Banned from WoW

[Thoreau]

Alright, let's start off with my WoW history, albeit brief. I played WoW from day 1 and lost 76 days of my life to it (actual in game timer.)

I ran a guild, and still technically do, although I quit and allowed my subscription to expire about a year and a half ago.

Out of the blue, I get the following email today...

Greetings,

Account Name: THOREAU

This is a notification regarding your World of Warcraft account. Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation. While we try to be as lenient as possible in our assessments of the results of exploitation investigations, reoccurring trends in exploitative endeavors on your account have ultimately resulted in account closure.

As a result, this account will no longer be able to access any aspect of World of Warcraft. This action has been taken in accordance with the Terms of Use (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) and our game policies (http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01712p). According to the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, to which all players agree when installing World of Warcraft, Section 3, Paragraph C [Rules Related to Game Play] states that you may not do anything that Blizzard Entertainment considers contrary to the "essence" of World of Warcraft.

Thank you for your time and understanding of our position in this matter. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Regards,

Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.WorldOfWarcraft.com

Now granted, I never had any intention of returning to the game lest it suck me back in and I become even more of a loser than I already am, but how the **** did I manage to do something 'contrary to the essence' of WoW without even having an active subscription? Heck, I host my old guild's website and don't even check that more than once a month, if that.

 

[Heisenberg]

Meh, who knows. Take it as a sign that quitting was the right thing to do.

 

[Thoreau]

That's an understatement, hehe.

 

[oogabooga]

You quit? you deserve a Ban... Quitters NEVER WIN

edit : seriously though .. was someone paying for/using your account? I'm kinda curious

 

[Thoreau]

It wasn't so much 'quitting' as ridding myself of a filthy habit. I do, however, still smoke. w00t!

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: oogabooga
You quit? you deserve a Ban... Quitters NEVER WIN

edit : seriously though .. was someone paying for/using your account? I'm kinda curious

Nope. My account has been completely dormant ever since I quit. I actually logged into it about once every couple months just to see if they might have some super mega deal running that would make it worth reactivating, but never did find any such offer.

And before anyone suggests that someone got the account by guessing my password... let's just say that my passwords are extremely complex.

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: oogabooga
You quit? you deserve a Ban... Quitters NEVER WIN

edit : seriously though .. was someone paying for/using your account? I'm kinda curious

Nope. My account has been completely dormant ever since I quit. I actually logged into it about once every couple months just to see if they might have some super mega deal running that would make it worth reactivating, but never did find any such offer.

And before anyone suggests that someone got the account by guessing my password... let's just say that my passwords are extremely complex.

If you log into theaccount management page, doesn't it show that last login date/time?

 

[RossGr]

Perhaps they are just purging inactive accounts?

 

[SunnyD]

Contrary to the Essence of the game means "You stopped paying us... so screw you."

 

[glutenberg]

This is probably Blizzard's method of purging your character contrary to their statements that they will keep your character in their system indefinitely (for now). Bait and switch, it's what Blizzard does best.

 

[JohnAn2112]

Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation.

Maybe some guy in your guild started doing some shady stuff like selling gold or something and they banned the entire guild for it.

 

[Thoreau]

Unfortunately for Blizzard, I still don't have a life, even though I escaped the gravitational pull of WoW. Soooooooooo I just gave them a call. After about 10 minutes in queue, someone picks up and gets my phone number and name. I explain the email I just got and she has no explanation other than that 'someone must have hacked into your account.'

Being the arrogant prick that I am, I ask them if their systems are so insecure that they can't even keep customer accounts secure, and she of course attempts to inform me that a keylogger must be on my PC. Uh huh, sure thing. As paranoid as I am with regards to security on my home network (not to mention that I have been successful in being responsible for the same for a Fortune 250 company for the last year and a half) I sincerely doubt that her excuse holds water.

Of course, it's now *my* job to fight with their security team to get my account back. To say the least, that's not gonna happen. Blizzard doesn't want my money? They don't get it then =)

In any case, Blizzard sure does know how to treat a customer who has bought every game they've released since the original Diablo.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: glutenberg
This is probably Blizzard's method of purging your character contrary to their statements that they will keep your character in their system indefinitely (for now). Bait and switch, it's what Blizzard does best.

Considering that I still have live accounts on Battle.net from Diablo and Warcraft III (just reinstalled WC3 a couple nights ago actually since retarded forum member aduljr got me hooked on custom maps again) that hadn't been touched for far longer, I would doubt it.

Blizzard likes money, and they know that the only chance of ever getting a customer to come back to them lies with the fact that they don't purge accounts.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: oogabooga
You quit? you deserve a Ban... Quitters NEVER WIN

edit : seriously though .. was someone paying for/using your account? I'm kinda curious

Nope. My account has been completely dormant ever since I quit. I actually logged into it about once every couple months just to see if they might have some super mega deal running that would make it worth reactivating, but never did find any such offer.

And before anyone suggests that someone got the account by guessing my password... let's just say that my passwords are extremely complex.

If you log into theaccount management page, doesn't it show that last login date/time?

I believe it does, however that's no longer possible thanks to the recent kill.

 

[glutenberg]

Sadly, they're great game developers but terrible at running a business. So far their game quality has been high enough for people to ignore their management.

 

[glutenberg]

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: glutenberg
This is probably Blizzard's method of purging your character contrary to their statements that they will keep your character in their system indefinitely (for now). Bait and switch, it's what Blizzard does best.

Considering that I still have live accounts on Battle.net from Diablo and Warcraft III (just reinstalled WC3 a couple nights ago actually since retarded forum member aduljr got me hooked on custom maps again) that hadn't been touched for far longer, I would doubt it.

Blizzard likes money, and they know that the only chance of ever getting a customer to come back to them lies with the fact that they don't purge accounts.

Yea, but their servers have been crapping out left and right recently and with the coming of TBC, they may try to lighten their load. No idea though. It's the best explanation I could think of when you say your security is so tight.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: JohnAn2112

Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation.

Maybe some guy in your guild started doing some shady stuff like selling gold or something and they banned the entire guild for it.

While I definitely can't discount that theory, my guild, while once one of the top 3 on our realm, was basically dying when I left the game. I think we had about 100 members left (including alts) at the time. Since then the person I left in charge has kept the roster on our website updated and it has gotten smaller ever since. Basically, those who are left are die-hard WoW-ers who actually love the game, and the guild. I would never suspect any of them of trying their hand at shadyness. Of course, I could be wrong.

Even if it is the case, that's pretty retarded to ban about accounts for the actions of one.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: glutenberg
This is probably Blizzard's method of purging your character contrary to their statements that they will keep your character in their system indefinitely (for now). Bait and switch, it's what Blizzard does best.

Considering that I still have live accounts on Battle.net from Diablo and Warcraft III (just reinstalled WC3 a couple nights ago actually since retarded forum member aduljr got me hooked on custom maps again) that hadn't been touched for far longer, I would doubt it.

Blizzard likes money, and they know that the only chance of ever getting a customer to come back to them lies with the fact that they don't purge accounts.

Yea, but their servers have been crapping out left and right recently and with the coming of TBC, they may try to lighten their load. No idea though. It's the best explanation I could think of when you say your security is so tight.

That would imply that they were actually planning out the release and fixing the overload issues they've had since day one. *chuckle* That would be far too much credit thrown in their direction.

One thing is for certain though, I'm glad this didn't happen back when I WAS still addicted to the game. I would've had a friggin meltdown and probably hung myself if it had.

 

[glutenberg]

They usually don't. There was a Naxx guild awhile back that was banned for wall clipping to C'thun. Only those in the raid were banned while those not on were left alone. Don't think they'd do a sweep job like that.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: glutenberg
They usually don't. There was a Naxx guild awhile back that was banned for wall clipping to C'thun. Only those in the raid were banned while those not on were left alone. Don't think they'd do a sweep job like that.

Well I guess I wouldn't be too shocked if they did, but if anyone else in my guild had gotten the boot as well, I guarantee they would have beat me to posting to our guild forum. The only posts there in the last week are perhaps 5 with various 'merry xmas' and 'hey, lets raid this place instead of that place tonight!'

 

[glutenberg]

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: glutenberg
This is probably Blizzard's method of purging your character contrary to their statements that they will keep your character in their system indefinitely (for now). Bait and switch, it's what Blizzard does best.

Considering that I still have live accounts on Battle.net from Diablo and Warcraft III (just reinstalled WC3 a couple nights ago actually since retarded forum member aduljr got me hooked on custom maps again) that hadn't been touched for far longer, I would doubt it.

Blizzard likes money, and they know that the only chance of ever getting a customer to come back to them lies with the fact that they don't purge accounts.

Yea, but their servers have been crapping out left and right recently and with the coming of TBC, they may try to lighten their load. No idea though. It's the best explanation I could think of when you say your security is so tight.

That would imply that they were actually planning out the release and fixing the overload issues they've had since day one. *chuckle* That would be far too much credit thrown in their direction.

One thing is for certain though, I'm glad this didn't happen back when I WAS still addicted to the game. I would've had a friggin meltdown and probably hung myself if it had.

Point taken.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

WoW has NEVER had issues. There has never been a regular 10-90 minute queue after 4pm. Patch Tuesdays have never gone on past 5pm at least once per month! Never!

 

[BrownTown]

I had my STEAM account banned out of the blue as well one time, and they are absolutely unsympathetic. I tried to ask about it, but the assumption is that you are certainly either a cheater who is lying or an idiot who let their account get stolen. Anyways, I was fortunate that this happened around the time Half-Life 2 was released, and if you bought HL2 and paid 10$ more you could get HL1 too, so i just paid the money. But I can see how on a MMORPG it would be MUCH worse since your character would be gone.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
I had my STEAM account banned out of the blue as well one time, and they are absolutely unsympathetic. I tried to ask about it, but the assumption is that you are certainly either a cheater who is lying or an idiot who let their account get stolen. Anyways, I was fortunate that this happened around the time Half-Life 2 was released, and if you bought HL2 and paid 10$ more you could get HL1 too, so i just paid the money. But I can see how on a MMORPG it would be MUCH worse since your character would be gone.

Ironically, I had just gotten HL2 right before WoW and was really into that. Then WoW came out and I haven't touched HL2 ever since. It actually really angered me since I *wanted* to play HL2, but my brain wouldn't let me leave WoW for any purpose other than work, sleep, food, and excessive masturbation. =(

 

[Jodiuh]

Die WoW Die