Blizzard has been making vast changes to World of Warcraft with the hopes of making the game a better experience for its players. Recent patches have taken requested feedback into account, including finally allowing fans of both factions to play together. The upcoming Dragonflight expansion continues this trend. With Patch 9.2.5, Blizzard is also aiming to address toxicity and poor behavior in the game with improvements to the reporting system and social aspects in Azeroth.
The most influential part of the goal to improve player behavior in Patch 9.2.5 is the addition of a social contract that all players must sign before entering the game. The contract provides the code of conduct expected while socializing with other players and outlines the consequences of failing to adhere to them. Blizzard hopes to deter bad behavior by making it crystal clear what is expected of players before even entering the world.
Reporting a player in-game has also been modernized with the new patch. Anyone who right-clicks a guilty player and hits the report button will now be greeted with a popup menu allowing them to select the appropriate reason for the report with space to add additional details. Players will receive a notice acknowledging their report and even receive an additional “thank you” message if their contributions led to action against a player.
Blizzard has also mentioned that they have streamlined their systems internally by working with a multidisciplinary team to allow for more quick and accurate actions for in-game violations. The developers stress that this is just the beginning of their efforts on this subject and they will continue to make improvements over time.
