It seems like World of Warcraft will soon get rid of the abusive and obnoxious fools who keeps ruining the in-game chat for everyone, the silence hammer is going down hard.
Launching alongside the pre-update for the Legion expansion later this month, a new way of punishing players who are being abusive and all round inappropriate will be implemented. The punishment comes in the form of a forced silence where the punished player, you guessed it, has to stay silent for a pre-determined amount of time with each offense making this forced silence longer effectively making abusive players dig their own silent graves if then don't stop their abusive ways.
The new punishing system is a harsh one. A player that has been reported for abusive, spam, or otherwise inappropriate chat behavior, be it in general chat, trade, party chat, private message, or other channels, will get a punished with 24 hours of silence. The punishment gets doubled each time a player gets punished, so 24 hours turns to 48, 48 turns to 96 and so on. Blizzard also said that there's no maximum limit so repeat offenders might find themselves being forced to shut up for a very long time.
Blizzard thinks this will help shape a better community and remove hostile elements, but some fans are bringing up the fact that this system can be abused by grumpy players who want to make life sour for others. Let's just hope that the manual complaint review system works.
Here's what silenced players can and can't do:
Silenced players can't do this:
- Talk in Instance Chat (Raid, Party, and Battlegrounds)
- Talk in global channels that are auto joined (such as General or Trade)
- Create Calendar Invites/Events
- Send in-game mail
- Send Party Invitations
- Send War Game Invitations
- Send Invitations to Duel
- Update a Premade Group Listing
- Create a New List for a Premade Group
However, silenced players can do this:
- Whisper to friends (both WoW friends and Battle.net Friends)
- Reply to Whispers from Non-friends
- Party/Raid Chat (with Invited Players)
- Create Parties and Raids
- Talk in Global Channels that have a moderator
- Share Quests
- Sign up for a pre-made group
Trolls, spammers, and chat abusers, beware, Blizzard is coming for you!
Source: Blizzard
