Accounts with Different Owners

[elo]

So, poking through the site over the past few days I came across an issue I hadn't previously considered. I'm 5 boxing, but only 3 of the accounts are in my personal name. The 4th is in my wife's (had NO idea this would be an issue otherwise I would have put it in my name, sheesh) and then (gasp!) a buddy's account who quit playing.

Now, the buddie's account, no question I'm going to cease and desist using. I don't want to waste my time, and I don't want to get his 70 banned in case he ever wants to play again.

Now my wife's account, same last name of course, but different first name. We MAY be able to remember her secret question...

The question is, does anyone have any experience with weither my wife's account will be a problem? Will they even have issue with me multiboxing with it? If so, do you think I'll be able to make it through the transfer gamut if I purchase a 2nd account? See my idea is that I'll get another account, then immediately transfer the 70 and my 26 shammy from my wife's account to the new account, then just ditch the wife's account.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm just afraid that I'll try to transfer my wife's 70 to my new account, they get wise, and ban both, then I'm out $65 and a level 70 (although with crappy gear so 'meh').

Thanks!

[Eteocles]

I think if they last name matches you should be fine; that's the criteria they use when transferring chars between accounts, as long as the last name matches. Moreso if you're in the same house, if they get suspicious tell 'em what's technically the truth; it's your wife's account and you play in the same househould and therefore on the same connection, so of course the IPs'll be the same and possibly be on at the same time :p

[sorrowharvester]

You know, I just ran into this same thing.

I'm not going to use my buddy's account (he quit playing).
I had to reroll one of my shaman, but, he's only lvl 10 atm so not a big deal.
I just went and bought a battlechest and rerolled him.

I had another account that I stupidly set the first name to Sorrow and last name Harvester. I must have been drunk, don't know why I did that.
However, customer support is sending me a way to change this name sense it is non-sensical and I've been the only one to pay on the account. Lucked out on that one.

My 3 others are good to go. Just bought them all BC upgrades.

EDIT: Your wife's account should be fine since you live in the same house. If a GM bugs you, just say it's your wife playing her account. No way they could prove she isn't...

You surely want to remember that secret question though. Best thing to do is go to the account management page and when it asks for your Login/Pass, click on the "Forgot Password" link. It'll ask you the secret question and such and you can see if you remember it. It'll send you a new password, but, then you can just reset it to the old one once you log in again.

[marvein]

I think if they last name matches you should be fine; that's the criteria they use when transferring chars between accounts, as long as the last name matches. Moreso if you're in the same house, if they get suspicious tell 'em what's technically the truth; it's your wife's account and you play in the same househould and therefore on the same connection, so of course the IPs'll be the same and possibly be on at the same time :p

No actually. there have been numerous whine fests regarding this. no matter the names, who pays for it, where the bills are sent or who you are related to blizzard says if more than one person plays the same account then you are violating the ToS. Now you are less likely to get in trouble in cases mentioned above (such as my brother and I, we play each other's accounts quite often depending on teh 70s we need) and we have yet to have any issues with it. Same goes for his roomates actually. we have about 5-6 accounts that everyone logs in to just for class balance and we personally dont care but Blizzard would. The flipside to this is as mentioned in another similar thread and that is multiboxing draws a lot of attention to you, both from the players and the GMs and there was even a direct quote from a GM that said "We have no problem with multiboxers but we do not automatically dismiss reports of ToS violation because of it, in fact to start with we look at the owner of the accounts in question to see if it really is all one person"

So the moment you get reported on those you will probably get burned for it. You may just get a 72hour ban to start with or something if you have n other dings on your record but that means any progress you have made so far will be lost (ie you got to start a new toon on a new account if you want to continue or you might get one or all of your accounts suspsended permanently)

So the gist of it is, if you cant afford to or dont want to get new accounts for however many boxers you want to do, then dont do it.

*edit* the exception to the rule is a parent and child who is under the age of acceptance (like 13 i think?) for the ToS where the child simply cant own the account themselves.

[Vyndree]

The ONLY way I think you could get away with this (and I'm not condoning for you to lie about your situation, but just sharing information) is if you were a dependent child multi-boxing from your parents' accounts. That's the only time where account sharing is acceptable.

It would be a tricky situation to prove, as Blizzard tends to "ban first, ask later" and their only communication line post-ban is the account administation e-mail address. The typical process of getting a legal account un-banned (I like to hang out on the customer service forums) is a lengthy fax of a multitude of legal personal identification, and it may take weeks or months to get your accounts back.

[elo]

Thanks for all of the responses and thoughts. I took the suggestion of trying to pw reset and the secret question was one I happened to know. So I think I'm going to go ahead and try to do the transfer to a new account and fly under the technical radar. If I can just get the 70 to the new account that is clearly in my name, then I should be set. The other toons I'll just abandon. This should put me in a safe spot with 5 accounts in my name, cost ~ $75 ($50/ea battlechest - $30 free months + $25 transfer fee), and the only time I will have lost is leveling 2 toons to 26. Heh, I've deleted a dozen mid twenties toons :)

[elo]

The side benefit of biting the bullet on this is that down the road if I get tired of boxing but don't want to quit altogether, I can transfer all of the toons I want down to one account and save ~$55/month. :)

[Suribusi]

You can play your wifes and your friend who quit playing no problem. Just pay him in advance and let him reactivate it. If he isn't willing to do this then don't use it. Although different billing vs account information won't get you noticed automatically, if you were to ever get reported on the accuont they could end up looking at the information. When that happens, the worst case is they lock the account and require him to send in his valid photo ID.

Bottom line;
Have him pay for it, pay him in advance (or whatever you want to do) and play away. You won't have any problems, as long as you both don't log into the account from locations that are far away.

-S

[torelorm]

You can play your wifes and your friend who quit playing no problem. Just pay him in advance and let him reactivate it. If he isn't willing to do this then don't use it. Although different billing vs account information won't get you noticed automatically, if you were to ever get reported on the accuont they could end up looking at the information. When that happens, the worst case is they lock the account and require him to send in his valid photo ID.

Bottom line;
Have him pay for it, pay him in advance (or whatever you want to do) and play away. You won't have any problems, as long as you both don't log into the account from locations that are far away.

-S

While you would probably get away with this, it is technically against the TOU and clearly stated as such.

And the worst case is you get one or more accounts banned.

[Xzin]

In the US, in most all cases, you need be 18 to legally contract with another party. Last name should be fine. If it REALLY worries you, transfer that character to an account in your name.

[zanthor]

Since before TBC came out I've been MT and Guildmaster on an account given to me by a friend. I multibox, I've had multiple petitions and dealings with the GMS, etc. No problems at all, yes, it's against the TOS, but honestly they would rather keep getting the $15 a month, don't be an idiot, dont download keyloggers, dont be a dick to people in game, etc etc.

[Suribusi]

While you would probably get away with this, it is technically against the TOU and clearly stated as such.

And the worst case is you get one or more accounts banned.

No, it won't get the accounts banned. Nearly everything on this forum is technically against the TOU. We're talking risk. It is is minimal to non-existant in this case, providing my aforementioned parameters.

-S

[elo]

Hehe, and NOW I get the people saying don't worry about it.

Oh well, I picked up 2xBattlechests on the way home from work, activated them and transferred the warrior from my wife's account. The transfer went through without a hitch so now I've got 5 bonified, in my name and indisputable accounts. The mage I didn't invest in, so no loss there. The warrior that I have 35 days played on is now secure and that's worth the money to me. Stupid that I should even have to feel like it was at risk in the first place but meh, I deal with stuff far more stupid at work every day.

Thanks all!

[sorrowharvester]

Hehe, and NOW I get the people saying don't worry about it.

Oh well, I picked up 2xBattlechests on the way home from work, activated them and transferred the warrior from my wife's account. The transfer went through without a hitch so now I've got 5 bonified, in my name and indisputable accounts. The mage I didn't invest in, so no loss there. The warrior that I have 35 days played on is now secure and that's worth the money to me. Stupid that I should even have to feel like it was at risk in the first place but meh, I deal with stuff far more stupid at work every day.

Thanks all!

Interesting. It must be that the last names, address, billing all match so it went through.

Anyway, congrats on securing your warrior! :)

[marvein]

While you would probably get away with this, it is technically against the TOU and clearly stated as such.

And the worst case is you get one or more accounts banned.

No, it won't get the accounts banned. Nearly everything on this forum is technically against the TOU. We're talking risk. It is is minimal to non-existant in this case, providing my aforementioned parameters.

-S

wrong wrong wrong wrong and wrong. what we are doing is NOT against the TOS. using accounts that are not yours IS against the TOS

[Clone]

Damn this is really bad news to me, I never considered that 2 of my accounts are in different names to mine. One was my ex gf and one was a friend who quit, never thought about that when I started boxing. Now im in a dilemma because Ive been 5 boxing and loving it, but I have multiple 70's on the accounts not in my name. Only solution would be buying 2 more boxes and paying for 2 more subs. 7 subs a month tho is a bit heavy -.-

[zanthor]

According to the TOS using game mechanics in a way that give you an advantage over other players is against the TOS. Hence, playing a 5 box gives you a clear advantage over other players, and if blizzard decides, it can be against the TOS.

The same goes doubly for software solutions - using Keyclone, AHK, etc etc can be considered against the TOS just because some blizzard minion has a raggy day.

[marvein]

According to the TOS using game mechanics in a way that give you an advantage over other players is against the TOS. Hence, playing a 5 box gives you a clear advantage over other players, and if blizzard decides, it can be against the TOS.

The same goes doubly for software solutions - using Keyclone, AHK, etc etc can be considered against the TOS just because some blizzard minion has a raggy day.

uh no because you dont get something another character doesnt when you multibox, its all the same classes and areas you are simply doing more of it. If that were the case than all addons would be a bannable offense because it gives another player an advantage over another.

[Bena]

According to the TOS using game mechanics in a way that give you an advantage over other players is against the TOS. Hence, playing a 5 box gives you a clear advantage over other players, and if blizzard decides, it can be against the TOS.


If that was the case then Vent should also be against TOS as 5 people on it clearly have an advantage playing against team that's not using it. :)

There's tons of things that give you an 'advantage'.. mods/vent/intelligent players... it doesn't mean that you're breaking TOS, just means you know how to play properly.

[Vyndree]

To settle the whole "it's against the rules" argument:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3686742188&sid=1

Vrakthis (or his apprentice, rather):


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
First, one of the main things on a 5v5 game, is your team coordination, how good your team play together.

Fighting this team, 4 games, we lost 3. This guy, control 4 shamans, at once, prob with 4 computers.

Banable? Prob not, but if not, its a flaw. And. should be fixed asap.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It's easy to get frustrated in the arenas, Warlike, and I can understand your concerns. Still, "multi-boxing" is not currently a violation of our Terms of Use. I refer you to the following thread from our CS Forum Information Haven! sticky:

Botting vs. Playing Multiple Accounts Simultaneously
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168405460&pageNo=1&sid=1#9

That said, if you truly feel that this kind of activity is not in the spirit of World of Warcraft, I encourage you to avail yourself of the resources that is our Suggestion forum. Our Development Staff does read it, and it's your best means to communicate your concerns directly.


And, in the link (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168405460&pageNo=1&sid=1#9) in that post, this post by Vrakthis:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Im sorry but that isn't accurate, if Blizz would investigate instead of assuming they could find a rule break in there.

That is a paid service, the person running those characters was paid to collect HPs for the owners of those Characters. I bet if Blizz investigated they would find all characters to have different payment info, different emails, different info all togother, so if one person is boxing those Characters, its account sharing... and that is against the rules.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'll have to disagree with you there, Letum. Could someone use this technique to level up multiple characters for others? Probably.

If they were investigated would we just go "oh they are multiboxing, they are Ok."? Absolutely not. We investigate each botting/powerleveling report we receive fully and believe it or not we actually do look at the simple stuff like account information. Not to mention we look at a great deal of other information in our investigations.

There are a good many legitimate users who actually do own multiple accounts. Why? No idea, I have two myself and barely look at the other account but to each their own. Just because they are using a multiboxing technique does not mean they are powerleveling/sharing or engaging in any other nefarious deed.

If you believe someone is violating our Terms of Use, report it and it will be investigated.

And finally, the rules (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) themselves:

Ownership/Selling of the Account or Virtual Items.
Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void.

[Zseth]

Vyn with the HAMMER OF JUSTICE

[marvein]

thank you again vyn


and im not up on the change history of the TOS but there was a time where you could actually give away your account to someone and it was legit. Then people were like "oh I give you my account for free" "why thank you here have a gift of money" and blizzard killed that too.

[Vyndree]

thank you again vyn


and im not up on the change history of the TOS but there was a time where you could actually give away your account to someone and it was legit. Then people were like "oh I give you my account for free" "why thank you here have a gift of money" and blizzard killed that too.



Changes to the Terms of Use Agreement or the Program.
Blizzard reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to change, modify, add to, supplement or delete any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement at any time, including without limitation access policies, the availability of any feature of the Program, hours of availability, content, data, software or equipment needed to access the Program, effective with or without prior notice; provided, however, that material changes (as determined in Blizzard’s sole and absolute discretion) will be disclosed as follows: Blizzard will provide you with notification of any such changes to the Program through a patch process, or by email, postal mail, website posting, pop-up screen, or in-game notice. If any future changes to this Agreement are unacceptable to you or cause you to no longer be in compliance with this Agreement, you must terminate, and immediately stop using, the Program and the Account. Your continued use of the Program following any revision to this Agreement constitute your complete and irrevocable acceptance of any and all such changes. Blizzard may change, modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Program at any time. Blizzard may also impose limits on certain features or restrict your access to parts or all of the Program without notice or liability.



;) hehe

Blizz is good at covering their asses. ;)

[Eteocles]

What if say, our account was given to us prior to the TOU/EULA change stating it's not allowed? And noone but you has ever touched the account ;p My original account, my main one now, was given to me the first April after Launch; friend quit, gave me his account, been mine since. He got nothing in return for it, he just wanted to quit ;p

[Suribusi]

While you would probably get away with this, it is technically against the TOU and clearly stated as such.

And the worst case is you get one or more accounts banned.

No, it won't get the accounts banned. Nearly everything on this forum is technically against the TOU. We're talking risk. It is is minimal to non-existant in this case, providing my aforementioned parameters.

-S

wrong wrong wrong wrong and wrong. what we are doing is NOT against the TOS. using accounts that are not yours IS against the TOS

I have first hand, in-depth and extensive knowledge on account issues and software related matters when it comes to WoW and their admins, which is why I try to provide what information I can in a correct manner when subjects such as these arise. I'm not going to have a pissing match with you. What people choose to believe or accept is up to them. I would, however, not be so quick to state things as fact if they are not, in fact, fact.

-S

[marvein]

While you would probably get away with this, it is technically against the TOU and clearly stated as such.

And the worst case is you get one or more accounts banned.

No, it won't get the accounts banned. Nearly everything on this forum is technically against the TOU. We're talking risk. It is is minimal to non-existant in this case, providing my aforementioned parameters.

-S

wrong wrong wrong wrong and wrong. what we are doing is NOT against the TOS. using accounts that are not yours IS against the TOS

I have first hand, in-depth and extensive knowledge on account issues and software related matters when it comes to WoW and their admins, which is why I try to provide what information I can in a correct manner when subjects such as these arise. I'm not going to have a pissing match with you. What people choose to believe or accept is up to them. I would, however, not be so quick to state things as fact if they are not, in fact, fact.

-S

you are welcome to your opinion but you should direct your attention to the facts posted by vyn which I was basing my statements on. So what I stated, at this time until the TOS changes was indeed, fact. thank you for your time.

And I direct the same statement back at you, you may claim to be, know, talk to, be involved with whatever you want but whoever you claim to be is irrelevant, it is the ToS and EULA that determines what can and cannot be done in this game.

[kalih]

You can still "give" your account away. Sort of. I believe you need to email blizzard and have them wipe it. And then you must delete all installs and transfer all hardware, etc.



B. You may permanently transfer all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement to another by physically transferring the original media (e.g., the CD-ROM or DVD you purchased), all original packaging, and all Manuals or other documentation distributed with the Game; provided, however, that you permanently delete all copies and installations of the Game in your possession or control, and that the recipient agrees to the terms of this License Agreement. The transferor (i.e., you), and not Blizzard, agrees to be solely responsible for any taxes, fees, charges, duties, withholdings, assessments, and the like, together with any interest, penalties, and additions imposed in connection with such transfer.

[Vyndree]

You can still "give" your account away. Sort of. I believe you need to email blizzard and have them wipe it. And then you must delete all installs and transfer all hardware, etc.



B. You may permanently transfer all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement to another by physically transferring the original media (e.g., the CD-ROM or DVD you purchased), all original packaging, and all Manuals or other documentation distributed with the Game; provided, however, that you permanently delete all copies and installations of the Game in your possession or control, and that the recipient agrees to the terms of this License Agreement. The transferor (i.e., you), and not Blizzard, agrees to be solely responsible for any taxes, fees, charges, duties, withholdings, assessments, and the like, together with any interest, penalties, and additions imposed in connection with such transfer.


The recipient can't agree to the terms of the license agreement if it's your account and you're trading/selling it. However, they can agree to the license agreement if it's an unused account that you'd like to gift.

I would also argue that the "original media (e.g., the CD-ROM or DVD you purchased), all original packaging, and all Manuals or other documentation distributed with the Game" wouldn't be original anymore after you've activated the account key. But that's more of a gray opinion than black & white.

[Vyndree]

I have first hand, in-depth and extensive knowledge on account issues and software related matters when it comes to WoW and their admins, which is why I try to provide what information I can in a correct manner when subjects such as these arise. I'm not going to have a pissing match with you.

I don't mean to get into a "pissing" match with you, Suri. I'm just quoting information so that others can have "first hand, in-depth and extensive knowledge" on blizzard's public policies so they can make their own decisions.

What you choose to do with your own accounts is your own business, and I'm happy to leave it at that. :) All I'm doing is sharing information.


I would, however, not be so quick to state things as fact if they are not, in fact, fact. What people choose to believe or accept is up to them.

At the same time, you've offered no proof that your statements are in fact, fact. Whereas, my proof from Blizzard's official website does offer some proof of facts that support the common arguments on this forum. As always, you're welcome to your opinions and so is everyone else, so let's please not discourage people from sharing opinions and information.

Though I do suppose that Blizz's ban policy on anything "against the spirit of the game" does blanket pretty much anything into that vague description, Blizz could ban alot of people for doing absolutely nothing if they wanted to. So in that case, yes. Anything you do on WoW could be against the ToU/EULA and could get you banned for things "against the spirit of the game". In that case, multiboxing is against the Terms of Use as long as multiboxing is against the spirit of the game.

And a quote (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) for good faith:

Rules of Conduct.
As with all things, your use of the Program is governed by certain rules of conduct. These rules of conduct (the "Rules of Conduct"), maintained and enforced exclusively by Blizzard, must be adhered to by all users of the Service. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these Rules of Conduct. The following rules are not meant to be exhaustive, and Blizzard reserves the right to determine which conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the Game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit up to and including termination and deletion of the Account. Blizzard reserves the right to modify these Rules of Conduct at any time.

Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;
Conduct prohibited by the EULA or these Terms of Use, including without limitation that conduct prohibited by Section 2(C); and
Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Program.

[Suribusi]

I don't mean to get into a "pissing" match with you, Suri. I'm just quoting information so that others can have "first hand, in-depth and extensive knowledge" on blizzard's public policies so they can make their own decisions.


I agree. I should not have posted. Rather than draw out the "grey line" type arguments, it is always better to simply steer folks away from it. That way we do not contribute to someones decision that they may regret later, but does not affect us.



At the same time, you've offered no proof that your statements are in fact, fact. Whereas, my proof from Blizzard's official website does offer some proof of facts that support the common arguments on this forum. As always, you're welcome to your opinions and so is everyone else, so let's please not discourage people from sharing opinions and information.


A valid point as well. I deal with both of these issues on a daily basis (accounts and fires), in a place where I'm more of a.... admin I guess you could say. One of the unpleasantries is having to put out the fires when some random person comes in shouting "OMGZ, TEH SKY IS FALLING!". It is always FUD and misinformation they are spouting. I should not have brought that to this thread or forums. :wink:

I am not known here; Therefore the information I provide could easily be seen as misguided. Maybe over time that will change, but for now I'll just hold back on addressing peoples concerns about this stuff. If you check my posts a lot of them are in threads like these. One of the problems I face is that I cannot reveal a lot of my sources without compromising my identity here. So again, I'll just refrain. :wink:



Though I do suppose that Blizz's ban policy on anything "against the spirit of the game" does blanket pretty much anything into that vague description, Blizz could ban alot of people for doing absolutely nothing if they wanted to. So in that case, yes. Anything you do on WoW could be against the ToU/EULA and could get you banned for things "against the spirit of the game". In that case, multiboxing is against the Terms of Use as long as multiboxing is against the spirit of the game.

And a quote (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) for good faith:

Rules of Conduct.
As with all things, your use of the Program is governed by certain rules of conduct. These rules of conduct (the "Rules of Conduct"), maintained and enforced exclusively by Blizzard, must be adhered to by all users of the Service. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these Rules of Conduct. The following rules are not meant to be exhaustive, and Blizzard reserves the right to determine which conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the Game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit up to and including termination and deletion of the Account. Blizzard reserves the right to modify these Rules of Conduct at any time.

Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;
Conduct prohibited by the EULA or these Terms of Use, including without limitation that conduct prohibited by Section 2(C); and
Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Program.

This was one of the points I was mentioning, but didn't have the time to get an exact quote from their page.

So to the OP: Don't transfer your wifes character, don't use your friends account. Buy new copies of the game and level up normally and you will have little, if any problems. :D

-S