Blizzard on Stream Sniping. - Page 11

On January 21 2012 02:07 Ownos wrote:
Couldn't any of this fall under harassment? I mean if you can get banned for saying some curse words over battle.net...

On January 21 2012 02:46 Ghostcom wrote:
The same argument could be made for streaming then - As a non-streamer I don't wan't people to see me playing, if so I would stream myself - why should you as a streamer have the right to force me to play publicly?

On January 21 2012 02:44 Klondikebar wrote:
Does anyone remember the whole "we're not including LAN" announcement Q&A/debacle? Blizzard said they were going to use Battle.net to help protect professional players from abuse. In other words, they put the onus on themselves to police esports by their own admission. Now they've taken the stance "oh, there's nothing we can do." Well, if Blizzard can't fulfill their promise to properly police their own game, they should quit shoving the "feature" (no LAN) down our throat that they touted as the tool to do it.

They took away our LAN. It's perfectly reasonable for us to expect them to police stream sniping.

Here's the Q&A itself:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/374722123

+ Show Spoiler +

I know that it's not 100% relevant to streaming and non-tournament activities, but I still believe the message is there. "We're forcing everything through Battle.net. That's a good thing because it means we can stop shenanigans." By the way, in the part that I bolded...they implied that they could, in fact, verify individual games.

On January 21 2012 02:48 Liquid`Tyler wrote:

If you don't want your private games to be seen, then don't play private games with a streamer. If you are playing public games, like ladder, then your play is already public. This is no different than replays.

On January 21 2012 01:59 Liquid`Tyler wrote:
--We’ve continued to see reports regarding someone live streaming their match, and their opponent watching the stream in order to gain an in-game advantage (also known as stream sniping).
Stream sniping is finding a match simultaneously with a player to have a greater chance of playing that player.

--While this is obviously poor sportsmanship on the part of the one viewing the stream, we’d like to clarify that this is not a violation of any current policies.
It's your choice to allow poor sportsmanship under current policies. This is an empty statement.

--In fact, we cannot enforce any ‘fair play’ policies if a user chooses to provide their opponent an advantage.
There's nothing about a player doing something that enables their opponent to cheat that prevents you from acting.

--If someone in-game chooses to tell their opponent every move they’re making, thereby informing them how to counter it, we cannot conclude that any violation has taken place.
This is irrelevant because of the difference between in-game information and out-of-game information.

--Even if this could be considered a violation, we simply cannot micro-manage every streamed match to ensure the opponent was not looking at it, or using it to their advantage.
Inability to perfectly enforce a rule has never been a legitimate reason to not create a rule that needs to be enforced.

--It goes far beyond the scope of what we’re able to enforce.
If you can't do it, then give power to people who can. There are trustworthy and knowledgeable people in the community that you could consult for free.

On January 21 2012 03:16 Steel wrote:
Couldn't players really aggravated with stream sniping talk to the stream providers (twitch, own3d, ect) so they add a 5+ minute delay on the stream? I guess they would have to redesign the chat but it seems that for short period of time (a specific player sniping another continuously) a delay of unknown time could be added to prevent this.

On January 20 2012 13:56 13_Doomblaze_37 wrote:
The problem I have with this is in cases when combatEZ and deezer prevent a progamer from practicing because they stream snipe them so much (others players do it too but none nearly so well-known). They're trying to make a living, especially in the case of destiny, where viewer numbers matter(ed?) while the sniper is trying to be a nuisance. There's a huge difference.

Actually, I really dislike this decision by blizzard
There is no difference between stream sniping and maphacking. It's not the streamer's fault that hes streaming, its the maphackers/snipers fault for looking at the stream. They can choose whether or not to do so, and only affect themselves. If the streamer decides to delay or shut off the stream, then he loses hundreds or thousands of viewers.

Demuslim handles this very well, he just makes fun of the sniper and mercilessly beats him game after game while giving him tips. When he was losing games, he put the camera on his face and every few minutes would talk about how hes facing combatEZ and trashing him, and he made us have a good time regardless.

On January 21 2012 02:53 SnowSC2 wrote:


I dont remember anyone pointing out in the TOS that blizzard can ban anyone for whatever reason they wanted regardless if it was exterior to the game, I think this whole "blizzard owes us they need to police this" is the opinion of those that are either uninformed or just ignoring logic completely.

I dont think blizzard should have to have even made THIS statement, i was under the impression that everyone KNEW why they weren't banning people.

Sure we all rage and thats fine and all, but to think that this is within the scope of bannable offense is idiotic in my opinion.

On January 21 2012 02:48 Liquid`Tyler wrote:

If you don't want your private games to be seen, then don't play private games with a streamer. If you are playing public games, like ladder, then your play is already public. This is no different than replays.