Long before players were trying to move payloads in Overwatch or battle for arena control in Heroes of the Storm, there was World of Warcraft. Blizzard found great praise for this title, one of the most lucrative MMORPG’s of all time. Like all online games, there are always those who want to take the fun away from others with verbal abuse. To them, Blizzard says no more.
World of Warcraft may have been released over a decade ago, but there is still room for improvement. Evidently, that improvement is coming from taking away player privileges, rather than adding more. Blizzard has announced that in pre-expansion patch for Legion, the latest expansion coming next month, the silence penalty will be added. With this, anyone who is reported as being abusive or inappropriate in any way in the chat will be given the silence penalty.
Under this penalty they cannot do any of the following:
- Talk in Instance Chat (Raid, Party, and Battlegrounds)
- Talk in global channels that are auto joined (such as General or Trade)
- Create Calendar Invites/Events
- Send in-game mail
- Send Party Invitations
- Send War Game Invitations
- Send Invitations to Duel
- Update a Premade Group Listing
- Create a New List for a Premade Group
Seems pretty harsh, but it only lasts 24 hours. The length of the punishment, however, will double each time you receive it and there is no maximum. So be good out there in Azeroth, or else Blizzard will find out.