World of Warcraft's Mythic+ system, wherein players can time-trial endgame dungeons for a chance at loot and bragging rights, has been a bit of a curse and a blessing for the game since it was introduced. It's been a blessing because, well, it's become a massive scene—letting small-scale groups get all sweaty without having to commit time to a raid. It's been a curse because, well, this is World of Warcraft, and it's difficult for anyone to get along.
In case you're uninitiated, here's the gist—in order to access a Mythic+ dungeon, you need to grab a key, which directs you to a specific dungeon with specific modifiers. Once you've grouped up and activated the key inside, it's locked in. You either beat the timer and get your phat loot, or you don't, and suffer the consequences. This means that anyone in your party has the power to simply 'brick' the key by ding-dong-ditching. Open a door for griefing to happen in WoW, and players will take it.
Well, Blizzard's had enough. As stated in the general forums by community manager Kaivax, the company's taken action against "players who intentionally left Mythic+ groups a great many times in The War Within Season 1."
Kaivax adds: "The sort of behavior we actioned was either without regard for the experience of their fellow players, or in some cases, even deliberately intending to harm others’ experiences … We will continue to keep an eye on groups in the future, and repeat offenders are subject to escalating penalties."
That's not to say Blizzard's boys in blue are going to punt your door down if you happen to disconnect, or have an irresolvable disagreement every once in a while: "We understand that occasionally, abandoning runs will happen. Players can experience unexpected real life emergencies, internet outages, or the group collectively deciding to quit the run … we suspended players who repeatedly and recklessly disrupted Mythic+ groups."
In other words, unless you're a serial leaver, you're unlikely to be punished. This new state of affairs is only likely to apply if you've been a huge antisocial jerk. Mind, Blizzard hasn't gone out and given specific numbers (which isn't something I exactly blame them for) so the paranoia about virtual dictatorships has immediately begun.
"So Skynet has been given a kill list and will keep adding new names to it on a whim," writes one incensed player, who monologues: "You don’t have the man power to enforce any rules in the games and instead of for once using the carrot you’ve completely switched to the stick."
While I think crying Skynet is a bit much, I can at least understand the worry. Reporting is, itself, a griefing tool in the wrong hands—and if Blizzard doesn't handle its customer service carefully I can see this going south. But "a great many times" seems clear-cut to me. If a dedicated troll is hopping into Mythic+ groups just to brick keys at the outset, then I'm not going to weep if they're shown the door.
As is typically the case with this sort of thing, you're also bound to get players complaining in public that they didn't do anything wrong while shuffling their bad behaviour into the closet. Short of some companies publicly naming and shaming these people when they do pop up, which takes time and money, it can be hard to combat. Still, here's hoping there's a further explanation coming soon, if only to stop the usual forum prophets from claiming that the sky is falling.
