Hello. First of all i want to notice that i was playing on this account since late WotLK(original), ~2010. Was twice renamed back in 2012 as i remember, these are all penalties i ever had. Stoped playing DF last spring, and was focused on WotlK. No problems, raidlogging was my whole gameplay, sometimes doing ah’s to get some gold for consumes, and also was playing my 60 mage very rare on Classic era. No problems, all was good, then, during winter holidays, i decided have a look on SoD. The only possibility i can play a bit “hardcore”, level up few chars and try to raid was during holidays, ~30 dec - 8 jan. Leveled up druid, hunter and pala, gear to be able to join bfd, managed to do 3 raids maybe, was 2 months ago - and was banned for “botting/cheating/hacking”. Was trying to appeal with no succes, someone reduced permanent to 6 months and thats all. All arguments were denied(or ignored?), the only informative answer i received was “fellow players reported you”.
First of all, i don’t think some kind of my gameplay can be a reason to be reported, so this answer seems like snide responce. The whole information i was able to gather make me think that something i was doing triggered this ban, software is not a reason, i’m absolutely sure, this is impossible to be able to play for years and suddenly figure out that something was installed and running. Found out that false-positive bans are not so rare and very hard to lift, and main problem is that you’re unable to reach person you need to analyze and approve, that nothing was used/done against ToS. Sure that if someone actully check in-game activities i’ll be able to recover my account(not like it’s banned, but i dont’ know how can i play on in after all that “support hell”, reason was not and will not be given, who can guarantee that invested time will be wasted instead i won’t be permabanned next time?). The hardest thing is that you can’t fix someone you don’t know, and can play at your own risk. Maybe forum’s blues can give some kind of clarifications, more than 50+ overall appeals+tickets so far.
You cannot post about bans on the forums but Blizzard have changed the things that will get you banned in the last few months, including VPNs, Proxy servers, Macro software and quite a few other things.
If your mouse or keyboard software allows macros that could be a reason.
They also do not ban people just because they were reported. They investigate then ban you if you break the rules.
First - i’m not using any kind of this software while playing WoW, have VPN installed for extraordinary situations, but last time i ran it to fix lags was maybe years ago, nothing else. Second - how do you know they changed things and is there any documented changes, VPNs were always allowed and if You have a link to official post saying it’s against ToS now or can link ToS paragraph - will be appreciated.
The problem is that is not the first day i play and somehow know what is allowed and not, the first thing i’ve done - checked both PC and laptop, nothing.
And a third part, how can You explain bans lifted after months? Were these cases investigated? I think there’s the other way it’s working now: system are flagging you for reports or actions, doesn’t matter. You’re banned now and have to deal with support. No one can be sure that even if you were told that your case is investigated it actually was, how can you? Zero information is shared with you during the whole process, not even an actual reason. According to GDPR art. 22 this kind of decisions can’t be based on automated processing, and if i have a guy who will open-close and mark as investigated it’s not automated basically? For the whole 2023 we saw nubmers of accounts blocked. Even if 20% of them are trying to appeal how many staff and time is required to do a detailed investigation? No one gives You any guarantee, that’s why You have to appeal as much as possible if You’re sure ban/suspension was unfair, while You hero will appear and reinvestigate it, and lift.
VPN have never been allowed, they intercept the data and that is against the rules, recently this has been more vigorously enforced.
Well a lot more people are being banned due to VPNs.
The best thing is to have NOTHING active when you play Warcraft, no mouse or keyboard software, no VPN, no anything.
Blizzard will not say using X, Y or Z software will get you banned as people will use other software that does the same thing.
You don’t have keyboard or mouse software active down next to the clock? Everything there is an ACTIVE program. Macro software even if you don’t use it ingame will cause a ban, any active software they don’t like will cause a ban.
If you have appealed multiple times then they will not overturn the ban. Something on your machine caused this ban, whether it’s actively used for Warcraft or not.
And to quote my first post.
The rules are at the bottom of this page so I suggest you go and read them all.
Bans can also happen if you are in a country that has an embargo against it.
Fresh enough?
Nope. No autoclickers, no multiboxing software, it’s not completely clear but very close to be. Most of this software is not alowed in any online game, and as long as WoW is not a single game i play i won’t risk.
This is exactly why they stopped confirming if something is or isn’t bannable. When policies change, someone will always wheel out “but x sayd on y that z”.
That post was in 2019, policies changed.
VPNs are not forbidden, and we do not usually ban players for using one. It may however happen that players receive a suspension when using a VPN, and you can appeal such sanctions if you believe this is the case.
Эллейлия, you were not suspended for using a VPN. As usual, we will not be able to provide more information on these forums.