Yes, thats why almost all the twinks caught up in this have got their accounts back, some got apologies and game time. Warden or whatever Blizzard uses these days flagged a bunch of innocent people
Not trying to talk in absolutes here but I don’t fully believe this as people are still reporting they’re being threatened with full bnet acct deletions / bans if they submit further appeals. I think the time for clarification from Blizzard is long since past and it’s saddening to still not know what caused this / what they’re doing to fix the false bans.
Super late to the party but got a link for that by chance?
Blizz does this more and more frequently - change the game/policies without ever bothering to post the changes. The reason is that if they were to post the changes, they would also need to justify them, and they can’t do that, so they just skip the communication stage. I have been hoping that MS would bring an end to this, as it’s incredibly damaging to the game, and very unprofessional behavior on the part of likely a very few people at Blizz.
Exploiting has always been against the ToS.
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Exploiting by who’s definition? The very word is a slippery slope. Is queing for a group “Exploiting”? Is leaving a group “Exploiting”? Is joining a group “Exploiting”?
The number of “Exploiting Experts” who magically flooded the forums after this hit was amazing.
The REALITY is that none of the Exploiting Experts were anything more than people either pushing an opinion or an agenda…
At the end of the day, it’s BLIZZARD that will determine what an exploit is or isn’t, they banned a bunch of people with pretty much zero explanation, and to date have reversed the vast majority of those bans, and even still has remained silent both on why for the bans and why the reversal.
Clearly the exploit experts on the forums were left with nothing to back up their expert opinions.
Blizzard hasn’t been clear on anything… my personal opinion (and i got little more than Blizzards history of perma bans to go on) is that they were looking to do a mass bot ban wave and went overboard, then quietly said “oops” and reversed the lions share.
Blizzard’s history is permaban bots and smaller bans for anything else… as for macros, Blizzard tends to ban macros they don’t like, not the paying subscriber.
Blizzard is who determines things in the end, and they haven’t explained anything.
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Do you ever get the feeling that online sometimes it’s like trying to explain calculus to labradoodles?
As you allude to, there’s nuance here because interpretation is required. The ideal principle that we’re going for is that players should understand what’s OK and what isn’t so there is a predcitably of outcome.
Example: a few months ago, Blizzard cut off access for F2P/Vet accounts to warbanks. This had been allowed for months. Blizzard can’t claim ignorance because they fixed a F2P/Vet issue with gold cap and warbanks very early on.
Now imagine Blizzard instead decided that F2P/Vet accounts access the warbank was exploitation because you were bypassing the limits on those accounts and they started banning people. There would be people on here, such as the person you’re replying to, who would defend that decision without thought or pause with comments like “exploitation was always against ToS”.
That’s because many people are incapable or unwilling to understand principles and the application thereof. It’s simply team sports. If they benefit from the “exploitation” then it’s bad if Blizzard bans for it. If they don’t, it’s good. Why? Because their “enemies” are being punished. And that’s all that’s going on.
F2Ps accessing the warbank is really no different to people solely using the group finder to end up in the same group. Why is one bannable and the other not? If Blizzard allows something then changes their mind that it’s not OK, the players should never be punished for it. By doing nothing about it, you’ve given your stamp of approval. Players come to rely on something being OK by it being allowed in-game and Blizzard making no statement and taking no action.
So even though I’m happy people are getting their accounts back and we were right to raise a fuss about this, there’s still been ZERO communication about what happened, why the actions were reversed and what, going forward, is OK and not OK for players to do. That is unacceptable, still.
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Microsoft-Blizzard definition; and no they do not owe you an explanation of what that is or looks like. You act like you got rights in game when you and everyone else signed a contract with a corporation that is here to make money.
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This has been an issue for a long time. Blizzard are very generic, ambiguous, and convoluted about what they mean. They do this so they can cherry pick what to infract or ban for.
Then shills pretend like it’s cut/dry. “Don’t do bad stuff”. Ok, what’s “bad” because what seems like common sense to half the people may not be common sense to the rest. It gets especially slippery when you see someone get banned for something tiny while someone who stalks a person and gives death threats is allowed to for years.
Bahahaha… what an evil little troll you are with a very big head.
I never said anything of the sort my child.
All i stayed was that Blizzard determines what is or isn’t an exploit, they haven’t clarified, which makes all the “exploit experts” on the forum look ridiculous… precisely because nobody but Blizzard knows.
Might want to get some new shampoo cuz you sure worked up a dander with that post… it was funny reading though, thanks for the laugh! 
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I’ll be honest, I don’t even think Blizzard knows. They’re so completely inconsistent with their infractions and bans, it’s like 1 point above completely being a random.
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I agree. Yet Blizzard has shown itself capable of addressing this. I keep coming back to multi-boxing, specifically input broadcasting, being banned. There’s a support article and an official forum post that explicitly details the change in policy. Nobody sould be confused by this.
My stance is simple: if you go from not caring about something to dishing out permabans for it, it should come with explicit communication about what’s changed, why and what’s now not allowed. Initially it should come with a warning or a very short suspension so people get the message. That should be the bare minimum.
Additionally, permabans are about the most serious punishment Blizzard could hand out. It should be reserved for the most egregious behavior, things like infinite money glitches, hacking with third-party tools, egregious item duping and so on. Things that break the game. For me, something you do by just using the group finder to end up in the same group and the net effect of that is to simply level a bit faster simply does not rise to the permaban standard.
The fact that Blizzard has had to reverse itself and give people their accounts back, still without communication about whta’s changed and what went wrong to lead Blizzard to reverse its position, is unacceptable.
We still don’t know if boosting is the issue. Remember boosting isn’t technically against ToS. You can sell boosts for gold. Selling boosts and runs is a huge part ofd dte WoW economy. It’s selling such things for real-world money that’s against ToS. Boosting your own toons isn’t against ToS either.
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Blizzard’s… obviously, its their game.
Oh come on, they are negating the XP debuff, you have to be dumb to think Blizzard intended twinks to do this.
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Once again, it had nothing to do with a macro, addon, whatever
Blizzard is very clear with the reason for banning in the email they send, and they most likely won’t comment further. A bunch of innocent people got caught up in this one, hence the outrage, but they have had the bans reversed and have accounts back. The reason was…
Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks)
Yet another cheating related WoW ban. This originates from any other software that interferes with WoW and is seen as a cheat. Even if it’s not one.
Here’s its confirmation email:
Account Action: Account Closure
Offense: Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs (Hacks)
This account was closed for use of unauthorized cheat programs, also known as hacks or bots.
Blizzard Entertainment.
So, just like the above WoW ban reasons, this happens due to cheating detection (bots, hacks, rotation helpers, etc.). But, Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs also happens due to:
- multiboxing software (which is now against the rules);
- character model changers (tMorph, jMorph, iMorph, etc.);
- ConsolePort (albeit as a false positive);
- coding software and automation tools.
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Oh come on, running with a twink and gaining XP while doing so is % authorized and allowed by Blizzard, you’d have to be dumb to think Blizzard doesn’t allow this.
If this were the case, why is the debuff in place to begin with?
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If this isn’t the case, why are the forums full of people complaining about being in groups with twinks while gaining xp?
They either don’t know or don’t care. Plus the people who even open up the forums to make a post is a tiny fraction of the playerbase.
It doesn’t deny the fact it is 1000000% ok with Blizzard to be grouped with a twink and gain xp… you’d have to be a moron to think otherwise.
Then why are they getting perma banned if Blizzard allows it?
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