Note: I will be referencing this thread in any future communication with GM’s should my account get sanctioned due to this move. I am aware that GM’s may or may not use this as further testament to my good intentions. But at a bare minimum in case they do, I thought it prudent to at least announce my innocent intentions preemptively so that there is as much of a “paper trail” as possible to help prove my innocence in this matter.
As some of you may or may not be aware, Microsoft support for Windows 10 ends this October. As I have no interest in moving to Windows 11 and have been increasingly exasperated by the terrible things Microsoft has been doing to the Windows platform over the last several years, I have been testing various Linux distros in preparation of transitioning to one of those instead. I have narrowed down my options to one of the flavours of Debian (likely an Ubuntu variant due to its wide compatibility and larger support base than most other distros).
As we all know, WoW is not officially supported on Linux. As a result, I will be forced to use either Steam’s Proton or WINE emulation in order to get it functioning. I may or may not be successful. However, assuming I am, I am quite concerned that Warden (WoW’s built in anticheat detection software) will inadvertently misinterpret these emulation methods as some form of cheating and thus flag my account for suspension, even when I have not partaken in any form of cheating or exploitive activity at all.
I do not know if any of you have successfully transition to playing WoW on Linux or not (if you have I would be interested to know your experiences).
This is correct, but as active a thread as we had the last time WoW had a pretty big update (I want to say no more than a month ago?), Wine was a pretty substantial commonality between all the posters in that thread.
You can find it somewhere over in Tech Support, if I recall.
But do also bear in mind that those threads are not a guarantee Linux won’t be forbidden in the future should it change in such a way that conflicts with rules and development.
So the thing about linux while its allowed its not supported.
I would strongly advise against emulation if u cant do it within wows built in system its not a good idea to look for shortcuts.
Also the hacks squad dont come here they dont look for why ur using emulation or the reason its black and white if it looks like ur breaking the rules they will shoot first and let u apeal later simple as that.
That won’t work though. They won’t consider this thread in any decisions they make. Sadly people set up alibis, cover stories, and false context for things all the time. Blizzard goes on data, and only data.
Warden has been known to flag false positives though and with the zillion flavors of Linux out there, that is always a possibility. Rare, but a possibility.
You are 100% correct that Linux is not supported, but it is also not against the rules. You are free to use it and get it working if you can. Many people do and have no issues with it.
Any Warden flags would be dealt with on a case by case basis, if it happens. Unlikely, but nobody can say “never”.
Quite likely, but they did knock out a fix for a rare Max-specific crash in short order. That doesn’t happen for PC users; most general population bugs are never fixed.
If it’s one dev, it’s apparently the only dev that still cares.
I’m not sure why, the hacks team will not see it, and the only evidence of cheating used in sanctions is what the server log provides.
Plenty of players do use Linux, but not all flavors support a wow install, so likely you will want to research heavily which is more friendly. I know many just went through install issues in tech support, but it’s not supported, so any issues are going to be between you and other users of that linux version.
The policies o chat havent changed over the years frankly people have became too complacent with being toxic. Guess what toxocity has always been reportable and actionable including masled language.
The fear comes from people not understanding, or wanting to understand explanations on how Blizzard account penalties work. Even moreso if they get banned, so they seek validation, this often from very dubious YT, reddit or other sources who provide no proof for what they state.
The result of that is some mish-mash conspiracy theory, that can’t be stopped anymore and keeps re-appearing. There was a guy who kept spamming he and his guild mates got penalised for mass reporting. When I asked for proof or sources, they could not even provide a penalty email from himself, or his “guildmates”.
It was like he just read it happen to someone and then somehow perceived it, as if happening to himself.
It has always been this way. They have been closing account for cheating since 2004. People have been “afraid” to get in trouble since 2004. Because people either try to skirt the rules, or want to be jerks to others without consequences. False positives do also happen, so that concern is valid as well.
No you did not. The rules in place now are the same as they were in 2004. I can quote them and link you if you want. What is different, is that reporting is easier now and captures the player info and chat logs. It used to take a manual ticket. Nobody should be swearing at people, insulting, harassing, etc. Never were allowed to do that and if caught people got in trouble. Note that people whinged about it then too and cried that it was unfair they had to follow rules.
It does not qualify as a cheat. They are afraid it will pop a false positive on Warden.
The fear is based off a 2006 false positive for some Linux software that was reversed by Blizzard.
“World of Warcraft players using Cedega (the Linux-based Windows emulator) had their bans lifted after an investigation by Blizzard in cooperation with the Cedega development team revealed that the bans were in fact made in error.”
As Blizzard has said many times. Using Linux is not against the rules. Cheating is against the rules, regardless of operating system. People tried to use “but it was just Linux I was not actually cheating” as an excuse later on…and that did not hold up at all. There was one false positive incident with Linux, but the rest were valid.
Linux is not a cheat program but there is always the possibility some how an account could get flagged. Yet I have used linux for a long while with out any issues
Our detection system does not flag just any unusual program; rather, it follows specific criteria established by our Hacks team based on their thorough investigations into various exploitative programs.
As for your question, Trustlvlfour, the best response I can offer is what you have already stated yourself.
Linux is not a supported operating system, but it is also not explicitly prohibited. Beyond that, I don’t have much more to add. I would recommend consulting the Linux community for any guidance you may need in using it.
A question asked out of an abundance of caution does not imply a lack of understanding on our part of cheating or how most exploitative programs operate. To clarify, players who are not engaging in exploitation should have no concerns regarding account actions.
There is a significant amount of misinformation circulating, some of it speculative and fueling rumors, while other instances are deliberately introduced to undermine confidence in our investigation and detection methods. Individuals who have been caught using illicit programs often contribute to these narratives in an attempt to discredit enforcement efforts.
While mistakes may occasionally occur, the appeals process exists to address such instances. Our goal is to minimize disruptions for legitimate players, as there is no advantage for us in taking unwarranted action against them.
