Anyone misbehaving in World of Warcraft will be warned faster in the future – but the reporters will also receive more information.
Reporting disruptive players in World of Warcraft often feels like a waste of time. Whether it actually has an impact and the annoying teammate is punished is something you never find out – at least until now. Blizzard aims to change a lot with Patch 9.1.5 and provide players with more information – both for the victims and the offenders.
What is the problem? In an MMORPG with thousands of players like World of Warcraft, not every other player is a nice personality. Occasionally, players choose offensive names, behave like a bull in a china shop in chat, or harass in other ways. However, reporting through the system does not feel particularly good. You never know if Blizzard is really taking action against the troublemakers and thus feel powerless and abandoned – something that the developers want to fix.
What does Blizzard want to change? In the developer notes for Patch 9.1.5, Blizzard has outlined a series of features and improvements related to reporting other players. This concerns both the players who report others and the offenders themselves. Blizzard intends to:
- If you report a player for verbal harassment or other disruptive chat in the game, you will receive a message when the corresponding player has been sanctioned.
- If your own behavior stands out negatively, you will receive a warning so you can correct your behavior before a sanction occurs.
- In particularly severe cases, the system may skip the warning and impose sanctions directly.
In the future, there will be significantly more reports in the game when sanctions are imposed – but also when a sanction is threatening. This means more transparency for all parties involved.
Community finds it good: In general, the news is well received by many; at least on wowhead, most comments are positive.
- “These are fantastic news. Too often it feels like reporting does nothing. But they also need to hire more GMs. Honestly, invest more money in your customer support team.”
- “I’m glad we finally get feedback when something happens instead of just sitting around and hoping something was done.”
However, there are also some concerns, as the reporting system has been exploited in the past. VSozonov notes:
You need to ensure that mass reports cannot be exploited. I remember the early days of Patch 9.1, where we were reported in mass simply because we did not invite other players to our group for the Fallen Steed [a rare mount] and were subsequently sanctioned.
What do you think about these improvements to the reporting system? A good step in the right direction? Or do you need to experience the whole thing live before you believe in an improvement?
