A little backstory about the recent Blizzard Banning Affair (...)
A Hearthstone player recently made a Reddit post discussing the fact that he had been banned for playing SN1P-SN4P Warlock in Wild Mode.
Why would he be banned for playing a normal deck in ranked mode, you may ask?
The answer is simple: there is third party party software available that is removing the animations in Hearthstone from the game. This means that players can play cards like Sn1p-Sn4p many times faster in a turn (around 50-70 in some cases). This, of course, is entirely illegal in the eyes of Blizzard's Terms of Service and therefore can trigger an automatic ban.
His post was highly upvoted, with approximately 14k votes (at a recent count). He claims that he has never used these illegal third party party programs, but he still received a swift ban from Blizzard.
However...
Blizzard admits their banning system is imperfect and are now reversing many bans
Quote from blizzardHi all,
I have an update for everyone on the SN1P-SN4P conversation that started up over the weekend.
WHAT HAPPENED:
This week we spent time reading this thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/d4tnb4/time_to_say_goodbye/) and gathering all the details on the situation. For some added context, all of this hinges on a situation where, under some circumstances, a player can end up with a significant amount of extra time on their turn - even over a minute.SN1P-SN4P is a card that relates to this behavior that we've had a close eye on, as we've noted that it has also been used by cheaters, playing an impossible number of cards in a single turn. Under normal circumstances, a real human player can only play a small number of cards in a turn - it's just a limit of how fast a human can perform those actions. However, when you mix this with the extended time situation, a player could legitimately play far more cards than usual if they've been given additional time in a turn. We recently banned a number of accounts that had been marked as playing an impossible (or so we thought) number of cards in a single turn. We now know that some of these turns were possible under normal play because the turn had been given so much added time.
WHAT WE'RE DOING:
Given the interaction with the extended time issue described above, we are rolling back a large quantity of these bans. We're also updating the procedures that led to these bans to ensure they only catch cheaters.
Frequently Asked Questions on the topic of the Ban Repeals
Q: Can you explain how the appeals process seemingly just rubber-stamped the incorrect ban with no further avenue for appeal other than social media and what, if any, changes Blizzard is making to ensure that the appeals process works in the future for any erroneous bans that may arise from new issues that may be unrelated to the current SN1P-SN4P controversy?
A: Totally fair question. As a quick comment on the appeals process, it wasn't necessarily a rubber-stamp. At the time, based on the information we had, the bans looked correct. So upon appeal, it still looked correct. It was only after fully understanding the interaction with extra time that we were able to re-evaluate and make the call that our methodology wasn't 100% on the mark. All of this isn't to say this is OK, but rather to explain why it happened the way it did. Combatting cheating is tough, but we never want to affect legitimate players in this way.
The actual AMA part
[S] There’s a ton of unexplored things they can do as a Solo Adventure content and they will keep messing with it. (Editor thoughts: Possible something else than dungeon runs for the next Solo Adventure highly possible.)
[S] Iksar, the Lead Card Designer for Hearthstone responded to a balance proposal tweet from Bunnyhoppor (mentioning Northshire Cleric) with a response: "What would you do?" (Editor thoughts: We should probably expect some minor nerfs for Priest class in the "near" future.)
[S] Alchemist's Stone is probably one of the best passive effects. They tried nerfing it a few ways, but it ended up losing so much of it's fun factor so they just changed its offering rate.
[S] Each Chapter of Tombs of Terror will come with their own unique bosses and we will only fight those bosses until we beat that chapter. Replaying a chapter you completed, the pool of bosses will contain bosses from all the chapters you've beaten.
Editor notes: If you want to check out the source yourself, feel free to click on the "S" word for a specific part.
more nerfs venganceeeeee
most problematic card since the dawn of hs, good job team5
Oh man. I love seeing such efforts totally wasted.
Fun is subjective. I don't deny it, but I also don't accept it. Again, I want to say that Combo decks that does not need proper setup like Azalina/Tog are purely trash. For the combo decks I previously mentioned, they required proper strategy and needs to adapt to specific opponents and require the skills to read opponent hand and make the correct decision.
I used Tog Druid to climb to Legend when it was in Standard and I played it in the meta that Deathrattle Hunter flooded the meta. At that time, Tog Druid was considered the worst matchup when it can be farmed by Hunters. But I still played it because I learned the moves of the Hunters since I also climbed with Death Hunter the season before. When I want to swap decks or copy the opponent hand, I must ensure the opponent class cards in which it can harm my play or not.
In both Standard and Wild, I am glad that OTK decks are less supported. I wish that there will be a return of Dirty Rat, which will be an awesome comeback.
If they're banning people for using 3rd party software, can they ban people for using deck tracker and the arena one???? I know that opinion is going to be very unpopular here, but deck tracker is bad for the game because it removes an element of skill in remembering what was in your deck, and the arena one is just stupid and creates a situation where the general playerbase draft way better decks than normal which one could argue is a power-creep.
They won't ban people for using programs that simplify things for the player. If you can write it down, then the program is fine. However, in this case 3rd party programs were used to hack the game and remove animations. Something you cannot do in game.
A combo deck needs to be played strategically, not a bullshit highroll like Snip Snap Warlock. If you face them 8/10 matches, the matches are boring as hell. You think it is fun to end the game on turn 4-5? Absolutely not. No back-and-forth interaction, just highroll for such specific board clears to survive. What is the fun in that?
I really miss the Reno Mage vs Reno Warlock back then, having fun thinking about the resources so I don't waste them in the late game phase. Or even aggro mirror, trade and face value. I mentioned the previous match-ups to declare the true skills of resource management, not like some "let's-draw-fucking-fast-to-become-the-best-player".
Don't worry dude
It seems that all Shamans miraculously have at least one devolve in their hands
Lol
Anyone play this shit deserve the Ban
Everyone i face had the combo on turn 4-5 !! wtf
this company is a joke now
No, it is not an OTK, it is TTK, but remember your opponent won't be dumb enough to magnetize all the SN1P-SN4Ps into one big minion; they'll have like 3 or 4 12/13 minions, which are very hard to deal with by turn 6 or 7 (even in wild). Also, if you can destroy them, they will be left with a full board with 1/1 mechs that can be magnetized again (with Glinda + infinite Skaterbots).
Let me rephrase that to "The opponent only needs to remove every single mech on every single turn and crisis is averted".
But sure dude, it's a turn 5 TwoTurnKill, have it your way.
Simple as that. No need to ban players for skipping animations...
Summoning Portal-> Mechwarper-> Infinite Snip Snaps. A brainless combo still exists.
Only other criteria being to already have one mech on board, and preferably no enemy taunts.
Although just summoning 40/60 worth of Sn1p Sn4p stats on turn 5 should also do the trick on turn 6.
When a meta forces you to hard mulligan for such specific card like Poison seeds, you know that the meta is trash.
And how many classes can clear the mini mechs like Bronze Gatekeeper or Mecharoo properly and won't let a target for such highroll magnetic combo?
It seems like you don't play Wild mode. The mode is in the lowest quality now. I hope that Mechwarper will be nerfed soon.
It would be nice to have, it would make climbing more viable with other decks.
Lets be honest, im getting older and play less video games to begin with.
HS is not appealing to me anymore. Balancing is always a work in progress and i dont want to be a beta tester on my free time.
All the problems and lack of user requested features just gives an impression that the player base is disconnected from the developers. They are making a product to make money and not a product to please the audience.
This is the best answer. Shudderwock has been around since last spring but they're not looking at animations at all.
I dont like the "clickbait" like articel name but its not choosen that badly.
In my opinion they should quick unban these players its really dumb giving the choice to play those cards and then dont check for hacker software or stuff.