Unethical Gameplay?

[Wubsie]

I already commented on the video, but I'll drop my 2 cents here as well, along with some comments.

In the examples given in the video, I do think the more-or-less complete disconnect of the player from the game is enough to warrant action being taken. It naturally follows that if it warrants action, those actions should be upheld as well. This of course is expecting a due process of sorts where it is determined that "unattended gameplay" is what is actually going on.

From a multiboxing perspective it of course raises some concerns that it might be the case that you miss the GM trying to contact you in one of your scaled down windows, with your focus being divided between everything else that is going on over your game clients and that leads to action being taken towards that account. Now, some might argue that this falls under the same category and I don't think that is completely unfounded, but I do think there is a very key distinction of intent that needs to be considered, as far as the ethics. I think there is a major difference between attempting to create a system where you are effectively disconnected from the game and you are still reaping the benefits usually gained by enduring the grind and being present and simply not being able to follow everything that's going on. Of course intent is hard if not impossible to test and show, so it won't do you much good if you were to fail a bot check simply because you missed something even when you're trying your best to keep track of it all with limited screen real estate.

It would of course be nice if Blizzard were to follow what some people here have asked them in regard to contacting their usual lead toons/accounts, but I don't see how it is their responsibility to jump through extra hoops to do their checks, especially in cases where it's suspected that the person is not really paying any attention to the game. Would that not partially defeat the purpose of the check? Similarly with the idea for larger, more visible notifications for when GMs try to contact you, it would of course be nice, but again it would only be to the benefit of a very small niche group (i.e. us) so it's unlikely any such changes are coming.

As far as changes to the rules, I don't know if we'll see any actual changes to the written EULA/TOS. The ones in place already have enough leeway for Blizzard to act upon basically anything they wish to. Official statements would be nice and I think clear rules are to the benefit of everyone involved, but they also have a down side of giving a sort of partial acceptance to everything that is not specifically prohibited, so I don't think we'll see anything beyond vague statements about unattended gameplay.