Prohibitions on Third-party Software

Community General Discussion
1

We continue to work to put a stop to the impact that accounts utilizing third-party software can have on World of Warcraft. We regularly implement new and better cheat detection aimed at identifying those who reverse-engineer and bypass our security protocols to modify the game client and/or control the game in ways that are prohibited.

We regularly take action against such behavior, up to and including the permanent closure of the WoW accounts involved.

The use of third-party software that modifies the World of Warcraft game client is against our Terms of Service. Part 1, Section C of the Blizzard End User License Agreement reads:

License Limitations

Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following:

Derivative Works: Copy or reproduce (except as provided in Section 1.B.), translate, reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on or related to the Platform.

Cheating: Create, use, offer, promote, advertise, make available and/or distribute the following or assist therein: any code and/or software, not expressly authorized by Blizzard, that can be used in connection with the Platform and/or any component or feature thereof which changes and/or facilitates the gameplay or other functionality;

We expect players to remove third-party software that bypasses the security of the game client, to avoid penalties such as suspension or closure of your account.

8 Likes
3

Does this mean that iMorph and Auto Hot Key are now banned?

4

hello Kaivax.

in the small farming land at hollowfall and the place that 2x4 skinning groups .
those 2 area are the core of those cheaters.
and one more thing they are active when the middle of night starts till morning.
( when most of players are sleeping ) at hollowfall.
in order to not get reported by players

and for the 2x4 skinning groups.
they start from the start of the morning till Noon.

if you want to eradicate them you need to do heavy - massive attacks every week.
you see?
when you stop a group of them they goes in that channel and tell the other to be carefull.
so they goes offline and buy more accounts in order to start again when the situation is calm.
but if you go around them without need of players report and ban a massive group of them every week they have no chance to save the others.
all of them gets hit at the same time. and after few weeks they dont have enough energy and time and money to recover/

just wanted to share my idea and some information and opinion

5 Likes
5

that one and tmorph have never been allowed ever since MoP,anyone using it deserve’s a ban.

4 Likes
6

how about you perma the bots across all versions of the game instead

6 Likes
7

so please unban my account that got Caught in the crossfire , been trying for more than e year to Apply witouth a answer that whas not a BOT

1 Like
8

If this ends up working “as well” as the actions taken against “multiboxers” and the thousands of bots across all versions but especially in Classic, then it might not be worth the effort at all. :wink:

2 Likes
9

Yeah, no, i don’t think this is true. I can name 5-6 individuals who i have been reporting (many times) during the whole course of Shadowlands expansion. I’ve sent numerous emails to hacks@blizzard.com with details and pictures of them cheating. No actions were taken against them.
I’ve been hopeful in recent weeks when I started receiving emails frequently from Blizzard, that actions were taken against bots. But then again i started to notice bots, who i’ve already reported numerous times, are still there botting for months (with their entirely made out of bots guilds).

2 Likes
10

They had always been banned before.

1 Like
11

I received a 7-month ban two months ago for “third-party software or hacks.” However, I do not use any unauthorized software at all.

I do manually multibox without any enhancements, and I get reported by other players daily—either because they assume I’m a bot due to having four characters on /follow, or because they mistakenly believe multiboxing itself is against the Terms of Service. Many players aren’t aware that it’s only multiboxing software that’s prohibited, not manual multiboxing.

Interestingly, just two days after my ban, many American multiboxers also received temporary permanent bans, which were later reversed after being identified as an error.

Additionally, I had spent several million gold on game time tokens in Cataclysm Classic just two days before the ban.

It’s extremely frustrating to be accused of using unauthorized software when I simply don’t use any—not in WoW, nor in any other game.

It seems likely that one of the following triggered the ban:

  • A recent Anti-Cheat update may have flagged manual multiboxing incorrectly.

  • I received too many bot reports from other players.

  • My transfer of millions of gold across my Battle.net WoW licenses to purchase game time may have appeared suspicious.

I respectfully request a thorough review of my case. I know this ban was issued in error, and I hope it can be resolved fairly.

You just keep telling me in my appeals how “unauthorized 3rd party software was detected” and for some reason " In this case, this account was closed because it was involved, either directly or indirectly, with the unauthorized exchange of in-game property for “real-world” currency." which is also nonsense, surely you have logs to browse to find thats nonsense, this indicates how low effort was made because your ticket reply is not even about the correct reason.

IÂŽm still playing WoW with new license in same system, same game installation, same software and zero changes made to anything.
Nothing is detected because there is nothing to detect, you made mistake.

12

Can you just give us a list of what is allowed and what isn’t.

4 Likes
13

Wintrading and matched matchmaking still allowed as it doesnÂŽt need a extra program right?
Als those cheaters still not banned btw. which shows us it is accepted and legal???

1 Like
14

hold on a second - so let’s say there is an addon that translate game into unsupported language i.e. Polish language - then someone using that kind of addon will be banned? (It works like setting a layer over the text, not as changing files) also what about any addons that are reading text for you i.e. quests in quest window? It is the same stuff?

15

So that I get that right, this would for example also mean using WoW Model Viewer to extract game models for fan animations is as well prohibited?

16

Addons in general are fine, as the LUA interface won’t let you do things Blizzard won’t allow (of course there’s been exceptions, I know). Those polish and other language translator addons on curseforge and co. you use are perfectly fine and you don’t need to worry using them.
What this section means is creating and using/providing translated game files.

No it means private servers and things like that

WoW Model Viewer for fanart/fanvideos/machinimas has nothing to do with derivating the game or parts of it.

17

Did you use windows mouseover feature, or powertoys?

18

Thanks for being specific Blizzard, Now i know exactly what Is not allowed
KEK. So should I be scared to use Razer synapse at this point or?

19

Regular manufacturer software for keyboards and mice with hotkey functions are not against ToS and will not be banned.
As long as you don’t program them with ToS volating macros.

20

Hi Kaivax, i don’t think players should play mind games with the game company with: What is allowed and what isn’t.

Players know how they can alter the code of the game with tools that are now available for them. Before A.I, these tools were only accessed by coders.

Third party softwares

These softwares runs on the background of the WoW client and they are restricted for a reason. The softwares are not working within the game and every software that does run background of the game is prohibited.
Players you need to understand this, as if you somehow benefit from the game code with these programs. You are stealing, and stealing is against the law.