My experience with a stalker and how Blizzard has been handling it

Argent Dawn
27

Oh! I see, sorry, misunderstanding on my part.

1 Like
28

Happens to the best, and as said, maybe I didn’t make it clear enough from my initial post.

29

So
 Today after waiting for 7 days for a reply I got this message from the GM’s. I just want to share it with you all. I also thank you for the advices people have told me. Which social media would be best to approach them on?

From the GM:

Thank you for getting in touch regarding your issue with stalking in the game, my name is Saylenciar and I’ve been taking a look into this for you.

First of all, I want to say thank you for waiting. Nowadays we are receiving a lot of requests, but we are trying to get back to solve them as fast as just possible:)

I am sorry to hear about this situation:(

We will investigate your report further and take actions if the offense is verified. Please, note that some actions are quite complicated to verify in-game as we have limited resources to do so. Screenshots are not something that we rely on when considering penalizing a player. However, we are doing our best to penalize players who break our ToS wherever possibl! Please, make sure to use available options in the game such as ignore list. Thank you for your understanding and I hope that it will never happen again!

All the best, take care and have a great day!

Regards,
Game Master Saylenciar

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30

Well, hopefully they end up actioning the stalker
 already got too many of these ‘charming’ individuals running about on AD


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31

Knowing the track record of the Blizzard’s customer support and the GMs


They won’t.

32

Unfortunately this forum won’t do much good besides raising awareness of the problem. Blizzard rarely acts and what’s posted here may as well go in the office shredder. The only semi-reliable approach seem to be to make a scene on social media and publically embarrass the company for its laxity in stopping this sort of abusive, dangerous conduct decisively and early.

33

I am a fan of making these things public on Reddit and Twitter and other Social Media when the tickets ( which are probably answered by bots ) don’t work. If the backlash is big enough then they will be forced to act.

2 Likes
34

Gosh, something like this would be SO USEFUL in WoW. I too have been harassed recently, someone I don’t know keeping tabs on me and my friend and following us, spamming toys and just being a menace, and it’d be so nice to just. Thanos snap them out of my screen.

4 Likes
35

Also recommending to gather screenshots and evidence into one chunk and post it on social media. Systematic stalking and disturbing players from enjoying the hobby they’re -paying for- is unacceptable, and if Blizz doesn’t do anything to stop them, what can we do?

Even if naming and shaming would be forbidden by ToS, we also want to stay safe from individuals who won’t respect enjoyment and personal boundaries of others. And knowing the names of those who systematically act like this would enable us to avoid them at least.

Ignore removing someone from open world/interaction itself wouldn’t be beneficial because a lot of times people use the function over simple disputes. Want to attend to a meeting between few guilds but getting phased out because someone in another guild is blocking you? Or two people standing on top of each other because they can’t see the other, while everyone else can. Awkward.

1 Like
36

Yea, this sounds like the same one who stalks Tenebres.

37

It has been a few days. Though I wish to share to you all how it is dealt with. I know many has told me to reach out on various social media and I am currently looking for ways to do that too. Because this is honestly insane to me.

Firstly: no, the stalker has not let up. She constantly follows me no matter if I RP in Stormwind or outside like Duskwood, Redridge, Ironforge or any other zone I have tried. I have, of course, made myself untrackable on the TRP addon.

I am also going to take the advice of someone and name them so that more people can share their stories or at least know they are not alone. One of the accounts the stalker plays on has a character called Silanael. The trial she uses is BĂŁnĂȘ.

In conclution I also wish to share the latest GM message I got. Basically affirming my fears that nothing will be done even when a player breaks against the ToS. Why? Because we are physically unable to provide proof and the GM’s will not do anything about it. Since there is no “text” or us as players unable to provide screenshots or have a GM that could be like “stand by” or something they will never be able to catch them in the act. Which, to be quite blunt, is extremely terrible.

Here is the letter from yet another GM:

Greetings Fredrik,

This is Game Master Nomilocoel, thank you for contacting Blizzard Entertainment, and for your patience with our wait time. :slight_smile:

I understand from your ticket that you’d like to report another player.

Rest assured that I have completely understood your issue and I will be working on a resolution that meets your expectations.

Kindly note that while we truly sympathize with your predicament, regrettably, we Game Masters are unable to take screenshots to be the main reason to applay a penalty. Please note that I will investigate and action your report appropriately. Please note that I am unable to discuss exactly what that looks like and what actions may be taken in a specific circumstance.

Should you have any other questions or inquires, please feel free to contact us anytime, day or night. :smiley:

Happy Gaming!
GM Nomilocoel
(っ◕‿◕)ăŁâ˜†ïŸŸ.*ïœ„ïœĄïŸŸ

2 Likes
38

I see a lot of talk about ‘‘Screen shots’’ not being proof enough, but that makes me wonder what is considered proof. What is good and solid enough, to be proof?

Have the GM’s brought that up?
Have this question been directed to them?

Because, if you are going to turn someone down about such a matter, then at the very least, they should give a guide line :slight_smile:
That is informative.

3 Likes
39

For me when I’ve done reports, I’ve included a screencapture via Gyazo. I assume that doing something similar with OBS (while showing the whole screen) might be sufficient too.

Images can be doctored fairly easily, it’s a bit trickier (but not impossible) to doctor a video.

40

So, the interesting thing is the last message I got from the GM’s. Did the original issue get sorted? It did not. She got a new trial account and instantly started to follow me again. Meaning that I am unable to RP anywhere in Stormwind. A minor victory? I reckon not.

This is the following one that arrived a few days ago.

Thank you for taking the time to reach out to Blizzard Entertainment. Game Master Benoekaata is here. Before we start please accept our sincere apologies for taking a long time to respond. Things have been a little bit hectic here as we are all working very hard to respond to tons of tickets quickly to get the wait times down as fast as possible. So, thank you for your patience.

I read what you wrote to us and checked your case history. It’s a sad thing when a place is created for people to play and have fun being misused by some people when they ruin the experience of other people.

As mentioned before, unfortunately, we exhausted our resources of investigation. However, we still recommend ignoring that other player in game. While ignored, the player cannot whisper you, initiate duels, or send group invitations. You will not see their messages in public chat channels, and you will not be placed in a group with them via the Dungeon Finder system.

If that still doesn’t prevent them from harassing you, then kindly submit a very detailed feedback of the situation and post it on our forums https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/ so that our devs will look into it and see if we can create other ways of tracking such actions and preventing it altogether.

Sincerely,
GM Benoekaata

41

A better bet, IMO anyway, is to take it to Twitter and tag Holly Longdale
@TheWindstalker

Firstly, more likely to gain traction and, frankly, people saying “What the hell, that’s horrible, why hasn’t this been sorted?” (which does matter, realistically) and, second, in a bunch of the recent interviews Holly commented how she herself is a Casual/RP player.

Is that aiming a bit high? Maybe.
Does WoW Twitter have a better track record for highlighting issues and even getting changes enacted than the forums? I would say so, yeah.

For what it’s worth, wishing the utter creep you’re having to deal with a very merry Get In The Sea ._,

4 Likes
42

It is ridiculous what’s happening. The fact Blizz isn’t doing something about it AND because this goof is still at it.

I do hope it gets resolved :confused:

43

I would love for it to be sorted. But when they don’t even ban any of the “paying” accounts she has (yes she is still allowed to play on that account) I doubt Blizzard will do anything. Seeing that they do not care about people bullying or breaking the ToS at all.

44

Yea, I got confirmation this is the very one which bullies Tenebres. This one will never be sorted unless it becomes mainstream.

45

Echoing what’s said above it: if the means to gander an application and enforcement of ToS is clearly failing in this behalf, take it to a media outlet.
Because people’s clout and reputation is in this day and age more important than consumer’s well being.

I am baffled reading through all of this they just didn’t given an IP ban, should solve the hoopla with alt accounts as well or actually deeper investigation to see if it could be the same person.
Instead of generic responses 124782

46

Turns out Blizzard likes money, and straight-jacket nominees are excellent pay pigs.