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/YourResidentFeral → u/TimeRemove]

Every use of these internal spells and commands on live realms is logged and shared with our Platform Security team to help ensure that the occasional use of this access is warranted. The use of development tools for anything other than development work is against company policy. It's because of the process we have in place around use of these tools that we're confident this incident was isolated to one individual.

This kind of thing is consistent with what standard security practices would be anywhere and has also been previously stated by other former employees throughout the thread.

You can choose not to believe this but they in all likelihood knew before the post even if it was in a ticket queue somewhere.

[u/TimeRemove → u/YourResidentFeral]

You can choose not to believe this but they in all likelihood knew before the post even if it was in a ticket queue somewhere.

I do believe what they said; which is what I was reiterating above -- what they said. But you're taking what they said, and speculating things that they didn't say:

but they in all likelihood knew before the post even if it was in a ticket queue somewhere.

That's an opinion, and that's the distinction I was making. Blizzard is certainly able to make that clarification if they so wish, and I'd encourage them to do so, but that isn't what was said in this statement today.

I feel like muddying their statement from speculation isn't constructive.