World of Warcraft®

Not so much banned as a 3 hour temporary suspension, but still ridiculous none the less. The e-mail reads as follows:

"Type of Violation: PvP Arena/Battleground Exploitation
Details of Incident: Exploitation of PvP Battlegrounds and the honor system
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 3 hours

Greetings,

This account has recently been identified as being involved in actions deemed inappropriate for World of Warcraft.

This may include, but is not limited to the following:
* Use of add-ons, ""mods"", external hardware, or any unapproved third party software to automate gameplay.
* Abuse of game mechanics or ""bugs"".
* Any behavior that has been found to be outside the intent of the game.

This action has been taken in accordance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) and our game policies (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/policy/).

Any further inappropriate behavior could result in penalties ranging from a temporary suspension to account closure, and may also include the loss of any rewards the exploitive character has received.

For any disputes of this action or further information on Exploitive Activity, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and contact page here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/exploitfaq

To maintain the integrity of our investigation methods, we will be unable to disclose the specifics of our investigation methods. Thank you for your time and for understanding our position in this matter.

Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com"

The only thing I could even guess is that about half an hour ago I was running around in WSG spamming Demon Armor in WSG on my level 16 warlock (simply because I was bored and had nothing to do while running from point A to point B, there are no mounts in that bracket) I also ended up afking it, I was alt tabbed or something

Could they have somehow perceived this as me botting? I thought they had ways of detecting the actual PROGRAM... not just going off judgment of what spells they used, rofl.

Kind of frustrating, this is my main play time and now I can't play for 3 hours.

Too many AFK reports? Obviously something very minor for only a 3 hour suspend.

You're probably going to hate yourself if you get banned even longer for violating the forum rules and posting about disciplinary action on the General forum, including copying your email.

But yeah, you may have been flagged for botting, or we may not have the whole story. My advice? Go out and see a movie tonight, you won't be playing.

You were afk in a battleground? Of course people reported you. Enjoy your ban, and learn from it.

05/26/2011 03:39 PMPosted by Huike

* Any behavior that has been found to be outside the intent of the game.

Running around spamming demon armor or alt-tabbing out when in a BG could be considered "outside the intent of the game".

If you want to appeal the penalty, you must email Account Administration and state your case.

I am glad they are banning afkers in BGs if that was the reason OP was banned for.

Post this in CS forums.

You're probably going to hate yourself if you get banned even longer for violating the forum rules and posting about disciplinary action on the General forum, including copying your email.

But yeah, you may have been flagged for botting, or we may not have the whole story. My advice? Go out and see a movie tonight, you won't be playing.

No.

You seem mad.

Yes, you can climb the penalty volcano for posting about disciplinary action on the forums, whether they are in-game or forum actions. I don't know whether they use the same volcano.

You can send an email to WOWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com if you want to contest the action. They are the only ones who can investigate more closely and decide whether you were actually active in whichever BG the violation behind the suspension occurred in. The forums aren't the place to discuss an account action. (See the Forums Code of Conduct: http://us.battle.net/en/community/conduct )

Someone most likely saw you running around spamming a button and thought it was suspicious.

You're probably going to hate yourself if you get banned even longer for violating the forum rules and posting about disciplinary action on the General forum, including copying your email.

But yeah, you may have been flagged for botting, or we may not have the whole story. My advice? Go out and see a movie tonight, you won't be playing.

what?

Discussing Disciplinary Actions

This category includes:
* Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a player, including chat logs and email correspondence between a player and a Game Master (GM)

* Creating posts or threads to discuss disciplinary actions taken against a character or account on the forums


If a player is found to have participated in such actions, he/she will:
* Be given a temporary ban from the forums, depending upon severity



Each department has it’s own channels that you can use to express comments or concerns:


* Forums: wowreportedpost@blizzard.com

* GMs: WoWGM@blizzard.com

http://us.battle.net/en/community/conduct#discipline

05/26/2011 03:46 PMPosted by Killada

Post this in CS forums.

No. Doing so will only result in a response similar to the one given by Ellethalua. Save yourself some time and possibly frustration and just use the email.

Alt tabbing =/= accidentally afking a bg

05/26/2011 03:50 PMPosted by Huike

It's pretty stupid I've never botted in this game the entire time I've played it, or exploited AT ALL... and I get banned for accidentally afking a bg. And then I know tons of people who use bots to farm honor and they never get banned. Sigh.

Again, we're not the ones to argue this with.

If you're innocent, email the wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com address to have it more thoroughly investigated. (Even if three hours seems inconsequential, Blizzard has said multiple times in recent months that they're planning to crack down on the absurd level of AFKing and botting and otherwise ruining other player's experience in BGs. Not contesting means if Blizzard sees similar behavior based on reports in the future, the penalty will go higher.

05/26/2011 03:50 PMPosted by Huike

It's pretty stupid I've never botted in this game the entire time I've played it, or exploited AT ALL... and I get banned for accidentally afking a bg. And then I know tons of people who use bots to farm honor and they never get banned. Sigh.

Tabbing out isn't an accident.

If you're not there to play, DON'T BE THERE.