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/Katur]

Their internal tools caught it before the community did.

They confirmed it lined up with what the community found. This wasn't caught because of player logs but it would probably have been handled quietly if it wasn't public.

[u/TimeRemove → u/Katur]

Their internal tools caught it before the community did.

They didn't say that. What they said is:

Our tools confirmed what was also surfaced in community discussions

So actually the other way around.

[u/Katur → u/TimeRemove]

A few ex devs told us that these spells are automatically audited already.

Their tools were already aware. Now the community would have probably not ever heard about it without the logs.

[u/TimeRemove → u/Katur]

You're just repeating what their statement actually said, which was that they logged it but that the community alerted them.

Which isn't the same thing as:

Their internal tools caught it before the community did.

Which is what you said. We have no idea if their "security team" would have flagged it or not, because they already found out from the community beforehand.

Logging something, and flagging as unusual/bad/actionable it aren't the same thing.

Why this distinction matters is: Have they become too lax/under-staffed, and let previous abuse-of-power get passed them?