I returned and got suspended the next day for abusive chat again, despite not saying a word since getting access again.
I got suspended again for things I said before the first suspension.
If support are to be believed, that is the system working as intended.
Just out of curiosity, what difference does it make if he is who you claim he is? I really don’t see how it is at all relevant
And this is an arbitrary rule you pulled out of your mug 
As long as you stay polite, and your criticism is constructive, you can say w/e you want about other people gameplay. The problem with Blizzard systems is that they automate them based on the amount of people who send the reports. They assume that if the majority of people made the report, then something is actually going on, and they don’t really worry about system abuse because they threaten people with bans for abuse of the report system. The issue is that people still abuse this system, which is what was going on in WoW quite often.
Warning/ban system automation is pretty common in MMO games because there is no way to manually monitor millions of players.
Not going to even argue your nonsensical allegations about flaming because it didn’t happen.
No. This has been the rule since day one.
You flame people, you leave yourself wide open to get reported and actioned. It isn’t worth your time and effort to do. And if you actually watch games back, the one claiming others are playing badly, usually is having a pretty poor time of things themselves. So glass houses, stones and all that jazz.
If you get a warning/suspension and know exactly what it was for. Then that behaviour clearly isn’t allowed. So, you learn not to do it again and everything is good.
The automated, volume based, system isn’t perfect. But because of the numbers required to trigger any action, it will show a pattern of behaviour. If someone is flaming people and telling people they are playing badly in multiple games, that person is going to be annoying a lot of people. This is called griefing.
It falls under “behaviour” in the code of conduct.
“Behaviour that intentionally detracts from others’ enjoyment (such as griefing, throwing, feeding, etc.) is unacceptable. We expect our players to treat each other with respect, and promote an enjoyable environment. Acceptable behaviour is determined by player reports and Blizzard’s decision, and violating these guidelines will result in account and gameplay restrictions.”
the issue is, the rules are incredibly vague. what I find offensive is different to what youfind offensive.
and you know, since its automated, the rules don’t actually matter. you can send an appeal sure but they will find something to use as ‘evidence’, no matter how small or inoffensive it may be.
its to the point where I don’t think they are actually allowed to overturn account action and just have to make excuses as to why the automated system did what it did.
an example being the time I got suspended for telling a rein to stop pushing alone, with that exact wording.
oh and we should probably bring up the fact that you get treated differently if you have already been actioned. once you have been silenced, you are now on what can only be described as a high action priority list. it takes significantly less to be silenced / suspended for someone who has already been actioned.
I’ve always found the rules to be pretty clear, but I understand where you are coming from about vague.
Ultimately, if someone is distracting or disrupting your gaming experience, the report is valid. We, the players, determine what is acceptable behaviour.
If you are the only one who finds said person annoying, nothing will happen to them anyways.
If lots of people get annoyed by they, they’ll get warned, silenced, suspended then banned.
It takes a very large number and consistent flow of reports to get actioned. So even if a few are malicious or silly… Enough won’t be and the action will still be justified.
I totally get why some don’t like it. It would be lovely if every report was looked into and dealt with accordingly. But, that’s an impossibility. Just look at the forums and you can just guess how many false smurf reports there will be.
At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own actions. If you’re getting a warning… Change what you are doing. If you’ve got all the way to a 30 day and final suspension… You’re probably already a lost cause.
thats kind of the issue though. it could and most likely does end up in unjust bans simply because the system is not robust enough.
unless, they have already been actioned.
you have the tools to completely eliminate communication with a player. if all it takes is being annoying then the philosophy is pathetic.
again, unless they have already been actioned. someone could be silenced for completely valid reasons and then suspended for next to nothing.
we can accept an automated system if the rules it worded by were made clear. at this point, you could say ‘hi’ and get actioned with enough reports.
That’s the thing. If you are getting reported, you are the issue, not the one reporting.
You will only get action if you get A LOT of reports. So the malicious ones will be weeded out.
And if you’re getting reported that often to be actioned, you are an issue.
Take personal responsibility for your actions (as it tells you to do in the terms of service), be better.
Yes I’ve read your tale, and I doubt that’s the whole picture. But that’s fine, it is human nature to do things on instinct and forget all about it.
thats an extremely optimistic way to look at it and one I cannot agree with when considering the community in question.
again, only for the first action. you cant learn from it because all it takes is the slightest nudge after the first action and your gone again.
again, maybe for the first action, but after that you are treated differently.
you cant, thats exactly my point. you are literally better off buying a smurf than risking being banned for typing ‘gg’.
i mean i could probably find the email i got from support if you really want to read what they told me
edit: I just checked, it only links to support tickets but the tickets don’t exist anymore.
Again, you are blaming the community for your own behaviour.
They are not responsible if you get banned.
The support tickets are vague for a reason. Saves time.
im really not dude. if you read what I said, i agreed with you for the first action taken.
they kind of are though. let me put it this way.
if you get suspended for a valid reason, you can literally not say a word and be suspended again. they will use things you said before your suspension as evidence supporting the new action.
you misspelled automated.
if you don’t escalate the appeal, you get a copy pasted response.
Of course that’s the response you get. If you’re not going to put the effort in and read the message that says they don’t overturn account actions… Why would they put the effort in replying.