Illegal mod? Please clarify reason for ban

#0 - July 29, 2008, 3 p.m.

Hi Blue,

I'm writing this on behalf of a player on a Japanese SNS site who had their account banned, and he is unsure why. After several emails going back and forth with account admin, he was told that he was banned for [Offense: Unapproved Third Party Software ].

Now according to the player he was using standard mods, which he did list on the thread, though one in particular stuck out as being the possible cause:

QuestJapanizer

To my knowledge, this mod takes the text quest of the game, runs it through an online English > Japanese translation website, and places the result in the quest text box.

Is this classified as 'illegal' mod behavior that could result in a permanent ban? The Japanese WoW community considers this a normal mod and it is widely used. If it is in fact a ban-able offense to use this mod, then perhaps it would be of greater customer service to include some information pointing to this mod in your warning email?

To this player he is using just another one of his 30 or so UI Mods, and suddenly receives an account closure email with no clear reason, asks for clarification but is responded purely with 'illegal 3rd party mod'. Japanese players often use mods to allow unicode font to display in WoW in order to type in Japanese, now to someone with little knowledge of how computers work would this seem so different? I don't think so.

Surely there is a way to prevent mods that cause such behavior to stop functioning when the game launches, as this is clearly not a malicious mod?

In conclusion,

Please clarify if using this mod:
URL: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/lalha/20080220/p1
Direct to ZIP: http://lalha.sakura.ne.jp/wowaddon/QuestJapanizer.0.2.zip
Is in fact a violation of the terms of use?

If you are able to verify this is the cause of why he was banned, is there any chance of his account ban being lifted?

Thanks,
Frap

Malkorix

#18 - July 30, 2008, 2:43 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Hi Blue,

I'm writing this on behalf of a player on a Japanese SNS site who had their account banned, and he is unsure why. After several emails going back and forth with account admin, he was told that he was banned for [Offense: Unapproved Third Party Software ].

Well, if it's a true 'addon', then it should be fine. You can consult our UI & Macros forum for more information, though will state that we do not typically ban for Addons, and that there is likely much more going on.

Can you provide me with the name and realm of a character on that account?

Malkorix

#24 - Aug. 5, 2008, 9:21 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Hello Blizzard,

I also lurk at the same forums on Mixi where the Japanese player has raised his concern. Since his account has been closed, he's unable to post here on these official community forums, and wanted an update on the status of his account.

He goes on to say he's been waiting over 9 days for a response to no avail. Can a CM please look in to this for him? What happens to him may reflect on what other players in Japan will feel about how customer service treats their customers in Japan.

Thanks in advance,

Scorpie

(Edit: The OP is not the Japanese player, but a kind person who posted the initial request -- I originally said "OP" but I meant the player the OP is trying to help.)

No worries, and I'll definitely look into this.

Please accept my deep apologies for the delays as well - due to a variety of factors, I was unable to pick this back up where it left off. Thank you for bringing it back to my attention!

Malkorix

#26 - Aug. 5, 2008, 9:37 p.m.

Q u o t e:
After downloading and looking at that mod, it appears as though every quest in the game is already translated and stored in QuestData.lua. (Or maybe just most of them?) It's a 6.4MB file, with one quest per line, and it runs a little over 6000 lines.

The issue at hand is not related to a UI mod, fortunately. It may be some time before I have an update, however, so I very much appreciate your patience while I do some research.

I'll provide what clarity I can after that research is complete though.

Malkorix

#27 - Aug. 5, 2008, 11:16 p.m.

As an update, it appears that this matter is once again under review.

You may inform the player in question to keep an eye on his or her registered email address. It may be yet more time before a final determination can be made, but I hope for the best.