Asmongold’s WoW account silenced on stream

Unlike many content creators, Twitch’s top World of Warcraft streamer Asmongold is known for the interactions that he has in-game with viewers as much as those with people in his chat. But today, his ability to organize activities took a substantial hit when his account was silenced mid-stream.

In WoW, there are a plethora of group activities that players can partake in. As a way to make it convenient for players to find others with similar goals, the game has a group finder that allows people to organize raids and dungeons, among other things.

With community involvement and viewer inclusivity being a key element of Asmongold’s brand, he posts in the group finder multiple times a day on his stream to put together events that fans can participate in. But today, Asmongold received a message that his account had been silenced.

“We have silenced your account following multiple reports of abusive chat from other players. While you are silenced, you can only use voice chat in private channels,” the message reads.

Shortly after receiving the message, he frantically went to his email account to check for more information about the chat suspension because he wasn’t sure exactly what he did that was against Blizzard’s terms of service.

“As the owner of this account you’re responsible for all actions associated with it,” the email reads. “We will only overturn penalties if there is evidence of a compromised account, or in similar extenuating circumstances.”

The silence is only supposed to be for a few days. But with how frequently Asmongold uses chat functions to support his stream, the issue was extremely frustrating for the content creator.

Despite the email’s explanation, Asmon remained confused about his ban, explaining to his chat that he’s usually careful about the language he uses in-game. Though he isn’t known for his censorship, Asmon pointed out that he makes sure to only use profane language outside of the game. 

Because of his status as the most-watched WoW player on Twitch, Asmongold knows that anything he says in-game has a good chance of being used against him by someone who wants to make his job difficult. 

After deliberating with his stream, some viewers thought that his silence could have come as retaliation from players who use the group finder to advertise dungeon and raid carry sales.

While it isn’t against WoW terms of service for players to buy and sell in-game services for in-game currency, it’s a reportable offense for those who perform such services to fill the group finder with groups bearing titles like “WTS” (short for “willing to sell”).

Annoyed at players who do such actions, Asmongold has made it a point to use his influence as a content creator who regularly attracts 30,000 to 50,000 viewers daily. Making a show of it, Asmongold has recently started going through the group finder in-game with the “Cops” theme song playing on his stream while reporting anyone advertising service sales.

Some viewers suggested that perhaps his reports for “abusive language” were from angry players who advertise and sell carries. After enough of those reports went through, his account theoretically could have been given an automatic ban.

Still unsure exactly why the ban happened, Asmongold told his viewers that his concern isn’t with Blizzard’s rules. His concern is with an apparent lack of transparency and the way that automatic bans can be triggered by false reports.

“This isn’t about ‘is it ethical or not,’” he said. “Is it ethical for you to be able to silence somebody? Or is it bad to say ‘shit?’ I’m just telling you what the rules are… and according to the rules, I have not broken the rules.”

As a way to work around his issue of not being able to form groups, Asmon continued his stream by having some of his reliable viewers form groups for him while he can’t make them himself. But he’s undoubtedly not content with his account’s current status.

“I’ll talk to Blizzard, and I’ll try to get it fixed,” he said. “That’s really all I can do honestly. It’s really, really disappointing, but there it is.”