The snowball griefing era has come to a close
by David Nelson 
Dec 18th 2006 at 11:00PM
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And what a glorious era it was! Tigole has announced that Blizzard has applied a hotfix which will accomplish the following:- Regular snowballs will no longer knockdown groupmates in the battlegrounds. Why? Well, with forced grouping, Blizzard doesn't want you to get stuck with a team-hating type who will constantly knock you on your butt via a well-placed snowball.
- Hardpacked snowballs may now only be used against the enemy. This should hopefully stop the griefing, which was apparently pretty annoying for those trying to rack up some honor.
Filed under: News items, Events, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Axium Dec 19th 2006 2:53AM
DAMN YOU BLIZZARD YOU ALWAYS NERF THINGS WHEN THEY ARE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kinesthe Dec 19th 2006 12:24AM
Man now I cant knock afkers out the portal in the start.
kuri Dec 19th 2006 1:07AM
For all the people enjoying the snowballs, the 2% that disliked it ran to the forums and complained...
These snowballs gave Defense stuff to do. Now everyone just AFKs and runs around.
These snowballs helped toss AFKers out of the BG portal.
They added entertainment to an otherwise stale Battleground. How better to mix it up than friendly fire AND enemy snowballs, especially on bridges and towers?
This reminds me of kids, back in elementary school, who didn't like the rule of a certain game and wanted it changed. They call the teacher over and the rules are changed to fit "whatever's fairest for all". Then a fun game turned into a "meh" game. Is it so wrong to let some have fun while others suffer?
Falling off bridges and towers, and occasionally getting knocked back, does nothing other than marginally annoy. I haven't done any of the "snowball griefing", but have been a target of it, resulting in many deaths of my own. I laugh, shrug it off, and attempt to find whoever tossed it for retribution.
Necro Dec 19th 2006 3:33AM
but but but they were so much fun. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Klingsor Grailhunter Dec 19th 2006 2:22AM
I don't understand the people whining about this restriction. People can still use the snowballs in AV againt the opposing faction. The only thing they cannot do now is harrass players of their own faction.
People keep talking about "fun" - it was fun the first couple of times it happened - we all laughed and kept going. But the griefers simply didn't know when to stop - they harassed and harrassed people without end. I was in AV for almost twelve hours yesterday - about twenty games - and Horde offense was nonexistent. No one could use the high road because the snowballers were knocking everyone into SP graveyard. These same snowballers, over twelve hours, accumulated no HKs, no damage or healing - nothing but killing teammates. At times, fully a third of the raid was engaged in this harrassment, and the raids collapsed completely.
If you want "fun", and the occasional "new thing" in a game, then you have to learn to use it responsibly. The thugs that took over AV this weekend knew no such restraint, and they have no one but themselves to blame. There was no "fun" in AV this weekend, only harrassment and grief. I hope Blizzard learned their lesson - there are too many irresponsible people that can cough up fifteen dollars a month - and think twice before they allow this type of behavior again in the future.
flaakmonkey Dec 19th 2006 3:01AM
this sux, i used to love to mess with rezzer by bombing a few snowballs.
bman Dec 19th 2006 3:11AM
griefing = fun
Tallens Dec 19th 2006 3:47AM
yeah well... some _retard_ used his entire arsenal to completly fuckup his teammates defence of SP in one AV, so we Lost - we had no way of removing this shitbrain - in another Bg another retard (perhaps his brother) made sure no one could respawn at the GY without having to spend another 30 sec + buff time getting back on track each time.
I quit AV's al together until this hotfix.
BG's are surpose to be fun, I like the long fights, and good fights - but what I really really dislike are the Retards who find it entertaining to Grief his _team mates_ - Those persons got servere social problem - and should not be playing WoW but seek professionel help...
"Some People" think that becus they'll never see/know/talk to the person again, that they can behave like morons - I mean... wtf is up with people - I could and can understand why hitting the enemy hard would be fun, but I can not in the 10'thousand hells understand why to do it unto team mates...
//Tallens'out
kuri Dec 19th 2006 3:39AM
I'll secede that it was over-abused to the point of harassment for some folks. That doesn't make up for the fact that it's just some holiday fun, where we can be dastardly little devils and make other peoples' lives miserable for just a little bit.
Do we need FF and no-FF AVs (like shooter games) for people to be happy? Some people mind griefers, some don't- I guess I fall into the latter category. I just see the snowballs as fun. They have a 30-second cooldown (read: 30 seconds to get your butt away from the guy annoying you) and tossed in some unexpected variation.
I hate to make a conjecture like this, but I'll bet some of the people being "harassed" got a snowball tossed at them 3-4 times, 1 or 2 of them resulting in a death, and ran straight to the forums. When you can't match wit, run to the enforcements. Fun! All over some minor annoyances.
I guess the adage holds true- it takes one moron to screw it up for all of us.
FOR3MAN Dec 19th 2006 3:46AM
I am new to AV, Ive always avoided it like the plauge. So imagine how much "fun" I had experiencing the griefrers. They totally ruined my first imptressions of the place and I don't see myself spending much time in there with ior w/o the fix. No to sounds too old but damn kids. ... and if your an adult who griefs, well, are you really acting like an adult?
Whateva Dec 19th 2006 4:47AM
Blizzard gave the Griefers the perfect Christmas present: The means to kill their own teammates, *AND*, added bonus here, damage their gear. Way to go, Blizzard. Or didn't you factor Human Nature into the equation?
If a Griefer can grief you, they will. It's not about sides, Alliance or Horde. It's about them and you.
If they can ruin your game, they will. If they can gank you, scam you, train you, flag you, kill-steal you, damage your gear, cost you anything, they will. $15 a month gives them access to hundreds, thousands of people to grief. What a bargain!
Griefing you is the point. Any means, any vehicle, anytime, anyplace.
World of Warcraft is their means of getting to you. Could be Diablo, Runescape, Ultima Online, EQII, or Second Life for that matter. If a Griefer can connect with you, expect the worst from humanity, limited only by the limits of the connection, and the limits set within the medium.
And now this hot fix adjusts the medium, adding limits again. And how the Griefers howl! Satisfaction is denied them! Listen to the rants!
The Griefer's boat floats on the ocean of your tears.
You're not powerless here. /Ignore them, move on, /log, whatever. Don't feed them. Leave them a desert to wallow in. But that's not human nature. They always find satisfaction.
That said, Hardpacked Snowballs should still make the Bridge into Stormpike impassable. But that's not a worry on my Battlegroup. We haven't taken the SP graveyard in ages. Seems most just hang out at the end of the Low Road, farming for HK's?, and the rest of us try to look busy. Alliance meanwhile grabs Snowfall, Galv, Iceblood, Frostwolf, Relief Hut, and Drek.
Gog Dec 19th 2006 6:33AM
This is fine with me. I didn't notice too much of this going on in AV over the weekend but it sounds like a bad idea being able to knock off other alliance. Why not concentrate on fighting horde and knocking them off cliffs and bridges?
Becca Dec 19th 2006 8:43AM
I'm going to have to agree with Klingsor. It was fun and silly the first few times -- I seriously did laugh out loud when someone pelted me off a cliff for the first time, mostly because there wasn't any horde at the bottom that time. The next 20 times I got flung off a cliff or bridge into a huge group of horde...it's not too much fun anymore. I'm usually not a fan of whiners who go and complain and take fun things away, but I'm glad to see the snowball greifers leave.
Thomas Dec 19th 2006 6:47PM
Those who whine that Blizz removed their "fun"...how much fun is it for those who get knocked off, die, and suffer 10% durability loss? How about if this happens 10 times? Utter stupidity there...I'm glad Blizz disabled them in BGs, it's bad enough honor is cut nearly by half and there are DC issues constantly. Now throw in griefers and I'm ready to give up the PvP game.
Waf Dec 19th 2006 10:46AM
#2: "For all the people enjoying the snowballs, the 2% that disliked it ran to the forums and complained..."
Out of the first 11 comments, 6 are positive about the change. The commenters in the thread at the official forums, well, perhaps someone with more time than I can count. but it looks like people are running about half-and-half. Even by post volume, "QQ more carebear" seems to have only a slight lead over "yay fixed".
All in all, you have an extremely odd definition of 2%, kuri.
Apocolipto Dec 19th 2006 12:22PM
Ya that kinda sucks that the changed it already. Me and my friends went snowballing after the deadmines last night. "we are Horde" and we snowballed all the aliance lowbies untill they attacked us and we mauled them.. Mmm how nice it is to have 3 taruan's Throwing snowballs at a gnome.
Wartoad Dec 19th 2006 10:59AM
gaddammit. Snowballs were a blast, pre-nerf.
Aboveposterscantread Dec 19th 2006 11:15AM
All they did was turned off the ability to knock your own "teammate" off the bridge and cliff.
Apoco...try reading comprehension for once.
You still can toss snowballs at gnomes...just not sabotage your own team. fool
Angelus Dec 19th 2006 1:03PM
I'm loving this. Now the griefers are crying. I am enjoying their tears. Here they are crying about not being able to "bring misery" to thier own faction. T_T more. The irony in this makes me laugh so hard. Quess what kids? I reported ya! I was one of many. This is our way to grief back.
Not being able to remove AFKers from the tunnel? I built a simple template and I report them. They get investidated and the GM finds they been sitting their the whole time with 0hks, 0 deaths, 0 damage, 0 healing and 255 honor from sitting thier the whole game riding the backs of real players. I love telling them I reported them, so 3 days later after thier suspension they can whisper me all the profanities they want and I just report them again.
Suzaku Dec 19th 2006 12:53PM
Apocolipto: That's not what they nerfed.
They changed it so you can't use hardpacked snowballs in AV against your own team mates, because people were using them to harass other players of their faction, IE, knock them off of bridges and get them killed, repeatedly.
QQ more, griefers. I use your salty tears to melt more snowballs. Go find something constructive to use them with, like knock members of the opposing faction off high things.