World of Warcraft Update Cuts Back on Annoying Spam

World of Warcraft players tired of being bombarded with chat messages advertising different services or opportunities will be happy to hear that a new feature has been implemented to hopefully cut back on that clutter. Blizzard announced this week that the 9.2.7 update has introduced a new chat channel called "Trade (Services)" in which we'll see things like the organizing of raids and dungeons as well as other service-related messages. For those who don't take note of this channel and continue to advertise their related activities and services outside of it, Blizzard said it'll take actions accordingly.

If this feature sounds familiar, that's perhaps because you saw it announced first back in July whenever it headed to the game's test servers initially for players to try it out. Blizzard said at the time that the goal for this chat feature was to "keep Trade chat for the traditional buying and selling of items and professions, and not other chatter," and the latest announcement saying the feature was included in the 9.2.7 update echoed those sentiments.

"This week the 9.2.7 update introduces the new chat channel: Trade (Services)," World of Warcraft community manager Linxy said in the post on the forums addressing the new feature. "The Trade (Services) chat channel is used for searching and advertising services like raiding, dungeons, or PvP activities, keeping the original Trade chat channel available for traditional buying and selling of items and profession services."

And again, for those who don't keep their messages relegated to the relevant channel and instead hit the normal chat with the same sorts of messages that should go elsewhere, Blizzard said it'll treat those offending messages as spam.

"With the separation of trade services into its own chat channel, a new policy will take place," the post continued. "Any boosting, carrying, or other similar services offered for gold that's advertised outside of the Trade (Services) chat channel will be considered spam and the proper actions will be taken, so be sure to switch your service advertisements to the new chat channel when it becomes available after this week's regional maintenance."

Expect to see this new feature available after updating your game to 9.2.7 to see if it succeeds in cleaning up chat as intended.