Hi, returning player here that use to raid 5-6 years ago. I got back to the game to tank for our reformed guild with a lot of friends that have come back during this crazy year. We were all super excited for tomorrow, however, I logged in today to find my account suspended. I opened several tickets to understand why as the email I received said I breached certain “rules and guidelines on the dungeon finder tool”. I was never able to get any response from a blizzard employee as to which ones, but it seems that my attempt to help players run mythic 0s for gold (which never happened as I never ended up doing it) landed me a 1 week ban.
I had no idea this was against the rules and after going the various clauses, have not found anything that would enforce such a hard punishment. Like I said, I returned to the game recently to play with friends and have seen these kinds of carry for gold services happen throughout the end of BFA, so I am rather confused. I can understand blizzard’s rationale if I were getting real $, but for a first time offender I find the punishment extremely severe as I had no idea this was against any sets of rules. In any case, my guild was counting on me to take tomorrow and I will be unable to do so. Does this suspension seem harsh or is it common practice?
I have been unable to even speak to a non robot blizzard employee who provides non template responses - its very frustrating but now I am just sad to not be able to play with the boys. Have others experienced a complete lack of costumer service from blizzard ? Its quite surprising for a publicly listed company in a highly competitive space to offer absolutely 0 answers other then broad template text that can apply to any and all situations.
I am not looking for sympathy here but simply better understand which rules I broke and maybe warn others about the complete lack of service received while trying to understand why I am suspended.
Account Action appeals do use a template to ensure a consistent message. A real person does look at the logs again though before confirming or overturning it.
Ticket times right now are between 3-4 days. That is why you don’t have a response yet.
If you wish to ask more about the advertising policy for WoW you can ask about that on the Customer Support forum. That is not a means to appeal - that can only be done via ticket. However they serve as an Information Desk where policies and support procedures are explained.
This - I have never seen that exact message in a suspension email. However, it likely means you advertised within the Dungeon Finder tool which is not allowed. You can advertise (not spam) in Trade Chat, but not the Group finder tool.
Here is a relatively recent Blizzard post about it to answer someone else who had a similar question.
Thanks for the swift reply cheetah. First off, I sent 2 tickets which have gotten responses and were dealt with in the unsatisfactory fashion that I mentioned above. Secondly, the rules you mentioned were implemented while I was no longer playing the game as I recently returned. I would of never done this knowing it was breaching a rule, I respect the effort you guys make in ensuring the game is fun for everyone. What I dislike is the absence of empathy for this situation of a gamer who just wants to play with his friends. At the end of the day this is a game that people pay for and play for fun. I did not know I was breaching any rules and I find that a 1 week ban is super harsh particularly without any warning. The message sent to people who return to wow is that you are a commodity and nothing more to blizzard. Your post was also very organized and defensive without providing any kind of advice or solution, or again for the end user of your product. Again, remember this is a game that people play for fun - I just want to make sure that players like myself who return to the game are aware that they can get banned for essentially nothing / rules they should be aware off but are listed in a 2018 forum post. As a consumer, why would I not go play games from another company after feeling both sad and disappointed from this outcome ? During this time of distress with covid, for some of us, wow is a way of keeping in touch. Taking that away from me so arbitrarily is very disappointing for a company like blizzard that use to care about its consumers.
MVPs are other players. I don’t work for Blizzard and never have.
The only solution is to put in a ticket and ask them to verify if you actually broke the rules. If so, they uphold the suspension.
Please be aware, the penalty used to be much harsher. They used to outright ban people permanently for breaking the rules. One week is actually about as short as they get on Suspensions. It is a first time penalty for a minor infraction.
While they did announce it on the forums to make sure everyone was aware of the rules, there is a formal Support Article about it.
This just comes down to an unfortunate situation. You did break the rules and are going to have to deal with the consequences if your appeals are not granted.
Much like real life, not knowing about the rules, does not mean you are immune from consequences.
16 players we will not able to raid tomorrow because you banned our tank… How is this fair punishment without a warning for a returning player? Shadowlands is attracting a lot of returning veterans and the rules or punishments are not outlined clearly. Are we suppose to go read every forum post?
For Era’s case, no runs were sold and no gold was exchanged and he quickly stopped advertising, so I don’t really understand how this merits anything more then a warning.
I did not ban anyone. Again, I don’t work for Blizzard. I am here to answer questions and explain policy.
The EULA and the rules articles are what they consider warnings. The one week suspension is also a warning. They used to perma ban for any infraction other than minor chat ones.
Asking on the forums for a suspension to be overturned won’t work. There are no GMs here, or in WoW Customer Support where I directed era to ask about policies.
The ONLY means to appeal, is via ticket. If a person broke the rules they will uphold it.
Keep in mind, selling runs for gold is fine, it is advertising on the Group finder that is not. Overall though, players really really don’t like advertising spam and tend to heavily report it.
You don’t get to determine who posts on the forums or in a thread.
The information I gave you was accurate, you just don’t like to hear it. That does not change it though.
You were told how to reach Blizzard specifically. For an appeal you put in a ticket. To ask about Policy or how to navigate the system, Customer Support Forum. (The Forums are all handled by other players, but the CS forum does have Blizzard moderation during some work hours.) You were provided all that in my first response. If you wanted to talk directly to Blizz you have that chance.
I did already have this information myself. You provided 0 added value and are both repetitive and lack any critical thinking. I would also like to invite you to the real world where the set of rules and rigidity of Carthesian robots like yourself are driving players away. Do you think someone who has not played the game in 5 years is like, hey let me go read all the updated set of rules I can’t wait !!! Unlike this unpaid moderator clown, people have jobs and do not have unlimited time on their hands. This is a game I play for fun period, not to get some kind of self worth (hint hint). I want to have a discussion on how blizzard treats it’s returning players harshly.
I want to start a more broad discussion on how blizzard treats returning players and how it’s costumer service levels have decreased. You can’t even get them on the phone anymore and the individuals you talk to are basically robots. Again, not appropriate for a company listed on the nasdaq. I am going to call the activation customer service and ask them why they allow their paying costumers to be suspended without warning? Does that add any shareholder value ?
Starting a discussion about the current rules/punishments is fine. However, this forum is for feedback for the game launcher, not for World of Warcraft (or any of the games). If you want to discuss, please post in WoW’s General Discussion forum.
If you chose to, to avoid forum code of conduct violations:
Don’t directly refer to your or anyone else’s specific account action. Stick to feedback/suggestions on the general rules/punishments. Even just mentioning that you were actioned is grounds for the thread’s deletion and/or forum action against you.
Leave out disparaging comments and tone. Frustration is understandable, but it’s not license to attack others if you don’t agree with them.
As an aside, it’s certainly your prerogative to call Activision, but understand that WoW is Blizzard Entertainment’s game. Activision Publishing has no jurisdiction over WoW so you will not find what you are looking for there.
MVPs have no moderation powers. They literally only have green text.
They treat all customers they same. They are all held to the same rules and standards. New, old, returning, etc.
You never could for appeals, game suggestions, complaints, etc. Phone support is for Billing, Account support (lost password/Authenticator), and some Tech Support options. All other issues are handled via Ticket to GMs. These days they do a call back if your issue is one that warrants phone support. Before the pandemic they also had live chat hours. Those are restricted these days with work from home. Again though, appeals have NEVER been something you can “argue” with a live person. You put in a ticket and that is the only way to appeal.
Why? Because if they let suspended and banned players “argue” with live CS the players tend to get abusive. When people don’t get the answer they want they sometimes attack and disparage others. (This thread is an example). Blizzard won’t subject their staff to that kind of treatment.
Activision does not run Blizzard’s games. Your warning is the EULA, rules articles, and the fact you only got a 1 week suspension instead of 6 months or a perma ban.
Yes, it stops behavior that Blizzard and other players find disruptive. Other players dislike advertising in the Group Finder and reported you. Keeping the majority happy is in fact good for player retention.
No need to, era. Depending on the type of account action, not being able to post on the forums is intended. Since it appears that it the case with your suspension, you’d need to wait until it expires before taking your concerns to the forums.
That’s a rather strange leap. Despite having it pointed out to you several times that we have nothing to do with the creation, implementation or enforcement of the rules, you seem to want to continue believing that we do. All we’ve done here is explain how things work and advise you. And I am sorry but simply not liking the information/answers given doesn’t make it toxic.
It’s fine to be upset, era; however, know who it is that you’re upset with rather than needlessly lashing out at whomever is at arm’s length.
Not factually true. I was given a 24hr silence for using gibberish characters to self filter profanity used in a comical celebratory way, while I have seen blues just edit other players use of full unfiltered profanity without issuing bans in the process.
I wasn’t aware that self filtering could result in a ban, but it did, they refused to overturn, but ultimately it didn’t cost me my trust level 3 so I quickly stopped caring.
More on topic, this thread is a pleasant confirmation that report on WTS ads in group finder actually result in actions at least some of the time. Thats pretty cool to know.
I think that blizzard has completely lost touch with its end users and costumer service. They are a public company and the goal of any public company is to maximise shareholder value (increase revenue and margins while decreasing costs). That’s fine with me but if you take too many shortcuts you hurt your reputation long term (e.g Warcraft 3 reforged release fiasco). Case and point for wow; empowering players who are unpaid to do a paid community manager’s job - glorified hall minored who only serve one purpose: linking posts at you of rules no one reads because hello, this is a game not real life. Again, At the end of the day this is a game, the user will spend money if they are enjoying it. The rules are exhaustive and I guarantee you that 99% of the playerbase who have lives and jobs do not read the rules. And, eventually, they will end up doing something that isn’t in line with these rules. What I did was completely a victimless crime, if you can’t see why I think there is an issue of no one on the gm or forums side being able to recognize that for the good of the playerbase, empowered people with critical thinking ability (not mvps) need to be able to make judgement calls.
I’ve actually talked to a few players about the MVP program and everyone has expressed the same opinion: they have an inflated sense of self importance gained form those green letters who don’t help if there is an actual issue aside from linking the rule book (which you really do well). Since you took part of this program to help the game, I suggest you reflect on how you can actually do so more effectively instead of essentially being unpaid and glorified hall monitors. Again I think you are the byproduct of a witty scheme for blizzard to avoid paying extra salaries whether you realize it or not.
This game use to be about players and community and there is no sense of that anymore from what I can see on the forums or mmo-champion. People like Lore who were great on building a community with common sense rules and calling out blizzard on rules or changes that didn’t make sense to the core playerbase. He should be empowered to review the user experience. Rant over gg
It still is. The players complained a LOT about advertising in the Group Finder. Blizzard listened. They made it a punishable offense. You got reported by players. Players who Blizzard values.
Your suspension is a direct result of Blizzard listening to their community and their community reporting you.
I know him and have chatted IRL several times. He is still a Community Manager even though he is mostly in an off forum role at this point. He is well aware of what the Community wants and has input on that with those who do make the rules. I think if you talked to him you would find that 1. the community asked for advertising in Group to stop. 2. A one week suspension is a very light punishment compared to what they have done in the past.
Feel free to post on WoW General when you can to suggest that the punishment for Advertising in Group finder be changed. That is the place to make suggestions - Lore might even see it there!
