Blizzard: A totalitarian company?

Community General Discussion
1

I have tried to bring a certain discussion to life, but blizzard keeps silencing me and blocking my threads. This is not the way in Europe. I have not said anything harmful nor have I spammed anything so why are you behaving like a totalitarian state?

Edit: My 2nd thread has been unblocked now.

Original thread(s):

2nd thread:
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/youtube-ads-offering-boosting-services-blizzard-what-are-you-doing/255317

Blizzard closed my topic with this response:

"While we have little control over adverts outside of the game, it’s vitally important that if you see any kind of advertising in the LFG tool (including “gold boosts”) that you right click the listing and select “report group for…” → “Advertising”.

This will hide the listing from your tool as well as send the report for investigation. We do not allow advertising of any kind in the LFG tool."

My response:

First, how can this answer suffice in order for you to close the thread? Everybody knows about the reporting tool. Yes, a lot of players (myself included) are using these reports but it is like trying to stop a flood with a bucket of water. Everytime I report something in LFG the ads are instantly back after 5minutes. I stopped reporting at this point, because it is meaningless. It does not work.

Second, I find it weird that blizzard is trying to say it is somehow the player’s fault that these services continue to flourish for not using their underwhelming report tool. What about (customizable) filters? What about blizzard actually showing that they are working on improving the situation themselves?

1st Original thread:

Original Post:

I recently saw a video ad about gold and boosting servies for WoW while browsing videos on youtube…

the LFG tool and trade chat is overflowing with these gold sellers and boosting services…

As a regular player I find this really annoying since Blizzard technically do not approve of such services… yet it seems like blizzard does nothing or very little to prevent them both in game and outside of the game.

I understand that it is probably harder to influence what is happening outside of the game, but for how many more years will you allow trade and the LFG tool be used as a commercial platform?

Blizzard what are you doing?

2

Oh Lordy,

Thats some self righteousness binge you’re on there.

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3

It’s not self righteous. Blizzard are closing an active discussion because it doesn’t suit them. That’s not right.

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3 topics on it though? The third shortly after the second which hasn’t been censored by the “totalitarian state” yet?

Not to say it won’t be but…

Anyway, Blizz pay lip service to caring. It sells tokens and it brings money in. Sure you’ll get the blue response of “ooh we take it seriously please report it”. Just know they don’t, not really. Thats not changing.

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It IS their website, their forums. They set the rules just as you set the rules for who is allowed in your own house and who is not.

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I think the bigger question is: Why aren’t you using an adblocker?

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The reason for why I created this topic was because my last thread was marked as spam (i.e. censored), I noticed this when I wanted to edit it. However, it seems like they reversed this change.

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Why would a company hell bent on getting more $$$ with the most minimal of input want to stop more $$$?

Wow is on cruise control. The product is never going to vastly improve.

They sacked many people if you forgot and always come up with lame excuses which are in fact business decisions to wring out as much $$$ for as little input as they can.

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That the ads are on youtube is not the bigger issue. The bigger issue is that the ingame trade and LFG tool is so full of these services that the websites that offer these services generate so much profit that they can afford youtube ads. The fact that there are youtube ads is speaking for the bigger problem here.

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They’ve already given you their answer. Report it if ingame. Out of the game they have no say over what is done. They can’t tell Youtube or any of the other streaming services what to do.
You asked a question, they answered the question with the facts so it would be pointless leaving it open.

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Yes, everybody knows about the ingame tool. It is a joke.

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Yeah i left the trade chat long time ago and tbh i think this is out of blizzard’s hands, the battle is lost. Boosting has been normalized and it’s seen as a legitimate way to play, it’s part of our gaming culture right now.
The boosting communities are fully fledged businesses that make thousands of euros a month, kinda hard to stop at this point.

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And this individual has every right to protest.

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I get this, but you gotta admit its frustrating that it has come to the point where players are leaving the trade channel? I will just answer with what I wrote in my original thread:

"I am not saying that Blizzard is not doing anything at all, because if they weren’t then they wouldn’t be able to say that they are “listening to our feedback”. What I am saying is that all they do is the absolute bare minimum, well… which is basically nothing at all in the end.

I expected to see a lot of cost benefit analysis arguments regarding blizzards profits, but that is not the point is it?

The point is that with the current state of gold/boost sellers they might as well endorse it openly, since it is what we are experiencing anyway. Alternatively, they admit that the problem is out of hand and they do something to adjust it. I think that the most frustrating part here is that they say NOTHING, while we are led to believe that they are actually trying to put some effort into stopping the tsunami of gold/boost sellers.

People have been complaining about this issue with gold/boost sellers for a very long time, but blizzard don’t take our complaints seriously and they rarely even communicate anything."

and clearly when they do respond… they are referring to a tool that is basically useless for us.

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Not on Blizzards forums he doesn’t. They tolerate it or they don’t. Their home etc…

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There is always going to be a difference between what the powers that be say and what they really think.

If they took it seriously they’d act seriously.

They aren’t acting seriously about it, they are doing token appeasement gestures occasionally to make it look like they are taking a hard line.

Not endorsing it is the best option for them at the moment so they can pretend they care about (and side with) people that support the integrity of the game and how your own skill and effort should count etc etc). If they endorse boosting they’d lose the players that feel strongly about this and they’d also have to “regulate” boosting somehow because then its allowed.

Judge people / corporations on their actions, not the filtered PR that comes out of their mouths.

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yes and no. he can “protest” but it wont amount to much as, like said before, its their website and their rules. you accept those rules by using the forum.

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18

Yes, everyone has the right to protest. But where? Can I invite a group of 100 people and come protest in your living room?

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If the ads on YouTube, or the ones appearing on Facebook for that matter, are for actual money and not gold you can report the sites to hacks@blizzard.com

RMT is not allowed and they will investigate that.

In game you just have to keep reporting the ads in group finder.

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Addressing this again :-

Blizzard cannot control what is happening outside of the game. If you’re concerned about websites selling illegal services, you may report these via the usual hacks@blizzard.com email. However removing external websites/adverts is not an easy or fast process.

For ingame advertising, we have our support article about it here (note that accounts that are found to be used purely for advertising will be closed permanently)

The ingame “report group for…” → “Advertising” absolutely does work and leads to accounts being actioned. The “Advertising” report was implemented for the very purpose of reporting these adverts in 2018, however as you say:

If players stop using it, then adverts will not be reported, and it will take longer for action to be taken on these accounts. Often they will be using multiple accounts for these adverts which is why you can see the adverts re-appearing later, and this is also why accounts that are used purely for advertising will be closed permanently.

The thread will be closed again because there really is nothing further that can be brought to the discussion here - continue to report the advertising in the LFG tool to us via the right click report option.

Thanks!

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