Beware, blizzard banning for farming

[Issalice]

I farm ghost ore all the time around 5 or 6am when I can't sleep. I think I got around 700 ore the other morning...nothing happened to me, nothing has ever happened to me. I think they need more than just seeing a character going along a farming path and seeing them get a lot of mats before they drop the ban hammer.

[Sliske]

So I got banned permanently yesterday for the "bot" reason. So, since I wasn't botting, I of course filed an appeal which was subsequently denied, filed another one, got denied again and then filed with a supervisor who also denied restoring my account saying that they "saw" me using a bot.

I was farming for the blacksmithing catch up quest because I didn't want to spend the approximately 60k gold it would have taken to complete it via the AH. So hours of sitting in front of a computer playing this game legitimately is apparently cause for immediate and permanent ban. GG blizzard you just lost a customer to your bullshit because I'm not buying this game again only to get banned for playing.

I love how you posted "beware" in the title, i came here knowing already that you were pissed off, because only someone pissed off would actually fake a warning in a thread title to a 0 danger scenario. You botted, got banned and now you're pissed and looking for friends to back you up and give you advice on MMO C.

The most surprising thing about this thread is that there have been 2 mods post in it and it still isn't closed for obvious whining and generally being useless

[Quibble]

I don't believe you were banned from just farming, I just farmed mining on one char from start to 600, and is currently farming herbalism on another toon from start too.. I also used to farm a lot of mines on my old and dead server, for jewel crafting..

And I have yet to be banned

EDIT: I also in both cases have another profession that I need that same profession to gather mats with, so I have farmed beyond just that for the gathering profession.

[starkey]

I was farming at lion's landing for almost good 5 hours, Hell it's the only place i know to get woolcloth for my tailoring profession. Yes, a gm actually whispered me and thought i was a botting farming.

gms dont whisper people out of the blue and go oh hey are you a bot, nice story though

[xanzul]

So I got banned permanently yesterday for the "bot" reason. So, since I wasn't botting, I of course filed an appeal which was subsequently denied, filed another one, got denied again and then filed with a supervisor who also denied restoring my account saying that they "saw" me using a bot.

I was farming for the blacksmithing catch up quest because I didn't want to spend the approximately 60k gold it would have taken to complete it via the AH. So hours of sitting in front of a computer playing this game legitimately is apparently cause for immediate and permanent ban. GG blizzard you just lost a customer to your bullshit because I'm not buying this game again only to get banned for playing.

Just so you are aware typically when Blizzard suspends or closes an account it is usually after weeks of investigation and rarely has anything to do with what you were doing a few days before the closure. So no you weren't banned for farming or just playing the game.

[zeropeorth]

Before I recently quit again; I farmed something like 2k ore in the matter of a couple days. I actually got > level just from farming ore (slow server). I did it mostly between Jade Forest and Four Winds.

You definitely are leaving something out.

If you weren't botting; have you ever been caught botting before? You have prior suspensions/bans? What for?

If you want sympathy, you need to give details. There are too many who feign innocence who we find were doing something bad in the end. Cannot take the word of a total stranger who presents no real story or details.

Were you using any macros that violate ToS? Stuff that automates your actions that can be built into a mouse or keyboard hotkey?


What were the responses in the appeals? A simple 'no'? or a description of how they determined you were botting? How long did each response take? Did it seem like your case was reviewed? Remember, they have warden, logs, and can find a lot of detailed information, more than you probably think. It is a combination of all that information.

[Darsithis]

gms dont whisper people out of the blue and go oh hey are you a bot, nice story though

It has happened. I earned a temporary ban when I was farming elementium in Uldum with heavy lag. I kept trying to mine what had been mined/was being mined and was having trouble responding to people. I logged out in frustration right as a GM whispered me (no clue what he said). The next day I was locked out of my account and had to contact Blizzard to restore access. It wasn't a perma ban or anything but a security precaution.

It's the only time I've ever had that happen and since then I've avoided farming when having lag issues. But what happened to me is a far cry from a pema ban for botting that takes weeks of investigation.

[xanzul]

If what you say is true, I find it incredibly ironic considering actual bots don't get banned as frequently as people who "were just farming".

---------- Post added 2013-06-20 at 07:10 PM ----------

Anyway, I'd check to make sure you weren't hacked. Comp scan, password reset, secret question reset if you can and then go for the "I was hacked if you saw me botting" defense.

How do you know bots aren't getting banned? People like the OP being banned for botting proves it isn't something Blizzard ignores.

[Xomniuri]

They will only ban you if they detect a bot program running.

I personally was banned for botting after playing on a PC at a netcafe back in BC, apparently even just having a bot program running in the background on a pc even though it was not interacting with the game was enough for them to ban me. Although it didn't help that i was flying around netherstorm looting the chests for an hour and a bit.

After a few days of fuming rage and back and forth between blizzard not being able to prove my innocence i gave up bought another bunch of cd keys and tunnel leveled back to 70

Since then i have never logged into WoW on a computer that is not solely mine

[soulzek]

I recently got banned "for botting" because I was farming ore/herbs upwards of nearly 4-6 hours a day (inconsistently, not every day). I appealed the ban and got my account restored without much further incident.

So to everybody in this thread judging the OP for botting (as is what always happens with these threads), just wanted to let you know that you're being too quick to pass judgement...

[serenka]

Threads like this come up all the time. There's something you're not telling us.

Keep appealing, or good riddance to a botter.

yeah, we need one of those threads like the GW2 one on reddit.

people posted their character name and asked why they were banned, loads of people saying they did nothing wrong, then an admin looked into it and posted in the thread why they were banned, pretty damn funny really. need that here.

and to OP, phone blizzard if you're really innocent, probably an automated ban, if someone at blizzard looks into it they see if you were botting or not and their email support is shit.

a friend of mine got banned in cata for farming, he tried using the web ticket service thing, and kept getting denied, so he phoned up and it got unbanned rather fast. just an automated ban, the game see's you doing something repetitive for a long time and bans just incase.

[Nevor]

would you guys just STOP this "banned for no reason" threads already...
noone here can help you...

why are these kind of threads even allowed?
we really got enough of these lately....
its not that they contribute some useful information or help to this forum...

please /close and disallow them.
thx.

[xanzul]

I recently got banned "for botting" because I was farming ore/herbs upwards of nearly 4-6 hours a day (inconsistently, not every day). I appealed the ban and got my account restored without much further incident.

So to everybody in this thread judging the OP for botting (as is what always happens with these threads), just wanted to let you know that you're being too quick to pass judgement...

Nope. The fact that the OP's appeals were repeatedly denied shows that Blizzard has enough evidence proving the OP was in fact botting and that it wasn't a false positive. Players who are banned for false positives are usually unbanned after the first appeal.

[eldritchforeshadow]

I have seen a little joke going around on my realm where fellow players think it is funny to spam report innocent people for botting and bad behavior.

I am unsure if the OP is innocent or guilty. There is no evidence listed here in this forum.

There was a peculiar toon on my realm last week that got the attention of everyone in the valley of four winds. I did not see the toon but read the general chat. This toon apparently could lift off into the air mount-less, and disappear at a rapid pace after mining ore and reappear instantly somewhere else. My question is: can bots really do that or was I mislead? I know nothing about bots.

[IRunSoFarAway]

gms dont whisper people out of the blue and go oh hey are you a bot, nice story though

Of course they do, it happens all the time, if the person stops and responds then they know someone is at least there, if they don't then there's all the more chance that they are botting. You'd be surprised at how many things aren't detectable and catched by Warden. Such ignorance.

[xanzul]

yeah, we need one of those threads like the GW2 one on reddit.

people posted their character name and asked why they were banned, loads of people saying they did nothing wrong, then an admin looked into it and posted in the thread why they were banned, pretty damn funny really. need that here.

and to OP, phone blizzard if you're really innocent, probably an automated ban, if someone at blizzard looks into it they see if you were botting or not and their email support is shit.

a friend of mine got banned in cata for farming, he tried using the web ticket service thing, and kept getting denied, so he phoned up and it got unbanned rather fast. just an automated ban, the game see's you doing something repetitive for a long time and bans just incase.

There is no point of contact with account administration who are the ones you ban players and investigate appeals. No one in customer service or billing or tech support can help as it isn't their department.

[Zdrasti]

It's nice to see all the sympathy he is getting =-p A few years ago people would offer advice on how to get an account back or even justify botting because xxx was just too annoying to get so screw Blizz's game. Must be that Blizz has systematically removed most of those kinds of players. I'd consider that a major selling point for WoW, if I had any interest in playing again.

[ShmooDude]

Nope. The fact that the OP's appeals were repeatedly denied shows that Blizzard has enough evidence proving the OP was in fact botting and that it wasn't a false positive. Players who are banned for false positives are usually unbanned after the first appeal.

This.

I was once banned (maybe not for "botting" but it was almost certainly an automated ban) because I used a tunneling program to get around some lag that was happening (lag was external to my isp, so tunneling around it was the only way to fix it). Bliz noticed that I was suddenly logging in from a vastly different location from normal and closed the account. All I had to do was explain that in the ticket and I was back up and running within an hour. The fact that the appeal was denied to me shows that there's clearly more to the story here.

EDIT:

I have seen a little joke going around on my realm where fellow players think it is funny to spam report innocent people for botting and bad behavior.

I am unsure if the OP is innocent or guilty. There is no evidence listed here in this forum.

There was a peculiar toon on my realm last week that got the attention of everyone in the valley of four winds. I did not see the toon but read the general chat. This toon apparently could lift off into the air mount-less, and disappear at a rapid pace after mining ore and reappear instantly somewhere else. My question is: can bots really do that or was I mislead? I know nothing about bots.

Yes, bots can (even non-bots, through hacking methods), but that's also one of the most easy ways to detect botting/hacking (breaking the in-game rules). Since movement is client side, if you tell the server you're at point B then that's where it'll move you regardless of how long it "should" have taken you to get there from point A. There may be some more checking added in recent years but I've seen videos of people using the hack to teleport around and such.

[Nevor]

There was a peculiar toon on my realm last week that got the attention of everyone in the valley of four winds. I did not see the toon but read the general chat. This toon apparently could lift off into the air mount-less, and disappear at a rapid pace after mining ore and reappear instantly somewhere else. My question is: can bots really do that or was I mislead? I know nothing about bots.

thats possible... saw this kind of exploiters myself many times...
blizzard will fix it sooner or later and then those teleporting people will disappear for some time...
but normally another exploit will be found rather quick...

[Wyrllish]

gms dont whisper people out of the blue and go oh hey are you a bot, nice story though

You are missing the part where someone obviously reported him and the GM was checking up on the issue.