Character model bans (Discussion, same as we had for xp abuse, not breaking rules)

yes and? stop posting offtopic ;o

i may be wrong but i think collisions are calculated client side, and this has led to exploit in the past when changing models.
ofc changing player skins is innocuous on that regard, but blizz anti cheat sw may not be designed to discern that, only that models have been changed.
a 6 months ban seem a bit too much though…

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Can confirm they were unbanned, at least ones I know, thank you for joining the thread and thanks to Blizzard staff for a quick response (action-wise).

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Yes, one of my sons. And his friends. My son didn’t play for long though, but I don’t know if his friends still do(sub model is a problem for them tho, except for my son - as we as his parents play too, and therefore don’t mind the sub). Kids of guildies over the years have been playing too. Other than that you are right, this game doesn’t appeal much to a younger audience.

So basically your only counter argument here is “I don’t care about the ToS”.

I’m not really sure how you want me to respond to that? That is just not how these things work.

This just shows that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Anything that is changed can screw with the game in ways that weren’t intended. Everything that is put into a new bit of software is QA tested, not everything gets caught in the QA testing and bugs do get through. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it is.

Mods that are added through the addon screw with the game in a way Blizzard are aware of. They control what can be changed through their API and know that changing stuff through here won’t break the game or won’t result in that player having a specific advantage that they shouldn’t have. Changing the game outside of this could be giving the player an advantage which is why this happens.

tl;dr Your “counter argument” is just “I don’t care what the ToS say, I should be able to everything I want to.” and “I don’t understand how Development/QA testing works or how API’s work.”

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We recently completed a wave of suspensions for World of Warcraft accounts that were found to be operating third-party software that undermines the security of the World of Warcraft client. Reverse engineering and bypassing security protocols that safeguard against client modification is a clear violation of our Terms of Service, and we regularly take action against such behavior.

Many of the suspensions issued were for 180 days, as the exploit we detected allows for very malicious activities such as gameplay automation or rotation/interrupt botting. Upon further review, we found that some suspended accounts appeared to be only using the detected exploit to do client-side character model alteration. That is an activity that we would prefer to respond to with a warning, rather than a suspension, this time. As a result, we have reversed all of the suspensions issued in this action.

The use of third party software that modifies the World of Warcraft game client is against our Terms of Service. We expect players to remove such third party software, or their accounts will be subject to further action. Any future use of software that bypasses the security of the game client, regardless of intention or gameplay advantage, will be detected and sanctioned with increased penalties.

Without knowing the numbers, or the effects, I think changing the suspensions to a Warning is a good response.

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They have been given account warnings instead. Oh well, better than nothing.

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The simple fact of the matter is that custom models can be used to make things more visible and therefore grant you an advantage over other players.

Changing the model of your own character essentially removes any prestige from going into higher tier content as you can just reform your trash LFR armour into the mythic version as an example.

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Which no one else can see, other than you.

Anyways this thread served it’s purpose, bans were reverted and warnings issued, if you guys want to keep discussing feel free to.

I agree. It’s good that Blizzard have accepted that many of the users of this program were not using it for nefarious processes but I do hope everyone noticed the exact words in their response to it.

That is an activity that we would prefer to respond to with a warning, rather than a suspension, this time

Any future use of software that bypasses the security of the game client, regardless of intention or gameplay advantage, will be detected and sanctioned with increased penalties.

So PLEASE make sure you have removed the software from your computer.

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I don’t agree with the XP boost bug bans as that was Blizzards screw up that introduced the bug that created the problem. The bans only came along for that because it would hurt character boost sales.

However, messing with the game files in any way is a serious breach of the TOS and warrants a ban. You can’t pick and choose what can be manipulated and why, just ban all instances of tampering with the game otherwise we get the arguements of what is and isn’t allowed.A uto fishing, bots, gold farming all are bad things and require tampering with the game files.

I think that there were a lot of people that got a ban and they would lose a ton of revenue from seeing it through for 6 months…

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I’m glad that people who only came to these threads to puff out their chest and say “Told you so!” or “Hackers deserved it!” didn’t get their way in the end this time. I have said this in a locked thread before on this topic, but this shouldn’t be the place to keep beating down people who are already down or gloat in their misery. These discussions should serve a purpose, talk about how ToS should be reflected in penalties, talk about the best way to punish people who deserve it, while protecting harmless first time offenders, who didn’t affect anyone else by putting a scar/new chest model on their toons.

The stance that many people took, especially old forum skeptics, who have usually been around too long for their own good and have soured was way too harsh. Sure knowingly breaking the ToS to gain an advantage/harass others etc, should be properly penalized. Mass banning any and every player who used certain texture programs that altered the game in negligible ways isn’t beneficial for anyone. I’d much rather play with those people, than the ones that can’t do anything but recite the rules regardless of context, saying they should get such punishments.

A warning is a lot better solution in this case and I’m extremely glad Blizzard thought so as well, most of these people will never use any sort of injector again and Blizzard can now rightfully take down anybody who doesn’t comply with their, now official, stance. Since they didn’t take any hard stances before this on numerous occasions when people asked about it, half a year bans going out straight from the bat was really out of proportion.

Warnings are there in both games and IRL to scare away those who are unaware/unsure if their actions are against rules/laws. Most people who receive a warning never look back, there is no reason to act rashly against these people.

Welcome back friendly people who used such programs! May you never get a scare like this again, and don’t forget to get rid of those things from your folders even if you don’t use them anymore, who knows what Warden can detect! : )

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If nothing else, maybe Blizzard can take note of this and add some proper customization to the game as that is what the vast majority was using this for.

Pretty sure a pretty huge chunk of RP server players got banned through this, and now unbanned thankfully.

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Unfortunately they would have to rewrite a lot of their server code to even be capable of adding adjustable body features that would also be visible for other players.

Nevertheless it wouldn’t have hurt to have the various npc only skin colors being unlocked for vanilla races. Even if a lot of them are being pushed over to allied races, like the old Dark Iron skins that currently neither normal or Dark Iron dwarves have access too.

I think one of the better solutions would be something akin to the “Steam Workshop” meaning user created content and mods which are approved by Blizzard. People could then start working on smaller stuff: Retextures of armors and upgrading them, fixing clipping issues, and other visual stuff. Maybe even new hair styles and so on. Because yes while some people used lewd-mods others used them for aforementioned reasons (I’ve read on reddit that someone used the launcher to simply fix some shoulder pads for goblins and got banned).

The demand for a workshop like this seemingly exists. And well: If Blizzard doesn’t want to repair, fix or update this stuff maybe you should allow the users to take matters into their own hands?

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This would be a great idea :slight_smile:

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Maybe you should make a new thread about this idea? It may get buried in this one.

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I’m positive that a warning is not the right choice. One way or another, you’ll see Blizzard will lose more than they gain in the long run from this choice. They won’t rethink their patterns of thought with a warning, when they’ve broken the ToS for years and years feeling it was within their right. Either they’ll quit because they lost what they played for, or they’ll find a new way to fill that void creating new problems for Blizzard.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, cheaters are smart people. Keeping their accounts, is a win in itself.

Give them the good old: Once bitten, twice shy.

I’m positive that a warning is not the right choice. One way or another, you’ll see Blizzard will lose more than they gain in the long run from this choice. Those players won’t rethink their patterns of thought with a warning, when they’ve broken the ToS for years and years feeling it was within their right. Either they’ll quit because they lost what they played for, or they’ll find a new way to fill that void creating new problems for Blizzard.

I see a bigger potential loss of players from reversing the ban, than sticking with the bans.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, cheaters are smart people. Keeping their accounts, is a win in itself.

Give them the good old: Once bitten, twice shy.

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