Too Much Gold - A Bannable Offense?

#0 - Feb. 5, 2007, 12:15 p.m.

My good friend, neighbor, and co-worker was recently banned from WoW for having too much gold.

Apparently Blizzard's reasoning was that it was not possible for him to have earned the amount of gold that he did without exploiting or some other illegitimate means. They couldn't prove he had done anything wrong (because he hadn't) yet banned him anyway.

This gold was the product of his very success playing of the AH (I suppose you could have considered him the equivalent of an E-bay entrepreneur in WoW) and also with enchants to supplement what he could grind. Because he was on an old server (Blackrock) there was plenty of money circulating in the economy that made this possible (ie- inflation). He dedicated most of his play time to only one "60" character (gnome mage, level 68 last I knew though he might have gotten it to 70 before they banned him) and never did any character or account transfers that might lead one to suspect his account of being a farmer. The one thing Blizzard pinned on him was multiple IP addresses. The fact that he travels a lot wasn't good enough for Blizzard. He played on his laptop while out of town, on his old computer at home (parent's house), and his computer at his current apartment. He's also used my computer before. He did have his account hacked some months back, but it was restored to him a couple of weeks later.

Despite the fact he has appealed to customer service through e-mail and by phone, they refuse to listen to him at all and prefer to just brand him as a cheater and take everything he made fair and square because it's easier than actually looking through the account's history to see that he did nothing wrong. Because it's easier than admitting that THEY are wrong. I guess the one upside about this is the fact that his wife hates WoW and now he has a reason to quit.

Maybe Blizzard should put a gold limit in their Terms of Use to prevent this from happening to other people.

Batta

#117 - Feb. 5, 2007, 8:13 p.m.

If you're still around, Demoora, could you provide me with a character name and realm from your friend's account?

Thank you. : )

Batta

#138 - Feb. 5, 2007, 9:12 p.m.

Q u o t e:

The character name is "Navarre" and the realm is Blackrock.

Thank you for this information, Demoora.

Q u o t e:
The one thing Blizzard pinned on him was multiple IP addresses. The fact that he travels a lot wasn't good enough for Blizzard. He played on his laptop while out of town, on his old computer at home (parent's house), and his computer at his current apartment. He's also used my computer before. He did have his account hacked some months back, but it was restored to him a couple of weeks later.

This is often a common misconception within this community; I'd like to clarify the confusion. We are not actively pursuing and banning players who choose to travel the globe and still play the World of Warcraft. We will always attempt to give players the benefit of the doubt when one claims to enjoy playing this game while on vacation or business out of the country. With that said, we can still easily take a "common sense" approach to world travel.

For instance, we can safely say it's a technical impossibility that a player logs in from the United States, then again halfway across the world within the span of just over an hour. We can also safely assume that a player cannot travel across the world in over an hour while also managing to rake in over 19 hours of play time from two separate regions in one day.

Q u o t e:
This gold was the product of his very success playing of the AH (I suppose you could have considered him the equivalent of an E-bay entrepreneur in WoW) and also with enchants to supplement what he could grind. Because he was on an old server (Blackrock) there was plenty of money circulating in the economy that made this possible (ie- inflation). He dedicated most of his play time to only one "60" character (gnome mage, level 68 last I knew though he might have gotten it to 70 before they banned him) and never did any character or account transfers that might lead one to suspect his account of being a farmer.

There is nothing wrong with entrepreneurship in WoW. In fact, it is perfectly acceptable for a player to choose to play the Auction House throughout the entirety of his/her WoW play time. Managing to play the market and further participate in the game economy is a talent for which I have little patience, and can fully respect those rather wealthy characters who choose to partake in such actions. The discrepancy here comes when a player chooses to use these earnings to supply gold distributors/buyers.

In short, you may want to provide your friend with the following link:

http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/?id=aDisplay02046p

I hope I've at least clarified some of the confusion over this situation, Demoora.

Batta

#143 - Feb. 5, 2007, 9:58 p.m.

Q u o t e:
He/she did not state those actions were taken by my friend.

Because they weren't.

With all due respect, Demoora, this is exactly my point regarding world travel. In contrast to your friend's story which you provided here, it is safe to say that he did not travel halfway across the world in just over one hour's time, all the while managing to rake up 19 hours of play time within one day from his starting and destination real world locations combined. It's not possible and did not happen that way.

Batta

#154 - Feb. 6, 2007, 3:35 a.m.

Q u o t e:

And did it ever occur to you that maybe my friend's account was HACKED?

It would've occurred to me had you used that excuse the first time around. Let's be real here, Demoora, you're changing the excuse after the fact. You stated he was banned for traveling overseas. In fact, he iterated the same excuse in a reply to our Account Administration department. There are many arguments one has a tendency to use when contesting an account ban; however, it's best to pick one and stick with it.

It is additionally unprecedented for an account to be compromised by a company in order to be used for power-leveling. Why power-level a character on someone else's account rather than stripping it of its goods, as is the case with every other compromised account?

We have thoroughly investigated this case and found that all evidence points to violations of our Terms of Use warranting the closure issued to your friend's account. I am sorry we have been unable to further assist you here, Demoora.

Reythur

#169 - March 10, 2008, 11:05 p.m.

Please do not bump threads that are over a year old, Arthelon. Thanks! Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to discuss a topic. =)