Query re 'cheating'

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Hi guys,

I’ve recently been banned for 6 months on my main account - it was initially a permanent ban, which I appealed and asked what I actually did wrong to constitute ‘cheating’, and it was changed to a 6 month account ban.

I’m appreciative that Blizzard reviewed my permanent ban and had it changed, however I am still really concerned as to what I’ve done wrong. It states that ‘multiple players have reported you for cheating’.

I would like to know what exactly I’ve done wrong, or what I could have done wrong that would have caused fellow players to report me for cheating. I don’t want to do this again.

Backstory: I’ve recently (~1 month) resubscribed to the game after a 10+ year break, due to the fact that I can now play classic again (I am not a fan of retail and its style, so after jumping back on briefly a few years ago to take look at retail, I didn’t have any intention of returning).

within the last ~month, I have worked really hard with assistance of my guildies to go through and tick off a lot of achievements in classic MoP, Firelands, level 90, constant heroics to gear up, constant klaxxi dailies to get reputation to buy the epics (which I have done), and constant dailies to grow my serpent hatchling to get my higher riding skill and mount.

I’ve ran a lot of the older raids and dungeons to grind out the pets, and try for mounts.

I’ve also levelled all my professions (Herbalism, mining) + all my secondary professions to maximum, apart from fishing and archaeology which I was currently working on doing when my ban ocurred.

I know it may seem like I’ve achieved all of that in such a small amount of time, but if you take a look at the hours I’ve put in on the account I have genuinely been there, doing all of this, and absolutely loving it.

I am autistic, and I have ADHD, and when I hyperfocus I really do hyperfocus - and being able to go back into the classic eras and explore and enjoy what I once really loved in this game has been an absolute therapeutic dopamine dumping experience for me.

I absolutely love all aspects of the classic era/including and up until MoP, and having fond memories of when it initially dropped as an expansion originally - my partner and I sat up and waited til early hours just to try to be first through the gates. (We’re Aussies).

Sorry for my rambling. I’m just worried that if I do the same thing again, I mean I have grinded hard, and for a multitude of hours, that people will continue to report me?

I have genuinely not cheated, and I am genuinely worried that all my efforts have been thrown down the toilet for something that I can’t understand what I’ve done.

Blizz, I’m not complaining, I absolutely love this game and I love being consumed in its aura, however I would just like to know how I can prevent this from happening in the future.

Thankyou sincerely and kindly in advance for even taking the time to read and respond to my concerns.

Warmest regards,
Anthony. (I can provide my account battletag that was banned if you’d like, I would rather private message it to you though if possible)

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Blizzard not gona tell u what u did to get actioned nor will they private message.

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Given that your account closure was changed to a 6 month suspension instead of overturned complete, that would seem to indicate Blizzard did find something on your computer that could be used for cheating/automation. Common suspects are AutoHotKey, creating macros out of the game that allow for delays or repeats with one button press, and other automation software.

If you really feel as though Blizzard made a mistake, you can submit a new appeal, but I’d just like to set appropriate expectations first: It does appear as though this was escalated given it is now a reduced penalty. The chances of it getting overturned completely is very slim.

For that matter, appeals and reviews aren’t done on the forums and the Blues that moderate here are not GMs and are not part of the Hacks Team (the team that applied the penalty and reduced it). Your only option is to appeal if you feel a mistake was made.

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That’s not a feature of these forums.

As Darth mentioned, they will not (nor have they ever) go into details on what lead to your account actions.

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Thank you so much for your reply - this helps. I do have a Steelseries World of Warcraft keyboard which has a bunch of hotkey buttons on it. I’ll look into it.

Thank you again.

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If you’ve created macros outside of the game that does any sort of automation like I mentioned before, that would definitely do it. The rule is “One Action per Keypress”, so if there was anything set up to do any repeats, sequences, or delays, that would be against the rules.

Best of luck!

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Thank you Terise, I had no idea. It’s more then likely my bloody logitech mouse software. My mouse has 15 buttons and I had ‘World of Warcraft’ profile selected. far out, I didn’t know that could cause such a great issue :confused:

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Just for clarity, if you’re using an MMO mouse as an alternative to the number keys on your keyboard, that’s perfectly fine. Hardware by itself won’t cause an issue, not unless you do something that going into the realm of automation.

Using an MMO mouse is fine.
Using macros to automate gameplay is absolutely not okay and will cause account actions.

I use a Razer Naga Trinity and have been for a good number of years. I’ve never had an account action as a result of using a mouse or keyboard.

It’s all down to what you do with the hardware. If you set it up so that an action repeats when you hold down a button, that’s not okay. It’s always one action per keypress.

Just to reiterate: It was not your mouse itself that caused the issue, nor was it a mouse profile. This is going into the realm of speculation at this point, so I can only tell you what I know from my many years lurking and posting in the CS forum. You can continue using your mouse, just don’t set up any macros in the Logitech software.

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TL;DR:

anything at all that breaks the strict 1 hardware action → 1 in-game action rule can and will get you in trouble.

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Something was detected on your system, Kerzani - and no, they don’t tell us what that was - that is under our Hacks department.

Could be anything active on the computer that COULD be used to cheat - even in other games, whether or not it was actually used in WoW. If it’s active it can be detected.

By cheat, that usually means automation, but not always.

When they convert these to 6 months from a ban, it’s giving you the benefit of the doubt - not that they found something in error about the initial findings.

I’d have a look at task manager to see what may be running while you are running WoW.
If anyone else has had access to your system, or if you’ve used another system that could also be a culprit.

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Thank you so very much, with my sincerest of hearts @Orlyia for taking the time to reply to me.

I will most certainly have a look at this. It’s a computer that I ‘inherited’ from a friend as they got a new computer - and it was never formatted/reinstalled.

I shall get my brother to help me reinstall windows and the game tomorrow, to ensure that nothing is running on the computer that could be an issue.

Thank you so so much again, I sincerely appreciate it.

Warmest regards,
Anthony

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Always a good idea when you get a used PC. You have no idea what the previous user did with it, or what they had installed, so the safe play is always to start by nuking everything when you get it (and also if you’re giving your old rig to someone else, be courteous and give them a fresh OS install. If you’re feeling particularly nice, you can let them pick the new OS).

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