Ninja Looting Issues

Q u o t e:
Yet our trust in some people is abused and they Ninja items on numerous occasions, and what with migrations and name changing and not being alowed to name and shame these people its bascially blizzard saying "Hey it's ok to steal, we let you do it in game without consequences, and you can do it in real life without police sometimes not even giving it a second glance or investigating thefts."

We do have a naming and shaming policy yes, but it is not there because "we are ok with stealing" and "wish to promote dishonest behavior". If you think this is the case, then I'm afraid that you are very mistaken.

The naming and shaming policy is there because we wish to protect the innocent, those that get wrongfully accused of stuff they haven't done. We have seen a lot of fake naming and shaming posts in the past purely being made for the purpose of discrediting and griefing others, and there have been quite a bit abuse and harassment aimed at people wrongly accused of ninja looting.

We do realize that the naming and shaming policy has a potential to also protect the guilty, but if you had actually read the naming and shaming policy, you would know that it is indeed possible to warn the community of bad players, such as ninja looters, just that there are a few rules that must be followed when doing so: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=10701098&sid=1&pageNo=1#3

Q u o t e:
The truth is, most people simply can't be bothered to find information this way, and it would be way much successful if you simply changed it to allow us to post screenshots with names.

Screenshots can be photo edited, and quite convincingly too. If we allowed screenshots with names to be posted, then we would once more start to see fake naming and shaming posts. This is the internet, and on the Internet there are people who are sad enough that they are willing to spend hours faking a screenshot just for the purpose of abusing or discrediting someone they do not like for some reason, or merely just for getting a few laughs at the ensuing drama such a fake screenshot may deliver.

If people truly care and wish to know who the offender is, then they will have no problem asking you in-game for the name of the offender.

Q u o t e:
So according to your policy, we can post "Someone ninjad xxx from a raid yesterday" with a screenshot of the items being passed, but not showing WHO passed it out?

Are you actually thinking about the rules you are making?

You are forcing the people that got cheated to do alot of work proving they got cheated out of an item for what? To get the joy of being laughed at on the forum? Or to receive a whisper from people ingame (and lets face it, who would take their time to do that?)

The naming and shaming policy does regrettably require a larger effort from the victims in order to warn the community of bad players, but it is a lesser of two evils. It is a necessary evil that is there to protect the innocent, because there was simply just too much abuse and harassment going on before we implemented this policy.

The naming and shaming policy is a forum rule, and if people wish to do use our forums to warn the community of bad players, then we must insist that the forum rules be followed.

Q u o t e:
You, Blizzard are responsible to uphold the rules of the game that YOU created. What you are doing now is not only showing that its ok to ninjaloot because you couldnt care less. You are also enforcing rules that will make ninjalooters free to do whatever they want. And if enough people find out on the server, they can just change their name and keep on doing it.

You couldnt care less about what is honest or rightful could you?

We do care, and we do believe that our policies are working on behalf of the greater good. The forum rules are of benefit to the community as a whole, and they are there to make sure that everybody knows what is acceptable and what is not, how to post and how not to post. We very much do uphold the forum rules, which in my eyes at least also shows that we do care!

If a player is abusing and griefing others in-game, then that is very much an issue that should be reported to the game masters in-game. The game masters may be busy, but they do care and they do make sure that all tickets are being handled correctly according to the rules in-game, which the game masters uphold.

We can understand that people do not agree with our rules and may find them unfair, but luckily for those people there are plenty of other places on the Internet not affiliated with us or our rules, where they can post and say whatever they wish without repercussion.

Q u o t e:
On Stormscale we had a ninjalooter called <snip>, that not only stole any item he wanted, he made raids where he charged people 50g to join, then left after he got paid. He was reported more times than you can count. I even have a screenshot of him admitting he is scamming people and laughing about it because he knows you do nothing. And you didnt.

Few weeks later he changed his name to <snip> and continued to scam people. He now changed his name yet again, but I have no idea to what.

So for several weeks, he was running daily raids making 2k gold, stealing loot. Then changed his name twice and now vanished. With NO action taken.

It is clear that you are not a fan of the naming and shaming policy, but we must insist that you respect it nonetheless.

This is unfortunately not a matter that can be dealt with through the forums, as the community team cannot handle in-game issues, but this very much sounds like a matter that should be reported to the game masters in-game. If this person indeed has done the things you accuse him off, then the game masters will take appropriate action.

If this matter has already been reported to the game masters, but you are unhappy with how this matter was handled, then please send an email to [email protected] so that your comments or concerns may be handled by the appropriate parties.

Q u o t e:
The ONLY action you take is if someone calls someone a retard or some other bad word. You can spam any garbage you want for hours (yes, this also happened to me) but if you dare to say a bad word THEN you take action.

I find this simply despicable and you SERIOUSLY need to go through your rulebook and start thinking about your players instead of your wallets.

This is just not correct, although I can see why you might have that impression as people do not get to see what happens after they have reported an offender.

Some incidents are simpler to deal with than others, but I guarantee you that we do take action when people do wrong, be it on the forums or in-game, however the details of any action taken against the account of an offender is a private matter between the offender in question and Blizzard, and for legal reasons we will not and cannot share such details with others. Also, it can take time before action is taken as we must be absolutely sure that the offender is indeed an offender, and just so you know, the gathering of evidence and documentation is not always just a matter of skimming through a chat log or two.

Q u o t e:
My issues were, why isnt ninjalooting a bannable offence? Why isnt something being done ingame about this? That is my first and foremost concern, as this is something that happens far too often on servers these days.

As it is the game masters who are the ones who handle in-game issues, this is perhaps a more suitable question for the in-game customer support forum, :
http://forums.wow-europe.com/board.html?forumId=18535&sid=1

Q u o t e:
I reported this (ofcourse) and nothing happened. The very next day I get a "haha told you nothing would happen" in Orgrimmar from the very player I reported.

I write a new ticket to find out why some players can do what they want. The GM that answered said that because he didnt use any foul language he only got a small warning.

So yes, players are indeed allowed to do what they want as long as they avoid certain words. Atleast on Stormscale, as this is a story that happened to me (and Im Stormscale based)

I have not been reading up on these particular cases on your realm, but it does strike me as odd if no action are taken against offending players on your realm but is on other realms. Please keep in mind though that the offender might just be telling you things if he knows it will make you angry, similar to how trolls are flamebaiting here on the forums. Action taken against an offender may consist of just warnings or temporary suspension at first, but these will be taken into consideration if the offender continues to do bad things.

Again, if you are unhappy with how this matter was handled, then please send an email to [email protected] so that your comments or concerns may be handled by the appropriate parties.