Shenannigans are afoot.
May 22nd, 2008 | by TJ |I know I don’t write much about WoW, and I know I don’t write much about SRS BUSINESS, but today I have some very serious WoW-business to talk about here.
A lot of you are familiar with Aetherial Circle – the Bloggingest Guild in WoW. Doomilias, BRK, Cay & Fio, Ratshag, Ego, Brigin, Tredezar… the list of bloggers in our guild goes on and on. I know a lot of you follow at least a couple of the rest of those blogs, have seen AC progress, and have gotten a good look into what an awesome guild it is.
While you’ve been burning with jealousy, something extremely unfortunate has happened – one of our hunters, Lamaa, who I have mentioned here in the past, got caught up in Blizzard’s recent mass ban. It’s absolutely unbelievable to me that this could happen. The people in AC, we’ve all been playing with him for a long time, and honestly and seriously, he is the LAST person I would ever, EVER suspect of using any kind of game cheating mechanic. There’s no glory in chasing BRK up the damage meters if you had to cheat to get there, and he is NOT that kind of guy.
Many people in AC are extremely close to Lamaa, and some of his best friends are found in the game. When your best friends live in Canada and you’re in the southern US, you can’t just hop up and head out to a bar with them on Saturday nights. Instead, Lamaa and his friends get together every Saturday night for a late night Kara run. He’s been a major contributer to all of AC’s progression. He’s the jewelcrafter everyone goes to in guild, and it just plain flat out sucks that Blizzard has made this kind of mistake to the least deserving of such treatment. He bought a Frostmourne, for the love of pete.
I understand that in a mass banning, mistakes happen. Blizzard has to, has to know that they’d get some false positives. There has to be some kind of plan in place to handle this, but getting through to Blizzard seems nearly impossible. Maybe they’re hoping that by making it difficult to resolve these issues, people will give up and figure it’s not worth it and either start a new account or move on with their lives. That’s not fair to someone like Lamaa, who would never cheat, got banned by mistake, and has put a lot of time, effort, money and so much more than that into this game. If a business such as Blizzard makes a mistake, they need to step up and fix it as soon as possible. They’ve made a serious error here, and I am extremely disheartened by the fact that the process of repairing this mistake seems almost insurrmountable.
Below, you’ll find the story from Lamaa himself. I know this is a long shot, but someone on our guild forums pointed out that a lot of us have blogs, and drawing as much attention to this issue as possible could maybe speed along the process of getting this rectified. I am not looking to slam Blizzard – obviously, these mass bannings of cheaters happen for a reason that is for the good of all of the rest of us. But when these mistakes happen, it needs to be brought to their attention and handled as quickly as possible – not just with the restoration of Lamaa’s account, but frankly, an apology for the false accusation.
If anyone reading this knows anyone who knows anyone who has a cousin, or who can write on… dare I say it… WoW Insider… or on your own blogs, or do anything at all to bring attention to this situation, it would be greatly appreciated.
AC WANTS THEIR LAMAA BACK!!
Details from Lamaa below:
***Notice of Account Closure***
Access to the World of Warcraft account, ********, and any World of Warcraft account associated with the payment information you have provided, has been permanently disabled. The account has been identified as having used unauthorized game modifications and thus is in violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.
Please review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html, which you accepted when you installed World of Warcraft and established the account(s). Section 4, Paragraphs A and B detail the limitations of game play modifications and use of any third-party or packet sniffing software.
Furthermore, any activities not intended by game design which affect the economy, the client, player characters or the world itself have a tremendous negative impact on the potential enjoyment for all players. The effects of these activities take many forms including a bloated game economy, server instability, and allowing unauthorized access to accounts, computers, and player data.
As a result, the account(s) will no longer be accessible and will unfortunately not be reopened under any circumstances.
Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter and respecting our position and all statutes within the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.
Regards,
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.WorldOfWarcraft.comThis was the message I received when I got home from work on Tuesday. I have replied to the email requesting for the reason for the closure and for further investigation, as I’m sure if they actually looked into the account and the characters they would realize their mistake. I let them know about my use of wine/linux and the logitech g15 keyboard
I did try to contact them via phone. The billing department is the only people who will talk to you and are absolutley useless to talk to, even concerning the 3 month subscription charge that was renewed the day my account was closed that is apparently non-refundable.
I really don’t know what else I can do. I’m frustrated and a little sick to my stomach over it. It’s not like I have a whole lot in life to look forward to right now and it really feels like they are ripping away the past couple years of memories and experiences with the friends I’ve made in game.
Though they can’t really take that away despite everything; the friendships I’ve made here with you guys will endure even this.
It just may be awhile before we play together again Smile
Thank you all for your support! <3
On a side note, I made a trial account and got spammed with 4 gold selling/powerleveling advertisments as soon as I logged on to the character. GG bliz, way to get the bad guys!
Anyway, that’s what Lamaa has to say about it. I know you guys don’t know him, but you know all the rest of us. AC isn’t that kind of guild, we don’t have that kind of people, and this is the suckiest of sucks, not only that this would happen in our guild, but who it happened to. Trust me when I tell you that the very idea of any kind of guilt on Lamaa’s part is just unimaginable, for all of us. Hopefully, the tiny minor e-fame of the Bloggingest Guild in WoW can be leveraged here, and I appreciate anything at all that anyone at all can do to help us all out with this situation. Especially keep in mind that while AC is, of course, devastated to have this happen to one of our friends, if someone like Lamaa who does everything right, would never cheat, pays to play this game like everyone else, has put years into it like everyone else, can be banned just like that with no recourse, it could happen to someone close to you as well.
By Bobo & SgtPork on May 22, 2008
If they charged you a 3 month subscription fee, then banned you account within hours, might that not be a basis for some sort of legal recourse? Surely, they can make their billing dept. aware of pending account action?
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By Kirk on May 22, 2008
One of the things I discovered when digging into the subject for someone else is what I’ll call legitimate collateral damage. I’ll give a specific example here: lavishsoft. Lavishsoft produces a major bot engine – innerspace. It also produces some other tools for other games and even non-gaming. You can also use lavishsoft for legit purposes – a simple example is running the game in a virtual system that quarantines it from the rest of your computer. Yes, like Wine on Linux.
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Warden still sees Lavishsoft’s Innerspace. And sees it running while Warcraft is running. Since IS is a major bot engine and you’re running it in conjunction with warcraft… QED.
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There are exceptions. They’re complex and difficult – not least because they’re intentionally obscure.
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Good luck on this, really.
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By Vivified on May 22, 2008
TJ, don’t list the account name. Just from a security standpoint, it’s not a good thing to do.
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By sonvar on May 22, 2008
I’ll post it up on mine. Hopefully it helps out your friend Lamaa.
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By grimmtooth on May 22, 2008
We got hit by the banhammer as well, in the form of losing out best geared and most advanced raiding healer. He, too, was not a user of bot software.
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However, one thing I heard was that the source of the information that Blizz used to generate the list was information obtained (by court order) from the makers of the Glider bot, and thus anyone that had bought Glider was targeted, whether it was used or not.
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If this was the case, then it makes sense; our guy is the kind of person that would buy it to see what it did, then uninstall. That would tie his name and CC# to that list neatly (note the wording of the notice above).
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He had two out of his three accounts banned; the third account is probably under a different name or payment method.
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We’re working under teh assumption taht we won’t get those accounts back, and putting two or three alt priests on the fast track to 70, but it would be great if we got his characters back.
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Good luck to all of us.
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By vronak on May 22, 2008
When the last set of bans went out, for win trading I believe, several people were banned inappropriately. As you can imagine, it was a very big topic over at ArenaJunkies. Here’s the first major thread: http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=21903
Their course of action was to submit a complete account of what happened to the email address supplied in the ban notice – and then wait. And wait. And eventaully the innocent were cleared.
Most likely nearly everyone that receives this ban, rightly or wrongly, is going to protest it, the guilty hoping to dodge the bullet and the innocent hoping to salvage their hard work and friendships. Blizzard gets innundated.
Sometimes the innocent were caught simply because they had shared their account information with someone else that was cheating.
I think your friend will be fine, but they’ll have to be patient. Good luck :)
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By Dechion on May 22, 2008
Posted about and crosslinked, Wish i could do more. Good luck.
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By Prof. teh Khol Abides on May 22, 2008
Vronak’s got the right of it. Best thing to do, aside from publicly making known the false positive, is for Lamaa to work within the system. Blizzard holds all the cards in this case, so following their procedures and providing any information they request is the best course of action. It may take a week, a month or more for the issue to be corrected, but perseverance pays off. The process will be long and painful, and that is intended, as those who are willing to go through it to get their account back are the people that are least likely to be cheaters, as, in general, people who are willing to cheat aren’t going to be willing to spend the amount of time and effort it takes to prove their innocence. That’s kind of the whole idea, they are looking for a fast and easy way, which is the antithesis of the account restoration process.
Best advice is to work with Blizzard, be transparent and be patient. The burden of proof is on Lamma, unfortunately, as Blizzard can terminate accounts for pretty much no reason at all, since it’s their game.
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By Kestrel on May 22, 2008
Posted and linked. Blizzard needs to fix their process, to be short and sweet about it.
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By Shalkis on May 22, 2008
Can you get Lamaa to post details about his computer and how he set up WoW? If we could identify the reason why he got incorrectly flagged (I’m giving him the benefit of a doubt here), we could prevent other people from getting needlessly banned.
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By Andy C. on May 22, 2008
Good luck to Lamaa and AC.
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By Pike on May 22, 2008
Considering that I run WoW via Wine on Linux and am a rather vocal advocate of that on my blog… I can’t help but be a little worried about if that might be causing any issues. I hope it’s not. =( Good luck to you Lamaa and AC.
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By Kirk on May 22, 2008
I hate when the snippetting does that. In the back-link above from my site, the critical but missing sentence reads, “This one
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By TJ on May 22, 2008
@Kirk: Oh I understand, don’t worry about it. You don’t need to support one side or the other to draw attention to the situation.
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By Morane on May 22, 2008
Someone in Blizzards legal department needs a swift kick in the pants if you ask me. Just because Blizzard are within their rights to take this action doesn’t mean it is the correct action.
This should never have got this far. A mass ban is pointless. A few carefully targetted and highly publicized bans (with the evidence to backup the allegations) would have been far more effective.
And it’s not like this will affect the spammers, farmers and levellers anyway.
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By Kirk on May 22, 2008
thanks.
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By vronak on May 22, 2008
@Morane – I completely disagree about a mass ban being pointless. If you ban a few, people simply hope they’re not the unlucky ones and keep cheating. Making an example of a few doesn’t work, as, statistically, most individuals would be safe. “I won’t get caught.” No, a mass ban becomes a deterrent – you cheat, you WILL be caught. It makes people think twice.
Again, it’s unfortunate that there are false positives and I feel for Lamaa and others in the same boat, but I agree with the heavy-handed action. Blizzard sends a very clear message.
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By TJ on May 22, 2008
For the record – I do NOT disagree with the mass banning. What I disagree with, what is frustrating, is that Blizzard seems, so far, to be closed to the possibility of rectifying mistakes made in the process. Hopefully, by following through the process, however long it takes, Lamaa will get his account back. Right now, he’s been met with nothing but closed doors. THAT is frustrating.
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By Fiordhraoi on May 22, 2008
Just to clarify here. I posted this on Priestly Endeavors in response to his disagreement with the “call”:
don
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By klaki on May 22, 2008
I agree with Kirk. Justice will prevail!
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By Jacemora on May 22, 2008
I put a link on my blog also, but no backlink here for some reason. Hopefully 1 of my 2 or 3 readers will see it. :P
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By Lady Jess on May 22, 2008
Oh no…I knew him, and from my little time on my baby hunter of there he was awesome from the second I joined. That just stinks:(
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By For the Pie on May 22, 2008
File a dispute for the charge with your CC company. That will solve the issue of the recurring charge. Use the reason as service canceled same day as recurring charge.
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By Asara on May 22, 2008
I have been reading the WoW Customer Service forum, and there is recourse, but because they banned SO many people, and SO many people are appealing to Account Administration, it will take a good while for them to completely review and pass judgement. Why they didn’t take the time to do this BEFORE banning people boggles me a bit, but I’ll say one thing for the CS forum blues, they seem to be doing their best to offer advice in the face of something they personally can’t do anything about.
All I can do is hope that those who were falsely accused are given some sort of compensation for lost time waiting for AA to sift through the mess that this ban has made. It’s only fair, IMHO.
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By Prof. teh Khol Abides on May 22, 2008
@For the Pie
QFT
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By Kirk on May 22, 2008
If I may ask… this is getting a little heated (though not flaming) at my site and there was a threat of spillback. I’d like to shortstop that here.
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Frankly, if I had been aware enough to think, I’d not have done the linkback I did – I’d have referenced her post indirectly. TJ and AC are grieving, and it was rude of me to intrude directly upon that grief. (TJ, and through you the rest of AC, my apologies for that rudeness. And if you want to cut the linkback and subsequent thanks out – by all means.) If you want to disagree, do it elsewhere or do it with a lot more taste than I did.
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By Morane on May 22, 2008
@Vronak
I disagree with your disagree! A mass ban is pointless, in fact *worse* than pointless because:
1. If you were cheating but weren’t banned then the message is completely lost.
2. If you were cheating and were banned then there’s really nothing to stop you re-upping and cheating better.
3. If you weren’t cheating and weren’t banned then any possible good news is totally outweighed by the thought that next time you will be in group 4…
4. If you weren’t cheating and were banned you’re major league PO’d right now and are shouting from the rooftops.
I take mass ban to mean taking a list of accounts you suspect and then banning them without looking at each case individually. Asara above has this absolutely right. The investigations should have been done *before* the ban, not after.
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By Talisker on May 22, 2008
TJ, as a reader of most of the blogs of “the gang,” I find this all very interesting. And initially, I thought, hell yeah, let’s make ourselves heard! But now, I’ve changed my mind. I think Kirk has some really good points that are being ignored, either deliberately or due to being too emotionally close.
Your comment on Kirk’s post says, “you’re offended that I’ve used my blog to express my feelings.” But that isn’t entirely true – in fact, it isn’t even mostly true. To quote your blog post above:
“I know this is a long shot, but someone on our guild forums pointed out that a lot of us have blogs, and drawing as much attention to this issue as possible could maybe speed along the process of getting this rectified.”
That to me doesn’t sound like “expressing feelings.” That to me says, “I want to leverage our semi-fame in order to get special treatment.” Special treatment, in this case, being to, “maybe speed along the process.”
How is that fair? Why should “celebrities” or their friends get special treatment? What if my account gets banned – who will stand up for me to “maybe speed along the process”?
Which brings me to Kirk’s point – how is this right? You’re demanding that the process be ignored or that your friend get special treatment. Leaving aside whether Lamaa is guilty or not, I can also take exception with the efforts of a “cult of personality” trying to give privilege to some and not all.
As Kirk says, if you want to propose a real solution that would apply to all victims, and isn’t a massive cost burden, feel free. But all you’ve done is say that he deserves to have his case more closely scrutinized merely because he’s lucky enough to have highly visible and vocal public advocates – not because of any real facts about his guilt or innocence (other than, “I’ll vouch for him”).
So I have to go along with Kirk – special treatment for some does not benefit everyone, and in fact, hurts the rest who don’t get it, by subjecting them to separate and less favorable rules. The appeals process might suck (I pray I never experience it), but it is there.
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By TJ on May 22, 2008
@Talisker: The analogy that I made to Kirk is that Fio is currently looking for a job and has a post on his site about it. A lot of people are unemplyed right now, but if a position at my company opened, you bet I’d slip Fio’s resume on top. He is my friend. If I can get him an edge, I will. How is me using my blog to draw attention to this situation any different than other blogs who have used their audience to draw attention to any kind of issue?
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By TJ on May 22, 2008
Also, no demands have been made, period. The fact that Lamaa is getting shit simply because I have an audience is not fair to him. And it’s not fair to me that I can’t talk about this because I have to consider that, holy crap, people might read it. I can champion any issue I so choose on my blog. The people who have fallen behind and directed links to this post are people who support me, or BRK, or Doom, or Fio, or AC as a whole. If you get banned? Well, I hope your friends stand behind you, too. Is it Lamaa’s fault that his friends are louder?
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By TJ on May 22, 2008
AND what is being protested here, if you read Lamaa’s portion of the post, is that Blizzard, thus far, has been non-responsive and impossible to contact. If me jumping up and down and shrieking and holding my breath until I turn blue has a chance of getting us a little bit of clairity on what is going to happen here – ANYTHING – even someone telling Lamaa, look, we’ll get to it as soon as we can, you’re not being ignored – then I consider this to be a success.
I sincerely thank everyone who has brought this matter to the attention of those they could reach – whether the discussion is positive or negative, and whether you agree or disagree, this should not be an issue of “TJ is trying to get special treatment.” If you’ll pardon the expression, who the HELL am I to Blizzard? No one, nothing. My friend is banned and I am upset. There’s nothing more to it than that.
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By Asara on May 22, 2008
TJ – the blue post here is probably the best you’re going to get, it’s not personally to your friend, but it explains a bit about why he hasn’t heard directly back yet. I know it’s not much, but it’s the best I can do from work :(
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By Talisker on May 22, 2008
I understand being frustrated and emotional about a friend. I think it stepped over the line when TJ’s post asked for people to raise a hue and cry to “maybe speed things along.” That is exerting one’s influence in order to achieve treatment not available to everyone.
As far as Blizzard’s lack of response, hoo boy, absolutely, this pisses me off, too; this objection is right on the money, and really goes to the heart of the issue. As someone who has a blog category devoted to what I call “customer DISservice,” I can completely sympathize with the lack of Blizzard’s response.
In fact, had TJ’s post been to the effect that it’s high time we demand they devoted some of those record-breaking revenues to some real and responsive customer service, I would have wholeheartedly agreed.
However, again, my fault with this (and it’s not with caring about friends), is the seeming attempt to employ influence to gain special treatment for someone. And a system that allows special treatment for some is inherently unfair – and a system that should be suspect.
TJ may be willing to “bump her friend’s resume to the top of the pile,” and as her friend, that would certainly be a perk to be envied – but that doesn’t make it right. In fact, that’s uncomfortably close to nepotism, favoritism, cronyism, and some other fancy isms I can’t even contemplate. In short, it wouldn’t be fair.
Does that mean you can’t drop off the resume in person to an HR representative, and offer to answer any questions? Not at all – but tampering with the actual process… that makes me uncomfortable.
Processes that are created to make things fair are usually inherently burdensome. We acknowledge this when we say Blizzard should “fully investigate” in order to make sure they ban the right person, even as we admit this would be costly and time consuming. How ironic that we want them to do everything in their power to be fair, but we then hold them to a different standard and we’re willing to bend the rules when it comes to us?
Perhaps the lack of response is due to this burdensome process in an attempt to be fair. They must read all the emails, they must check their facts, they must be willing to hear your side. Agreed, all. And perhaps a simple,
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By Talisker on May 22, 2008
I should say I sympathize with *the frustration over* the lack of Blizzard’s response.
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By Kestrel on May 22, 2008
@Talisker: We, the WoW Blogging Community, are influencers, whether we want to be or not. As such, we ARE an influential part of the WoW community.
We have a voice, and we, individually and collectively, have a following. One of the responsibilities of that influence we have is to observe and comment on the “world of WoW.”
That is why blogs exist. That is a fundamental principle of a free, independent and open Internet. So yes, we WILL use our power–however limited, and however that manifests itself–to make the community aware of issues and our positions on those issues.
You, as a (presumed) consumer of Blizzard’s service, also have power. You may elect to continue or discontinue using their service, for example. To me, that is the power of the sword. Put many swords together, and yes, things can change, or not.
We, however, elect to use the power of the pen, for we believe the pen IS mightier than the sword.
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By Prof. teh Khol Abides on May 22, 2008
TJ, you done lit the intarwebtubes on fire…
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By Lady Jess on May 22, 2008
i don’t see special treatment being asked for, or demanded. I see FRIENDS supporting a FRIEND that has had something bad happen to him. Which I would like to think anyone of us would do in a given situation. Lamaa clearly has some great ones, and any of us should wish that our friends would be there for us, as his are for him.
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By Auzara on May 22, 2008
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By Auzara on May 22, 2008
well that didn’t work!
http://bp3.blogger.com/_7iMS-Z5GxnA/SCUJ8qBOjyI/AAAAAAAAAB0/0QkoY4sV6rE/s400/Drama_Llama.jpg
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By Saresa on May 22, 2008
Most every blogger that I have read has jumped on this bandwagon TJ, including myself. For those of you crying special treatment, I like to think of it this way – if we can change Blizzard’s actions in this one case, perhaps we can set a precedent where Blizzard will have to held accountable for EVERY unfair banning they have done.
I sincerely hope that some action is taken in Lamaa’s case, because being banned on the basis of a keyboard is outright ridiculous. I am also planning on writing to Logitech, as a concerned customer (I was seriously considering a purchase of one of the G15 keyboards, but have now changed my mind based on this). If we can even get some discussion between Logitech and Blizzard on this matter, that would be great.
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By Certhonts on May 22, 2008
Blizzard doesn’t care. The only way to sway them in any direction is to have a massive impact on the game’s profitability. As long as they are making ten’s of millions of dollars per month, community input on their policies and procedures any going to have little if any effect. False positives were generated during the last two major ban waves and I have now been hit by all three. I’ve started fresh after each one, creating new accounts and starting the tedious leveling process. The first two time my account was banned it had nothing to do with cheating. I was running WoW under wine in linux. This time I have no idea why my account was banned. I learned after the first two bans that protesting it was futile. I created a separate partition on my hard drive and installed XP just to game with some of the incredible people I’ve met over the years in-game. I’m finished with Blizzard after this round. AoC was ironically released the day my account was banned and is thus far proving to be a much more rewarding gaming experience. I urge everyone that got banned as a result of a false positive to stop rewarding Blizzard for their draconian tactics by creating new accounts and spend their time and money elsewhere. There are other really good MMO’s being released. (AoC rocks by the way) Break the “battered
wife syndrome” and support a companies that treat their subscribers fairly. Blizzard has slapped me in the face 3 times now and I’m ashamed I came back after the first.
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By Jagoex on May 23, 2008
TJ, I can totally empathize with Lamaa. I experienced something very similar to his current issue, and thankfully, with a little bit of effort, it turned out fine. Not great… just fine.
Here are a few links that you and Lamaa may find helpful (also posted over on BBB
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By CaptainHappy on May 23, 2008
Just out of curiousity and to play devil’s advocate, how do you know he wasn’t guilty?
Bot users aren’t the moustache twirling, evil laughing chinese gold farmers that everyone makes them out to be.
I have four level 70s all levelled properly, am one of my guild’s best healers, well liked (an officer in fact), substantially fill up the guild bank, boost alts, and all the other jazz .. and I started botting for various reasons I won’t get into because it’s not important.
I have some amazing friends in the guild, and I know they would be up in arms if the same thing happened to me. I’ve even helped a younger guild member through a particular crisis that probably stopped him comitting suicide. I’m a good person, I just cheat at a video game.
The way the bans happened this time is by hiding detection in the client. Detection for the numerous popular bots.
My bot account got hit, my main didn’t, and I didn’t bot on my main account (and this is on the same computer as well). So honestly, I think chances are slim for false positives, and you may just have to accept the inevitable that your friend cheated.
Perhaps this isn’t the case, and if not then I’m really happy for you all. But don’t you think after the last fiasco with all the Cedega users being banned incorrectly, BLZ will make doubly sure they have PROPER evidence? And it stands in your friend’s stead that they did reverse the bans and credit the accounts with free time as compensation.
But if they have evidence that WoW is being launched from innerspace, or the Glider program is running, then no you won’t be getting your account back , and they don’t even have to tell you why.
Take care.
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By Ratshag on May 23, 2008
@Captain – Nobody knows anything for certain, obviously. But a lot of people who have known & played Lamaa a long time believe that they have never seen anything to indicate that he would or has used bots. Not proof, but far from meaningless.
I’ve seen a number of people state with certainty that the know what the reason for the bans was, and yet these reasons contradict each other. This suggests that either nobody knows what happened, or else that Blizzard used multiple methods to pick accounts to ban. Some of these methods may be less reliable than others.
Do I think that Blizzard is now infallible, because they’ve screwed this up in the past? Good lord, no. That just means that they have demonstrated an ability to make mistakes. They have yet to demonstrate an ability to learn from these mistakes.
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By Lynda on May 23, 2008
I have heard that customer service for Blizzard is horrid and I hope I never have to go through it myself.
There is a 72 page thread on the CS forums regarding this. It breaks into a second thread because of a forum bug with Blue.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=6440902058&sid=1
Blue says they are being innundated with emails regarding this and that even the guilty challenge their accounts being banned. I am sure if they reply to everyone saying they got the message, it would detract from getting their issue taken care of.
One of the threads even had a guy who was charged and then his account was banned the same day. That sounds so similar to Lamaa. Another suggestion made was that if the computer was shared, another account holder could be using a bot?
Totally sucks, especially since it is someone you know. I don’t disagree with the mass bannings, but after 3+ years, you would think that Blizz would at least be able to handle the outcry a lot better. There is no way they couldn’t know people would be upset.
And good luck to Lamaa. I hope things resolve to your favor.
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By Rob on May 23, 2008
I agree with Certhonts, if I was banned 3 times (3 times!), i would stop playing. Heck if i was banned once I’d stop playing. Given their crappy customer support, if there is anything wrong that results in a ban, good luck. The sad thing is that we have no idea of the G15 or running under WINE is okay. They won’t tell us. (Actually i do remember a blue post saying that the G15 is okay as long as it’s not used to bot, ie allow unattended game play).
There are other games under the sun. People should check out AoC.
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By Mike on May 23, 2008
A comment on the G15 keyboard and the hunter class which might provide some explanation as to the unfortunate outcome in this situation…
I don’t know Lamaa, but I know the hunter class well, having played one since beta. With the advent of BC, it became popular knowledge that shot rotation macros were and are the one and only way to maximize dps. Google “elitist jerks wow” for more info.
For BM spec’d hunters, the proper macro translates into a single hotkey, which is spammed constantly for maximum efficiency dps while raiding/grinding.
This gives rise to serious temptation to use the G15 in a prohibited way. The G15 has an algorithm that will repeat a keystroke x_times/sec, obviating the need for the button mashing. This has been discussed repeatedly on the wow hunter boards, and in every thread I’ve seen, the conclusion has been that it is a clear, albeit minor, violation of the ToS to use the G15 for this purpose.
I hate to see anyone get banned for holding a button down rather than mashing it…but I think there are good odds that this may be the explanation for what happened here.
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By momoko on May 26, 2008
yah, i truely understand the feeling when looking myself as a customer. as i did pay with my pocket money to buy the boxed programs and further subscription to Blizzard on good faith as a customer, I expect a better treatment of their customer from the Blizzard’s side. They have the rights to ban but do it properly within acceptable treatment of their customers. I believe most people are angry not because their accounts are banned but more of the act of Blizzard banning them like they are just some no life toons. We are human players and we demand a human touch in Blizzard handling of its customers.
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By Hip on May 27, 2008
There are several threads on the CS forums regarding being banned, so if anything does happen it will take quite a while. Mike pretty much nailed it on the head with the G15 though. The G15 is perfectly legal to use, but once you start adding delays/automation into your macro keys, it becomes cheating and you will get banned. It is a common mistake among G15 users who were banned, because who would think that something like a Logitech keyboard could get you banned? For anyone who does have a G15, make sure you check your macro keys carefully. I do believe there is also an option to turn off the delays, etc.
As far as the general ban wave goes, from what I have read this wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Blizzard didn’t just suddenly decide to ban 500k+ accounts because there was suspicion they were cheating. They have been monitoring these accounts for a long time, before making that final call.
And Blizzard should be more caring? Not really. While this game is very social for those who play, you must remember that Blizzard is just a video game company who cares mostly about revenue. They want to put out a solid game and want the fat paycheck to go with it. Because they really just want money, do you think they would just go off and ban anyone? Takes a lot of cajones to ban 500k+ accounts. That’s a ton of money lost for them.
Oh, interesting observation: Now that most of the botters have been banned, everything has gone way up in price. Primal shadow are going for 45g on Alleria. Three weeks ago it was about 30g. I’m certainly not condoning botting, but I do miss the economy we had with them around.
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By klaki on May 27, 2008
oh man! it stopped! :(
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i love watching people get fired up over things. with kirk getting flamed, i dare not write my opinions on anything… lol.
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By Bumwaller on Jun 18, 2008
what ever happened with this – is he still banned? Update please.
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