Blizzard has finally taken action against chronic Mythic+ ditchers, suspending those who'repeatedly and recklessly disrupted groups' for fun.

Since its introduction, World of Warcraft’s Mythic+ feature, which allows players to time-trial dungeons in the endgame for a chance to win loot and bragging right, has been both a curse and blessing for the game. It's a blessing, because it's a huge scene, allowing small groups to get sweaty without committing time to a raid. It's a curse, because this is World of Warcraft and it's hard for everyone to get along.

If you're not familiar with the concept, let me explain: In order to access a Mythic+ Dungeon, you must grab a key that directs you to an exact dungeon and specific modifiers. Once you've activated the key and grouped up, it's locked. You can either beat the clock and get your loot or you can't and suffer the consequences. This means that any member of your party can 'brick the key' by ding, dong, ditching. WoW players will grief if you open the door.

Well, Blizzard's had enough. Kaivax, community manager of the general forums, stated that the company has taken action against players who deliberately left Mythic+ group a great number of times in The War Within Season 1.

Kaivax says: "The type of behavior we acted upon was either without regard to the experience of fellow players, or, in some cases, even intentionally intended to harm others' experiences... We will continue keeping an eye on groups, and repeat offenders face escalating punishments."

Blizzard doesn't mean to say that they will kick your door down every time you disconnect or have an irresolvable argument: "We understand sometimes, abandoning runs may happen." Players may experience unexpected real-life emergencies, internet outages or the group collectively decide to quit the run.

You're unlikely going to be punished unless you are a serial leaver. This new situation is likely to apply only if you have been a big antisocial jerk. Blizzard didn't give specific numbers, but that's not something I blame them for. So the paranoia over virtual dictatorships began immediately.

"Skynet has a kill-list and will add new names to it at whim," writes a player who is infuriated, and monologues that "you don't have enough manpower to enforce any rules within the games and you've completely switched from the carrot to the stick."

While I find the idea of crying Skynet a bit excessive, I can understand the concern. Reporting can be a powerful tool for griefing in the wrong hands. If Blizzard's customer service is not handled carefully, I can see how this could go south. "A great many times" is clear to me. If a dedicated Mythic+ troll jumps into groups to brick keys from the start, I won't care if they are shown the door.

It's not uncommon for players to claim that they did nothing wrong, while hiding their bad behavior in the closet. It can be difficult to combat unless some companies publicly name and shame these people when they appear, which costs money and takes time. It's still worth hoping that a new explanation will be forthcoming, even if it's just to stop the usual forum prophesiers from claiming the sky is about to fall.