Should Blizzard allow 'account amnesty'?

[Boogums]

No, Blizzard shouldn't allow account amnesty. Being banned is a punishment. Getting suspended is more of a severe warning. "Hey, take a few days and knock it off, 'cause you're gonna get your shit closed."

[Saffa]

If someone was banned for breaking the rules, which are very few, why should they be allowed back, they have already shown they are untrustworthy. Blizz has problems enough with current rule breakers, why let the cheaters back?

[xanzul]

I wouldn't exactly call waiting a year 'getting an account back any time'

And, obviously, I imagine the amnesty system could only be used once per battle.net account.

Botting and gold selling is a multiBILLION dollar industry. If you think they won't take advantage of this then I have to question your entire understanding of not only Blizzard policies but how people exploit mmos in general. Your idea funds the botters and gold sellers and protects NO ONE.

---------- Post added 2013-05-01 at 07:35 AM ----------

everyone giving a flat out no are the people who believe every single person found guilty in a court of law actually committed the crime.

everyone makes mistakes, including the justice disher-outers, detectives, investigators, etc. it is part of being human.

If Blizzard doesn't have proper evidence to ban players they will overturn bans. Period. End of story. Again check out the customer support forums because that proves what I'm saying. As far as mistakes go it takes a special kind of idiot to blatantly cheat at a game and wonder why he got banned. No I'm sorry but I don't buy the whole "people who get perm bans didn't know they were doing something wrong" thing.

[Kilpi]

Even after all the clarifications, IF you did something that got the account banned then there is no reason for you to get it back. Stop breaking the rules and stop getting your account banned in the first place.

[xanzul]

From the way you keep harping on others who disagree with you, it seems you must have had an account perma-banned. Well, that is the penalty for not following the rules. You lost the account, why should they give it back to you at a later date? It wasn't their fault you could not follow the simple rules they laid out in the ToU and EULA.

And actually he does have a perm banned account. Thank you for pointing this out. The OP has a vested interest in getting this pushed through.

---------- Post added 2013-05-01 at 07:40 AM ----------

I'm curious. Why would a gold farmer/botter, who has not done either of that on a new account for a year+, suddenly start doing that again on the old amnesty account? The people who broke the rules would -already- be back in the game. If they were planning on doing bad things, they'd already be doing it. Not waiting for an old account to use.

Do you seriously not understand this is a very profitable industry? I'm sorry at this point I have to say what I think but you are a fucking idiot.

Infracted.

[TooMuch]

If Blizzard doesn't have proper evidence to ban players they will overturn bans. Period. End of story. Again check out the customer support forums because that proves what I'm saying. As far as mistakes go it takes a special kind of idiot to blatantly cheat at a game and wonder why he got banned. No I'm sorry but I don't buy the whole "people who get perm bans didn't know they were doing something wrong" thing.

I wonder why you are accusing other people from spreading misinformation, while what you say above is proven to be wrong. Loads of bans are NOT being overturned, even when players provide proof Blizzard is wrong. And by the way, maybe learn to discuss instead of saying everybody else is wrong and you are right...

[PuppetShowJustice]

Blizzard would never go for this. They try very hard to look as though they take a very strict stance on these sorts of things (regardless of how good or bad they actually are at this is irrelevant -- the intent is more than clear when they do something like post about the win trading situation and such). Simply stating "We have a new system in place to allow people to recover banned accounts" shows a degree of tolerance towards behavior that can get you banned.

Suggesting that allowing this would make them money is highly suspect to me. You're much more likely to needlessly anger your legit players for absolutely no practical game. I don't always like Blizzard's WoW related decisions but they have a stronger business sense than to think that going this route would be a good long term plan.

[Atrea]

Absolutely not.

Accounts are rarely banned permanently for their first offense - and when they are, it is something severe indeed that causes it.
I have no sympathy for either case - whether you did something really bad, and got banned permanently, or did a bunch of small stuff that lead up to you being banned permanently.

The argument that it would generate revenue for Blizzard, while true, neglects the important flip side: if you are banned, and you can have that ban lifted, surely that might ruffle someone's feathers -- someone who may not have any negative flags on their account.

Let's say for example, a person was banned for continued harassment. The subject of this harassment is still playing, and enjoying their time. Suddenly, they see a name from a year ago, and think, "Hm. That guy was banned before - or should have been, at least. I guess Blizzard only cares about the bottom line, so I think I'll take my business elsewhere."

Blizzard has a responsibility to its customers - and moreover, its good customers. I'm not saying a person who was banned has money of a different colour, nor am I saying they can't change their ways -- but they can't trample their current customers in order to get that money. I know that I, for one - a person with a 7 year-old account that has been in perfect standing since the day I created it - would stop subscribing if they ever allowed this shit to happen.

It would be a very poor business move.

Add to it the headaches that it would cause for their support team. Basically, OP, you have listed a very specific set of circumstances in which such 'amnesty' would be offered (primarily to make yourself sound like a good candidate for such a system, no doubt.) Now, while the solution is tailor-made for you, it may not be for everyone else. You'll have people who may not fall into one or more of the criteria, but think they do. Or people whose criteria-matching may be a sort of grey area. Ultimately, all I see from that situation is even more whining on the forums (as if that would be possible!)

Finally, you have to realize that a permanent ban is often the only reason some players will not risk certain behaviours. Just like real life laws are the only reason some people won't do something, people - particularly young people, of which WoW is chock full - need rules to follow, to stay within the confines of acceptable behaviour. If they know that the ban is never actually permanent - that they can get it back some day, if they play nice on another account (while having a third account to stay up to their usual hi-jinks), then the deterrence factor is reduced, and it would decrease the quality of play all around. Suddenly, you would see people doing a lot of shit they'd never do before, knowing the worst that could happen is that they'd be given a little break from the game.

The long and short of it is, if Blizzard decides to terminate their business with you by banning your account, you should never get it back. This is not to say that you shouldn't have the opportunity to argue your case, or to clarify a situation that may be misunderstood - but once they decide, finally, that they don't want you back - your only option is, and should only ever be, to start fresh, and learn from your mistakes.

[finchna]

For WINE user accounts that were banned it seems like blizzard might explore some way to reinstate those accounts based on this information from the Warden wikipedia page:

"Warden currently detects whether it is running under Wine so it can modify its behavior slightly, though it remains fully functional."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warden_(software)

Sounds like blizzard has fixed a deficiency of the software and, given that, perhaps contacting people who's accounts were banned for using WINE to see if they are interested in having their accounts reactivated.

This would only apply to accounts banned only for WINE use before Warden could work effectively in that environment.

[Darsithis]

I'm really surprised at the amount of people who don't agree with this idea.

MMOC works this very way. Bans start small and slowly add up. You can get permabanned but people have returned from that by demonstrating they're willing to follow the rules. Even our system allows for that without permabans...if you start behaving your infractions expire and you chance of being banned drops.

I'd like to see something like this added into the system. I'd like to see people who have made mistakes, who have been children or immature, learn from those and become good members of the community. There is no reason to throw anyone away for good.

[Otimus]

Instead of finding ways for people to get unbanned, I'd rather they start handing out bans for more things :x

WoW desperately needs some moderation of some sort.

[therealbowser]

No strong opinions really... It depends on the offense and how much they are willing to show they changed. It's probably more work than Blizzard is willing to do unless they profit from it.

Really, it's a lesson learned if you got banned for something (and Blizzard is pretty lenient). If you get banned, you can start a new account and play again, without repeating the mistakes.

[pmgbro]

Seem's like a reasonable solution. I have never had my account banned, but I've known people who have gotten theirs banned for dumb reasons. And also to the people saying just use the appeal system, the appeal system is complete ass.

[Csnyder]

Not sure if you even read the post or not. Part of the criteria was, very specifically, not breaking the rules for an extended period of time.

not sure if you read what you replied to. if they were banned then they broke the rules. rules are rules and when you break them you get banned. maybe look up what banned means.

[Krolikn]

Can the banned person not live without WoW? Well, they shouldn't have broke the rules in the first place if they are so dependent on it.

Its too little, too late now. They broke the rules and should take their punishment.

[Lodreh]

What makes you think long term or permanent banned accounts aren't deleted? If I was a major MMO company and you broke the rules enough to ban you... I know I would lockout the login name and delete all data associated with the account. Why would I store the useless data indefinitely?

Just a thought,
Kalium

[Deleted]

Basically this is asking for a chance to unban an account by throwing money at blizzard. No, just no.

It would mean to introduce a horridly complicated mechanism of checks and balances for the gain of a marginally small playerbase of banned players that
a) deserve to get unbanned and
b) actually care enough of their old account to get it back
Try and figure out how many players we're actually talking here about. And how much effort implementing and _maintaining_ this system would mean.
No, theses resources would benefit the game more elsewhere. Even if they would put these resources only back into the support-pool and thus prevent possibly wrong bans and/or improving the existing appeal system.

A system like that would only help those with enough money to throw at blizzard to get back again and again without any real fear of a ban. Because hey, even if they're banned, they can get it all back with enough money! This would throw the reasoning behind bans completely out of whack.

[lordjust]

Thing is that it already works like in the real world. If you do something stupid you get punished and depending on what you did the punishment is different. In WoW you get suspended for 24h, 3 days or permanently. If you're banned permanently then you have done a lot of minor bad things or one big bad thing. Everyone knows the rules or everyone should know them and when you're banned then you're banned.

When someone uses Linux and uses Wine to emulate Windows and Blizzard's anti-hacking tool recognizes it as a forbidden background program then so be it.

[chazus]

What makes you think long term or permanent banned accounts aren't deleted?

I can log into my battle.net account right now and look at my frozen account, and all my characters on that account. I can even look up a character that is on that banned account in the armory, before armory ever existed. I can't see his gear, due to him being 'inactive for an extended period of time', however he certainly exists in the system.

That said, I don't see what bad PR there would be, since the only people getting old accounts back, are people already playing the game currently. There would be no 'old botters' or anything returning to the game.

---------- Post added 2013-05-01 at 08:54 AM ----------

A system like that would only help those with enough money to throw at blizzard to get back again and again without any real fear of a ban.

It would only be available once.

I do admit, a person COULD, in theory, go "I can do whatever I want and get banned, wait a year, spend more money, and get unbanned a single time" but that seems a bit.... That's a lot of work just to cheat one single time.

[cFortyfive]

Check out the customer support forums. You will be proved wrong.

Check out the relevant forums. More than enough cases. 72h happens a lot unless you got some sor unmerged scum account, some shady gametime deals or you are directly connected to gold selling.

MMOC works this very way. Bans start small and slowly add up. You can get permabanned but people have returned from that by demonstrating they're willing to follow the rules. Even our system allows for that without permabans...if you start behaving your infractions expire and you chance of being banned drops.

Infractions expire as well for Blizzard.

I do admit, a person COULD, in theory, go "I can do whatever I want and get banned, wait a year, spend more money, and get unbanned a single time" but that seems a bit.... That's a lot of work just to cheat one single time.

People already buy new accounts and start cheating, harassing, hacking and what not. There is no reason to let them on top of that have their old accounts back unless you are supportive of that behavior.