Comments on: 'World of Warcraft' bans raise players' ire

Some players of the popular online game think the publisher is banning first and asking questions second when it comes to alleged terms of service violations.

[GrantRussell]

Banned as well

This same thing happened to me, I bought the game less than a week ago and then I was immediately banned and I had no idea why I was banned so I emailed the WoW Account Admin, and they told me it was exploitation of world of warcraft by something stupid.

I'm gonna fight this to the death.

or at least until my account gets unbanned.

[hitherebrian]

Banned Twice

My trial account got banned over Labor Day, but it was going to expire anyway. So I bought the game the next Sunday and was banned again the following day! I've gotten a few cryptic emails from Blizzard customer noservice, though nothing more since then.

I guess I shouldn't have spent the 20 bucks on the retail game, I just didn't realize how draconian they'd be. It's really kind of silly.

[Randylvc]

Suspended While not even playing

I closed my WOW account 5 months ago.

Today I get an E-mail telling me that I am suspended for 3 days because I broke a rule. Some trick seeing how the account has no tme on it at all. I checked my Credit card and it has not been hit since I closed the account..

When I played I played with my wife and 2 kids (they all had there own accounts) I never cheated, Hell it took me 6 months to get to lev 60 then 3 months to go from 60-70 when they added BC. So they can't be looking at anything old.

With Winter closing in we planned to all go back to WOW again. we tend to play inside when it's cold. Now With My account suspended (when it was not even being played for the last 4-5 months) I'm not sure I even want to return. Blizzard has pulled the 800 number for support, Nobody can seem to answer a simply e-mail asking whay i was suspended. So now I need to wait for the suspention to end re-join the game months early just to make sure the account was not hacked. because I can't get a simple answer .. Why was an unused account banned...

[Calamitas]

Been there.

I have had my account get suspended for 3 days due so-called suspicious activity. With me, I was traveling for work and playing Wow from a laptop. Mind you I do travel over seas. And my son was accessing the account from home. Well apparently this was suspicious to Blizzard so that suspended the account. And even after I explained the situation the suspension remained. Blizzard does have a very poor Customer Service record. There in game service even sucks. I one time was falling thru the game world in EPL (Eastern Plague lands for the Wow impaired) and waited over a hour to get a GM. Finally got bored and logged off. So no Blizzard is not interested in fairness and such, hell I am sure that some of the GM's have buddies that play and they give them a hand once in a while.

[mistymoonB11]

I happen to have 3 accounts with WoW, one for my husband, one for me and one for my 13 year old son. My sons account was permanently banned the other day too. No gold farming was committed or power leveling. My son does not live with me, but when he is not in school he is at my house and he stays up all night playing like the kid in the article. His favorite activity in the game is doing instances which gives him unique items. I have contacted Blizzard to no avail and am a little mad because I am on a fixed income and 1/10 of what I receive a month goes to WoW, and then I get treated like this. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get Blizzard to talk to me, thanks.

[v10dohc]

Some lawsuits might straighten them out

[Saphorian]

Amazing what happens when your WoW gets banned because of Hacking...well l guess l join the ranks of just that. I am not a wizz kid at the game but have played it every since it came out. A group of friends a few of them family members joined the ranks after playing Diablo for some years.....my back ground 'middle aged female' l am no wizz at the game like l said but play and enjoy it after frustrating day at work this is my vice in life...ok here is how it went...l am to begin with from New Zealand and we choose to game on USA Server seeing how close friends are American...the other day after spending a 5 days working decide to log onto Wow..hmm well then that was basically the beginning it turned out after investigation my account had been hacked into. Not only my account but two other accounts from the same Guild. One of those was the GM ...and his wife...they lost a lot including Guild Bank items.So because it was up and coming weeked for NZ people it was American Weekend..l emailed accordingly and auto response from Blizzard still no account but then came the emails letting me know the characters which were involved from my account including another account l had which was not activated for 2 months. So now l am waiting for Blizzard to rez my main account.
Anyway my point is pretty much the same of a lot of others. Blizzard is a business with clever legel trimmings....if l offered you a service tyed it up with legel ribbon and then didn't deliver l am sure there would l could be taken to court over it...right now l dont even want my account but the principle of having it returned is greater. lf asked 'so what do you think of WoW? My answer would be don't stay the hell away from it. 11 Million accounts, and all the rest of it...you do the Maths l think Blizzard needs to update security of its Gamers and l believe they won't not to mention l think it seems to be more on the side of the Farmers with their Gold farming and Hackers...what used to be enjoyable for me now is simply distastful...and l certainly paid for it in with a nice chunk of my wages earnt and time put into Characters, and the enjoyment of the game is no more.

[Blizzturd]

Recently just got banned myself and seems like it takes forever for Blizzard to respond back. I have played for 2 years now and have never been accused of breaking any rules. I play, my wife plays, her parents play, her brother and his wife plays, even our kids play. There is like 8 accounts here that we pay for. I really hope to get my account back. I think they are pretty harsh on people being accused for the first time. I was accused and banned at the same time. Funny thing is I was on vacation the two weeks prior to being banned and had not logged on. Then when I did I was BANNED! With so many different accounts being hacked and stolen, I would think they would look for repeat offenders and not someone who has had a record. I mean if things like this keep happening then maybe that person is cheating but if they are not let them have a chance to fix the problem. Buy an authenticator, change passwords you know do whatever you can to prevent it from happening again. Needless to say this was very disappointing and embarrassing.

[Callison1969]

I have not played the game in 2yrs when I did come back I downloaded the lich king and started to play 5 minutes in to the game I was ban. and hour after that my account was closed. I have not hack the game one time nor do I know how. getting on and playing is enough of a challange for me I am a slow lvling person because I enjoy the game. Now I can not play at all for reasons unknown

[Lazuruswolf]

I have read some of the "horror" stories above and what bothers me about Blizzards attitude towards banning people is this if your completely innocent of any wrong doing you should be exloriated of any wrong doing. As for the thing of someone using powerleveling on thier account other people who have seperate accounts and banned by association well that is your lookout they will track that anyone with any sense of computer security would be well aware of this,

To those who have been banned without good reason or cannot get any sense out of Blizzard I would suggest if it is a case you feel they have to reaspond to is to go to whatever govermental body that deals with trading standards in whatever country your in. I have found in experince online as soon as I have mentioned the words "Trading Standards" or contacting them that most companies sit up and listen and they listen well. I have read the extensive terms of service that Blizzard has issued over the time that I have been on WoW I also consquently check the ToS and EULA for any updates so I know exactly where I stand. If you do powerlevel even if it is legitimate and your sat there for how ever many hours a day if the system thinks your actions need to be flagged and checked out that is your lookout.

If you don't do the above on a regular basis or when you sign up and fall foul of the rules then you are on your own, The best thing you can do if this was to happen is to write in a calm level headed fashion to Blizzard at WoWconcerns e-mail address and tell them what has happend and allow them to investigate it.

Also I want to be critical of Blizzards e-mails they are not at all helpful I know someone who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and even though it was a gentle "push" over a silly mistake it made him completely freak out over the way it was written. I do not feel that canned reasponses or e-mails are always helpful and people in that postion would feel intimdated and inclined to leave and I think Blizzard owes it to the millons of paying customers to remember they are human beings and if they have made mistakes to treat them as such and not like robots that are here to give them money. We may well be addicts and some of us may not admit we are but if you want respect of your paying customers please treat them as they wish to be treated and not like numbers and nothing more.

That is my 2 pence on this.

[Lazuruswolf]

I have read some of the "horror" stories above and what bothers me about Blizzards attitude towards banning people is this if your completely innocent of any wrong doing you should be exloriated of any wrong doing. As for the thing of someone using powerleveling on thier account other people who have seperate accounts and banned by association well that is your lookout they will track that anyone with any sense of computer security would be well aware of this,

To those who have been banned without good reason or cannot get any sense out of Blizzard I would suggest if it is a case you feel they have to reaspond to is to go to whatever govermental body that deals with trading standards in whatever country your in. I have found in experince online as soon as I have mentioned the words "Trading Standards" or contacting them that most companies sit up and listen and they listen well. I have read the extensive terms of service that Blizzard has issued over the time that I have been on WoW I also consquently check the ToS and EULA for any updates so I know exactly where I stand. If you do powerlevel even if it is legitimate and your sat there for how ever many hours a day if the system thinks your actions need to be flagged and checked out that is your lookout.

If you don't do the above on a regular basis or when you sign up and fall foul of the rules then you are on your own, The best thing you can do if this was to happen is to write in a calm level headed fashion to Blizzard at WoWconcerns e-mail address and tell them what has happend and allow them to investigate it.

Also I want to be critical of Blizzards e-mails they are not at all helpful I know someone who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and even though it was a gentle "push" over a silly mistake it made him completely freak out over the way it was written. I do not feel that canned reasponses or e-mails are always helpful and people in that postion would feel intimdated and inclined to leave and I think Blizzard owes it to the millons of paying customers to remember they are human beings and if they have made mistakes to treat them as such and not like robots that are here to give them money. We may well be addicts and some of us may not admit we are but if you want respect of your paying customers please treat them as they wish to be treated and not like numbers and nothing more.

That is my 2 pence on this.

[eyerawk]

I played the free 10 day trial and loved Wow so I just purchased the full Retail Version. Today would have been the start of the 30 free days you get with the Retail Purchase of the game. So I log on today to play and I'm banned. I couldn't believe it..for what?! Blizzard's email said I was gold spamming! Umm, what?! First of all I'm broke, and 2nd I wouldn't know how to do that even if I wanted too! They gave me the name of the character and server I supposedly was on and they weren't even recognizable to me! I don't understand why they are so quick to flip the switch and accuse one of being a gold spammer and yet so slow in actually investigating further. Why such poor customer service? Like they can't afford more people?
Guess I'll head back over to DDO and LOTRO where they have IN-GAME GM's that actually investigate and TALK to you live while you're there! This is ridiculous! I'm so angry and upset that I just purchased this game and I cannot play it. Such a waste of money.