Banned for no reason

[Highmitsu]

Err; warden is capable of picking up certain third party programs as far as I'm aware. A couple of weeks ago, I was banned for no reason either, 3 day ban. Aparantly I'd been using a hack of sorts but I -knew- that was impossible. Aparantly, someone'd hacked my account and tried to log in with a hack and got my account instabanned before he even got past the char screen. After a ticket the ban was removed from my account. So check up with that. See if someone else may have logged into your account.

[Deathgoose]

It's been my experience on this forum that when I see a thread titled, "Banned for no reason", the title is never truly accurate.

[-Superman-]

But I wasn't farming either, the alt is only level 47, and I was levelling in tanaris when the ban happened. Although, some time ago (a few days, on another alt, level 90) I had decided to go for Sulfuras, and farmed thorium veins in Silithus for arcane crystals. I needed 50, and by the time I got ~45, i had roughly 1500 thorium ores (75 stacks). I did this in a single day for ~4-5 hours. Could this be the reason? I didn't think farming for hours on end would count as botting?

Bingo. Probably took them a few days to catch up to you. Same thing happened to me in UnGoro Crater. I needed 400 ore to PL my blacksmithing (back in Cata) and I was out there farming for the better part of a day. 2 days later, I get locked out saying I was botting and farming. So I called them up, explained I was farming for myself and leveling my smithing, they confirmed it, and reversed it. The 72 hour was lifted and I was back in the game within the hour (from the suspension). Just have to be careful how much farming you do, for how long, and NEVER take a node from someone. That is pretty much what got me reported. I was a being a dick since I had 310 flight as a druid and would swoop in, mine, and fly out. Even if they were fighting a mob. Learned my lesson.

[oblivionx]

And here's the reply I got for the ticket:
Thank you for your follow-up contact. I took the time to do an additional thorough review of the account in question. While previously we had communicated the World of Warcraft account <snip> on <snip> has been closed, in light of my findings, we have changed the action to a 72 hour suspension, final warning on the account.

I love when they pretend they have done nothing wrong.

I've played wow for 8 years and never ever gotten even an infraction.

[Ronduwil]

It's been my experience on this forum that when I see a thread titled, "Banned for no reason", the title is never truly accurate.

Maybe "no reason" was the name of the botting program the OP was using...

[underdogba]

Blizzard can't detect bots. They can only detect bot-like behavior. They know all the routes that bots take to farm stuff. If you were taking that exact path over and over they would have been watching you (doesn't even take reports for that to happen). They usually test you by teleporting you around to see if the bot gets confused or goes right back to farming (a normal person would be like wtf? saying stuff in chat or going back to town before continuing farming).

There is no such thing as detecting bot-like behavior, because it is completely trivial for a properly-coded bot program to randomize itrs behavior to the extent that you will not see perfect rote repetition.

Secondly that "test" method described is pure fantasy.

[Deleted]

If you look like a bot they will take action regardless of outcome unfortunately and I do LOL at these people who think every single person who gets banned are fucking bots It's amazing.

Blizzard rarely bans for no reason...most of the time, people who get banned did use or bot or behaved very suspicious in any other way.
Farming per se just won't get you banned.

[Resentful]

Blizzard rarely bans for no reason...most of the time, people who get banned did use or bot or behaved very suspicious in any other way.
Farming per se just won't get you banned.

If you use the same routine every god dam day yeah they are going to suspect you and suspend you at sigh. I've known several friends who have nothing better to do then farm for like 5-6 hours a god dam day and once in awhile they get out right banned for stupid shit. They simply called and got the account back nothing exactly out of the ordinary

[Deleted]

If you use the same routine every god dam day yeah they are going to suspect you and suspend you at sigh. I've known several friends who have nothing better to do then farm for like 5-6 hours a god dam day and once in awhile they get out right banned for stupid shit. They simply called and got the account back nothing exactly out of the ordinary

I'm regularly farming ores for 6-10 hours straight, always using the same routes - and did not get a single infraction so far, let alone a ban.
I don't want to say that it can't happen - but most people who did get banned deserved in in one way or another.

[Belloc]

Here's some helpful advice:

If you use any programs that automate clicking or key presses, you must make sure that those programs are not loaded into memory when playing WoW.

If you play on PCs that are not your own, you should always assume that those PCs have cheats/modified files loaded.

If anyone else plays on your PC, you should assume that they aren't as smart when it comes to cheats and such and are willing to put those things on your computer.

If you are cheating, do not come to the forums claiming innocence. Blizzard knows better and so do most of us. I, for instance, will automatically assume that you did something to cause this (and for good reason).

[dremnit]

But I wasn't farming either, the alt is only level 47, and I was levelling in tanaris when the ban happened. Although, some time ago (a few days, on another alt, level 90) I had decided to go for Sulfuras, and farmed thorium veins in Silithus for arcane crystals. I needed 50, and by the time I got ~45, i had roughly 1500 thorium ores (75 stacks). I did this in a single day for ~4-5 hours. Could this be the reason? I didn't think farming for hours on end would count as botting?

i farmed for six hours to get 100 arcane crystals and i didn't get hit with a ban...

[Belloc]

Blizzard can't detect bots. They can only detect bot-like behavior. They know all the routes that bots take to farm stuff. If you were taking that exact path over and over they would have been watching you (doesn't even take reports for that to happen). They usually test you by teleporting you around to see if the bot gets confused or goes right back to farming (a normal person would be like wtf? saying stuff in chat or going back to town before continuing farming).

tl;dr

You looked like a bot. Either you perfectly matched a bot's behavior somehow, or you were botting.

Of course Blizzard can detect bots... where do you guys get this crap?

[Maconi]

There is no such thing as detecting bot-like behavior, because it is completely trivial for a properly-coded bot program to randomize itrs behavior to the extent that you will not see perfect rote repetition.

Secondly that "test" method described is pure fantasy.

Of course Blizzard can detect bots... where do you guys get this crap?

Maybe you should educate yourself and read the bot forums yourself (obviously I can't mention the name). Warden can't detect them, only their behaviors (people have used public and private gathering profiles and were banned both ways, so no randomization will save you). The main thing that tips Blizzard off is when you play for way more hours than a normal person.

Also before you call something fantasy, again go read the forums. Multiple people have testified to having it happen to them while observing their bots. *shrug*

[Orange Joe]

Blizzard can't detect bots. They can only detect bot-like behavior. They know all the routes that bots take to farm stuff. If you were taking that exact path over and over they would have been watching you (doesn't even take reports for that to happen). They usually test you by teleporting you around to see if the bot gets confused or goes right back to farming (a normal person would be like wtf? saying stuff in chat or going back to town before continuing farming).

tl;dr

You looked like a bot. Either you perfectly matched a bot's behavior somehow, or you were botting.

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

They can detect botting programs if people don't know how to mask them correctly.

[Focu]

I got a perma ban for farming a couple of weeks ago.

Currently unemployed, so I often farm alot during odd hours. Some nights I had been farming a instaspawn spot in Wetlands beeing present at all time, just running back and forth spamming FoK and looting. I got a 72 hour ban once for getting realm first Flame Leviathan HM with 4 people when it was current content, obviously an exploit\clever use of game mechanics, a ban that I took without whining at all, I deserved it. Thats the one infraction I have on my account. Well for no apparent reason other than that I had been farming alot, I recieved a permanent ban, so I made a ticket and about 2 hours later the ban was completely removed.

The thing that annoys me, is the fact that someone at blizzard looked at my case and just went "Ah, someone has reported this guy, I'll just instaban him" and then when I ask them too actually look into it they find no reason to ban me whatsoever, and unlock my account instantly.

Its fishy.

[Belloc]

Maybe you should educate yourself and read the bot forums yourself (obviously I can't mention the name). Warden can't detect them, only their behaviors (people have used public and private gathering profiles and were banned both ways, so no randomization will save you). The main thing that tips Blizzard off is when you play for way more hours than a normal person.

Also before you call something fantasy, again go read the forums. Multiple people have testified to having it happen to them while observing their bots. *shrug*

Plenty of people have had botting programs detected by Warden. Just because some of the newer bots are not currently detected does not mean that they cannot be detected. The botting community is obviously not a good source for information on whether bots are detected or not.

Of course the botting community is going to say that their bots are undetected -- that's how they make money (whether it be via donations or purchasing the programs). Then, a few months down the line, Blizzard bans thousands of people at once and a new wave of bot programs are created and released.

It's the same old arms race that Blizzard has been dealing with since the beginning. They find bots, program in detection for them, new bots come out, new detections. Blizzard has to be constantly playing catchup, but catch up they eventually do and anyone still using those now-detected bots are inevitably banned.

This is the exact same thing that happens with a lot of the popular games on the market. Look at Valve and their anti-cheat program. It pretty much exactly parallels the way Warden is updated. Someone will release a new cheat and say, "Hey guys, I figured out a way to prevent this cheat from being detected, enjoy!" Everyone downloads it and a few months later, they start getting banned.

I mean, use some common sense here: Blizzard has just as much access to those bot programs as you and I do. A good number of those bot programs also come with source code so that people can modify them for their own purposes. Do you honestly think that Blizzard cannot implement detection for bot programs that they have the source code for? Are you really that ignorant?

[Belloc]

I got a perma ban for farming a couple of weeks ago.

Currently unemployed, so I often farm alot during odd hours. Some nights I had been farming a instaspawn spot in Wetlands beeing present at all time, just running back and forth spamming FoK and looting. I got a 72 hour ban once for getting realm first Flame Leviathan HM with 4 people when it was current content, obviously an exploit\clever use of game mechanics, a ban that I took without whining at all, I deserved it. Thats the one infraction I have on my account. Well for no apparent reason other than that I had been farming alot, I recieved a permanent ban, so I made a ticket and about 2 hours later the ban was completely removed.

The thing that annoys me, is the fact that someone at blizzard looked at my case and just went "Ah, someone has reported this guy, I'll just instaban him" and then when I ask them too actually look into it they find no reason to ban me whatsoever, and unlock my account instantly.

Its fishy.

Fishy? You do realize that their policy of permabanning accounts for certain behaviors is specifically so they can shut down compromised accounts, right? That's why they reverse the ban when you contact them.

[Zylos]

Warden can detect third party programs int he background, and I doubt they would issue a ban without such evidence.

[Ypo]

I got a 72 hour ban from farming herbs in vale of eternal blossoms.. I do the same route every saturday and sunday, for about 2 hours on my tauren druid (fast flight herbing ftw), it yields me like 1000 herbs, and then I mill those and create ink and sell em. It's great gold, and herbs spawn like hookers in vegas there. Not sure how that means I'm botting but people musta reported me because I got a warning email, and im like what the hell? whatever.

So I put on some music and started farming again and decided to just keep going until I got bored, and I got DC'd, and was banned for 3 days.


Lmao. they ban for such stupid shit.

In WOTLK I got banned cuz I made over 20,000g on the AH within 24 hours, LOL?

Honestly. They are such tossers sometimes over this stuff. Ban the people that need to be banned.

You reminded me.

I listened to "Last Kiss" by Ishtar Alabina, great Jewish singer from Egypt and used to farm leather for hours during Cata, hours upon hours upon hours with my hunter. Funny, I never got banned for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8YirlLL-Mk

[slime]

So... everything I read here pretty much says even if I legitimately am farming like a madman... 4.. 5... 6 hours - i am at my computer pressing button - moving my character manually, I will probably get banned. and that's that. I can then waste my time calling in and arguing I was just playing the game and they might overturn it - but again, after wasting my time - and causing me to go on the defense for no fucking reason.

Why don't they just say... you are not allowed to farm for more than 3 hours at a time. Even if you are not using a bot.