World of Warcraft PvP celebrity Swifty was banned on the 17th as a result of crashing several servers during a Razer product giveaway event on his livestream. Despite the selective footage shown here in Swifty’s video there is apparently substantial evidence in the form of tells, other comments on vent regarding the deliberate attempts by Swifty and others to intentionally crash the server’s during his event. Actions that do result in account action according to the Blizzard EULA for World of Warcraft.
Swifty’s podcast and product give-away effected the following servers: Arathor, Tichondrius, Sargeras Dagerspine, Darkspear (Swifty’s home server) apparently the server crashes were somewhat deliberate as fans were encouraged to use abilities to put additional strain on the servers. For this reason Blizzard GM’s decided to take appropriate action against Swifty resulting in his permanent ban. This sparked immediate outrage among many of Swifty’s fans who proceeded to engage in “Rioting” on Swifty’s home server of Darkspear. Members of Ruin Gaming recorded these riots consisting primarily of level 1’s chanting “unban Swifty” and other slogans while attempting to crash Darkspear. Members of Ruin Gaming were repeatedly asked to sign petitions to demand Swifty’s ban be lifted. Apparently our Organization’s reputation for crashing servers during city invasions made us an authority on the subject. Blizzard initially resisted pressure to lift the permanent ban despite the showing of public support. On the 18th Swifty’s sponsor Razer apparently intervened on his behalf. From the Razer Facebook Page: “Update: Swifty got unbanned. Stay tuned on his channel. Thanks to everyone for their support.” Blizzard maintains a commercial relationship with Razer and clearly chose to bow to the pressure. Though Blizzard remains a private entertainment entity and certainly can make decisions for financial reasons regarding bans, it does bring up the spectre of a double standard for larger and more influencial coporate sponsored players. |
