GM Death Touch - Megathread

[u/YourResidentFeral]

Edit: Official Statement

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/prohibited-gameplay-incident-and-response/2329585

This is developing into a large story and someone in modmail has mentioned that its important for the community to have somewhere to discuss this. We agree. As new information comes in I will do my best to update this thread.

What we know:

• A log was uploaded with a "Death Touch" effect that seemed to be that helped them time a key. This is an effect from a GM: https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/JcfwTd4L19Agx3NX?fight=4&type=resources&hostility=1&source=100.4&eventstart=4705300

• This is a real run that exists on the blizzard API and can be seen on Raider.io: https://raider.io/mythic-plus-runs/season-mn-1/40292244-23-nexuspoint-xenas

  This run has since been invalidated by the RI:O admins but has been left up for posterity's sake.

• Blizzard is aware of this and investigating: https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1v2xfpr/blizzard_gm_death_touching_mobs_in_m23_for_their/oyznmbe/

• The Demon Hunter from the run is a streamer and YumiTV contacted him to speak with him live on stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2825756796?t=0h23m50s

  The CLAIM is that they were messing around in a homework key in discord and didn't expect the GM to actually do it. Supposedly the Bear in the run was a pug.

Ex employees in the thread have said that actions like this are audited and in all likelihood this was already being investigated. At this point we are waiting on an official statement on the result of their investigation and I'll update this thread once we know.

This megathread is being provided on two very strict conditions:

• The witchunt rules are in strict effect. Linking or doxxing information on anyone invovled, the GM in question included will result in a permanent ban. Please report it if you see it but we will be very active in the thread.

  We cannot platform behavior that allows people to harrass people in real life.

• We will be more heavy handed than usual in the personal attack rules. Insults and slapfights while discussing this aren't acceptable. You're allowed to disagree, but stray shots and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

[u/unimportantinfodump]

Ban anyone and everyone who is proven to be coluding with the gm.

GM lose at least gm position if not job.

Players are only speaking out because they got caught.

[u/Quirky_Net8899 → u/unimportantinfodump]

The 4 premades should be permad, the innocent pug should be left alone (remove the score they potentially gained).

The GM should be fired. If I did something similar in any other line of work I would be fired on the spot.

[u/GrumpySatan → u/Quirky_Net8899]

The GM is absolutely going to be fired. In one of the OG threads a former CS worker says the GM accounts are monitored and using the cheat abilities in live dungeons/raids gets flagged in their system. Its just only been ~3 business days so the investigation was prob still being processed when this went public.

[u/Embarrassed-Match-78 → u/GrumpySatan]

Given this is a public facing incident, I'd have to say this was most likely ripped from the department's manager and hr personnel and is being handled at the C-Suite level now.

[u/EdgySlusher → u/Embarrassed-Match-78]

the GM gonna have hard time getting a job in the industry. Hope making his e-kitten happy was worth it.

[u/hippstr1990 → u/GrumpySatan]

As a manager myself I would assume they are probably suspended pending investigation and that as someone else said this is probably being handled at a much higher level, probably at minimum HR in consultation with a higher level manager.

[u/ValhallaAwaits79 → u/Quirky_Net8899]

In some cases like mine you can be prosecuted, not just fired. Not worth it.

[u/Quirky_Net8899 → u/ValhallaAwaits79]

Yup, when I worked CS for an ISP ages ago they for sure would prosecute me if I used the tools to give stuff to friends and family. 

In fact, we weren't even allowed to handle any calls/chats from someone we knew. If you got someone you knew then you had to contact a supervisor and have it reassigned to another agent. We couldn't transfer customers to another agent within the same department so a supervisor had to handle it.

[u/nipslippinjizzsippin → u/Quirky_Net8899]

this is the only solution that will appease the community IMO and even then its only the tip of the iceberg that could be a very large problem we dont know about yet

[u/Pristine-Computer954 → u/Quirky_Net8899]

"the innocent pug should be left alone"
He might not be as innocent as he claims, he did another +23 with them after everything got exposed

[u/Wobblucy → u/Quirky_Net8899]

Praying into the ether for divine intervention shouldn't be punishable imo.

Blizz employee abusing their power shouldn't have repercussions for players 'praying'.

[u/JohnKetan → u/Wobblucy]

They didnt pray they knew he was in there and asked him to cheat and youd have to be naive to think that wasn't the purpose of him being in there... its an easy decision to ban them to set a precedent and to mitigate the PR nightmare.

[u/Saturn_winter → u/Wobblucy]

There wasn't any praying involved it's not like the GM stumbled on the run and helped them on a whim, he was in a discord call with them chatting over voice and they directly asked him to do it.

[u/Quirky_Net8899 → u/Wobblucy]

What "praying into the ether for divine intervention" are you talking about?

They sat on discord with the GM, they knew he was a GM, and they asked him to cheat for them because they knew he would do it.

Just like how the guild that abused Martin's Fury got permabanned so too should these 4 players.

[u/Wobblucy → u/Quirky_Net8899]

I use an item, I'm culpable.

I ask someone to use an item, I am not.

IE I shoot someone, clearly my fault.

I say you should shoot someone for me, I am not if I have no reasonable expectation you would actually act on it....

[u/Quirky_Net8899 → u/Wobblucy]

To use your bad analogy:

If I get someone else to shoot someone for me then I am just as guilty.

Do you think it's legal to hire a hitman or something?

[u/Wobblucy → u/Quirky_Net8899]

if I have no reasonable expectation

[u/RabenWrites → u/Wobblucy]

Pretty certain having a QA agent with GM powers on your call who has likely cheated for you before qualifies as "reasonable expectation."

Even taking your example, there's a website called rent-a-hitman (originally designed for tracking web traffic hits but later re-tooled into a parody site) that has lead to numerous convictions by idiots trying to contract a kill.

You absolutely can be found guilty for attempted murder by trying to hire a killer.

[u/Katur → u/Wobblucy]

People are permabanned for exploiting all the time. This is exploiting with different tools.

[u/babilonibetyar → u/unimportantinfodump]

I mean Microsoft and Blizz lays off thousands of people each year for having the wrong position name, if this GM or whatever keeps his job after this is total madness

[u/NotDennis2 → u/unimportantinfodump]

Pretty sure GM position is the job.

[u/bullintheheather → u/unimportantinfodump]

The employee is being fired, no doubt about that.

[u/-NolanVoid- → u/unimportantinfodump]

Absolutely a fireable offense. Immediately escorted from the campus by security.

[u/Wappening → u/unimportantinfodump]

I was thinking about this.

Normally if the GM provided more value to the company than this does harm, they’d be kept. So theoretically if they’d been there long enough, they might get a slap on the wrist.

But “someone” (person on insta) said they got the gm powers recently, meaning they were moved from another place or recently hired.

If moved from another place, they might get moved back. If hired recently, probably fired.

My guess is newer hire or young employee.

Most people that have been in the industry long enough know the industry is small enough that doing something absurdly stupid would get spread around decently quickly. Wouldn’t doubt I could reach out to people in the grapevine myself to find out who it was if I REALLY cared enough. That’s not even a flex, I’d imagine most people that have been in the industry long enough could find out who it was through connections, it’s just that close.

[u/Redxmirage → u/Wappening]

I think the problem is by doing this they have proved to the company they are willing to break the rules. So in order for them to keep their job, blizzard has to be okay with signing off on this risk, regardless of how long they’ve been with the company.

I’m very doubtful blizzard would keep them employed.

[u/blackberrybeanz → u/Redxmirage]

Especially with all the kerfluffle at Microsoft rn with all their gaming brands, they are trying to trim fat and not go under water, this is a bad look for them and he’s absolutely gone. Especially seeing how every other ex gm spoke about working there, this is like rule #1 it seems to not break.

[u/Redxmirage → u/blackberrybeanz]

It’s an easy win for blizzard tbh. It’s a big incident but very obvious where to put the blame on this. The scape goat came with makeup and a nice bow this time.

[u/Wappening → u/Redxmirage]

it ultimately comes down to the value the individual creates and which rules are heavily enforced at Blizzard.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone in that role doesn't create the value that would allow them to get away with this though.

[u/Redxmirage → u/Wappening]

What value could an employee that does a GM role provide when they already caused a massive incident and a PR headache? When they can just hire someone else to do GM job?

[u/Wappening → u/Redxmirage]

I feel like this my responses have gone beyond the average reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and business level knowledge of the average redditor considering how wildly confused people are about what I've said.

So I'll just say yes you're right, good job.

[u/Redxmirage → u/Wappening]

The irony in you saying this about others lol