I’m reaching out with a mix of frustration and hope. On 3/14/24, while playing, my account was hit with a ban for alleged “botting.” I want to be crystal clear: I’ve never used bots or third-party software. My commitment to WoW’s integrity and fair play is unwavering.
I get why Blizzard fights bots – we all want a fair game. But it seems my account was wrongly flagged. I work from home, WoW often runs in the background. Yes, my character might auto-walk into walls when I’m away, but that’s not botting. That’s life interrupting.
I’ve also been battling Error #132, leading to frequent restarts – could this have looked suspicious? Maybe, but it’s a far cry from cheating.
My play hours are consistent: 9 AM to 12 AM MST, never past midnight. I’m not some 24/7 operation; I’m just a regular player who loves this game.
I’m frustrated, yes, but I understand the need for strict rules. I’m asking for a fair review of my case. Let’s correct this mistake so I can get back to Azeroth.
I play multiple accounts, the fact that I was on one account doing mail actions while the other was standing in the Barrens is just bizarre.
Yeah I get that, it just caught me off guard. Playing a warlock, sitting in the Barrens. And then poof. That account has 1000’s of hours. Across retail, classic, classic era. It’s a big blow…
It would depend on how you’re multi-boxing too. You can’t use anything to automate or streamline multi-boxing, including programmable mice and keyboards, auto focus on windows etc.
Probably nothing to do with the infraction as it takes time to investigate before account action is applied.
I do yeah, I use auto hotkey to help automate some work tasks. But I’ve never used it for WoW before. It’s normally open on my tab.
I don’t multibox in that way, mostly it’s different accounts doing different things. Like flying somewhere so I’ll hop on the other to do something else, or letting it auto run so I can do that as well. Especially because in SoD it’s all running.
To be honest, I’m not really sure how that works. Are you saying that it’s looking for programs in the background? I have services that run for work constantly in the background to do different things, autohotkey is one of them. Is that a banned program or something?
Warden is Blizzard’s anti-cheat detection software. It runs on your PC, hidden, and looks for a list of programs etc that can (and have) been used to automate game play.
Auto hotkey is quite a well known one.
That could well be why your account was flagged and actioned.
It’s typically used for things like cheating in video games. If you were indeed running it, then it’s unlikely that you’ll see your account action reversed unfortunately.
Dual boxing, what I thought it was at least, was two accounts that played together no? I’ve never used software to do that. In fact I almost never had the accounts opened to the same instance of the game. One would be in Wotlk and the other in SoD for example. But 99% of the time not in the same instance of the game, unless I was transferring gold or something.
The scripting programs have legitimate use. I automate repetitive tasks such as data entry, generating reports, or updating project status in various tools like Excel and Smartsheet. So being able to click one key that can do that for me is better for my time, I wasn’t aware that it was a banned program that could simply been seen in the background and use it to terminate my account.
There is no progression of nothing to I did something. I’ve done nothing but what I have been doing for years now. So this action seems… harsh.
I think the biggest problem is that 9 outta 10 times its something you are doing but, like you not realizing “Wow anti cheat looks for scripting and automation software means Auto Hotkey is a target” you may be doing things you don’t realize are banned actions.
For the 1 outta 10 or less that aren’t cheating and got a legitmate false ban, then your best option is to open a ticket and keep trying until you get unbanned.
WoW customer support generally doesn’t expedite ban appeals because of forum posts, or this forum would just become a ban appeals board.
I appreciate the perspective. I’ll do just that. I posted here because I wanted perspective and perhaps a bit of visibility. I don’t post here almost ever and haven’t visited frequently in over 10 years I think. So I wasn’t aware of any protocol or what could or might help.
Its all good - Technically posting about account actions itself is a violation here, but this board specifically has leniency so that people like you can find the right place to go.
As for another thing, I just read a Blizz post where it was made apparent that a person, banned yesterday, was banned for actions taken on February 8th. So just keep in mind, whatever the action was, it could literally be over a month ago.
Interesting. Well, not that much. I haven’t done much to be different from my current routine in a long time. Other than moving in the past few months I’ve pretty much had the same routine. I’ll keep trying, I appreciate the help.
Here’s my suggestion, get a win box with a reasonable video card. On that box play wow. You’ll need space for 2 keyboards and mice (don’t kvm switch), do that at your workspace. You shouldn’t be gaming on a box you presumably remote into important stuff on anyway. That should be tight and clean. Further, keep your gaming box clean and lean, just wow and if you use discord, etc. This prevents any conflict of interest from either direction: wow fun/distraction, business work.
And if your company comes knocking asking why your account did XYZ, you won’t have to explain the various gaming software and who knows what else you have running all the time. Seperate the zones, and keep 'em tight and clean, as lean as possible.
Finally, if you cannot multibox with out catching suspensions and bans, I strongly suggest you stop doing that. One account is more than enough to play world of warcraft at even the highest or most casual of levels.
Anyway, good luck. Do appeal. But I’d consider a seperate win box for your games.
I had an autoclicker on my computer for the longest time, and I never got any account actions. I only used it for Cookie Clicker (and some other clicker games), obviously never for WOW. And I eventually got rid of it months ago because it was no longer needed - the Steam version of Cookie Clicker has its own built in addons that click things in that game.
I wouldn’t think the mere presence of such things would cause an action, if you weren’t using it to automate gameplay in WOW. Either way we can only speculate and that’s generally not productive.
Unfortunately, it was determined the original findings are correct and we will not be lifting the ban on your WoW 4 license.
If you have any software on your system for other games - or even work, that does any sort of automation, I’d strongly recommend you not have that active when playing WoW.
Thank you.
That was the response, so it very well may have been that the autoclicking software was the cause. But I didn’t use it for the game… this is very frustrating.
One of things Warden does is examine running processes on your computer. If AutoHotKey is running while you’re playing WoW, even if it you’re not using it to play WoW, Warden will detect it.
It’s in the EULA that you’ve agreed to, I’m afraid. #4 is the cincher. Anything that CAN be used - not necessarily that you’re actively using it.
I’m sorry this caught up with you, but it’s something that has been seen enough coming here to CS where AHK was the culprit that it’s one of the first things folks will ask if one has it on their system - no matter why they have it on their computer or how it’s being used.
