The title pretty much covers everything I want to ask. I’ve been unable to find any clear indication on what pvp non-interaction means on reddit or the forums. Coming here to hopefully get some clarification.
Here’s a little context to explain my current situation:
This is about TBC Classic.
I own two WoW accounts and have level 70s on both of them.
The only level 70 on the second account is a Rogue which hit max level early July.
The second account had ~30 BGs played total with a 50/50 split between AV and WSG/AB since hitting max level.
I returned from a week long vacation to find out that my second account had been banned for pvp non-interaction/exploitation.
I like to play defensively as a rogue in AV/WSG and offensively in AB. i.e. Base defending, stalling caps, back-capping, etc. Particularly, I like to try and wipe the horde offensive when they’re attacking Vann in AV. Coming out of stealth to hit a cheap shot on the tank and blind/gouge the heals usually gets a couple people killed and has even won a couple of games for my team.
Given the above context, I am extremely confused why this ban was handed out? Did enough people assume I was afk and report me and I got auto-flagged? Is base-defending against ToS? Why was I banned for 8 days instead of warned through in-game mail or even e-mail? I appealed the ban once and basically got told to “F-off” so I’m at a loss as to what to do now.
It’s extremely heartbreaking to have played this game for so long without being banned previously to come home from vacation to this. Did I do something wrong? Do I deserve this? I don’t even know anymore.
Yes, people would have reported you, but the account action isn’t “auto-flagged”. You would have been removed from other BGs for being AFK prior to any sort of account action going out.
This is generally the result of a trend of games where you were not participating in the battle. Generally speaking, “playing defensively” usually means that you weren’t doing any damage or healing and yes, the groups you were in likely reported you.
Those reports and the history of non-participation would generally result in an account action.
I was only removed for being AFK in one of those BGs (I forgot I joined and alt-tabbed back too late). There weren’t any other warning signs that I was aware of.
In all of the games played, I was doing damage (not much healing cause rogue). It definitely wasn’t as high as other peoples though for sure.
If a few low damage games and one deserter debuff is enough to get my account banned for 8 days, then it is my fault. I’ll wait out the suspension and never touch BGs again.
From my experiences here in CS, it’s unlikely that it was one BG that you were removed from unfortunately. That said, I’m not really trying to pass any judgement, just my experience with posts here.
Your only option is to appeal via tickets. That’s it. My personal recommendation is to stick with the main group. Defending doesn’t tend to actually end up doing much more than making it look like you’re afk.
But that’s my 5cents (no pennies in Canada so I can’t give you my 2cents).
Yes! And thank you for the opinion. I realize this isn’t a place to appeal bans, I just wanted more clarification as to what the reasoning could be. From my perspective, I was just enjoying PvP’ing.
I can’t 100% guarantee that I was only removed from 1 BG obviously (No VODs/Recordings/ETC), but I’m absolutely sure it wasn’t more than 2. I’m always watching tower timers in these matches and pinging them out to my team. Or I’m Trying to give helpful advice and talking with people throughout the match. I’m not the type of person to walk away from something I’ve queued into on purpose. If the solution is to play a certain way that makes me not enjoy the game, then this is why I’ll avoid BGs. If I’m going to get banned for enjoying the game differently, then I’m not going to participate in that activity anymore.
Again, I appreciate the opinion on the topic, because a discussion/expert opinion is exactly what I was looking for.
If you were repeatedly reported for being AFK and GMs discover a pattern of you having little to no damage, healing, or objective interactions, you will likely be actioned for inactivity. If enough people reported you for an account sanction to happen, it almost certainly would have been done during the match whilst people were observing you, which would result in you being kicked from the match if enough players reported you AFK.
Exploitation is the use of glitches or unauthorized software to gain any advantage that is not achievable through standard game mechanics.
Also, to be clear, if your account sanction has a time limit, then you were not “banned”. You were suspended.
You would not have been actioned for defending a base, especially when sitting at flags actually gives you a massive honor buff. If you were sitting in one spot on a node and did absolutely nothing at it for an extensive time period and got reported by multiple people, that would trigger an investigation by a GM. I have sat on single nodes for entire games and never even received an AFK debuff because I move around, respond in chat to acknowledge updates from teammates, call incs and fend off enemy players.
I have no insight into your player activity, so I have no idea what you did or didn’t do.
That would indicate that this isn’t your first offense but regardless it is none of our business. As for the email, check your spam folder. Account actions are supposed to warrant an email communication if I am not mistaken.
That’s not exactly specific but if you mean that you appealed and were told to stop sending tickets in, then the GMs upheld the action and will not change it.
Yes, sorry for not using the correct lingo. I was using the two interchangeably without realizing.
As far as I remember, I wasn’t kicked for being afk more than twice in all of my BGs. Obviously there’s no way to prove this. My total BG count on that toon is a couple dozen at best, so remembering how many I was kicked from isn’t hard.
Is the AFK debuff you’re talking about the deserter debuff? If it’s not, is there a separate debuff for being afk? I received the deserter debuff once, but if there’s any sign of an AFK debuff past that, I am not aware of it.
I was sent a warning once for using strong language almost 14 years ago. That is my only experience with being reported, suspended, or being banned.
The biggest thing is that this isn’t something personal. You’re being held to the same rules and standards as every other person. Most everything has been covered, but just some snippets from Vrak just to help clarify and give you that direct information you’re asking for. You are not the first person who has been hit by this sort of thing. It’s important to be with the rest of your group, as it is a team event.
I’m sorry you’re in the spot that you’re in, but hopefully, these will offer some official clarity and whatnot for future endeavors.
Thank you for these very clear answers and amazing evidence! This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for when coming to the forums. One thing I would like some more clarity on is this post/link:
I don’t remember seeing this buff/debuff in any of my BGs. How long ago was this implemented into the game?
Ultimately, I’m satisfied with knowing why I was suspended now. Unfortunately I still don’t agree with the reasoning and it remains frustrating that it wasn’t clearer to me beforehand.
Thank you to everyone for the honest responses and information. Hopefully someone is able to see this post in the future and understand their situation a little better just like I was able to.
It was actually a feature that debuted in patch 2.2.0, so it was around back in the original TBC. From WoWpedia:
If they were reporting you as AFK, then the debuff would pop up. I’m not sure of what options are exactly available for PvP reporting, but you might never have gotten it if you were being reported as not participating or cheating? So that would be the issue of how they were reporting your play.
If not rectified, it would then boot the player and slap them with a Deserter debuff.
Ohh okay… I didn’t even know that was a thing hah. Yeah, I was always fighting at some point in the BGs I was in. Most of my AVs I was attempting to back cap though, so maybe I was clearing the debuff while not noticing? Odd.
Well thanks for clearing that up for me! I think I’ll avoid doing any BGs in the future. It’s not worth risking being suspended for a month.
But you really weren’t. You were technically not participating in the event. That’s what got you into trouble. Not simply joining a BG. But if you feel you can’t participate and be in the midst of the battle, then that may run you into issues.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree. My paladin is always first into a fight because that’s how I want to play a paladin. Playing a stealthy backcapping rogue is the fantasy I want to play when I’m on my rogue. I don’t want to be running into the middle of every fight. The class fantasy for me is “Assassinating” that solo player defending an objective.
This is exactly why I’m not going to do BGs in the future. If my class fantasy gets me suspended, I won’t do it anymore.
BGs are a team sport, if you don’t play as a team, you get benched,or in some cases kicked off the team. If the team thinks you are not helping, you are benched, the Coach (Blizzard) agreed, and sent you to the lockers.
Playing Class Fantasy is fine out in the world of Azeroth, but it does not mesh in Competitive PvP.
I’ve done a lot of classic AV (A LOT ) between back in the day and the various resurrected holiday versions. Especially that one time when it was such a great way to level your alts, I kind of wish they’d bring it back for that purpose specifically. I don’t PvP a lot, but there is nothing funnier than Haymaker-ing someone off a tower as a Kul’tiran. I guess just not many people play them because no one ever sees the windup coming.
Anyhoo, it was always frustrating to check positions and see someone hanging out in Vann’s bunker. Even in the Classic version, people seldom go for him. And yet invariably there’d be someone in there the entire match, just…idling. Beginning of the match? Right to Vann’s bunker. Well before the Horde was at midfield? Vann’s bunker. After both sides had charged past each other, ignoring the bosses, and were working on each other’s flags? Vann’s bunker. During the race at the end to clear the other team’s base…well. You know where I’m going with this.
If you’re genuinely defending and not just watching Youtube in another tab (or doing your fighting in your other window on your other character, leaving the rogue as dead weight until MAYBE someone actually comes in to do the boss), it’s easy as a stealth class to stay on the move to defend other nearby real objectives and backcap one of the like three nearby flags within direct eyesight of the path to the bunker while looking to see if there’s any genuine movement towards it. And if the whole team is in the Horde base and racing against the clock to finish before the Horde in the Alliance base, there’s no point in staying out there anymore.
If people can see that you’re moving around and that your name pops up once in a while at making an attempt on a flag, you’re largely good. If you’re in the bunker the entire time, even when it’s not relevant? Then that’s just being AFK with extra justification.
. Better to be safe than sorry now.
) between back in the day and the various resurrected holiday versions. Especially that one time when it was such a great way to level your alts, I kind of wish they’d bring it back for that purpose specifically. I don’t PvP a lot, but there is nothing funnier than Haymaker-ing someone off a tower as a Kul’tiran. I guess just not many people play them because no one ever sees the windup coming.