‘World Of Warcraft’: After 12 Years, Blizzard Finally Takes Aim At Abusive Players With “Silence Penalty”

Abusive World Of Warcraft players are going to be spending some time in the Supernanny’s calm down corner as part of the upcoming Legion expansion, says Blizzard.

According to a report by Engadget, Blizzard is set to roll out a “silence penalty” for players who are unable to curb their rude and abusive behavior, rolling out with the World Of Warcraft: Legion pre-patch this Tuesday, which the Inquisitr previously reported on.

“World of Warcraft offers many opportunities to engage with other players in a variety of ways,” says Blizzard, “and to help support positive experiences in these engagements we wanted to inform you of a new silence penalty we will be implementing with the pre-expansion patch for Legion.”

“Depending on the type of report, players who are found to be abusive in chat or engage in inappropriate chat behaviors may be silenced from engaging in certain ways within the game.”

Many players feel that this penalty is long overdue. Typically, Blizzard instituted temporary or permanent suspensions from the service for players who broke the game’s chat etiquette rules – but until now, World Of Warcraft had no softer penalty for minor infractions, forcing Blizzard’s Game Managers (GMs) to choose between instituting a severe penalty against a player or letting them off with a warning. Many borderline cases went relatively unactioned, as such.

Blizzard isn’t exactly pioneering this system – if anything, they’re following in the footsteps of competitor Riot Games who, according to a report from BBC, kicked off their new “player reform system” for the massively-popular League Of Legends last year. Riot’s reform system, which rather than relying entirely on human discretion uses an algorithmic system to assess abuse reports and dole out punishment, gradually scales up from chat and rank restrictions to tournament bans. It also rewards players for good behavior and flags them so that other players can see that they’re good to play with.

Blizzard’s new silence penalty is not dissimilar. Rather than simply dole out a blanket punishment, leaving the player angry and stewing and unlikely to change their ways, they are still able to play the game – but the account-wide penalty prevents them from interacting with other players while it’s in place. The ban, according to Blizzard, includes:

• Talk in Instance Chat (Raid, Party, and Battlegrounds)
• Talk in global channels that are auto joined (such as General or Trade)
• Create Calendar Invites/Events
• Send in-game mail
• Send Party Invitations
• Send War Game Invitations
• Send Invitations to Duel
• Update a Premade Group Listing
• Create a New List for a Premade Group

That’s a pretty hefty penalty, all considered; but it comes with a caveat. These limitations restrict the player from interacting with the general public in World Of Warcraft – players will still be able to:

• Whisper to friends (both WoW friends and Battle.net Friends)
• Reply to Whispers from Non-friends
• Party/Raid Chat (with Invited Players)
• Create Parties and Raids
• Talk in Global Channels that have a moderator
• Share Quests
• Sign up for a pre-made group

And here’s the other kicker. The first penalty is only for 24 hours; it practically ends before it begins. A slap on the wrist.

The next time the penalty is handed out, it doubles to 48 hours. And doubles again the next time. And again. Without restriction. Eventually, effectively, cutting the game’s worst players off from the public entirely – while still allowing them to play World Of Warcraft with their friends.

By the 8th penalty, abusive players will be banned from public chat for four months.

Naturally, the system itself still has plenty of potential for abuse, and cases will be reviewed by a human GM before the cone of shame silence is bestowed.

But it’s an effective tool in curbing abuse – something World Of Warcraft has been sorely lacking.

“By using the in-game report tool to identify players who may be engaging in inappropriate interactions within the various channels, you’ll be helping create the type of community we all want to take part in.”

[Image via Blizzard Entertainment]