A single Game Master in World of Warcraft has destroyed the trust in an entire system. The damage is hardly repairable.
Higher, faster, further. Always getting better. This is a motivation for many to play World of Warcraft. One wants to equip their character well, perfect their playstyle, and achieve a good rating in “Mythic+” to measure themselves against others. But because a Game Master cheated, the entire system is now hanging by a thread.
What happened? Yesterday it became clear that at least one Game Master interfered with the “Mythic+” visits. Some of the players were apparently friends with a Game Master who had been “invisible” in the dungeon the whole time. As it became apparent that the group would not complete the dungeon within the time limit, the Game Master intervened by using a death spell that first defeated a boss and later took down a trash mob. This enabled the dungeon to be completed at level +23 within the time limit.
It came to light only because one of the players in the group, the tank found through the group search, recorded and uploaded the log files of the dungeon. In it, the suspicious ability was visible.
The accusation now is: Game Masters could occasionally help friends, acquaintances, or streamers because many dungeons are completed “in secret” – that is, without the exact process of the dungeon being logged.
Only open log files can bring certainty
Why is this important? Mythic+ is a competitive gameplay element that revolves around performance. There are leaderboards, and the best players are honored with special rewards at the end of a season. If Game Masters intervene in this system and give someone an unfair advantage, then that is not just “a little rating cheated, which nobody cares about” – but a serious intervention in the integrity of a competition. That is almost as absurd as if a president of a country would retract a red card in soccer.
Because now the seed of doubt has been planted. After such an incident has been caught in the act, many think: Is this the case with other streamers and pros too? Do they also know a Game Master who just helps them? Is this perhaps happening dozens or even hundreds of times in each season?
How can Blizzard save the situation? Basically, there is only one way: All dungeons must be logged in the future or at least all dungeons in the top 10%. Whether Blizzard provides its own page for this or partners with sites like Warcraft Logs doesn’t matter – but in endgame, it must be clearly traceable for everyone whether a run was completed fairly or whether a Game Master intervened and helped.
The only positive thing that can be taken from this situation is: We now have solid proof that there are still real Game Masters. Only we might have wished to have this insight in a different way.
Cortyn says: Whether this is an isolated case or not, trust in the system has been shaken in the community. Especially since many know that streamers and members of pro guilds often know someone who knows someone who works at Blizzard
– which in many cases is not just a stupid saying, but the truth. That there will be a few bad apples in this whole context is simply a part of the nature of things, they exist everywhere. But to avoid precisely these accusations, disclosing log files for all high-level Mythic runs is probably a necessity.
What do you think about this matter? Does Blizzard need to find a permanent solution to restore trust in the system in the future? Or do you believe that this is all not so bad and just an isolated case that shouldn’t be overblown?
Right now, there are also some annoying reports for Blizzard and WoW – as they accidentally leaked the ending of Midnight.
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!