Like most games these days with a chat component, World of Warcraft has its fair share of abrasive, abusive or otherwise annoying players that try their best to ruin the experience for others. Fortunately - at least, for WoW players - Blizzard is finally doing something about it.
As part of its upcoming pre-expansion patch for Legion, any player that is reported multiple times under the Spam or Abusive Chat categories will be subject to investigation by Blizzard. If it is determined that the player is indeed being a jerk, they will receive an account-wide silence penalty.
While the penalty is active, the player will be unable to:
- 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
They will, however, still be able to:
- Whisper to friends (both WoW friends and Battle.net Friends)
- Reply to Whispers from Non-friends
- Party/Raid Chat (with Invited Players)
- Create Parties and Raids
- Talk in Global Channels that have a moderator
- Share Quests
- Sign up for a pre-made group
Blizzard notes that the penalty for first-time offenders will last 24 hours. With each successive penalty they receive, the restriction time will double with no limit. It would be nice if there was an upper limit that resulted in a permanent ban although I can see why they wouldn't want to take it to that extreme of a measure.