Do you think that’s really effective?
December 28, 2009 § 6 Comments
So as I watched yet another super cool dude showing off his pvp mammoth mount (by standing on top of the winter veil presents in Ironforge on Christmas morning) it occurred to me that a I’m not sure if a brief ban is really a good punishment. Oh sure, when the ban/suspension lasts more than two days it’s probably long enough to actually disrupt the persons game play enough to actually feel like a ban. But when it’s short (like the common 3-hour ban for spamming trade), I’m not sure as if it’s really all that much of a punishment. Except for the most die-hard, addicted, WoW-crackheads 3 hours out of the game is just a quick break. It might even be bed time for them so all they have to do is sleep it off and everything is fine in the morning.
Because of this I have come up with a few punishment ideas that are a bit more…creative.
The 3-hour ban:
This is a revamped version of the classic ban. Only this time instead of not being able to log in to the game, you log in and get a debuff that lasts 3 hours. The buff would be visible to everyone and called “Banhammered.” This debuff would be applied to every character on your account. The only way for it to wear off would be to actually be logged in for three hours. But you couldn’t go <AFK> because you could still be auto logged out for inactivity. The effect of this debuff would be that you couldn’t do anything. Except walk around. And your movement speed would be reduced by 99%. Your action bars would be grey out so you couldn’t use them. You wouldn’t have access to any form of chat. You wouldn’t be allowed to interact with any NPCs (including, but not limited to bankers, auctioneers, flight masters, etc). You would just have to walk around at 1% speed, waiting 3 hours for the debuff to wear off.
You would receive this punishment for minor infractions like (non-gold) spamming or other chat related things.
The day-long ban:
A harsher version of the 3-hour ban. Same effect just lasts for 24 hours.
You’d get this for more serious offenses like minor game hacks or player harrassment.
The multiple day ban:
This would be as it works now, you wouldn’t be able to log in at all for however long they decided. But this would end with the 3-hour debuff.
The multiple day ban would be for the most serious of infractions that violate Blizzards Terms of Service agreement. (You know, the agreement that shows up each time there is a patch, the one you have to scroll all the way to the bottom off in order to get the “agree” to light up? Yeah that one. I bet none of you have ever read it, let alone read it each time a new patch comes out. In case you were wondering, yes, I read it each time.) You’d get it for game hacks and botting and gold spamming and other really bad things.
Community Service:
When a player is banned because they were impeding the gameplay of others, they would required to perform community service. The cause of this punishment could be anything from harassing other players, to ninjaing loot; from being a racist/sexist/etc jerk in trade to standing on flight masters/mailboxes/etc. Basically anything that would classify you as a ‘fun sucker’.
People with this punishment would have a choice of community services. The could:
- Pass on all loot in one randomly chosen heroic dungeon. (All loot, not just loot that is rolled over. Even vendor trash and money.)
- Group with 20 randomly chosen low leves (below level 10) and help them get up to level 15.
- Clean all the trash around the capital cities. x number of hours sweeping things up.
- Lead 10 randomly chosen old ladies across…um…some sort of street I guess.
- I thought I had more ideas….I guess I’m out.
Anyway, just some thoughts I was having, mostly because I want the punishments to be more of a deterant. I want it to be a much harder decision for them to decide that the consequences are worth engaging in crappy actions. Yeah I’m sure a lot of you disagree with this and thing that these punishments would be unfair or unreasonable. But it’s not like I’m the one deciding on them or applying them. Blizzard would still be enforcing them….although if they wanted my help I’d be more than happy to wield the ban hammer for a little while.
“[Insert clever sign off phrase here]”
~Fizz
Edit: I’ve decided that there needs to be a unique punishment for mount blockers.
- First offense: 24 hour debuff that reduces character size by 50%. Cannot use large mounts.
- Second offense: 48 hour debuff that reduces character size by 50%. Cannot use any mount.
- Third offense: Permenant debuff that reduces character size by 50%. Also all mounts have their sizes reduced proportionately so that they can’t be used to block mailboxes.
I also think their should be some more unique punishments for people who ninja things (although it has to be very clear that the stuff was ninja’d–not just an accusation.
- If an item from a heroic is ninja’d, character must pass on all loot for the next random dungeon.
- If an item from a raid is ninja’, character must pass on all loot for the next raid they enter.
- Raid and Heroic level (and accompanying item drops) must be proportionate to the item they stole.
The Cranky Old Gnome 
“50%. Also all mounts have their sizes reduced proportionately so that they can’t be used to block mailboxes.”
See, the problem with this one is that -you- think of it as a punishment. Imagine how many people would actually like to be permanently 50% smaller. Taurens come to mind, I know because I play one and doorways are annoying. I think a more fitting punishment after the 2nd offense would be to just keep increasing the time you cannot use any mounts.
Well I’d be fine with increasing the time you can’t use any mounts, but I stand by the size reduction punishment.
Oh wait, here’s a better idea. The size reduction debuff can be an aura that the flightmasters and mailboxes have so if you stand on top of them for x amount of time you are just automatically reduced in size. But it’s only a 2 yard aura, so as soon as you are no longer standing on it, the debuff goes away and you return to normal size.
I was about to say the same thing that Magma said – I could see people doing it on purpose so that they would be permanently reduced in size, but I think that your two yard aura idea would be a good one.
This was a very interesting post. I’ve been annoyed as much as the next person by mammoths standing on mailboxes, flight masters, etc.; people being asses in trade and only once have had to deal with a ninja.
I think your three hour ban is appropriately inconvenient to the offender, but I can foresee SO MUCH bitching and moaning about how fantastically “unfair” it is that they can’t do anything but walk around for three hours. However, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. After all these years of asshattery, I think that three hours per asshat isn’t bad whatsoever.
The Community Service idea is a good one – in theory. However, I don’t see any way that it could be enforced in any way that wouldn’t leave the “beneficiary” abused by the pissed off person who had to do the Community Service.
Used to have a guild on Trollbane that would actually organize “Mailbox Raids” specifically to infuriate the entire population of Orgrimmar. Thank goodness I mostly play Alliance, but they server transferred after a solution caught on.
Next time there’s a dunce on a large mount standing on top of a mailbox/flightmaster/whatever stand inside them and zoom your camera all the way in. (the mount becomes invisible)
Then announce to all around you how their actions have not inconvenienced you, so others can do the same trick.
Annoys the heck out of them.
A far simpler and more elegant solution would be to simply go round to their houses and set them on fire for a first offence. Sometimes the simple solutions are the best.