Will Blizzard's spam-stopper really work?
by Dan Crislip 
May 16th 2007 at 11:00AM
In response to Blizzard's upcoming spam prevention in 2.10, there has been tons of speculation by forum-goers at whether or not the methods being implemented will really work or not.
According to Drysc, a Blizzard CM:
- Players will now be able to report chat and mail spam with the click of a button. A "Report Spam" option will now be available by right-clicking on a player's name in a chat channel, whisper, or mail. Using this option will quickly and easily report the player to our in-game support department for review.
Ok, fairly easy, but you could easily abuse this feature on people you don't like, whereas the reporting process was usually drawn out and people wouldn't abuse it.
- When you report a player, he or she will automatically be added to your ignore list for your current session. You won't see any chat or mail from that player until you log out and back in.
What if your ignore list is already full? Is Blizzard going to increase the number of ignore slots or make it unlimited?
- These tools function on a per-account basis, meaning that reporting one character on an account will ignore all chat text and mail from that entire account until you log off.
This is excellent, since so far we can only ignore one character at a time. Since we can't tell what other characters are on an account, this feature will do that for us.
- You will not be able to report players on your friends list or in your guild.
Well, at least I can't do it accidentally. Good.
- Players will no longer be able to send large amounts of text at one time, filling a chat screen with a repeating message, large blocks of gibberish, or text that could disrupt an entire conversation. This throttling, along with the new chat-reporting feature should make it much easier to keep unwanted text off your screen before it becomes overwhelming.
This is good, too, as it will put a stop to the rapid-emoters, trade channel WTS spam, and the ever persistent "I need help" spam.
He states that these are just *some* of the new features, which means that there may be more features coming, or more detailed options to be implemented. This careful wording may be the only thing holding back the floodgates of protest, as just ignoring and reporting players is not enough even now. How would it be enough in the future?
Spam Sentry is still a viable option for blocking the spam-tells, however the reporting feature will no longer work in the next patch. An alternative that was suggested on the forums was STFU, an addon that will ignore players under a user-defined level that are not in your guild or on your friends list. It uses a /who command, which can delay messages, but from the feedback I've read, it works well.
What I haven't seen from the addons yet, is an in-game spam mail protector. Have you ever received the message that COD's you 50g for a "plain letter"? Get 20 or 30 of those in a night, along with a hundred tells, and it almost puts a player over the brink of sanity.
Some players suggest that maybe Blizzard should get on the gold-selling bandwagon, while others believe that Blizzard may already be in on it. The gold farming industry has been around for many many years; not just in World of Warcraft. I remember seeing it in Everquest, and Diablo II. Why does it still persist? Because players continue to buy. While there is demand for a product, and while people continue to pay, there will always be a market.
Maybe Blizzard should undercut the farmers to a point that drives them out of business? 1000g for $20 direct from Blizzard might be low enough to drive the farmers away, but still high enough that those of us who are conscientious of our spending can't justify $100 for a virtual epic mount. And, why would you buy gold from an outside source and risk being banned, when you could just get it legitimately from Blizzard? It might just be the best way to stop the cycle.
Until we see what Blizzard really does to help prevent the spam we get, we may just want to find ways of entertaining ourselves at their expense. Do you think Blizzard's new spam features will be enough?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Add-Ons
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Acceptable Risk May 16th 2007 11:13AM
I dunno, if there were easy, legitimate, and cheap channels to buy gold, I think it would really devalue the commodity. Inflation would skyrocket and people would just be forced into buying more gold to keep up with it.
Darkdays Jun 5th 2007 10:58AM
R.I.P. Spam Sentry you will be missed.
Nails May 16th 2007 11:17AM
deja vu...
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/05/11/spam-prevention-in-patch-2-1/
Skew May 16th 2007 11:19AM
@#3, if you see, the first link he has there is THAT article. Look at what he's saying before trolling that it's a duplicate post.
Chilblain May 16th 2007 11:21AM
I don't mean to sound indifferent, but am I the only person who is able to just ignore gold whispers, people yelling rude comments and the never-ending barrage of stupid Chuck Norris jokes *without* resorting to the Ignore feature?
With 8.5 million people playing, there are going to be bushels of bad apples. People asking for gold, water, portals and for me to run them through a dungeon abound. If more people just stopped responding to them and didn't give them the attention they wanted in the first place, they would move on... at least until their mom made them get ready for bed. School tomorrow!
fifteen May 16th 2007 11:25AM
Even if it's already possible illegally, I'm strongly against official gold selling by Blizz. I'd hate to meet a fellow player on fast flying mount, with all the nice rares from AH with the best gems and enchants in/on them and his bag full of flasks just because he has the money RL to buy them. I know that the best stuff is BoP from instances, still money helps a lot. Right now if you want something expensive you either need to work hard for it or risk a ban by buying gold. That's a good balance. If you legalize it you'll just make a lot of things in the game only the rich men's playground. You want to raid with us? You're paying the mats for the potions this time!
Nails May 16th 2007 11:27AM
@4
nah, it's basically the same post repeated 5 days later... the only difference is that it is now another of those "hey, i can't think of anything to write, what do YOU guys think about this?" posts.
Fisker May 16th 2007 11:27AM
Addons will still be able to report spammers, they will however not be able to make tickets, or edit them, note that the abillity to report spammers might change due to abuse.
Also in 2.1.0 trial accounts will not be able to send out random whispers, they can only send whispers to people who are engaged in conversation or people who have them added to their friends list.
Source: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=286830818&sid=1#8
mark May 16th 2007 4:22PM
Gold sellers send their spam and then delete the account less than a minute later. Reporting the abuse, no matter how fast it can be accomplished, is useless.
The STFU blocker poses the only useable option. Block all /whisper from unknown players under a specific level.
jarvik May 16th 2007 11:33AM
@1, I think you are correct in it devaluing the economy.
Also, I think they should just make an option to avoid all tells from people either not in guild,on friends list, in the current zone, or in the case of being in a major city, other major cities (i.e like the shared trade channel).
Sylythn May 16th 2007 11:35AM
Nails - that's the whole point of a blog - put up an opinion about current events and allow feedback. If you think that 100% of the quality of this site resides with the original bloggers, you're sorely mistaken. Posts become more valuable (or less in some cases), the more reader feedback they get. If you feel there isn't enough new content to write about, then go out there and find something to write about yourself. WoWInsider has always accepted reader submissions.
Bresh May 16th 2007 11:55AM
I'm with #5 on this. It's just *NOT* that big of a problem people. Sure, I may get two or three per session, with the rarity being 3 in rapid succession. I never get dozens per session, and I play in rather large chunks of time. In the end, I just close the window and move on with life.
However, that being said, if Blizz does get in on the gold selling, I'll be the first person to cancel my account. The only thing that would do is cause massive inflation, to the point where *one* Knothide Leather Scrap would be going for 50g, simply because there's that much cash floating around the economy.
It would truly turn the game into a rich mans playground, which would kill it for everyone, except the rich. One possible solution is to implement something like EQ2 (I think) did. Have a special server where you can buy characters, etc. straight from Blizz. That way, people who cry about never making progress can buy their 70's and play with a bunch of other retarded noobs. Of course, you'd have to implement a no transfer policy on the realm, but that's a non-event.
Bottom line, the game is designed as a time sink. Not an impossible time sink. Take away the challenge, and you take away the fun, and also the profits for Blizz. Not to mention, where the HELL is your sense of pride and accomplishment in having an epic flying mount if you bought the damn thing with real world cash? My enjoyment of the game comes from starting out with *nothing* and building my character. No twinking, no gold buying, nothing. Granted, some people can deal with that, and that's fine, but don't ruin my game just because you're too lazy to work for your own stuff.
BaboonNL May 16th 2007 12:03PM
The only thing in the entire game that bugs me a bit is people having elaborate conversations in /2.
Then again, I guess not caring is one of my personality traits.
James May 16th 2007 12:04PM
@7
Nails, where are you guys coming from? I've read WoWInsider partly because its a way to get news and see others viewpoints without having to put up with the forum trolls that infest the official WoW forum boards. And yet, it seems more often than not now I keep seeing posts similar to yours crying over some inconsequential thing that no one really cares about other than a couple of anal-retentive attention seeking trollers. Are you paying WoWInsider to post the blogs? If not, then how exactly does it affect you if they post similar topics. Are you a member of some sort of police organization that monitors blog posts to make sure bloggers are posting new and original content at all times? Is there an oversight committee for that sort of thing? If not, then shut it.
Cedric May 16th 2007 12:17PM
I don't understand why Blizzard even needs players' help to shut down accounts. It should be pretty easy to track any mail exchange for more than 1000g and investigate the sender: did they send this to many different players? Did they create a lot of 1-level alts?
Juliah May 16th 2007 12:17PM
I'm completely opposed to Blizzard legitimizing gold purchasing by selling it. People are meant to start off on a level playing field in the game. Indeed, it is encouraging to think that the level 70s out there started as level 1 characters in their respective starter areas, and that most of them got there through their own efforts. Purchasing gold devalues and cheapens that accomplishment.
Mainman May 16th 2007 12:19PM
@ Chilblain:
I'm thankful to know that there's at least one other person out there who knows how to keep a cool head.
If you see a message you don't want to bother with, you don't do anything about it. /ignore or swearing back at the spammers is useless since the character probably won't last much longer than an hour if it's a gold/peon bot. And if it's an actual player, pop them on ignore for a day or two and then remove them. When, if ever, has a beggar spent more than a day spamming a chat line before being silenced/embarrassed?
For me, a spam tell is little more than a blip on the radar that breaks up the monotomy or familiarity of whatever it is I'm doing at that point. So, I get a little bit of a wake-up call, which will probably help me re-focus if my attention is dissipating, and they fail to gain the attention they're looking for. A gain for me, and a well-deserved loss for them.
I will never understand the mentality of those who try to shout louder than the spammers. On or off the Internet, if you have no attention on you, then you have no power. Of course, you'll never be able to tell everyone that. Let them pass the aggro ball back and forth between each other, and get on with the game.
Vass May 16th 2007 12:49PM
@13
My thoughts exactly.
I do hope Blizz can do something about it, but for the most part I just ignore the gold whispers. As Mainman stated, ignoring that player is useless because the char will be offline or deleted in a matter of minutes anyway. Sometimes I might get 2 or 3 tells within 5 minutes of each other, but then it may be over an hour before I see another one, so ignoring it works for now, but I don't want it to get any further out of hand.
Hank May 16th 2007 12:52PM
Blizz selling gold legitimately will make me not only quit the game, but demand a refund.
Tintin May 16th 2007 1:00PM
The problem is not we are annoyed or not by the spam. Usually I don't really care much. I think the real problem here is the gaming experience.
I don't want to be in a group, guild, server, or even game with a gold buyer.
I can't raid because I can't spend much time in WoW, but I haven't thought a minute about buying gold. I appreciate the effort I'm making and maybe someday I'll raid with my guild mates.
I know some people who have bought gold and even chars in the past; maybe they're still doing it. I just don't mess with them. I also don't report them: I don't want to be banned, I've spent too much time (and love) in my char to take the risk.
I've seen (as you have) many farmers, bots, stupid auctions at 999g for stuff that should be sold at 10s that suddenly disappear from AH...
Blizzard knows all this is happening.
IMHO all we can do is ignore this people. They're not always hard to find. Even in official forums you can see level 70 people asking for the best build! We've got a couple of applies to enter the guild that mentioned buying gold... WTF! I can't ignore spammers as my ignore list is full of them!
Unfortunately, many of them are smart enough to shut up.
If I ever think about leaving WoW, this will probably be the reason.
PS: Sorry about my english... EU here.