Hey there everyone, I’ve come to explain my case and wonder if anyone else had gone through the same, I’ve gotten hit with a ban on reset day for “Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks)”. I have never used such a thing for playing this game, so its really confused me to figure out what triggered it, I’ve been playing this game pretty much every single day for the past 3 years, using 3 accounts that I pay subs for to help farm achievements, mounts etc, I use all of these accounts pretty much every single week for such things for quite a while now, yet only my main has been hit with a ban. I’ve been farming the event like a maniac to be fair running 35+ chars per week through every chore possible, the only possible way I can think I was banned was from mass reporting which in my appeal they have never mentioned. I am not a competitive player in this game at all and just love farming stuff, unless some weakaura I was using wasn’t allowed I really cannot think of what hit my account besides reporting. I’m a very quiet person ingame and really avoid talking to anyone often at all which is why its even more confusing if I got mass reported, I did just come out of a korrok’s revenge not long before it happened (which we won) and was afk at honor vendor after. I really cannot for the life of me understand what this game exactly picked up and thats why I’m bringing it here. I really love this game and have had my account since 2005, the fact they really believe I cheated kinda blows my mind. I know just playing the game doesn’t mean anything but the fact only 1 of my bnet accs got hit for this makes me very confused.
I woud really like some info onto what is actually considered “Exploitative Activity” in this case because it never mentioned stuff like botting in the email, I really appreciate any info that can be given on this topic & anything I can do to help my case
First mass reporting is not a thing. Even if it happened it would just get things investigated sooner, does not mean 40 reports on someone botting gets them banned.
They look at the logs and watch your activity. What you had been doing at the time might have zero to do with the ban. Investigations to ban accounts do not go super fast
To get to the meat of it: There isn’t anything to help with besides telling you to appeal. They only look at their logs. Nothing you bring would be taken into account of the appeal system.
Also, your post has a lot of fluff to it and feels slap together as it doesn’t seem like they’re not overly connected to one another.
The moment someone mentions “mass reporting”, my thoughts immediately go to “they know exactly what they did, and they are using an excuse that bot makers are telling them to use to try to get out of it”. I have NEVER ONCE seen that argument even attempted to be used in good faith. Because it’s something that obviously does not exist.
1 report or 100 reports, all are investigated and if evidence is found that the account violated the terms of service, then a penalty is applied, but it only takes 1 report. Mass reports, even if it does happen, does not lead to an automatic ban. Every report is investigated by a GM.
Now, since you mention that your ban was due to hacks / cheats, then it’s entirely possible that it wasn’t even a report that triggered it. Blizzards internal system, Warden, most likely picked up a program on your computer that can be used to automate gameplay.
You mention that you have multiple accounts. Do you multibox? If so, streamlining and automating any portion of controlling multiple accounts is against the Terms of Service. If you use any program, including keyboard or mouse software that can make multiboxing easier, including something as simple as using the scroll wheel on your mouse to switch screens, that is a no no. Each account must be controlled individually with 1 action = 1 keypress and you must use alt + tab to switch screens or move between multiple monitors manually.
Edit: All you can do is appeal. An appeal isn’t an opportunity to plead your case, but to have another GM review the logs and data to see if their findings are correct.
Yep it really feels like they’re using a script that’s been given to them. Because anyone who plays the game legitimately knows there is no such thing as “mass reporting” or “cartels” or anything like that. The only thing “mass reporting” can ever result in is a temporary chat squelch. And I have only ever seen that happen once in the history of the game (other than to gold spammers which is what it’s intended for), and that was very much done intentionally. And the person involved got suspended for deliberately abusing the reporting system.
I do not multibox, when I mention using other accounts I just mean I run them through raids for mounts n such, other than that the accounts are never used
the only reason I brought up mass reporting is because only my main account got hit when I use all 3 of my accounts all the time for stuff, if whatever was running was really the problem why is only 1 of my accounts getting hit
Blizzard has anti-cheat software like almost every other big game company. It looks for programs and behavior that match the parameters the Hacks team has programmed into it. That software gets updated just like antivirus software to look for the latest cheating or automation.
“Mass reporting” is not going to do anything except maybe flag an account for review faster. It can’t auto ban you.
People pay monthly (or on various plans) to play. Allowing “mass reports” to cause paid accounts to be suspended or closed would make no logical sense. They don’t WANT to penalize and close accounts. It costs them money. They do it only if their detection criteria actually detects something against the rules.
There CAN be false positives though. Just like antivirus software can have a false positive. That is what appeals are for. If you feel you did not break the rules - automation, exploiting bugs, botting, etc - appeal. You can appeal until they tell you that it has crossed into GM harassment. Just be polite.
It might have been the account you were playing at the time that triggered Warden and they didn’t look at the other accounts.
I would take a good look at what you have on your system that could have triggered it. Any software that can automate or streamline the game in any way, even if it’s not used for WoW, can be a problem. If you’ve downloaded anything just to take a look at it, for another game, or it might even be something you use for work. Some of the popular ones, but not limited to this list, are AutoHotKey, ISBoxer, or any Key Cloning software. Basically, anything that broadcasts across multiple accounts or can function more than 1 ability per keypress.
I do really appreciate insight into this, it explains more so why I got hit on reset day if its updated consistently
it does make a lot of sense that mass reporting would just ruin the game by people abusing it in that aspect, I’ve just heard a lot of stories so I just started to believe the same and my situation just made it even weirder I guess
I am doing my best to send an appeal, I’m sending everything I possibly can I really do believe I was hit with some false positive, thank you again for giving me info on this means a lot, I haven’t sent that many but will keep trying
I think you either misunderstood what Mirasol said or not understanding what she typed - she didn’t said player reports did this, it’d be a program from Blizzard that triggered this.
I’ve tried looking through stuff and really can’t think of what I am running that is really a red flag of “automation”, I run wallpaper engine and goxlr app, windhawk, translucentTB, yolomouse all for taskbar, mic, desktop stuff
I’ve even been on my other accounts prior to this and they play just fine
Also, with the exception of chat violations, account actions are typically not for something that just happened. Investigations for exploitation can take weeks, sometimes months.
I did understand what she was meaning, when I said " it explains more so why I got hit on reset day if its updated consistently" I was meaning the warden probably got updated on reset day
Eh, people have been using yolomouse forever for accessibility reasons to find the cursor. It does not change the game textures or graphics in a way that gives people an advantage. You are right that changing the graphics for the game is not allowed, but that particular one has never triggered any issues that I am aware of.