Blue Poster on Penalties, or "Understanding of Your Rights as a Player"

Blue poster Nevalistis wrote a very good post about player rights, Blizzard on player infractions, and basically pwning whiners.

Paraphrase:

Players: WHINE WHINE YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT JERKS!!
Nev: If you don't report them, that's true.
Players: WHINE WHINE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT US, YOU ONLY LIKE MONEY!
Nev: Then why do we spend so much to employ GMs?


Know your in-game rights.

Ninjas are Now Scammers, or "Yeah! Screw You, Ninjas!"

The scamming policy was updated not too long ago to give players protection from people who intentionally defraud (i.e. lie to) others in order to ninja an item. We have exquisite clarifications from Vaneras, who cheerfully does not mince words.

If your group has made a clear statement on how loot is to be handled and someone breaks the agreement, you may report them under the revised scamming policy. (Punishments include taking away the ninja'd item and potentially a suspension or ban.)

From now on, to protect yourself, request that the loot rules be clearly stated before the item you want drops. If it is not clearly stated in-game and the master looter steals something, you cannot effectively report the situation as a scam.

Your Rights, or "GMs Are Here to Serve YOU"

First of all, I will acknowledge that there are some GMs who do not understand your rights as I list them here. These are the GMs who did not pay attention in GM school. Most of them should do their job the right way the first time, but if you get a rare dense one, just explain things to them the way I've explained them to you and cross your fingers.

1) You have the right to play unmolested.

Verbal harassment is prohibited on all servers. RP servers have a special rule about "not harassing the RP players." PVP servers are the only ones that allow physical harassment, as it's considered a facet of PVP, but if someone is killing you over and over or dragging mobs onto you (aka camping and griefing) on a PVE server, your player rights are being violated.

2) You have the right to click on stuff.

I'm not talking about the zerg on the quest giver after a WG. I'm talking about that one guy on the mammoth who stays on the quest giver for ten minutes while taunting you, or who stands on the mailbox or even a street vendor and actively refuses to move in order to hamper your gameplay.

3) You have the right to police your server.

From name violations to behavior issues, you are the police force of your server. GMs take care of several servers at a time and don't know or care what's going on in your immediate vicinity. They only care when you ticket them to enforce your rights as a citizen of Azeroth (and paying customer). (This right does not extend to bossing people around or trying to enforce your rights on your own.)

4) You have the right to play without player-caused lag.

If there's a team of twenty mages spamming their aoe's in a city full of people, and you can only move five millimeters every five seconds, that is a compromise of your rights as a player. This right is to avoid intentional lag caused by other players, not the lag caused by the ordinary crush in cities.

5) You have the right for a fair game.

The guy who gets across Warsong Gulch in two seconds due to a map bug? Yeah, he's cheating. GMs take cheating more seriously than anything else, though the correct term is "exploiting."

6) You have the right to avoid advertising and scams.

Those "Buy Gold" people in the cities named Xfrwtyfasfg? They're not supposed to be there. Nor are the people whispering you with misspelled offers of a spectral tiger raffle. Blizz does what it can about these people, but they keep finding work-arounds to get back in.

7) You have the right not to be offended.

If someone has a name, guild name, pet name, or comment that is racist, sexist, hate, or otherwise super-offensive, you have the right to report it. Mania had a great idea I wish I'd thought of in my last reporting post: if you're reporting a name, put the person on your friends list and make sure it changes to something non-offensive. (GMs do not check back to make sure the new name is good, though some will rename a player themselves.) This way, you can keep reporting them if they keep picking bad names.

8) You have the right to report infractions of your rights.

To start a ticket with a GM, click the red question mark at the bottom of your screen and click the appropriate section. In the given field, you should put a succinct description of the infraction and guilty party.

Try to include all of the following in your ticket:

1. Offender: Name, Race, Class, Level. If there are any "special" letters, point those out specifically.
2. Time: The exact time the infraction took place.
3. Location: Where did the infraction take place?
4. Channel: Which chat channel did the infraction take place in, if at all? (Whispers, say, yell, general, trade, etc?)
5. Infraction: What exactly did they do wrong? Give exact words, spells cast, or mount as it affected the situation.
   

If you have to log off before a GM can respond to you, they will still look into your ticket, so you want it to be as thorough as possible.

For long-term situations, try to be as exact as you can for each incident -- the farther back GMs have to wade, the harder it will be for them to find the incidents you mention, and they have other tickets besides yours to take care of.

Screenshots (PrintScrn) don't hurt, either.

9) You have the right to privacy.

This means that if you have a ticket opened against you for something you did, the GM won't air your dirty laundry to the people who reported you. The reporter does not get to find out what happened as a result of his or her ticket.

Taboo, or "Are Ignore and Report Ever Acceptable?"

While we have a friends panel that's easy to reach in our social tab, there's a less-used secondary window to Friends -- the Ignore tab.

When someone is Ignored, that person cannot communicate with you on that character. I use it for two situations:

1. Whenever someone seems intent on harassing me.
2. To support someone else who has been harassed or mistreated by a certain player.

My last "big" ignore was that kid who told my husband (with no prompting or hello) that his gear sucked. In Terrokar. Terrokar is the supermarket of Warcraft -- everyone is expected to be too busy doing their own thing to notice that some folks are still in their slippers or curlers or not wearing makeup.

Aside from wifely outrage, I've ignored a few people on my guild's blacklist, a basic list of gripes members have against certain players or guilds and the stories that accompany them (mostly alliance gankers, but some really horrible horde), including a guy who harassed our Valith for making server first DK to 80 and another guy who emoted in a bank about "politely raping" his friend. I was tempted to report that one, though I don't think his friend (the recipient) found it offensive. If it had been toward someone the guy didn't know, or even a woman, that would have been worth the time. All in all, the rest of my guild found it as disgusting as I did, and he's on our list of people not to group or do business with.

While ignoring someone is your personal "I don't want to talk to you" listing, Reporting is like bringing in the teacher to give detention. It's not done lightly and some people consider it a breach of player etiquette in any situation. Threatening to report gets people very very worked up.

A Game Master (GM) can be approached through a small red ? that opens up a ticket panel. If you have a technical issue, there's one sort of form to submit. If you have a behavioral/harassment or naming issue, there's another form. I tend to keep to the tame world of reporting yucky names.

Behavior you can report and punishment likely to result, summarized from Blizzard Support pages.

PLAYER-VS-PLAYER servers CANNOT expect help when reporting physical harassment such as corpse camping, killing lowbies, or tricking people into flagging for PVP, which are considered facets of PVP. (source) Normal servers can report these things.

ROLE-PLAYING servers CAN expect help when reporting RP-targeted harassment; out-of-character discussions in /say or /yell or other designated channels; or names that do not fit into the fantasy world of WoW. RP servers CANNOT expect help reporting out-of-character discussions in guild chat. (source)

• Penalties: Warning, warning + suspension, or new name + appropriate naming penalty (see below).

ALL servers CAN expect help when reporting names of an inappropriate nature (racial, extremely sexual, extremely violent, vulgar, harassing, defamatory, trademarked, gibberish, leetspeek, titles, real world references, part or complete sentences). (source)

• Penalties: Prompted to change the name at login or get a random name assigned (lesser infractions). Name change + a warning (medium infractions). Name change + temporary suspension (serious infractions). Name change + suspension + Final Warning (extreme infractions).

ALL servers CAN expect help when reporting harassment. Harassment includes racial or national hatred, extreme sexuality/violence, real life info or threats, sexual orientation, disruption of zones/areas (includes crowded streets, player gatherings, blocking NPC's, etc), obscenity/vulgarity, inappropriate or harassing or defamatory language, religious hatred, illegal activities, spam, or advertising. (source)

• Penalties: Warning (mild to serious language infractions), temporary suspension (hate or serious language infractions), Final Warning (hate or extreme infractions), and/or real-life repercussions (severe threats of harm).

ALL servers CAN report bug exploiting, abuse of game mechanics, use of third party software, malicious UI mods, and data manipulation/mining. Penalties are based on the player's awareness and use of the exploit, how badly it hurt the surrounding players or server, and whether or not the player tried to conceal their use of the exploit. (source)

• Penalties: Warning, temporary suspension, and actions up to and including account closure.

ALL servers CAN report scamming. Scamming is the use of deception to gain at another's expense. (source)

• Penalties: Temporary suspension.

Please note that the only definite ways to get your account closed are to maliciously exploit the game or to recieve a Final Warning and continue being bad. Final Warnings are expanded on in the Harassment Policy: "any further ToU violations will result in account closure."

GMs take into account the intent of the infraction and the level of the infraction. Some things are just taken more seriously (and thus dealt with more harshly) than others. They don't slap the handcuffs on every single person who gets reported.

GMs don't really monitor your server -- the players have to police their own areas. It's like a classroom full of kids and the teacher is down the hall, and you have to run get her if something bad starts happening. GMs only respond to trouble when you report it, they don't watch for it.

GMs will still read and take care of your ticket if you log out. Try to include the information they'll need, such as the exact name, level, race, and class of the person you're reporting, along with a detailed explanation of what they did. I find that screenshots help me remember what I'm writing up (yesterday, a lovely fellow named Fucyoku; can you unscramble the secret message?). I specifically asked a GM when reporting a name once, "Do you still take care of the ticket if I log out?" and he said "Yes, we investigate every ticket submitted."

GMs can go into your chat logs and find the truth. Do NOT try to lie to a GM to make yourself look innocent or like a victim if you weren't. It is never a "he said, she said" decision where the GM takes a side. They will check. They can even check your guild chat logs.

This is good news for the innocent -- you never have to be afraid that someone can report you with false claims and get you in trouble. Just say "If you check the chat logs, you'll see he's lying." Also, if someone threatens to report you for something that isn't covered in Blizzard's policies, I wouldn't worry about it, it's just someone blowing smoke and trying to scare you. Report does not automatically equal punishment.

So don't be afraid to report people and don't be afraid to get reported (if you've been good). You won't get anyone kicked out of the game unless a) they've been really bad in the past and b) the GM thinks they're being naughty enough to warrant it. Penalties from Blizzard are not arbitrary, and you don't have to worry that you're ruining someone's life by calling in the teacher. In reality, and considering the kinds of things they have harsh penalties for, you're probably just making your server a better place.