Along with other members of the community, I have been falsely perma banned during the recent ban wave. While I understand that this post will not affect the outcome of my appeal, I find it strange that the reasoning behind my ban would change. When first contacted, I was accused of “Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy”, where it describes me participating in RMT and claims a “review” of relevant evidence being conducted. I am making this post to point out the inconsistencies regarding the reasonings behind my ban.
After putting in an appeal with a lot of evidence regarding my computer setup, how I am not actively partaking in RMT, etc., it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. I know this is true, due to the final explanation I received from the GM who responded to and then immediately closed my first appeal , without an opportunity to rebuttal. It was a template response, stating that after looking over the data, it was determined that I did partake in, well not RMT, but INSTEAD “using prohibited third party software and participating in exploitative gameplay”. Now my question is, why would the reasoning behind my ban change? If Blizzard is truly conducting legitimate reviews across their platform and perma banning players, shouldn’t the reasoning remain consistent? How am I supposed to believe the details behind my infraction are real, if I can’t get a straight answer? How do I know that these bans aren’t false if you can’t even provide details on the 3rd party software I supposedly used and an example of my exploitative gameplay?
For reference, I do use an MMO mouse, but there’s only keys remapped to the buttons, not macros from the 3rd party software that I use (iCue). My understanding is that you are not allowed to map 3rd party macros, which I do not do because I clearly know it is against ToS.
It is disheartening when there appears to be no clarity in the situation, and it feels like I am met with some random excuse as to what caused my ban. This doesn’t help in my belief in your system’s ability to appropriately detect infractions without producing false positives.
An appeal is not a means for you to plead your case. It is only a request for a different Blizzard employee to go over their data and either uphold the penalty or cancel it.
Why there is a difference in your penalty description I have no idea. Perhaps a Blizzard employee here (i.e., a Support Forum Agent (aka SFA)) can provide some clarity.
But all you can do in regards to having the penalty reviewed is submit an appeal ticket.
Yes, I can understand the reasoning behind not providing details behind the detection methods, as it would compromise their detection software. It is just frustrating when you are met with differing answers.
Oh, I completely understand the frustration. But you are correct in that they do not wish to provide genuine wrongdoers with info on how to avoid detection.
Sometimes the wrong reason can be put into the templates. Which one of those was the wrong one? Like Kyzera said, perhaps in the morning when the SFAs get back into the office, they may be able to shine a light on that particular part.
But me, this is where I will point out that this error is a human error. Since so many people like to scream down the heavens about everything being automated/AI - when things like this help to show that the staff are not perfect and sometimes mistakes happen. Whether those mistakes are the wrong reason for sanction being put into the templates or a mistaken sanction for whatever the reason.
And just because - if I may ask, have you participated in any GDKP runs in the past couple months? Because there have been several cases of suspensions/bans due to being on the receiving end of illegal gold. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t purchase it. It does matter that players who partake in unsupported practices open themselves to risks such as these.
And if that’s not the case, I do apologize. It’s just the easiest thing I can point to from the recent waves.
Another thing that may have flagged Warden is:
Bolded emphasis mine. Third-party software is third-party software. (And before anyone comes for me, I perfectly understand what iCue is. I’ve got it installed for my headset, but I’ve not nothing mapped to anything either, obviously.) There is still the chance that this could have zapped you. Now, that’s pure conjecture on my part. It’s just 4:40am and I’m spitballing things here.
Whatever got you, you can appeal and appeal again until you are warned that no more appeals will be accepted.
I don’t understand why people get hot and bothered by GDKP’s, considering how long Blizzard has allowed them to happen across all versions of the game. This seems like a Blizzard problem, rather than a player problem. There should be no expectation that GDKPs are going to run without RMT occurring, especially considering the autonomous nature of the game. Yes, I actually hosted a few GDKPs across the last few weeks and can understand that I may have ended up on the receiving end of some illegal gold. The crazy thing is, I’ve been hosting GDKP’s since the start of Classic TBC, without ever being banned for RMT. But, if I dispersed that gold among the other members of the run, why aren’t they also being banned for RMT when they receive a cut? How is Blizzard differentiating between RMT gold and legitimate gold? This is where the logic breaks apart and it makes no sense. At some point everyone who has participated in that run, should be met with a ban, yet I appear have been the only one. Great.
I get constantly harassed in game when advertising for spots for my GDKPs. I get mass reported constantly, but have ignored these people as I am not so childish as to report every single person for harassment (maybe I should start). I mainly feel comfortable doing so since I’ve ran them for so long and have never had this happen to me. I am willing to bet my house, my 401k, my car, my life savings, that during the beginning of classic TBC to now, majority of the GDKP community has come in contact with RMT gold. If that holds true, and Blizzard’s detection systems are correct, then every single person who’s ever participated in a GDKP should be perma banned. This seems like a haphazard approach by Blizzard to satisfy dad gamers. And no, before any troll starts saying “this guy definitely RMTs”, I enjoy GDKPs because I have always worked hard to farm my gold and use my advantage, time, to have an advantage in acquiring gear for my characters. It is no different than participating in a guild and outperforming other members, whether its dps, consistency, providing consumables, help, etc. and building enough rapport to validate why you should receive a piece of loot over another.
I didn’t realize my asking came off as me being hot and bothered by them? I personally don’t care what people do. I’ve bought boosts/carries several times in Retail, but I do it knowing the risks. I know where my gold comes from and I try my utmost to keep to sellers I know I can trust to mitigate the chance of being scammed out of my gold. But no matter what, I know at the end of the day that these sorts of things are 100% unsupported whether you’re selling the runs or buying them.
I only asked because that has been a big issue that has brought dozens of people here because they were suspended or banned. I was trying to help offer some idea of what might have been the culprit.
They might not have gotten hit as yet. Or you’re not being told they were, if people are unaware of the current issues going around that is costing players’ their accounts.
Whatever their records show, that’s all that matters. They can trace transactions pretty easily. Past that, we as players aren’t privy to that sort of information.
I was saying that because your original reply seemed to not want to accuse me of running GDKPs. The current stigma surrounding them is very negative and completely different from my experience on TBC/WOTLK. It seems like every single post I read on the forums where GDKPs are mentioned have people demanding that any GDKP participants are perma banned, regardless of RMT or not. I wasn’t responding to you directly, but the general community.
I’ve literally ran every GDKP with 5-10 members from my guild, with no one, but me, being banned for RMT. I’ve asked every single guild member who’s participated in my runs whether they were banned, they were not.
If that were true, Blizzard would see that I dispersed cuts among all members of the run and that they would have came in contact, even indirectly, with that gold. As Blizzard has stated, even if you have indirectly came in contact with RMT, it is your responsibility. If this were the case, then why was I the only one punished? It seems odd than even a singular instance of my direct/indirect contact of RMT gold would result in a ban, yet everyone else’s would not.
Problem is gold sellers have been using GDKP runs to launder gold. So if your found to have received stolen gold, Well more then once they already said here they look for a pattern.
Since we know people buy gold to do GDKP runs it is best to avoid them
I’m not Blizzard. I’m a player, same as you. The only difference is I hang out here regularly and I’ve seen all of the many posts of people who have been caught in similar straits. I’ve seen the SFA’s trying to offer what information they’re allowed to share.
We don’t know how far down the line the transaction tracing goes. We don’t know that your running mates just haven’t had their investigations completed and sanctions ordered.
What it boils down to is Blizzard does as Blizzard does. We don’t make the rules, we’re supposed to follow them. It may not even be the case for you that it was GDKPs. It may be the third-party software thing and all of this is moot.
I tried to supply you with what information has been repeated dozens of times over and try to give you an idea of what may be the case. Past that, it’s not something worth arguing out here. We don’t make the rules and neither do the SFAs who pop around in this forum. They have no place in the investigation/sanctions/appeals process. They don’t make policy.
Arguing and debating all of this is why the discussion of sanctions is technically against the rules. We are, however, given a little bit of leeway in the name of education on this forum alone.
For you? We don’t know which of the sanctions is the real reason until the time that an SFA comes in and answers definitively. I relayed the information about GDKPs and illegal gold being a prominent issue of late, and also your self-admitted use of a third-party program. It may well be neither of those specific things.
The back and forth at this point is only going to get the thread locked up, so I’ll leave it at that. Again I do wish you nothing but luck in your appeals and hope that you can be offered some clarification as to which sanction is the correct one.
I apologize if I seemed ungrateful for your help in trying to understand what could have caused my ban. I never wanted to come across as someone who didn’t appreciate your input.
I do not roam these forums (as you can see by my low post count), so I did not know there were rules against these topics of discussion. I thought this was an acceptable place for these kinds of discussions. I guess I have been unaware, I’ll take my scrutiny elsewhere.
But I’d still like an answer as to why my ban offense changed
I’d say it is mostly because different GM’s answer your tickets and the templates they use are sometimes different from the ones that go out when the account is originally penalized. Also, they could simply have selected the wrong one. “Exploitation” tends to cover all manner of areas.
