Ziggie's Plight

Today is a special Reader Post, mostly because it isn't really one. Recently a friend of mine who I played WoW with for a really long time had something really horrible happen to him. I decided to share our back and forth email with all of you, and maybe it might spark some conversation about the entire thing.

I hope you are doing well I thought I would show you an email from Blizzard that I received after work today. Apparently I have been banned for botting in WOW even though I have not been botting or do I even know how to "bot". The only addon I use is deadly boss mods so there is no reason for me to be banned and Blizzard has done nothing after calling them, emailing them, and submitting a ticket. Total bullshit. 

"Offense: Use of Bots or Third-Party Automation Software

Blizzard has terminated this World of Warcraft license after identifying the usage of bots or other cheat software.

These programs (commonly called cheats, bots, and hacks) automate certain aspects of gameplay, or provide unintended advantages and abilities to the player. This type of cheating undermines other players' experience and severely upsets the balance of the game environment."

Ziggy

Wow man that sucks. Did your account get hacked and you were unaware or something? I am sure it is some sort of mix up just may take some time to get it all cleaned up. Did it also effect the other games on your bnet account? That is pretty shitty hope you get it taken care of.

All  my gear still shows up on all my wow toons. I can still log into D3 and Sc2. So, yeah, Blizzard has really dropped the ball here. I killed a prot pally who was killing npcs and q givers in Sithilus while farming mats for thunderfury, but I crafted thunderfury, mabye he was some butthurt blizz employee. I don't know what happened but I will get answers and I will report them back to you.

Still no update from this? Probably at least have to wait till Monday I assume. I would assume they reported you for botting, because you took their spot or some shit like that.

"Offense: Use of Bots or Third-Party Automation Software

Blizzard has terminated this World of Warcraft license after identifying the usage of bots or other cheat software.

These programs (commonly called cheats, bots, and hacks) automate certain aspects of gameplay, or provide unintended advantages and abilities to the player. This type of cheating undermines other players' experience and severely upsets the balance of the game environment."

"Hey there, I'm Game Master Rywald, i will be taking a look at your issue today.
    
    Thank you for contacting us concerning the recent action taken against the World of Warcraft account. After a thorough review of the circumstances involved in this action, the account has been changed from a ban to a 48 hour suspension. 
    
    Please take a few moments to look over the World of Warcraft Terms of Use  (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html), as we take matters involving the integrity of the game environment very seriously. Please understand that should another incident of this nature arise in the future, it is possible that a different outcome will be reached, up to and including Account Closure.
    
    The Terms of Use state that you will not "...modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client or the Service in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard" or "...use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience..." Additionally, the Battle.net Terms of Use (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/termsofuse.html) state that "You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the Login Information, and you will be responsible for all uses of the Login Information, including purchases, whether or not authorized by you."

"I'm Tiffany L. and I've just received your ticket.
 
    First, to clarify, by initial findings, we were referring to the decision to downgrade your account to a suspension, not the closure. You will be able to access your account again once the suspension has been served.
 
    Regarding the suspension, to protect the integrity of our investigation process, we do not disclose information about our investigation methods or findings.  This includes, but is not limited to, the names of prohibited programs found to have been used. Please understand, 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.
 
    We once again apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue, and hope that this has cleared up any concerns you may have. Thank you for understanding our position in this matter."

I am assuming this became an issue because I farmed the 100 arcane crystals to complete Thunderfury, but alas, Blizz will never tell me the reason for the ban (now a suspension) and offered nothing to me no matter how much I pleaded with them to understand I am simply a player, nothing more. This is unbelievable, I can only imagine if i was still raiding and this occurred.

So I could never imagine this happening to me. I know many times players threaten to report you for doing certain things and nothing really ever comes from this. Blizzard's stance on bots is pretty harsh so if Ziggie was actually botting there is no way they would have reduced it to a suspension. This is obviously a case where they looked into it and found out they had bad information. Then then make it just a suspension to cover themselves and will not share any of the information which lead them to this original conclusion. This is rather ridiculous and really makes you believe it was a complete mistake. I am glad ZIggie got everything back as I know he always works hard in everything gaming wise. Best DPS Deathknight I ever played with and not a bad mage before that. Many fun times through classic all the way till I was done playing.

So has anything like this happened to any of you? What was the result? Let me know. Have a nice weekend all!