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I only managed to get it overturned by going through a much different account channel than the forum GMs channel where I was flat out denied with the shortest, one sentence paragraph. But here it is.
Greetings,
This account has been suspended from the Blizzard Forums for a violation of the Code of Conduct: https://battle.net/forums/code-of-conduct/
Reason: Other
Date actioned: Wed Jul 04 09:04:03 GMT 2018
Action ending: Fri Aug 03 09:04:03 GMT 2018
Reported post: Inappropriate post
30 Day Suspension - Final Warning due to 4 ignored warnings in the past 3 months
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Author: Pentay
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Simply put: HotS is a scam.
Reply: #1
Date: 03-Jul-2018 02:42:15
Now before anybody panics and says that it’s not because you enjoy it, consider the fact that most people enjoy scams until they realize it’s a scam and that they were deceived or pressured.
Let’s just look at this recent update. It all started with the IGN ad. 6 clickbaits why you should play hots RIGHT NOW. Payed for by blizzard. A day later, Raynor rework is announced. Then the next flashy bundle is revealed.
Translation: noobies are baited into checking out the game. The community is electrified by a long demanded update. Hype drowns the complaint threads. Noobies install and get acquainted with the game. Mega flashy skins are revealed. An environment of excitement is crafted for some short term sales.
This has been the business model since 2.0. It’s only just become more refined with slower hero releases (which also suits dev team).
Matchmaking issues have never been addressed. Ladder rules have changed frequently and are changing again but still have no impact on what the actual matchmaker does.
Many people have pointed out that the cause of toxicity is the matchmaker. The matchmaker and the silence system are also part of the business model.
If you get silenced, you’re encouraged by support staff to make a smurf. If you didn’t get the thought yourself, GMs will actually tell you to do so. It’s going to cause the purchasing of OP heroes or heroes much stronger than the free rotation. It’s going to cause stim pack purchase.
Everything is hidden. Blizzard is taking a year to figure out how and what stats to show you that reveal where you match up with teammates and opponents. They have their own role system on a chalk board for all their hero design but we still have no role update. They have mmr stats but we have no revealed stats. The fanboys tell you how the system works, not how it could be working. The truth is, only people at blizzard actually know how it works.
The report system didn’t solve any toxicity problems. What does it actually create? An illusion of control over toxicity to appease the complainers, and a smurf revenue stream. People have the audacity to accept the pandering from automated emails that give no information except the statement that their reports do something. All those people want is the illusion. All blizzard wants is the money.
If people actually want a good game, they would boycott hots. But blizzard has plenty of new players to bait, which is what the driving force of content creation is. So people indirectly boycott by changing games because the fight isn’t worth it. The people that stay realize fighting is pointless because the game will always cater to new fans.
That’s why the game has boiled down to QM players and the propped up pro scene. And just another hint of the scam, viewers are now bribed to view for loot. There’s no interest in the game, so interest is injected with skins, loot, and payed promotions.
All the players actually ask for is a fair matchmaker. That’s all gamers actually want. If you want free stuff, hype, a community of memes and personas, and other junk, you probably argued for changes based on inconveniences which have damaged the game.
There’s still good in them. There’s still rational balance and design choices being made to try and hone the shape and spirit of the game. The nectar of sales have corrupted many of these environments starting with Li-Ming, peaking with Tracer, and settling somewhere in between the two for just about every popular assassin where sales could be maximized via inflated stats. Sometimes a hero wants to be felt to have a big impact on the game, which is a sound argument and decision. It wouldn’t make sense for Ragnaros or Kel’Thuzad to have meek stats, but some heroes are just released flat out broken and also happen to generate sales based on their marketability like Genji.
I don’t know what we should be asking for besides a subscription plan for balanced, competitive games that don’t waste our time. There’s so much greed lurking in the F2P model, and it’s got to stop or the community will eventually catch on, and so many bridges will have been burned that it’s too late. Most of the people that uninstall are saddened by how corrupt blizzard has become, so I believe there’s still room for them (you guys at blizzard) to make amends.
[Edited By Pentay]
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Now just as an aside, I would change some finer points of the post in hindsight. For example, I think some people want more detailed emails as to what their reports did and not just for illusion. I think many players are playing the TOS rather than hots, but that’s another issue.
Regardless, as you can see, there was no offensive language of any kind. Why it’s considered inappropriate is beyond me. In fact, the person that did overturn my suspension said that while it does critique blizzard negatively, there’s nothing inappropriate with the post.
I could also expand heavily on all my points made, but the 5000 word limit binds me up.
User was banned for this post.
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Mexico1596 Posts
I didn't even know that you could get banned in those forums. I guess they are more strict now since they revamped them lol.
Your post is highly negative but you don't seem to insult anyone.
Im not sure either agree with your point though. Blizzard definitely markets the game and definitely planned the content updates to go alongside it but I don't know hows that bad in any way? More players and a bigger community is good. I think you're saying their marketing efforts affects balance?
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Dude, people are banned daily. EU is practically dead now. US is still going strong. Here’s an example. The new report system updates to include account suspensions and for afk as well, the forum post announcement was locked on EU but unlocked for waves and waves of “thank yous” on the US side. There have been many mega threads about the silence system that get invisibled (or to us, deleted) on EU. No answers are ever given to questions in the AMA but the mega thread was locked when an AMA went live, nudging us to go there.
It’s my opinion that it’s dishonest and disingenuous. There’s a committee of decision makers to align profit schemes that shape the decisions that impact the game. It’s no coincidence that tanks and supports are released relatively tuned while high profile, marketable assassins are blatantly overtuned. Veteran fans are ultimately dismissed for new spenders that don’t understand that there are manipulative variables behind the matchmaker.
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I'm not sure of the word "scam"
I mean I'm playing since alpha, put probably around a 1000 hours in it and I payed like 30 bucks in total. Seems quite fair to me imho
Games like Battlefield, FIFA or the likes are waaaaaaay worse
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On July 17 2018 14:28 Pentay wrote:
Dude, people are banned daily. EU is practically dead now. US is still going strong. Here’s an example.
EU is dead because it's totally neglected by Blizzard. Spam posts aren't being deleted and even official blizzard responds (which are beyond super rare) advice you to post on the US forums.
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Regardless, the banning still takes place. Spam posts are dealt with. I’ve been on all three forums daily for months.
Edit: Also, just because your opinion is different regarding your individual experience as an outlier, doesn’t mean all the scam variables don’t exist. Anyways, the point of the thread is that it was unjustly deleted and I was unjustly suspended for posting something that wasn’t rule breaking. And if it is so false, that hots indeed isn’t a scam, then why was I deleted and suspended?
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- It's not really that surprising that Blizzard wouldn't allow someone to make a post calling their game a scam on their official forums.
- Remember that IGN initially rated HOTS 6.5 with the comment that there were no come back opportunities. If they were paying IGN for articles, that would have been the one they should have invested in.
- Personally I haven't spent any money on the game since before 2.0 and have every hero I want on 3 different accounts and tons of free skins and vanity items. For a brand new player it is more problematic and I do think they should add another free hero pack like they had when 2.0 went live.
- With the slower release schedule on heroes, it's even easier to get the gold you need between releases. And with 3 bans it will be easier to wait 2 weeks for the price to drop without feeling like you are giving up a big competitive advantage, as any over powered new hero release will be banned in 90%+ of the games after the first day or so.
- A subscription based service would cost me significantly more than the current system does (which for me is zero cost).
- The game is designed to make Blizzard a profit. That is ultimately the purpose of every commercial game release including this one. That's not corruption, that's reality.
- New heroes often are unbalanced, but that speaks to the challenges of getting hero balance right on the first try. There have been some exceptionally OP heroes at release, but there have been quite a few that needed buffs in their first balance patch. If they really wanted every new hero to be OP at release it would be trivially easy to accomplish that.
- I don't think Blizzard is purposely ignoring existing players to try and make money off new ones. The game isn't growing at such a pace that this would be a viable strategy to even attempt.
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I think you have your head in the sand, Kara. 3 accounts with all heroes from just play time? Sounds like you don’t play HL and have way too much time on your hands for the wrong reasons. If you play that much, then you probably don’t have a care in the world about the matchmaker. I assume players on these forums are outliers of the community since you’d have to be pretty hardcore invested to post here.
The 6.5 ign article is a thing of the past, an era of IGN that has since faded away. Now they take money for promotions. It wasn’t a scam when YOU got into the game. It was a relatively straight forward game until people learned how manipulative the matchmaker is, something you’re still oblivious to apparently. How about showing how the latest ign clickbait was not a scam tactic instead of leaning on something from years before the 2.0 shift to manipulative lootboxes.
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I can see why you got banned. You seem intent on just bashing Blizz and spreading your negative opinions.
I'd give you a more detailed response but seeing you respond to another poster with Sounds like you don’t play HL and have way too much time on your hands for the wrong reasons. If you play that much, then you probably don’t have a care in the world about the matchmaker.
makes me pretty sure you don't want to hear any other voice than your own.
There is no scam going on, just typical marketing strategies.
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So you’re judging my tone toward someone that dodged my point by referring to an ad made 3 years ago as grounds for why I deserved to be banned from the EU forums for a post I copy pasted without alteration? Troll.
User was warned for this post
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I can tell why you were banned without reading the OP.
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How could I be banned for something other than the post I was banned for.
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30 Day Suspension - Final Warning due to 4 ignored warnings in the past 3 months
managed to get it overturned
I don't think there is anything else to discuss here.
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why did you come here to complain about this?
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So, what you're saying is that Blizzard has no right to try to get some return on their investment. You're also saying that you're mad at them for advertising new skins, and that the matchmaking system is somehow corrupt. Then, when someone inquires why you think these things, you bash them. You clearly haven't gotten the hint from the silences, suspensions, and bans. If this wasn't a blog it would probably be a closed thread already.
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United States4481 Posts
Looks like it won't take you long to get banned from this forum either. Please drive this toward a discussion soon or the thread is getting closed (for whining).
Let’s just look at this recent update. It all started with the IGN ad. 6 clickbaits why you should play hots RIGHT NOW. Payed for by blizzard.
If you get silenced, you’re encouraged by support staff to make a smurf. If you didn’t get the thought yourself, GMs will actually tell you to do so.
Defamatory. No sources, and in direct violation of Blizzard forums code of conduct.
If people actually want a good game, they would boycott hots.
Inflammatory language. No reason to have posters in the official game forum calling people to boycott the game. Any business or discussion board would ban you.
EDIT: Incidentally, you fit the mold of a forum troll quite well according to the Blizz forums code of conduct.
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@esrever, you plucked. My critique is of short term gains at the sacrifice of veteran players. Forums erupt in complaints and are actually played to manipulate good press for a few days for the sake of cashing in on themed skins. Raynor is coincidentally OP right now statswise and the first free hero. Old complaints of the game are ignored. Players are banned. And new players are brought in to fill the ranks. All subsequent bad matches with an OP Raynor are worth the short term sales.
The same is text book similar to Tracer. Want to play OW? Get baited into hots with the most op hero in existence that you get a week before the veteran players. All for some short term potential sales and to get hots players to buy ow even if they have no intention to.
Implying this is all harmless seeking of a return on investment is BOGUS!
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@esportsjohn, I don’t cave to threats. I don’t know who I’m talking to on these boards because I’m new here. I have to learn these people. If you want to ban me now (wtf?) that’s your loss. Let me see if I can dig up that ticket from ages ago. I can’t find it. Now that I think of it, it was in a live chat. Yes it did happen. A GM suggested I make a smurf account. I’ve stubbornly avoided it for a long time. I eventually did for a few weeks a month or two after that ticket but stopped and didn’t spend anything. That’s when it occurred to me that many people do spend money on smurfs and many people make smurfs when silenced.
If you expect proof for every little claim (albeit this is a big one) you’ll get nowhere slow because many people don’t think to accumulate proof. Many people just uninstall and maybe chat about it with a friend or two. Maybe some people just say “hots? That game is whack, man” and that’s the end of it. Many people post on the forums and get downvoted into oblivion or insulted just the same. Some people actually generate some experiments and share the data and people are usually insulted or use it to prove their own points somehow.
What we’re dealing with in the hots community is a vast contingent of deeply stupid people. Yeah, your finger is on the ban button, but it’s true. I used to post on reddit a lot, and people more often than not, simply had no idea what I was saying. They would just link r/imverysmart and eat a hot dog (I presume). Most people were insulted and didn’t want to “read a doctor’s thesis” on a particular issue.
I’m not here to cater to people. I’m here because I want to play hots, and I want to be in a competitive environment with it. Undortunately the game is unplayable. If I’m not getting silenced for being upset with teammates that shouldn’t be on my team because of a forced loss being generated from a winstreak, I’m getting banned on forums for explaining the forced loss from winstreak mechanic.
For the record, it’s existed since preseason. I’ve been rank 30 on a 7 game winstreak play against 4, rank 10-15s with one unranked, while my team was myself and 4 unranked. The game before that which I still managed to win, had 4, 15-20 ranks and my team had 3 unranked and a 25 maybe. I forget. It’s happened to me about six times. The sixth time I had gold 4 and 5s against I think a diamond 1 and some other diamonds and some plat 1/2. I’ve heard every counter argument. None of them fit. I suspect it’s only happening in gold/plat/ and possibly silver. I’ve met other people that have experienced it. I’ve been banned on forums for arguing people that quote blizzard with the running-Kreuger effect. I’ve been insulted by people that piggy back that claim because it’s popular to insult whiners. I’ve been insulted for insinuating that there’s a forced 50% winrate, but I’m not even talking about the forced 50% winrate. Before all this, the argument was about MMR hell which people seem to accept these days that it does exist. And whether or not it exists, smurfs are created from it. So whether or not it exists, when it causes something to happen regardless of its existence, is a ludicrous argument that somehow still gets support from reddit and the trolls that bombard complaint threads on the US and EU forums.
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