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We’ve continued to see reports regarding someone live streaming their match, and their opponent watching the stream in order to gain an in-game advantage (also known as stream sniping). While this is obviously poor sportsmanship on the part of the one viewing the stream, we’d like to clarify that this is not a violation of any current policies. In fact, we cannot enforce any ‘fair play’ policies if a user chooses to provide their opponent an advantage. If someone in-game chooses to tell their opponent every move they’re making, thereby informing them how to counter it, we cannot conclude that any violation has taken place. Even if this could be considered a violation, we simply cannot micro-manage every streamed match to ensure the opponent was not looking at it, or using it to their advantage. It goes far beyond the scope of what we’re able to enforce. It’s advisable for those streaming to take precautions, including delaying their streams by a significant amount of time, to avoid any potential advantage they may be providing their opponent.
We are absolutely able to enforce, and will continue to do so, violations that include harassment of others in-game, use of hacks, abuse of our reporting tools, and attempts to disrupt the gameplay of others. If you believe that someone is in violation of the game rules it does not warrant behavior, language, or abuse that would earn you, yourself, a suspension from the game. If you'd like to report an offense, please report the player using clear and descriptive language only once; support will review that report and take action based on the validity of the complaint, not the persistence of the reporting. The intent with our policies is to ensure a fair and fun experience in Blizzard games, but the act of providing a window into your game for your opponent to see is not considered a violation, should they choose to use that to their advantage. We encourage anyone streaming to keep this in mind while doing so. |
#1
19/01/2012
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While I understand that the actual watching of the stream is not forbidden I was wondering how you can say that "stream sniping" in itself is okay with the TOS?
Doesn't it say there that you are forbidden to abuse the system in any way? And what do the snipers actually do if not abuse the matchmaking system by searching at the same time just to get matched against the streamer? Shouldn't this be a bannable offense? I was always wondering about this and hope for an explanation. |
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Edited by Moriquendu on 25/01/12 18:18 (GMT)
I couldn't believe after being so clear about it, someone would still not understand it, but here it is.
Hence, if you give your opponent an advantage, don't complain that he has an advantage. |
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Edited by Ficetool on 25/01/12 19:52 (GMT)
Dude...will you please try to learn to read correctly? While "tell every move and inform how to counter" clearly talks about an ingame scenario (which is fine imo) I was specifically talking about the time before the game starts, which is not adressed in the blue's post.
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Still you are the one who chose to show your gameplay, so it shouldn't be any kind of violation, if there are some people who are searching for streaming players (who actually gives advantage) it's fine. You chose to stream it and you chose to be found as a streamer. And that can harm your gameplay, if you don't want to people see your strategy or counter you in-game, just don't stream. If you want to share your gameplay you can just stream your replay. I actually like looking at pro's streams because they're pretty cool, but they chose to reveal themselves it's not like someone breaks into your computer and steal that information, you are revealing that information.
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well, if your opponent has due-monitor (like me), he can eaily watch, and what is meant with streaming it to the opponent they actually mean sharing your screen directly and only with the opponent, not publically |
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I agree with this entirely, and in any case it's hard to see any reliable way to prevent stream cheating... you could always get another IP, another machine, another Battle.net account.
However one thought does occur to me... if there were a setting in the game that hid your username, you could stream anonymously, which ought to help a great deal. It would be so much hassle to check every stream while playing, just in case your opponent happened to be a streamer, that in practice it would be quite rare. Admittedly though, you'd have problems once someone did manage to connect your username with your stream. You'd have to continually change your username, and obviously players tend to value their online identity, connections with friends etc. |
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Edited by Runkk on 03/02/12 06:27 (GMT)
It's not about showing gameplay. There are two things stream-sniping and stream-cheating. What blizzard calls stream-sniping is actually stream-cheating in proper terminology. Sniping is when you use the stream to queue at the same time and get a match. Cheating is when you watch the stream. Most snipers end up cheating the same match but some also turn it off after that because they just want to play their idol. Stream-sniping could be considered abuse of the system and a form of harassment if you do it repeatedly against some-one's wishes. If you just run into a known pro on the ladder and then open their stream, that's something else. |
We’ve continued to see reports regarding someone live streaming their match, and their opponent watching the stream in order to gain an in-game advantage (also known as stream sniping). While this is obviously poor sportsmanship on the part of the one viewing the stream, we’d like to clarify that this is not a violation of any current policies. In fact, we cannot enforce any ‘fair play’ policies if a user chooses to provide their opponent an advantage. If someone in-game chooses to tell their opponent every move they’re making, thereby informing them how to counter it, we cannot conclude that any violation has taken place. Even if this could be considered a violation, we simply cannot micro-manage every streamed match to ensure the opponent was not looking at it, or using it to their advantage. It goes far beyond the scope of what we’re able to enforce. It’s advisable for those streaming to take precautions, including delaying their streams by a significant amount of time, to avoid any potential advantage they may be providing their opponent. im calling your bluff! you do NOT do anything against hackers. I have proof. |
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This is the same situation as if i'm sat in a gaming cafe, and the guy next to me sees when I start to queue, and launches at the same time - is that an offense too?
Should Blizzard also be trying to enforce that? Simple fact is - players have a choice to stop people 'stream sniping' them if they don't want to match them - just don't broadcast when they are queueing, and only start streaming after the game matches someone. |
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If you want to stream and get money of it you better get ready for snipe. People always going to be cheating one way or another... That's our nature.
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Edited by XcelShark on 13/03/12 23:05 (GMT)
I was playing ladder today and a Master's Terran played with a map hack against me. I have the replay i can point the exact moments where he has the hack in use. I was not streaming nor i was giving him information. How should this problem be managed because it's not the first time this happens and i would expect Blizzard to take serious actions towards those problems.
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