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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPublic Service Announcement: Don't file false GM reports
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Mar 8th 2011 at 8:00PM
Support forum agent Nevalistis points out that false reports are is against the Game Master interaction policy. Each GM petition is taken seriously, and if the GMs see a pattern of frivolous or false reports, they can and will take action from warnings all the way up to suspension or permanent account closure.
Those of us who have tried to petition a GM lately know how long the queue times are -- so from all of us with legitimate problems, please make sure your ticket is legit. It may save your account, it may save a GM's sanity, and it'll certainly help those with real problems get the help they need a little faster.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Yeechang Lee Mar 8th 2011 9:57PM
Why is a "pattern" of misbehavior needed? Neither I nor Blizzard care about the occasional "Hey GMs, what's the air speed of an unladen swallow?" ticket. Why isn't (with an appropriate warning beforehand on the ticket-filing window) filing one false or defamatory report, however, grounds for immediate and permanent account termination? Very few liars lie just once.
(And to those who are now rushing to type "But what if my roommate/cousin/friend/uncle was using my account???" That's your problem for account sharing, not Blizzard's. Same goes for parent-child sharing; that it's legal doesn't mean you escape the need to police the account. Your account is your responsibility, ultimately.)
splodesondeath Mar 8th 2011 10:13PM
Admittedly, a good idea; although if they will break the rules more than once, it may be safe to give a warning on the first infraction, just in case a mistake was made or something. You may not necessarily want to be so ham-fisted as to terminate the account immediately.
Mr. Tastix Mar 8th 2011 10:44PM
What do you mean, African or European Swallow?
Mr. Tastix Mar 8th 2011 10:50PM
I asked a GM for a cookie and a hug once, and they gave me Girl Scout cookies, proclaiming they were the best cookies ever. Image below.
This was after I needed help being moved from Dalaran during the Age of Lag, though.
http://i.imgur.com/mQScN.png
Name Anon Mar 8th 2011 10:53PM
I'm on an RP realm. I will file tickets for names that really violate the RP name rules.
However, if someone annoys me somehow and their name violates the name rules in any way, I will report the name. That is my revenge on them. It's not a false report, yet it might be a name I would've let slide otherwise. And best of all? I stayed within the rules of conduct.
Drakkenfyre Mar 8th 2011 11:54PM
Depending on the name involved, this can be seen as a douchebag move.
I know of two names in particular that were fine on RP realms, but someone got pissed at them, and reported them, and got their name changed.
One was "Twobears", who was using a Native American naming convention, he was, according to his post, Native American in real life, and (if I remember correctly) was RP'ing a character with Native American chararistics. The other was "Ghostwalka", who was a famous Troll Shaman on his realm. His name was perfectly fine, and had a backstory to it, fit in with the Ghost Wolf ability, and was using the Troll accent.
Both were changed back. The latter took an entire server forum posting against it because they were pissed he was forced to change.
So while reporting completely inappropriate names are fine, "getting back" at someone for a name you consider inappropriate and possibly getting their (ok) name changed because a GM didn't take more than a minute to look at it can be seen as a douchebag move.
kuribo Mar 9th 2011 3:55AM
I once had a Dwarf on an RP realm named Weirdbeard that someone had wanted to report. This was pointless, because dwarves actually do have names like that. (ie, their king is Bronzebeard)
anderson.horn Mar 9th 2011 9:32AM
Point missed I think.
Someone's name is wrong on TwistingNether, I report them....if they gank me, while I'm out farming ore or something, I take more notice of them. So, I'm more likely to report this guy, and the same holds true for me I hope. If I make myself known, put myself in the spotlight so to speak, then my name better fit. If it doesn't, then what am I(being the person we're talking about) doing on an RP server?
Also...I open GM tickets for ppl who have bots farming ore for them. The little lvl 80 ones, that are in uldum and have no gear on, with rez sickness, and if you thump them, they just keep trying to mine....and then about a half hour later of thumping them, some guy comes back to the keyboard and trys to mount, then trys to run into mobs and get killed, etc etc...yeah, annoys the crap outta me that they are going ape on the ore I'm also trying to farm...so I open tickets, have had 1 stop farming, as far as I can tell...the other 2...still out there.
Drakkenfyre Mar 9th 2011 10:46AM
No, the point wasn't missed.
If you think their names violate the naming rules, and they don't, and you report them anyway, if the GM doesn't actually check and instead just gives them a rename, that's a pain in the ass for them.
The two examples I used above could on the surface look like violations of the naming rules, especially "Twobears", but if you actually ask the player, you will find out the name is an RP name. GM's sometimes aren't known to check on names. Some people have been renamed simply because they used a foreign name, and someone said it was an insult in that language, which it wasn't, and the GM force changed a name anyway.
If someone has a name obviously against the rules, is grossly breaking the rules, with something like Taurenhunter, or Igankyou, I have no problem with you reporting them. What I am saying is, be more careful on who you report if their name could possibly still be RP, even if it's not obvious. They may annoy you, but getting to a node before you is hardly reason enuf for their to lose their name, or make them go thru hours of tickets with GM's to get their name back.
Some RP players have a reputation of name reporting for every thing that pisses them off, don't be like that.
Plastic Rat Mar 9th 2011 11:02AM
Point is moot anyway. I was told by a GM that they no longer change names on RP realms unless they are offensive in some way.
It's no longer required by any rule to have a name that fits with the genre.
N-train Mar 9th 2011 1:36AM
Awful lot of assumptions you got there, it could be that GMs are particularly busy now due to these game designs or "security decisions" that have been in the game for months, if not years... or it could be that we're 3 months in to a particularly large and brand new WoW expansion.
So.... Seriously..?
As I recall, they set up a "halp, I've been hacked" function on their website last year (if not before), meaning the number of in-game tickets should actually have declined. They've also been posting a lot of information on the community site about how to spot and avoid these scam emails in the last few months as well.
As for the DF, personally I don't think I've ever come across an issue in a DF pug that forced me to go to a GM, just because 5 random strangers are put together for a 45 minute dungeon doesn't mean they all have to be asshole and ninja-looters who can't solve a problem. If DF issues we were so frequent that they were really that large a hog on GMs, Blizz probably would have addressed it, I dunno, sometime in last year and a half the system has been in place.
As for your last two points, I guess I would just say you seem to be playing a different WoW than I am. I feel like the number of idiots and jerks hasn't changed much in the 4 years I've been playing, and perhaps I'm the only one, but when I run into an asshole I don't run screaming to a GM because the guy was a jerk. I use the GM function to report idiot names like "smokinganja" (that did, in fact, exist before Wrath) and when a quest bugs out on me, not because Lolgelos need rolled on a mail helm that had int on it.
The article is sort of misleading, the OP asked if filing false complaints was against the rules as he didn't see anything in the ToS about it. It only took about 90 seconds for 10 people to chime in and say "duh". IMO, a blue post wasn't necessary, and really was neither was the article, but no need to be a jerk about it.
xdudimus.maximus Mar 9th 2011 3:34AM
dont submit a ticket using key words that accelerate it to the top of the stack.
SleepySlug Mar 9th 2011 5:05AM
A friend of mine used to do this nonstop! He even got his account banned for 48hrs and was then given a strict 3 petition per week limit. He used to open tickets about everything! Back in ICC he used to petition constantly that cats couldn't rocket jump in form. He would open tickets that he couldn't get something to drop. That it seemed too cold in ICC and that someone should turn on the heater. Etc ad nauseaum. He's now been given a strict 3 petition limit and I think has kept up his habit. He hopes there's a wall somewhere in Blizz with his most inane tickets.
Plastic Rat Mar 10th 2011 2:49AM
It's actually pretty amazing what you can do in WoW without getting banned. In fact I don't actually think that wall exists. I know outright griefing will never get you banned, or it will take so long for any meaningful punishment to happen you'll get bored first.
Be an interesting project to find out exactly some time.
Scott.robinson209 Mar 9th 2011 8:55AM
I submitted a ticket back in vanilla about someone using an obvious exploit. The GM thanked me and then proceeded to tell me my name was in violation due to a ' above a letter. Of course they are allowed now but I thought it was funny, especially because I actually wanted to change that characters name then.
aedonix Mar 9th 2011 9:01AM
Easiest way of doing it....
Think of a GM ticket as dialing 911.
aedonix Mar 9th 2011 9:05AM
Damn there being no edit :(
I'd also sort of like to see a collection of the stupidest tickets they have had over the years.. that could make for hours of fun reading lol.
And yeah. I can see how that would be counter productive. people trying to get famous on the wall of shame etc.
Drysta Mar 9th 2011 10:16AM
I reported a bug I found in EPL, ah, let's make it two years ago, where my character fell through the ground. The GM clearly had a good sense of humor and she asked if there were anything else that she could do before leaving. I suggested allowing Elune to bless my next zombie kill with an epic drop. She asked me to hold on.
I waited for maybe a minute then she replies, "Sorry, I can't reach Elune right now but I have a feeling if you kill a lot of zombies you will get a great reward. Don't stop now, it will happen, just keep on killing!"
Happy days.
Tamil Mar 10th 2011 11:37PM
GMs are so busy, but they like to have fun, too, while trying to help with the myriad problems, large or small, that occur in Azeroth. The best interaction I had with one was in Vanilla WoW, when my wee tauren warrior fell through the world in Un'Goro. Not only did the GM rez me, I had no damage accrued, he transported me back to Orgimmar, then APPEARED in front of me as an Undead character, made hearts float all around me and gave me a couple buffs. It was a lot of fun, and very unexpected. I think it would be just great if they could appear more often to assist others.
Saidear Mar 9th 2011 10:54AM
Anyone who's worked in customer service ought to know that less than 1 in 100 complaints are people lying/pranking/being asses.
Yes, it's fine that doing is against the rules.. but we won't see a massive decrease in wait times if it stops because there are a lot of legitimate complaints very likely in the queue. A better way to reduce wait times: stop being self-centered and jerks to other people*. Bugs are beyond our control, but people harassing one another, stealing/ninjaing, talking in public channels like it's their frat house during a kegger, that kind of stuff does get reported and clogs up the system.
*note, this was spoken in a general context. I in no way accuse anyone in particular of being rude or selfish. But it does happen.