SOD Account Restrictions: how can Blizzard help new players who are affected?

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
210

Played from release to WOTLK and came back to the game over 10 years later for SOD. Absolutely loving it, and honestly, I see the need for something like this. That said, what I don’t understand is why we can’t even mail things to alts on the SAME account. I figured that I would just level my alts with supporting professions to make the leveling and waylaid cargo turn-ins easier until 30d passes. NOPE. Wasn’t actually frustrated by this until now.

Again I understand Blizzard being against pay to win - but isn’t this the same thing? New or returning players are severely handicapped, making it incredibly difficult to catch up to everyone else… because we didn’t already have a WoW sub? Seems counterintuitive, even if the goal is to funnel new/returning players to retail (nothx).

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211

I am also a returning player, who decided to start over on EU with a fresh account with a group of friends, guess what? not possible. At the start, I didn’t believe it and thought it was a bug, however, after coming to the forum I found out the horror.

Don’t get this the wrong way but this is a very lazy way of trying to combat bots and gold sellers/buyers, they don’t care and are pretty sure they have 100s of fake/stolen accounts that they will use regardless.

Punishing a new/returning player is not an option, there are more ways to improve such restrictions, for example, you can verify who we are (like the good old days, using ID/proof of address, etc.) It is an insult to most of us returning players who want to enjoy the classic/SoD experience with returning friends… I also look like that bad guy, as I convinced 5+ friends to start again. Blizzard, you must get this right and stop punishing us like this! employ more people to watch over things, heck implement a system that works instead of mass restricting everyone.

It is sad to see our favorite game going down like that, but I am sure we won’t be sticking around for 30 days to be able to play the game or level our professions.

Take care.

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212

Banned account with auto reply and players can’t trade with a new account. You guys are killing the players not the bots.

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213

Just wanted to shine some light about the current restriction.It is not working for C.O.D. and botters are using it to extract gold from restricted accounts.

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214

i haven’t played since 2011 and just got back into it a week before phase 3 … everything worked fine the phase 3 hit and pretty much ruined my leveling because of the restrictions … it isn’t right … i think they should in game us something if we stick it out for this and keep playing .

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215

Yeah bro I think they should totally reward you for passing their bot test.

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216

I’m in the same boat.I paid with token since 2015 and now they’ve restricted my account.Multiple tickets.And got copy paste responses it seemed like. No help at all

217

If you’ve only paid with tokens, since 2017 then you must add gametime through another source like bank or card before these restrictions will lift.

Support article.

218

That’s a big difference. I did not read though everything but it does not sound like a worry for player base that does not do a lot of trading, mailing. How long are you restricted from trade/mail after the 30 days? I get the fact it can hurt players that constantly trade but that also can be exploited. Either way if what Kulz is saying is true there is nothing to worry about. At least if you pay monthly vs using tokens.

219

Non-issue my patootie. I played WoW way back at release through WotLK and Mists of Pandaria and just very recently came back for more to check out Season of Discovery. My sub is three weeks old now but my account is WAY older than that, with loads of subbed time from the distant past. And I have paid for a whole year of game time. Ridiculous.

Now I’m locked out of the AH on SOD and ONLY on SOD. It’s absurd because prices on the server I started on are pretty inflated and I can’t afford to buy equipment upgrades without the ability to sell on the AH.

Also information available at the time I made MY purchase very clearly stated (at the time I made the purchase) that ONLY a purchase is required to lift starter restrictions. The information clearly stated (and still states) that starter restrictions will be lifted within 72 hours of an order, specifically as soon as the order is marked Complete in Blizzard’s system.

So please don’t come here and detract from the finding of a solution by dismissing the people affected by this, however few in number we are. This is aggravating for those of us who are affected by this. And it may not be as few people as you think since SOD Phase 3 just started earlier this month.

1 Like
220

I’ve been directed to share my complaint here by in-game customer support. Apparently in game support is not able to pass on feedback to developers within the blizzard team.
Support ticket conversation below:

Me (2 weeks ago)
I recently started playing SoD Classic with my brother and nephew. It has actually been the most fun I’ve had in WoW in many many years. We just ran RFC in Orgrimmar together and had a blast!

I was confused by trade behavior playing with them today. It turns out after they sent in a ticket, that they are apparently playing on characters that have not used 30d of playtime? Due to starting as characters on a trial account?

My guess is that this is a safeguard to mitigate gold farming, but in practice it was extremely frustrating for us (led to me running out to buy water that my nephew was unable to trade to me - we nearly didn’t finish the dungeon before bedtime!)

I’m a longtime WoW subscriber and am very disappointed that the only resolution my brother was offered was to “wait for the 30d to elapse”. I would simply like to be able to trade with my nephew who I am trying to share a game with that I enjoyed many many years ago.

Me (2 weeks ago)

I neglected to mention my brother and nephews character names - they are xxxxxx and xxxxxxx(on the same server im on - living flame).

And to be specific, my problem/request is if the trade ban could be lifted from their accounts. It is ruining the gameplay experience for us. Just now (and the reason I came back to this ticket) I was excited because I figured out (you could say, “discovered”) that my brothers rogue can get a good tanking rune “rune of teasing” if we get his DSL rep up. I was excited at the prospecct of funneling him my waylaid supplies to help. But then realized the trade issue prevents us from playing the way we want to play. Honestly we’ll see how much longer I keep logging in but this is very very disappointing.

Brydriita (2 weeks ago)
Howdy there
Game Master Brydriita here at your service!

Our deepest apologies for the delayed response, we’ve been very busy with tickets pertaining to the latest releases and new World of Warcraft in-game issues. We thank you for waiting.
These errors appear if you try to trade or mail gold, or use the auction house on a character that was created as self-found, or are on a seasonal realm on an account that has not spent real money to purchase and consume at least 30 days of game time since 2017.
If the characters are self-found, this limitation can be turned off in-game.
If the account has not yet consumed at least 30 days of game time, they must wait until this criteria is complete before they can access these features.
We are aware of the restrictions occurring on some Classic Era and non-self-found/seasonal accounts/characters. This is something the Developers are investigating and have commented on in the forum thread linked below. Please note that Customer Support (Game Masters) cannot remove or bypass these restrictions - SOD Account Restrictions: how can Blizzard help new players who are affected? - #39 by Fwoibles

We’re aware this may not be ideal, but thank you for your understanding, patience and for playing World of Warcraft throughout the years. It is truly appreciated.
If you have any other questions or requests, please do not hesitate to contact us again, anytime.
All the best, stay safe.

GM Brydriita
2 weeks ago
This ticket has been marked as Answered.
2 weeks ago
You marked this ticket as Resolved.
1 week ago
I’ve read through the thread I was sent and it appears the last update from a blizzard employee was 14d ago pertaining to February starters.

There has been radio silence from the Blizzard team on the thread since then. This doesn’t really help me understand the issue better, nor does it help fix it.

I understand that game masters cannot lift the restriction.

I sincerely am disappointed personally by this. I mean it when I say this “bug” (or is it a feature to prevent botting? unclear.) is about to make us quit the game. I texted my brother He wanted to play some tonight! When he logged on though he realized he didn’t have enough gold to fill crates to reach the necessary rogue one. It’s the taunt one, which is vital to our playgroup as we planned out a rogue tank (him), druid healer (me), and warlock dps (my nephew). We were able to complete the early dungeon in orgrimmar, but knew he would need that rune when we want to move onto WC (now).

It’s so silly because I’ve had AH access and have EASILY been able to farm the rep needed in the same playtime. He’s paid to play your game too, but just not enough time has elapsed. Now our plan doesnt work (we don’t really have the tank we planned to have).

The explanation that we just have to wait it out is ridiculous. We want to play. We’re happy to pay to do so. We’re real people.

I know whoever reads this first can’t fix this, but please share this with whoever can. I can happy to continue a dialogue.

Thank you,

1 week ago
This ticket has been marked as Answered.
1 week ago
Ethejsield
Hello there
I’m Game Master Ethejsield and I’ll be your assistant today.
Thank you for reaching out to Blizzard Entertainment Support.

As player myself, I completely understand that these restrictions and limitations are taking some of the fun away for you, your brother and your nephew and I’m sorry to hear that, we want nothing but for you and every other player to enjoy the game they love with the ones they love as well. However, Costumer Support has some limitations as to what we’re able to do and unfortunately lifting restrictions or handling feedback or suggestions are not some of them.

As such, in case you’d would like to leave a suggestion regarding how this system works or about any other topic, we kindly ask you to submit it on our Forums so that our developers may take a look at it and have it in mind when planning future updates. In order to do so, you can either do it from our Forums or through the in-game option by following the steps or link below:

  1. Press the Esc key to open the Game Menu, and click Support.
  2. Click Submit feedback or bug report.
  3. Click Submit a suggestion.
  4. Follow the guidelines on the submission form, and enter your suggestion.
  5. Click Submit.

WoW Forums
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/

If you need any additional support, don’t hesitate to contact us back.

Have a nice day,
GM Ethejsield
7 days ago
Me
Thanks for the additional information. I understand the situation, although I will say I find it surprising that your CSR team is unable to relay feedback to the development team. That said I will pursue that option.

Are you able to provide any estimate of when the trade restrictions on their accounts will end? Basically I’m trying to decide if it’s worth my time to try to pursue it via the forums/social media/etc. if at this point their accounts will function properly in a week.

Thanks!

4 days ago
Diedoawmaa

2 Likes
221

I am long time WoW player as well back from original TBC all the way to cataclysm and then stopped. I have recently came back after many years to play classic because of my friends started again. I am experiencing the same annoying action. My friends are here getting items which I can use or just wanted to trade me health pots for dungeons or I want to buy some things from the AH but NOPE I cant do that and have to wait a whole month? come on now this is ridiculous and honestly makes me want to stop playing the game for things such as this specially for someone who has an aged account of years.

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222

One of the best parts of this thread is saying it won’t affect new players. I was suspect myself as an old veteran as to how many new players there really were.

There are actually a lot of returning players on new accounts. Not being able to trade with them during incursions/dungeons on my alts was comedically. Great way at molesting the game once again dev team!

“Screw the new/returning player, we don’t actually want to spend money fighting bots, just blanket solutions! That will help the game grow and stay sustainable”

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223

The Crusader server has hundreds of hunter bots in the uldaman dungeon. new accounts is restricted ,huh?

I’m reaching out to discuss an issue that many of us have experienced, particularly those playing on Asian servers. The use of bots has been a persistent problem, leading to permanent bans for violating game policies. However, it seems that some players are finding ways to bypass these restrictions by creating new accounts, which is causing concern among the community.

For those who previously had their WoW1 accounts permanently banned for using bots, it appears that they can simply create a new WoW2 account without waiting for the usual month-long restriction period. Surprisingly, these players are still able to use essential features like the Action House, trade, and mail almost immediately. Even accounts that were previously banned on Asian servers but never used on US servers can enjoy the same privileges from day one on a US server.

This loophole raises concerns about the effectiveness of our current system in preventing abuse. It also highlights the need for stronger measures to ensure fair play and maintain the integrity of the game. As you might already know, the ability to perform actions like entering the Action House, trading, and mailing items is crucial for player experience and economy. If bots can easily bypass restrictions and continue to exploit these features, it undermines the enjoyment and balance for everyone else.

It’s important to remember that while WoW1 accounts get banned, these players can simply create WoW2, WoW3, or even WoW8 accounts to continue their activities. This pattern shows that our current restrictions may not be enough to deter bad actors from continuing to spoil the game for others.

i hope that by bringing light to this issue, we can work towards a more secure and enjoyable World of Warcraft experience for everyone

3 Likes
224

My account is NOT new, just older than their arbitrary 2017 date. I’m old enough that early 2000’s accounts had to be split between US and EU. I was still using the split accounts because why wouldn’t I? So most my more recent WoW was done on EU account and servers. I had no clue this restriction was a thing and neither did my friends that invited me to play with them on Wild Growth-US.

So, I’ve been 50 for a week+ now. Pre-bis geared. Gotten BoED! and even 8/8 ST on first run. And still have 15 days left on account restriction…

I can’t:
Get enchanted(!?!!!?), Transmute for ppl or sell potions, sell any of the world blues or recipes I’ve found and my bank is completely overflowing.
Late game quests have become exceedingly difficult as they often require components I can’t procure myself.

There has to be a better way. This is so incredibly debilitating and frustrating and I’ve not done anything wrong to deserve it. The only solace has been other returning players, that have passed the 30 day mark, helping me out and their shared distain for this situation.

Recommendations:

  • Some way to get enchanted. Even if I cant trade gold or mats, there should be some method to at least have enchants applied. My buddies could pay for them or something.
  • A per day limit on AH purchases of some amount, maybe 5g with rollover? Bots wouldn’t be getting rich buying stuff off AH for 150g over 30 days. And at least us normal players wouldn’t be fully locked out of AH.
  • Some way to use timered & special tradeskills, trade being in the name and all: Transmute / lockpick / enchant / etc. Ideally these could still be queued in trade and paid for by others. These are not a botting activities.

Basically there are solutions and this system is not yet fleshed out. Please consider updates for the future as it SUUUUUCKS being subject to these restrictions when you are not the intended target.

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225

Disabled C.O.D. yet? or are all the BOTS still using that.

Completely defeating the point of this.

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226

Has anyone here, who’s had the trading restrictions wrongfully applied, had any success having them removed? (without having to wait the full 30 day probation)

Seems I got hit with the restriction as well after re-subbing for SoD (returning player - my account is 12-ish years old)

Tried opening a ticket with Support; got hit with this lovely copy pasta:

Greetings,

This action has been taken in accordance with our Terms of Use and our In-game Policies ( https://blizzard.com/support/article/42673 ), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to playing. These policies and conditions allow us to maintain a fun and safe game environment for all of our players.

*Our Battle.net Terms of Use can be found at https://blizzard.com/company/legal/eula.html *

Regards,
Game Master Team
Blizzard Entertainment

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227

Thanks for screwing me over as well as a returning new account.

Started back in Open Beta…

This is really harming the game play for many of us players!

Why punish us for others doing evil?!

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228

aggrend said it was to combat a very specific botting group, its on his twitter somewhere.

Granted, it is the complete wrong approach to combat it.

229

Remember that you must’ve added paid gametime since 2017 so that you will not be affected by any of the restrictions.

If you did not or used wow tokens, the restrictions are intentional for 26 paid days no matter how old the actual age of the account is.

1 Like