Launching with the Legion expansion pre-update later this month, World of Warcraft’s new silence penalty is designed to let players engaging in abusive or inappropriate chat dig their own incredibly quiet, ever-expanding grave.
Here’s how it works. A player is reported for abusive or inappropriate chat activity, be it in trade, area, party chat or private messages. Blizzard investigates the report, and should they find it actionable, the offending player will be silenced for a period of 24 hours. According to the Blizzard news post, that means they will not be able to:
- Talk in Instance Chat (Raid, Party, and Battlegrounds)
- Talk in global channels that are auto joined (such as General or Trade)
- Create Calendar Invites/Events
- Send in-game mail
- Send Party Invitations
- Send War Game Invitations
- Send Invitations to Duel
- Update a Premade Group Listing
- Create a New List for a Premade Group
Players will still be able to sign up for premade groups and chat with their game and Battle.net friends in private. They can create parties and raids and chat with the players they invite. They just can’t do much else.
The first time a player is silenced will last 24 hours. Each additional infraction doubles the time period—and there is no limit. Habitually offensive and abusive players will eventually just fade away into sweet, sweet silence.