Ongoing Harassment - Blue Tracker

#0 - Dec. 15, 2009, 4:24 p.m.

Around this time last year, I began having problems with an ex-member of my guild and was thrust into the world of harassment issues. Over a period of 4-5 months, my friends and I were subjected to almost daily harassment from this woman. I did my due diligence after learning how Blizzard wants us to deal with harassment...I stated to her that I no longer wished her to contact me, I filed report after report of continued harassment, I ignored, and...when I was just about ready to quit the game, I finally had my petition escalated to an investigator. The investigator actually caught the woman in the act of harassing me and, just by watching the inactivity of her toons, I knew she had received some penalties on her account.

To be on the safe side, my boyfriend, friends and myself all rerolled/transferred to a new realm. We did this willingly because we wanted to avoid all contact with this woman and, since she obviously has no self control, remove all temptation that she would feel to harass us further. Things have been quiet for the past 6 months. We love our new realm and have built a virtual life for ourselves there. We have never initiated any further contact with this woman in any way, shape or form.

Unfortunately it seems that she has found us and the harassment issues have begun anew. I have not responded to her at all...only reported her posts (which have been deleted) and filled out an in-game ticket, which was closed last night while I was offline. I have filed a police report with my local police department and given them some of her information and let them know that they'd need to contact Blizzard for the detailed information and they suggested that I contact you myself once again to see if this report finally pushes her account to a permaban. I realize that you can't tell me that information, and that's fine, but they want me to jump through the hoops (and possibly avoid some paperwork I'm sure), so here I am. The irony of the fact that you can't tell me anything due to 'privacy issues' despite the fact that she thinks nothing of blabbing my private issues all over the place is not lost on me. But I digress.

I know after a certain amount of time, past offenses are 'forgiven'. Given that it's been six months, I strongly suspect that her account is back in good standing. As far as I'm concerned, this gives her a free pass to begin harassing me and I will need to keep reporting her in order for her to move back up the penalty volcano. For all I know, with the ease of RAF, she has a new account(s) at this point and none of those past offenses will even show up.

Here's the thing, though. I absolutely will NOT put myself thru another few months of harassment. The fact that I've found myself a target of such juvenile behavior sickens me and the fact that she is still carrying on like this after a year is truly beyond my comprehension. I am fully aware of what my options are at this point: transfer/reroll...again. I'm sorry but I've done that once and I simply will not do that again. I pay for 4 accounts and the cost to benefit ratio simply doesn't add up when the only benefits I'm seeing are tainted with the harassment of myself and my loved ones. This isn't typical in-game harassment over in-game issues...she uses personal information that she gained while in my guild and through real life interactions. I will cancel all of my accounts before I listen to one more insult against my children, my boyfriend or my guild members personal situations.

I have done everything requested of me to counteract the harassment, oftentimes at my OWN inconvenience, with the incredibly limited tools that you make available to me to protect myself from harassment. Those tools are not enough when you're dealing with someone who is obviously disturbed. If she is persistent enough to have tracked us down over a 6 month period, she is persistent enough to have rolled a toon on our new realm and joined my guild (WTB Account-Wide /Ignore PLZ).

So, throw me a bone here, Blizz. Do I really have to go through months of this again to get results?

Syndri

#23 - Dec. 15, 2009, 7:34 p.m.

It appears your most recent petition was addressed, Maralas; however, our staff believed that the harassment you were reporting was occurring solely outside the game (as no character names were given, only real names). In future petitions, space permitting, can you ensure that the following information is included?

This will provide us with current information that we can then use to investigate this player's behavior on your new realm. It will also provide us with a history of her actions for context.

You're doing the right thing, though, and we'll definitely help you through this. We just need a bit more information from you right now to do so. :)

Syndri

#25 - Dec. 15, 2009, 8:06 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Should I reopen a ticket or do I wait for her to surface again?

You can go ahead and open one now or wait until the behavior happens again. That's completely up to you. You may also want to email wowreportedpost@blizzard.com explaining the behavior in detail if your interactions seem to be isolated to our realm forums for the moment. This will make sure that our Forum Moderation team is aware of your history with the player.

Also, the reason the character name+realm combination is appreciated is because it's unique. Since we've so many players, it's very possible for many of them to share the same first name and last name. This can also ensure that we're reviewing the appropriate account if multiple accounts are registered to one person.

Thank you so much for your cooperation, Maralas. I know this must be an incredibly frustrating situation for you, so we are very gracious for your persistence. :)