Gave the contract a read, red flags everywhere.
This is not it, blizz. This is not it.
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Like how did they came to the conclusion that they can do this and will work without any backfire just because they give people some freebies for basically their freedom of speech LMAO.
Its crazy that they even thought about it let alone did it.
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Iâm wondering if this actually is a big problem though? Are there that many Discord communities that will flock to the promise of having free Blizzard watchdogs installed in return for the occasional giveaway and⌠err⌠not having to go to Wowhead for the latest news? Plus there sort of seems like theyâll be rather picky with âwho gets to joinâ so to speak and I imagine anyone big/important enough to be considered will already have a lot of the members opposed to the idea.
When this eventually makes it to a youtube video that has a half a million views mocking this monstrosity of an idea, be sure to put me in the screen cap.
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Your company is basically on fire and you still try to scam people?
Be humble, trashzard
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what they are trying to do is to cenzor discords tied to communities and guilds the same way they cenzored in game chat.
nothing else.
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well you dont have to be genius to imagine how players will fight with this .
most will just have 2 discord servers instead 1 - 1 under blizzard cenzorship for rewards 2nd official one not tied to blizz and uncenzored one.
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Yeah gonna probably see people with unique ârewardsâ soon in-game being good boys on 1 channel and speaking their mind on the main channelâŚ
This is so stupid on so many levels, again who the hell thought of this and who the hell aproved this crap
This vassalship program not canceled yet?
My twopenneth is that this is a very badly thought up concept with so many pitfalls.
Data farming is frowned upon, why would you try to implement such a thing when clearly the community will revolt against any such initiative.
Whereas I am sure that Bizz/activision will have lawyers look at discordâs TOC, how does this reflect on the data protection laws in the EU? Have the members of the server been warned about this in advance of farming any data. I have a feeling this may push the emphasis on any breech of rights firmly in the hands of the server administrators. I am in a ton of servers I take no notice of anymore. How can they guarantee that all members will be informed about this before they sign up to such a contract. I certainly would never sign up to something like this, either as a member or in admin. It could leave you wide open to problems.
What would the members gain from this? Well, absolutely nothing. We have a forum here. Most of the comments are ignored and gain very little response. How would diluting the process over many other platforms actually help? My opinion is that it would not. Which forum should I now use to get my point across to the game devs that I have an issue?
It may garner some lip service initially, but like all other mediums, it will fade away.
Poor concept with possible legal ramifications left in the hands of server admin. I would quickly drop any discord server that signs up to this. I would also be requesting that my data be deleted regarding this server.
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As a doctor once told me after giving me medication for constipation. âiâll passâ
It is clear that there have been some challenges with communication in the past and present, and I appreciate that you are making an effort to improve this. However, I believe that this recent announcement and approach to communication has not been and will not be successful.
A lot of the information from this announcement is exclusively available via legal language, which made it difficult to understand intents for community leaders, let alone the broader community, including myself. There was also a lack of explanation as to why this ânewâ approach would be beneficial and what better results it could garner than already existing methods. This has led to a loss of control over the conversation, and it will be challenging to regain trust from the community on this topic. I suggest being more forthcoming with your goals and explaining what you are trying to accomplish.
Sentiment tracking in protected environments
I also have concerns about the use of sentiment tracking software in protected environments, such as Discord servers. I understand that tracking sentiments via tools on a so far unexplored platform is enticing. While the servers in this program will presumably be public, they are still a somewhat protected environment. Sentiment tracking is common on social media and forums, but it may not be appropriate for these protected spaces. Already well-moderated servers could be negatively impacted, while those that would arguably benefit from more oversight will not apply anyway. This announcement came across more as an attempt to reign in the latter kind. I believe that this approach would disproportionally damage the former of your communities.
Benefits
In terms of benefits, it is not clear what the average member will gain from this program. It is also unclear how this approach will prevent communities from splintering and causing dissent. There are groups of people that deliberately opt out of social media and similar for reasons such as sentiment tracking and data collection. Q&As are not a particularly valuable proposition, given Blizzardâs history of using already existing paths of communication.
Communication
Regarding direct communication in general, it is already happening from time to time through community representatives, Discord, Twitter, etc. So unless there has been a shift in company policy, it should still be possible, especially in a more controlled environment with clear guidelines, which I assume this was trying to achieve. In the attempt to facilitate such an environment, you overstepped the playersâ boundaries while trying to be more approachable.
If there is an actual need for more chat-like communication, it would be better facilitated by CMs directly contacting admins. This may require a leap of faith with the community in question to behave, but it would likely garner more trust and open/honest communication from said community. Honestly, some Discords are already more heavily moderated than these forums.
Thank you.
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The whole point of community discords is that it allows us to have a free and open platform to discuss aspects of our class and spec and sometimes this will result in a negative view upon blizzard itself or its developers
This in my opinion however is a healthy thing as it allows community discords not to become an echo chamber for blizzard but a place for real discussion
Not only do you want us to sign away our right to state our honest opinions but you also want to track what we do, threaten us with legal action if we say anything you do not agree with and our possible rewards for signing up to this contract that you can take away at any time are vague at best and not worth the asking price
On top of that we get employeeâs assigned to talk to us who are under no obligation to take our concerns seriously or even communicate to the relevant developers
Sorry but the price is too high for what you are asking us to do sign up for. You may not like it that our current community discords can be overly negative of blizzard at times but its through healthly and honest discussion that actual progress is made to making world of warcraft better for everyone and to make this game as fun as possible
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Agree! I actually think that blizzard have outdone themselves in this expansion! I did just return since I got free game-time and free DF (trial)!
They have done massively improvements since BFA/SL imo! They seem to listen to the community now too (about time)!
GG blizzard! Continue on this path and we will once more have the best MMO in the world!
Thankfully based upon the reaction from the majority of the community discords it looks like this initiative by Blizzard is already going to fall flat on its face and fail spectacularly
Blizzard has to accept that if it wants to get involved in the community this way that they cannot just force people in those discords to agree with everything that blizzard does
To quote Magdalena ( founder and admin of the Acherus DK community discord ) from their twitter which was quoted earlier in this thread:
The #Acherus community wishes to state clearly and categorically that it has no intention of applying for or participating in the Warcraft Community Discord program
And goes on to further state:
We did not endure this long, nor have as great of an impact upon the community as we have by relinquishing control or censoring ourselves for a few, stale, irrelevant crumbs thrown our way over the years
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Well, no. Itâs just a bad deal.
It massively increases the pressure on the administrators, because now you need to think not of what you like, but what Blizzard likes, and provides only small goodies in return.
I think the biggest problem is what people are presuming/interpreting from the contract.
I still think itâs a positive on the whole for well run communities (that want to take part), that are properly moderated and have rules that are enforced.
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In honesty, I think you didnât properly read that.
There is not much to interpret in âNo talk bad or we sue youâ. And I am pretty sure many communities that wonât agree to that are well run too.
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But it isnât âno talk bad or we sue youâ. Thatâs part of the problem with peopleâs reactions.
If that was true weâd never be able to complain about anything on the forums.
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Look a bit further up, someone quoted it.
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