5/23/08

The ban hammer...or is it a frontal cleave?

There is an interesting discussion going on with many of the bloggers that gave me my "inspiration" to start blogging. It all starts here "Shenannigans are afoot" written by TJ.

Basically what has happened is a member of their guild has been hit by the latest wave of mass bans for, what appears to be, nothing more than having the software for the Logitech G15 keyboard installed. I do not know the player in question and cannot vouch for him or his actions, but many people are shocked by his banning.

The big problem that seems to be surfacing is that he is getting no response from Blizzard customer service. If the ban has hit people for using a certain keyboard, and that is the only reason for the ban, I would think it would be pretty easy to figure out who was affected by that and review those cases for possible reinstatement, or at least shoot them an email to let them know they are being reviewed. The lack of customer service response is damaging to a company like Blizzard that relies on an active user base for revenue.

The second issue that has come up is whether the various blogs should be used to help this matter get attention. I this I will say, why not? We blog for all kinds of reasons and to bring this issue to light is a legitimate use, I think. I will not proclaim guilt or innocence of this particular user and really don't want to get into the debate, TJ's site is the place for that. But blogs have become a powerful way to check the pulse of the community, and right now there certainly is some unrest in the community regarding the Blizzard customer support.

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