The boosting ban in World of Warcraft is not as clear-cut as players would like it to be. Blizzard explains what is allowed – and what is not.
A few days ago, Blizzard updated its End User License Agreement (EULA) regarding World of Warcraft and banned boosting communities. Many players celebrated this as a victory against the annoying spam in the trade chat. However, it left some people confused. What is now exactly allowed? What is prohibited? In the official forum, Blizzard has now clarified what is actually still allowed – and what is not.
What is the problem? Boosting is an extremely broad area in World of Warcraft, as the term boosting is not precisely defined. The latest rules against advertising boosting offers are therefore a bit vague for many, and players wanted more information in the official forum about what is still allowed in what ways – and what is not.
What has been clarified? In the official WoW forum, Community Manager Kaivax responded to the question and clarified some details. He said:
To provide a bit more clarity on where exactly the boundaries of the new regulations lie, we would like to explain this part a bit.
The advertisement of gameplay activities should be made by the WoW character who also intends to participate in those gameplay activities. That means there should be no advertising beyond the boundaries of the realm and no advertising by third parties.
And as before, the only place where one is allowed to advertise activities “for gold” is the trade channel. Advertising such offers in other chat channels or the group finder makes the player a target for sanctions against their account.
CM Kaivax in the official forum
This has provided a bit more clarity from Blizzard. Advertising one’s own boosting group – such as the run of one’s guild – in the trade channel is still allowed, as long as it is done on one’s own server and with the character that is supposed to participate in the activity.
Why is boosting not completely banned? Some players wonder why boosting is not banned in any form. While Blizzard provides no answer to this, the reason is likely quite obvious: boosting is somewhat difficult to define and essentially something that has been happening since the game’s Vanilla days.
After all, who doesn’t remember the friendly level 50 hero from their guild who helped out in the Deadmines and carried the group through when the tank dropped out? Who hasn’t requested the help of a higher-level character for an annoying elite quest?
Even these cases in the low-level area would technically be “boosting” if one were to define the rules too narrowly – and that would spell the end for an important social component of the game.
What do you think? Would you have wished for even stricter rules against boosting? Or do you find the current rules too strict?
One good thing has definitely come from the regulation: Players can suddenly read the trade chat again!
