A returning players awful experience (account locked)

Support Customer Support
1

I have played wow off and on since vanilla. I am not in my mid 30’s, and very busy. I decided to try coming back to retail after seeing a video on how I can start Season 4 with a character boost, and get into arenas relatively quickly. First, I found it confusing how to play in the Eu. But ended up buying a new game id, under a new email.

Many of you know it’s a massive undertaking to try and start playing wow again after years off. I spent hours and hours watching videos to figure out what to play in arena, hours more to figure out how to play the character I chose (balance druid), hours and hour setting up my macros and bars for arenas, and all my addons. I had invested probably 7-8 hours before I could even start playing. I then realized solo shuffle Q’s for dps were quite long… so I bit the bullet, and started over with a new character boost, and did the same thing over again with a holy priest. You must understand, I barely take a weekend off to do anything “fun”. I decided to go “all-in” on wow this weekend. I did get that character geared, and arena ready. I had multiple technical errors along the way that made me want to quite (all keybindings and macros deleted twice on Dc’s… which is major when you have arena123, and party 123 bound to everything). I also had to spend an hour trying to get authenticator to work, so I could use group finder fully (never got it to work). At some point I was laughing to myself in so much frustration, at how much time I had spent to get rolling (I bought a skill-capped membership aswell, to try and catch up). By sunday evening, I felt like I was finally on a roll. I had everything setup, and had addons tuned in (including addons to stop party1,2,3 from mixing up everygame). My macros and keybinds weren’t randomly disappearing, and I was nearly 1600! yay… Then I get dc’d… only to see a notifcation that my account is locked.

I put in a ticket, and get an automated response (10 hrs later). That just gave me a link to TOS and said I was suspended (no timer telling me how long) for breaching the TOS. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was… and figured it was just friendly fire on their automated system (unless it was my characters name “trainme” which got mistaken for something inappropriate. I was sort of at a boiling point after spending my entire weekend just getting “ready to play” and that un-explained suspension really pissed me off. I asked for more clarity “when do I get my account back? What did I do? Is there anything I need to do to get it back? DO I just wait?” no response. No timer… just “account locked” … What did I do? I bought ANOTHER full game on a new account… but this time, the character boost came with a “internal error” when I tried to use it… I bought 2 more character boost tokens, trying to figure out what was wrong. Same internal error.

I scoured the forums for how to get my first account back, that had my geared characters, with all their keybinds setup, and full honor gear…

I found out, that just saying a swear at all (even just saying “****, I sucked that round”. Can get me suspended… So I think I solved the mystery on why that account is gone.

Second account issue? I need to wait up to 72 hours to use the wow character boost I bought.

Wow… wow…wow.

I have probably spent $10,000 on wow subs over the last 18 years… I can’t even figure out how to play the game.

  • My solution for blizzard. You are going to suspend people for saying a swear? okay, great. How about instead of a profanity filter, a pop-up that reminds or informs players that their account will be suspended for using profanity in any context… So simple, so easy… and not going to hemorrhage players. My next advice? Explain to the player why their account was suspended!!! Duh? What is going on internally that this process has turned into what it is. It seems vindictive to customers, more orientated to wielding “punishments” then finding solutions to a problem (if no swearing is the goal? just dont let messages with those words get sent… and give a pop-up…).

On the other issue? How often do payments not go through? I have to wait maybe 3 more days to try and play again (on the second full game I have purchased in 3 days btw). Why are there so many things in place to completely kill the momentum of a new or returning player. I am the audience for something like the character boost I imagine. A player that would return, to hop into the game, and get rolling. It’s hard enough to get started with everything going smoothly. So many hours of 3rd party resources, and addons just to begin grasping how to get started. It’s a waning commitment to even try… make it accessible. And don’t operate with apparent disdain and disinterest to your customers. Not even explaining why their suspended, and for how long?

(Just typing that last part again makes my blood boil… how is something like that allowed to continue in customer service).

1 Like
2

Hiya! I’m sorry you’ve had such a frustrating experience – I can guarantee that’s not the intention. It does sound like you were hoping for some more transparency than you were seeing.

Regarding the initial suspension – there should had been an e-mail sent to your account, detailing the length of the suspension, as well as a general explanation why. I think it starts out at a couple of days though I’m sure someone else will be able to clarify.

Sometimes the e-mail gets trapped in the spam bin.

There’s also a warning that’s supposed to appear if multiple people start reporting your messages, though just the warning itself doesn’t culminate in account action.

Assuming the suspension was due to language … I need to point out that these sorts of message blocks don’t really work. You mentioned playing since Vanilla – do you remember the Susan Express spam? It went from .com to (.)com to _dot_c0m and so on?

I once worked out that I could write just the three letters “wtf” in close to a hundred different ways, before getting fancy with separators and whatnot.

I suspect you may’ve hit the anti-fraud system… stolen credit cards being fed through Blizzard is, unfortunately, a pretty common occurence.

6 Likes
3

I suppose I am not talking about the solution to all bad actors who will do anything to get around the rules… But a warning to avoid the issue for players that just aren’t aware could be done easily on the common spellings. I would have needed simply needed to understand that a curse word in any context is against the rules, and would never have typed another one. I actually am not aware of that issue. I have like… 300 days play time on my main account and actually didn’t know swearing of any kind wasn’t allowed. Or I forgot (which is possible). I will just say, this as been such an overwhelmingly disappointing experience for someone who just wants to play the game… and can’t figure out a way to. I checked my email multiple times, checked spam, etc, I can’t find anything. It also is possible that not why I am suspended. But I assume It must be after reading some other forum posts.

  • As for anti-fraud. I bought the wow upgrade multiple times, with multiple forms of payment… just want to play the game.
4

The suspension thing – again, assuming it was language – is a recent-ish change. I’m sorry you were caught unawares.

Blizzard’s continually trying different things to promote a cleaner environment; at present they’re trying a more hardline approach.

Prior to this, they’d tried rolling out a social contract. Before that, they just stacked silences (whilst allowing people to continue playing – we’ve had people posting in here about 6 month silences. They weren’t very nice people.).

Anyway, I’m just another player so I have no concrete insight into what’s happened with your account. If Vrakthris or Orlyia have some time later today, maybe they can shed some light on your predicament.

I need to turn in. Cheers.

4 Likes
5

if you blindly click “agree” without reading what you agreed to, you’d ignore a pop-up in the same way.

:woman_shrugging:

12 Likes
6

You mean like the TOS you clicked “I Agree” to and the social contract reminder you got when playing the first time? Something like that? If you’ve played since vanilla, you know that sort of language is a no go.

8 Likes
8

No it’s not since that’s not what word means.

9 Likes
9

Like the Social Contract that new and returning players have to read in-game and accept before they can load up a character for the first time after it’s introduction? And then periodically after that?

The one that takes a maximum of two minutes? :thinking:

17 Likes
11

You could always get suspended for language. The only semi-recent change is how quickly it happens. It used to take a lot longer, but now it’s the penalty for a 2nd offense, as less strict penalties proved to be ineffective.

10 Likes
13

You want us not to say that ignorance is no excuse as well?

Good thing that there is a social contract, which is a summary of the terms of use, that pops ups too (and periodically).

Stop trying to deflect…

12 Likes
14

“Read the ToS” is not gaslighting, and any empathy I might have had for your circumstances has been rescinded due to misuse of that word as a bludgeon to demonize someone disagreeing with you.

“Studies” about people reading/not reading ToS are absolutely meaningless here and not a defense to not read or agree with a ToS.

10 Likes
15

Here is the social contract… look at this? I am busy. You start reading it… and it’s like “okay okay I get it, have fun and be nice”. I will fix it seeing as you can randomly get your account suspended for saying a curse word - New social contract “DO NOT SWEAR OR YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE SUSPENDED”. I don’t have time to read through stuff like what they have below. Even if you made it to the end of the social contract, it is completely unreasonable to assume a reading of that would be suspension of swearing regardless of context…

Hail, traveler, and welcome to the [World of Warcraft] is a living world full of people like you - other players with different backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and histories who have all come together to play World of Warcraft. Every player deserves to have a world that they feel safe in, so please take a minute to read our Social Contract.

While in Azeroth, do your best to:

  • Connect with other players and make friends! Being courteous in group content can help you and your teammates have the best time possible. Sending a friendly hello message can help set your group up for success.
  • Play as a team with your fellow players - whether in [dungeons] or out [questing]n the world. Do your best to support your team through your communication and behaviors so that you can all celebrate your success together.
  • Assist other players that you encounter in the world. Maybe they need some help defeating a tough or maybe they could use a little
  • Help answer questions others have in chat channels We were all newbies once - one person offering some help can go a long way!

We recognize that the Internet is not always a safe haven. With that in mind, please note that the following behaviors are not accepted in Azeroth:

  • Hate speech, including negative comments that target another player’s identity, including aspects like race, gender, or ability
  • Harassment, threats, or abusive / derogatory language and behaviors
  • Spamming, advertising, or other disruptive behaviors
  • If you harm your fellow [adventurers] with any of the above behaviors, you are subject to punishment up to and including suspension of your account.

It’s a big world out there, with all sorts of people in it. So please try to be respectful of each other, and if you ever feel like somebody is acting against this code, please report those behaviors so that our team can look into it. Together, you can help us make the World of Warcraft a safe home away from home for everyone.

16

No, it’s completely unreasonable for you to think that ignorance is a defense.

Swearing and profanity have always been against the rules. How you’ve played 300 days played and not known this is beyond us.

Face it - even if Blizzard changes the pop up, you’d have skimmed it too.

13 Likes
17

none?

i want to know what i’m agreeing to.

even though it clearly states:

?

swearing has never been permitted.
having played previously, i’m sure you’d already be aware of that.

14 Likes
18

Well, fortunately I am not looking for your sympathy. I am addressing what I think is an unreasonable system to deal with the desired outcome. It doesn’t seem like this is trying to target abusive toxic behaviour… it’s literally just trying to suspend someone who types a swear word. Plenty of players will do that without knowing it’s against the rules. If you want to stop it, so many better ways in my view… had I known, I wouldnt have sunk my entire weekend away, only to not be able to play, to type a swear word…

20

How is a swear word harming your fellow adventurers? So many people don’t have a world view that a swear is harmful… That takes a very explicit belief about swears to interpret that way. And no, I didn’t know. Hence why I wrote all of this…

Finally, it appears you have never signed up for something without reading all of the TOS. So I guess I may not be being gaslighted, I might just be talking to the handful of people who read every tos of everything they use in full. Unlucky me I guess

21

I read them too.

Caveat Emptor.

5 Likes
26

Literally always been against the rules.

It’s against the rules in pretty much every video game ever.

6 Likes
28

so you DO remember that swearing is against the rules.

I don’t think anyone said that suspensions have been the standard punishment since the start, in fact… someone even clarified that suspensions were a relatively new punishment.

your “world views” aren’t taken into account.

7 Likes
29

Or after a long career in financial services and compliance, I always read the fine print.

While it may surprise you that people do, please don’t assume you know me.

11 Likes