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The in game "Complaints" system

The In Game "Complaints" system has been installed for some time now, since 7.0 to be exact. But during that time it has remained heavily in development.

How the complaints system works is a little difficult to explain because the system is installed into the game cross server (on all servers) but rules and rule enforcement is something which is handled on an office by office basis. What I mean by this is, I will explain how Wargaming America handles the In Game Complaints System on the NA server, which is likely to be different to how other offices handle things on other servers.

The basics of the complaints system can be found here.
Complaint System

Currently the options in game are as follows.

1. Insults and Provocation
Players who generate a reasonable number of complaints due to insults will have their game chat logs for the reported games investigated, with normal sanctions being applied for any offenses located.
Sanctions are only issued on offenses which have occurred within the last 7 days and have been verified with an investigation of the logs.
While we are unable to investigate every report, players with repeat offenses will end up being investigated shortly.
Complaints stay on file ~14 days and accumulate until an investigation is conducted.
The higher the number of complaints on a player, the sooner they will be investigated.
Currently for an example, every player who had more than 7 complaints lodged on the system has been investigated. With ~1200 investigations being conducted within the last week.

2. Spam
As above, however if you ever come across a gold selling (fraud) spammer, please report these to support with a screenshot.
Support tickets are processed at a higher priority to in game complaints, and gold selling spammers are something we wish to Permanently Game Ban ASAP.

3. Unfair Play
On the NA server these reports are only used for statistical purposes. We are unable to prove these offenses through a in game complaint, so no sanctions will be placed here.
If you have been a victim of something like a "Blocking Offense", please submit a game replay to support where the offense can be investigated thoroughly.

*Since no chat logs are currently recorded with this option, No "giving away allied position" offenses can be processed from these complaints.
Please submit these to support for now (With a screenshot). I have requested a new section especially for "giving away of allied positions" to be included into the game for 8.0 but I am not sure if it can be added in time or not at this stage.

4. Team Damage
Are no longer processed manually, Refer to Friendly Fire / Team Kill auto system

5.AFK/ Bot
These reports are used to bring our attention to possible bot-like activity which then results in a manual statistical investigation taking place. Refer to AFK/Bot Detection & Enforcement


We are currently hoping to get these categories overhauled by the release of 8.3--8.4.

I'll unlock these so players can ask questions on the rules.
But please be warned that the forums is not the place to dispute sanctions, or report offenders (Which is why I originally locked the threads)

Does spam only count for gold spamming or does it count too if someone is ingame spamming the f-buttons?

Blackshot01, on Aug 18 2012 - 11:43, said:

Spam is Spam, and it can be reported by the in game complaints system.

A gold selling (fraud) spammer though is a bit of a higher priority, as they are a bit persistent and the sooner they are gone the better.
So these its probably better to be reported directly to support (with a screenshot), so they can be acted on quicker.

Tanitha, on Aug 18 2012 - 12:01, said:

Good explanation Tanitha as with the other 2 or 3 links you posted this am.

Is there any discussion on upping the amount or reports over day because if I play 50 games in a day I will almost surely see more then 3 people in need of a report sometimes in under a few matches depending on time of play.



Also and I dont do it but it should be clarified that if someone Multi reports someone .. say Player A sees player B viloate a rule and he reports him/her 3 times in a row instead of just once do all 3 count or just the first?
Edited by Yoott, Aug 18 2012 - 13:21.

Yoott, on Aug 18 2012 - 13:19, said:

The plan is for it to be increased to 5 in 8.0
But please wait for this to be confirmed in the update notes.

Thanks
/Tan

For what should i report somebody if he blocks me/ drives on my side to make me slower? I would say provocation but ure description kinda dosnt fit for that imo.

Bookmarked. Glad to see the definitions.

Shouldnt option 3 just be removed? If it doesnt do anything and people have to file a complaint with support is there really a point to having it as an option?

Also could option 5 be changed in game to AFK/Bot instead of just Bot as it is listed now?

Great information here and thanks Tanitha

Question, what is gold spaming and how would you know? I think some folks would like a clarification/information recap regarding this. Ive been around and Ive not heard this term before

Thanks!

BandofBrothers101, on Aug 18 2012 - 12:58, said:

LOL +1

Blackshot01, on Aug 18 2012 - 13:32, said:

If it's clearly intentional, that would be "unfair play", which Tanitha described as a "blocking offense" that you should also submit to support with a replay.

Wreaktimus, on Aug 19 2012 - 01:19, said:

Gold spamming would be like this in the game chat:

BUY 1,000,000 GOLD FOR 89.97 AT WWW.FAKEWOTGOLDSCAM.COM!!! OFFICIAL SOURCE!! GET A LOWE FOR 19.99!!

Etc.

Wreaktimus, on Aug 19 2012 - 01:19, said:

Gold selling (fraud) spammer is what we refer to as websites who fraudulently state they sell gold, (which they do not and can not provide).
Such fake websites also couple up with spamming their URL's into the game chat.

I'll take the fact you have never heard of one before as a compliment, We do try hard to keep them out of the game.

/Tan

Thanks and understood and yes that could become a real issue if left unchecked.  Having played online games for over ten years now I respect the amount of work that goes into providing some form of overwatch in these communities.  Best of luck for all of us!

Wreak

Yobtar, on Aug 18 2012 - 20:26, said:

Hi Tanitha; Thanks for directing me to this thread - I have the same question - since "Bot" is something specific and I've only seen maybe 2 in 10000 games, where-as afk I see almost every three games

Yobtar, on Aug 18 2012 - 20:26, said:

husband, on Aug 20 2012 - 00:42, said:

I'm hoping that change will be done by 8.0, (The ETA currently is not the 8.0 PT but in the 8.0 release)
We need to wait to see if it got squeezed-in in time though.

Tanitha, on Aug 20 2012 - 00:47, said:

Oh that is so nice to hear!

Either way since any level of clarification in reporting and any level of knowing actions taken would be re-assuring.

You probably read everything in the forums and see so many complatints about where to report TK and where to report abuse - yet until now we all thought nothing happened. So publicliy telling the community that x-number of bans are happening (no naming of course) would make the public matches much more satisfiying and the community would increase its efforts to police itself.

Away from keyboard can be very confusing at times, what if the player just got disconnected?

Players are going to start getting banned for getting disconnected? pretty ridiculous if you ask me..

Sweezie, on Aug 20 2012 - 02:02, said:

doubt it- if you do it too often- and DC -well you have 2 minutes to get in
and they can verify whether you were AFK or dc and so only the actual afks will get banned for repeated infractions - of course