Recent Wave of Account Actions

[Void]

Complete bullsh*t so now i'm going to start getting suspensions for multiboxing?


Type of Violation: PvP Arena/Battleground Exploitation
Details of Incident: Exploitation of PvP Battlegrounds and the honor system
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 3 hours

Greetings,

This account has recently been identified as being involved in actions deemed inappropriate for World of Warcraft.

This may include, but is not limited to the following:
* Use of add-ons, "mods", external hardware, or any unapproved third party software to automate gameplay.
* Abuse of game mechanics or "bugs".
* Any behavior that has been found to be outside the intent of the game.

This action has been taken in accordance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use http://us.blizzard.com/company/legal/index.html and our game policies http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policy.

Any further inappropriate behavior could result in penalties ranging from a temporary suspension to account closure, and may also include the loss of any rewards the exploitive character has received.

For any disputes of this action or further information on exploitive activity, please visit the Account Administration Overview and contact page here: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/300515

To maintain the integrity of our investigation methods, we will be unable to disclose the specifics of our investigation methods. Thank you for your time and for understanding our position in this matter.

Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

[Mokoi]

It must be a mistake on their part. would contact cust. serv. and have them fag all of your accounts as multiboxed.

[Void]

new shaman team it was the other way around they camped me

[heyaz]

I got the same suspension the other day, the GM told me to actively partipate in BGs and it won't happen again. I was actively partipating and always am but if you get reported enough in BGs some GM may eventually just suspend you without really looking at the details.

Someone on your team may have just reported you for avoiding being AFK through botting and not partipating; there are enough of those complaints that they may just hit the suspend button without really investigating. I don't know what kind of tools they have to verify complaints, it's probably along the lines of just data of what BG you were in and when, how many times you were reported and removed the AFK debuff - I don't think they get a video replay of the BG to verify that you were just multiboxing.

[Ronburgundy]

Ive been hearing about alot of these 3 hour bans lately since 5.1.

[daanji]

I recently got a 3-day suspension. I called customer support and threw a tantrum until they unlocked my 1 (out of 10) account.

Last week, I got a 3-hour suspension.


In each case, no e-mails, text, whispers - just nothing.


This new system rocks.

[Noxdiebox]

lol blizzard gave my 3 accounts a 3-hour suspension too :D

i love Blizzard......

[heyaz]

At least it's only 3 hours. It's frustrating when it happens during prime time or whenever you play. Mine happened at 3am and I was during BGs and just 4 boxed them then went to sleep. I will be upset if they turn into 24-72 hour suspensions. That is when they receive a call.

[ebony]

Do you have a stance on people queuing several groups for a random BG and using timing to ensure they end up together?
You mean using a premade to stomp noobs? What do you think?


https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/status/273996272371896320

all i keep seeing over and over and over blizzard does not want pemades in pvp end off story!

they always said to ban us they have to ban all group play. guass what its in time wow now to ban "group play". Not one xpac have i seen Train off bots like i do in bg;s.

1) they don't see the bots
2) they hate mutiboxing and just want us out the game.

[Noxdiebox]

lol I have sent a ticket to blizzard and...



Thank you for contacting us regarding the recently imposed against your WoW accounts (WoW7, WoW8 and WoW10) account penalty. We have checked the fine imposed on the account penalty again and confirmed that the player registered on this account against the terms of the World of Warcraft (http://eu.blizzard.com/de-de/company/about/termsofuse.html offend) has to get a handle on an exploitation of game mechanics and / or errors in PvP have an unfair advantage over other players.


For this reason we are not able to mitigate the penalty imposed account or withdraw. We apologize for the inconvenience, but believe that this step is in the interest of fair and enjoyable gaming experience for all our players. We take account related things very seriously and can assure you that this case has been examined by several staff thoroughly.

[Pazgaz]

Call them instead.

[Noxdiebox]

I have already called there and they told me they can do nothing for me... AND..... I should open a ticket. WTF

[Void]

banned again today. Really starting to regret turning my accounts back on. its strange that only 3/4 of my accounts are getting banned. the main stays active. If this is what the future is in wow im def shutting my accounts off and not looking back

[heyaz]

banned again today. Really starting to regret turning my accounts back on. its strange that only 3/4 of my accounts are getting banned. the main stays active. If this is what the future is in wow im def shutting my accounts off and not looking back

Call Blizzard already, we can't do anything for you on these forums.

This is not the future of WoW, calm down, etc.

[Void]

Um i just called. They stand by their new system and if "You are being reported that much then you must be doing something wrong". That's the answer i got. NEVERMIND its now a 3 day ban not 3 hours.

[heyaz]

Call again, ask for a supervisor, don't take crap from some tier 1 jerkoff. Those chuckleheads wouldn't merge my b.nets when I called and I escalated it a few times to someone who could do something and he clicked a button and it was done. Call again and get another rep, better yet a sup.

[Ellay]

There has to be a way to get your account flagged. They have the ability to do it. In all my days of pvp'ing.. I got a message from a GM who said he flagged my account and I wouldn't be bothered anymore, and I never had an issue. I hope it still applies for me when I start doing bg's.

[Ellay]

Does anyone have any connections within Blizzard to get this addressed in a better manner? We are seeing both EU and US multiboxers get hit with this new system. We play by the rules, this shouldn't be happening in the first place.

[Noxdiebox]

LAWL I was just locked again temporarily (3 days).

omg fu blizz

[Void]

So i called 3 times and got no where 3 times. They are just a "call center" and cannot forward me to any supervisor figure. I must deal with it through the in game petition system which currently has a 2 day wait time. So as of now 3/4 accounts are on a 3 day ban and ill get a response to my petition sometime late tomorrow. Very nice.

[Void]

LAWL I was just locked again temporarily.

omg fu blizz

check the email if its the 2nd time it will probably be 3 days

[Noxdiebox]

yea 3 days :(

[Shodokan]

So i called 3 times and got no where 3 times. They are just a "call center" and cannot forward me to any supervisor figure. I must deal with it through the in game petition system which currently has a 2 day wait time. So as of now 3/4 accounts are on a 3 day ban and ill get a response to my petition sometime late tomorrow. Very nice.

They can put you to someone with more power they just don't.

@Ellay: I know two people at blizzard and one has no idea about this new "policy" and the other hasn't responded yet, I have asked though.

[Noxdiebox]

just get an answer to my ticket:


I've unlock your whole account again, whether we can do in the future is still not clear.
The problem is the multi-boxes, we do not forbid, but we support Multiboxes not, therefore, no consideration for this kind of games come when it comes to how our scripts or penalize players behave.


I can well understand that this is a problem for you, what it is is not clear. Here one can only wait what will happen.


If you have any questions or problems, or should I have understood something wrong, can you very much again to contact us Gamemaster. : o)
translated with google translate:P

[JohnGabriel]

Is this happening to 10 boxers only? Sounds like it is, if its not effecting the 5 man teams then we know the exact reason for the bans.

[Feehza]

Is this happening to 10 boxers only? Sounds like it is, if its not effecting the 5 man teams then we know the exact reason for the bans.

Nox is playing 5 atm.

[Owltoid]

Have the peeps that been banned been playing with oQ lately?

[tundra622]

what bg's are they doing? only 40 mans? or are they doing 10 mans as well?

[Owltoid]

Void - did you use oQ?

[Void]

dunno what that is so nope =-)

[Owltoid]

Void - do you 10-box in PvP? If so, how do you get them in the same BG? The reason is there has been pushback by Blizz lately regarding preformed PUGs, and I'm trying to figure out if their new system is somehow detecting that.

[Void]

No i only pvp with 4 shamans

[Fat Tire]

No i only pvp with 4 shamans

Then I believe we are missing something.

When players "report for cheating" a gm reviews each ticket, it doesn't automatically ban after 50 reports or w/e. So I am confused really because I have done the random for the conquest daily the past few days and havent had an issue. Even if a group of players was consistently reporting(trolling) me they would get the ban, not me.

Keep calling,keep emailing and maybe post on the customer support forum.

[JohnGabriel]

Then I believe we are missing something.

When players "report for cheating" a gm reviews each ticket, it doesn't automatically ban after 50 reports or w/e. So I am confused really because I have done the random for the conquest daily the past few days and havent had an issue. Even if a group of players was consistently reporting(trolling) me they would get the ban, not me.

Keep calling,keep emailing and maybe post on the customer support forum.

+1. If its happening to groups of 5 or less then its not for the reason everyone is thinking it is.

[Invisahealz]

Hmm so was just doing some AV with derek, came out of AV and was bout to Q and 3 accts just got D/C. Now giving me the Bliz error - acct suspended. got emails shortly after. 3/15 accts have 3 hour ban. WTF. common bliz really?

should i open a ticket or what? i just checked actually and says almost 2 day wait time on ticket so worthless to do that probably.







WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com



12:19 AM (36 minutes ago)https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif


https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif




to me
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif






Account Name: **************
Type of Violation: PvP Arena/Battleground Exploitation
Details of Incident: Exploitation of PvP Battlegrounds and the honor system
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 3 hours

Greetings,

This account has recently been identified as being involved in actions deemed inappropriate for World of Warcraft.

This may include, but is not limited to the following:
* Use of add-ons, "mods", external hardware, or any unapproved third party software to automate gameplay.
* Abuse of game mechanics or "bugs".
* Any behavior that has been found to be outside the intent of the game.

This action has been taken in accordance with the World of Warcraft Terms of Use http://us.blizzard.com/company/legal/index.html and our game policies http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policy.

Any further inappropriate behavior could result in penalties ranging from a temporary suspension to account closure, and may also include the loss of any rewards the exploitive character has received.

For any disputes of this action or further information on exploitive activity, please visit the Account Administration Overview and contact page here: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/300515

To maintain the integrity of our investigation methods, we will be unable to disclose the specifics of our investigation methods. Thank you for your time and for understanding our position in this matter.

Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

[Nitro]

Open a ticket and explain that your a multiboxer and ask them to lift your suspension.

[Khatovar]

should i open a ticket or what? i just checked actually and says almost 2 day wait time on ticket so worthless to do that probably.



It's never worthless to open a ticket. If nothing else it's another issue for them to look at and then you have everything in writing. Calling will yield faster results, but I'd do both.

[Noxdiebox]

HAHAHA now i have a permanently bann...
same reason as before

The end of Multiboxing?

[Feehza]

omg. Hopefully they are willing to implement a flag "Dont ban automatically, only investigate via human"

[Invisahealz]

so just got a reply email from bliz from ticket i wrote.

Greetings,

Thank you for your follow-up email regarding the accounts ***************** . These accounts were 3-hour suspension and may have had Honor-related items removed after a Blizzard Entertainment investigation produced evidence indicating the account had participated in activities designed to gain an unfair advantage in the World of Warcraft Honor system. Upon further review, we have determined that our original findings were accurate and the action was in line with our current policies.

Please take a moment to review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html). You may not use or exploit errors in design to obtain a competitive advantage over other players. This includes activities such as automating play to prevent a character from being removed from a Battleground due to non-participation.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and hope we have addressed any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance to you.

As a reminder, only the Account Administration department can address disputes or questions about this account action. To learn more about how we are able to assist you, please visit us at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif




seriously wtf?

[valkry]

Ring and abuse them. It seems they are finally cracking down on bots and we are getting caught in the crossfire.

[Owltoid]

Did you use oQ or an addon that allowed a group bigger than 5 to queue together?

[Fat Tire]

Ring and abuse them. It seems they are finally cracking down on bots and we are getting caught in the crossfire.

Or they are cracking down on people circumventing the queuing system.

[ebony]

wow this is going to far. I opened a ticket today saying if i que in bg's and do pvp will i get banned they said more or yes if your framing players you get banned for "unfair play" if you would like to see a change in the system do blah blah blah.

[zenga]

Do you box melee or ranged? As in how do you use IWT?

Reason I ask is because since MoP I often wonder if I face a multiboxer in bg's, but they turn out to be bots (different realms). They somewhat behave the same, but don't seem to use follow. And they are actually tough to fight alone since they have pretty good combat mechanics and they seem to use IWT. There is a lot of pressure from the community to deal with bots, and I could imagine that blizzard set up their detection tools more strictly, where multiboxers get banned unintended.

[Owltoid]

Zenga - I don't think those are a multiboxed version of bots, but instead a glider program with the same path. Those programs seem to respond to whatever is attacking the bot. They won't try to attack you unless somehow you get on their combat list. It seems that every class/spec has some auto script that, with a gear advantage, is enough to kill freshly dinged toons.

[ebony]

Zenga - I don't think those are a multiboxed version of bots, but instead a glider program with the same path. Those programs seem to respond to whatever is attacking the bot. They won't try to attack you unless somehow you get on their combat list. It seems that every class/spec has some auto script that, with a gear advantage, is enough to kill freshly dinged toons.


this. after following them all week this is how they work you stay out there way its so easy to win games.

why we getting banned i don't know all i keep getting told is there cutting down on "Unfair play" in pvp. thats tickets/phone support.

[ebony]

HAHAHA now i have a permanently bann...
same reason as before

The end of Multiboxing?


just talked to a guy on the phone to try and get out off the year pass as there banning accounts and it seems there some mix up they had a small look but cloud not talk to me about your account and he said he does not get it. they can not talk about the automated systems in place why we can mix in even with accounts flagged for boxing we can still get banned.

i got told to say out off pvp for a little bit until they get there system sorted out. or we hear about if the tos has changed.

[Lyonheart]

HAHAHA now i have a permanently bann...
same reason as before

The end of Multiboxing?

Are you getting banned because you go back in after the your ban lifts? or from communicating with them about lifting your ban?

[ebony]

Are you getting banned because you go back in after the your ban lifts? or from communicating with them about lifting your ban?

i think his going back in. why i got told to stay out off random pvp.

[Noxdiebox]

Are you getting banned because you go back in after the your ban lifts? or from communicating with them about lifting your ban?

They unlock my account yesterday. Today i played 3 hours and i was banned again automatically.

Now they have forwarded my problem to their "specialist".

[Noxdiebox]

I have now received a response from these specialists.

My accounts were unbanned again and I should give up a short time to Multiboxing.

and


We are working now on our mechanics to adjust it.

[ebony]

I have now received a response from these specialists.

My accounts were unbanned again and I should give up a short time to Multiboxing.

and

you mean pvp? my email said if i could stay out off pvp for a few days so we can work on upgrading the system.

[Noxdiebox]

you mean pvp? my email said if i could stay out off pvp for a few days so we can work on upgrading the system.

yes pvp.

[Invisahealz]

Only addons used were tidy plates and jamba. Like Derek said we would just countdown and que at same time. If it pops then we take it.

[Invisahealz]

Well guess tonight ill see what happens. Gonna be runnin AV again because my DKS will be leveld and i need to start getting them geared. Maybe ill write a GM ticket and see if i can actually talk to a GM and see for what reason i got a suspension and ask him if it is still ok to multibox in bgs. Its not worth me xfering my dks around to diff accts tonight from my RaF accts if they are just going to be banned. . .

[Ughmahedhurtz]

On the bright side, if this is just an "oops" that causes us a bit of collateral-damage pain until they sort out the heuristics but then ends up banning a huge amount of bots, I suspect it'll be worth the temporary pain.

[Owltoid]

So many peeps acting as if they know what the issue is. We don't know why Blizz is banning. We don't know if it's because others are reporting cheating.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well maybe rated bg's are a potential option.

Otherwise I think Ill just stick to world pvp seeing Im on a pvp server.

So basically you can't get more then 5 into a BG without problems from Blizzard?

[heyaz]

Personally, if i've got a perm ban when i'm doing nothing wrong, i would immediatly sue.

Can we please get a lock (or better yet, deletion) here, along with the others? Enough about this already. These flood the homepage of most recent threads and eventually Google. All we've acknowledged here is that several of us have gotten small suspensions since 5.1 and speculated it may have something to do with either a broken system that is supposed to be targeting botting, or forming premades. The rest is nonsense about ISBoxer's involvement, the dictionary definitions of legality, chargeback policies, ridiculous claims about legal action, and other drivel.

[Khatovar]

Can we please get a lock (or better yet, deletion) here, along with the others? Enough about this already. These flood the homepage of most recent threads and eventually Google. All we've acknowledged here is that several of us have gotten small suspensions since 5.1 and speculated it may have something to do with either a broken system that is supposed to be targeting botting, or forming premades. The rest is nonsense about ISBoxer's involvement, the dictionary definitions of legality, chargeback policies, ridiculous claims about legal action, and other drivel.


I agree that there's no need for all the pointless speculation and hysterical overreactions, but I disagree that deleting the threads is the way to deal with it. While I certainly don't think everyone needs their own special thread about it, I would much rather people end up at a thread here that states unequivocally that people are NOT getting banned for multiboxing than a cached page full of garbage.

So here it is - People are not getting banned for multiboxing. How do I know this? Because 9 days ago Blizzard said multiboxing is still cool and they'll let us know if they change their minds

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7320532259?page=6#102
12/5/2012
Daxxarri
Community Manager This issue has been discussed to death on the World of Warcraft forums. If we change our stance regarding multi-boxing, you'll know it.


Account actions are coming because of something else, probably related to Blizzard trying to get rid of the latest strain of bots. Wild speculation, threats and rage aimed at Blizzard, etc does nothing to resolve the issue and only seems to be fueling the fire.

Threads have now been though a merge and purge. Yes, I pruned the crap out of the threads. Yes, I know not everything I gutted was rage, but it also probably wasn't helpful or was leading off on tangents. No, none of it is personal. I'm sure will still get people up in arms, but *shrug* make cookies, not war.

[heyaz]

A title change was a good compromise I think. I didn't like seeing that word all over my favorite forums, when no such thing was happening :)

[Void]

So it should be titled "suspensions going out for multiboxing in battlegrounds. Don't try to hide what is really happening. It may not be due to us multiboxing directly but it has something to do with it. People should be informed so they can try to stay away from BG's for the time being. Your title needs to be more specific. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. As of right now going on 3rd day with no response from my ticket. So if you do multibox in a BG and get suspended don't expect to have the issue resolved for a while.

[heyaz]

So it should be titled "suspensions going out for multiboxing in battlegrounds. Don't try to hide what is really happening. It may not be due to us multiboxing directly but it has something to do with it. People should be informed so they can try to stay away from BG's for the time being. Your title needs to be more specific. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. As of right now going on 3rd day with no response from my ticket. So if you do multibox in a BG and get suspended don't expect to have the issue resolved for a while.

No, it should not be titled that because people are not being suspended for multiboxing either directly or indirectly. Then people would just be misinformed. I got suspended several days ago and did receive a response and it had nothing to do with multiboxing, it was a mistake on their part saying I wasn't actively participating in the battleground. I went right back into BG's and farmed CTA's all weekend.

You can stay away from BG's if you want. Or stay away from multiboxing if you're that concerned. But please stop spreading misinformation that it's because of multiboxing.

[ebony]

new post from blizzard today on this.

its in the Blizzard Customer Support Q&A

Q: How is the current botting issues in WoW being addressed? As we all know they are more than rampant and annoying..
A: We address botting or exploitation in a number of ways. We actively investigate reports that are generated by the right click report feature used by players in game. That information helps us take action individually as well as improve our detection systems. These investigations take a great deal of time as our goal is to maximize the benefits with them.

Recently, the /afk report feature for the Battleground system has been revamped and should help address much of what has been seen in BG’s of late.



so looks like where just getting mixed into one my other friends had the same 3 hour ban as many off us

Hell some of you might not even know if u log off. go bed i only find out when i checked my email.


this is more off less what blizzard said on the phone to me dual-boxing is fine. your not getting banned for that its our systems targting you we are working on a fix.

[Fat Tire]

Recently, the /afk report feature for the Battleground system has been revamped and should help address much of what has been seen in BG’s of late.



Fight fire with fire. I am going to spam afk every single person in a bg. Gonna macro that shit into my dps key bindings.

[Void]

No, it should not be titled that because people are not being suspended for multiboxing either directly or indirectly. Then people would just be misinformed. I got suspended several days ago and did receive a response and it had nothing to do with multiboxing, it was a mistake on their part saying I wasn't actively participating in the battleground. I went right back into BG's and farmed CTA's all weekend.

You can stay away from BG's if you want. Or stay away from multiboxing if you're that concerned. But please stop spreading misinformation that it's because of multiboxing.


That's odd because I have not seen one single boxer report that they have gotten this suspension. In fact i played my single shaman that didn't get hit all day yesterday with no problems. So as soon as I ramp it up to 4 characters (multiboxing) I get suspended. Multiboxing is legal yes. Is their a problem with their system right now, yes. Is it hitting multiboxers in battlegrounds, yes. Tell me where i'm wrong.

[Owltoid]

How do you know it's not impacting solo players too? Void, you seem convinced that this is targeted at multiboxing. Isn't it possible that all types of players are getting impacted, including you which just happens to be a multiboxer?

[heyaz]

Fight fire with fire. I am going to spam afk every single person in a bg. Gonna macro that shit into my dps key bindings.

That's a BRILLIANT plan! You can do even more:
- Use broadcast every time you type, especially in trade chat
- Macro emotes and /yell /instance on all your DPS keys
- Mount your proto drakes and stand on top of mailboxes
- Force losses in WSG by picking up the flag and dropping it into the middle of the enemy team
- And much more!

I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to be abusive and grief the rest of the player base. Try it all, and let us know how it works out!

[heyaz]

How do you know it's not impacting solo players too? Void, you seem convinced that this is targeted at multiboxing. Isn't it possible that all types of players are getting impacted, including you which just happens to be a multiboxer?

I imagine it is for those types that do CTA or Randoms while they're watching TV or something. They aren't botting but are just running around, casting and aoe, stopping, using /follow, sitting in the GY for ages. I'd bet anything those guys get slapped with suspensions too.

[Fat Tire]

That's a BRILLIANT plan! You can do even more:
- Use broadcast every time you type, especially in trade chat
- Macro emotes and /yell /instance on all your DPS keys
- Mount your proto drakes and stand on top of mailboxes
- Force losses in WSG by picking up the flag and dropping it into the middle of the enemy team
- And much more!

I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to be abusive and grief the rest of the player base. Try it all, and let us know how it works out!


Dont get your panties in a wad there sweetheart.

I swear we're raising a generation of effeminate pansys.

[Owltoid]

Dont get your panties in a wad there sweetheart.

I swear we're raising a generation of effeminate pansys.

To be fair your response of reporting everyone afk was effeminately pansyish to begin with

[Fat Tire]

To be fair your response of reporting everyone afk was effeminately pansyish to begin with

If it pisses people off then maybe they shouldnt be playing. Its a video game, pissing random strangers off is half the fun.

[Owltoid]

I do enjoy the rage whispers after booting a d*ck out of a BG. I make sure to always start the conversation with "have a blessed day!" For some reason I find that to be the most annoying "nice" thing you can say to someone. I try to reserve my booting power for the ones that deserve it, but some times I go on a binge and boot those who maybe should of had a pass... I usually feel guilty after (3 min max).

Rage whispers from those who deserved the boot are one of the perks of multiboxing.

[Ñightsham]

It would be curious to see if the boxer "prepared" has been affected by this new system. Those of you on that server can probably find out.

I myself have not been flagged, but it doesn't mean I won't be.

I was getting ready to raf 5 more accounts however But I'm going to first contact Blizzard on this issue affecting us multi-boxers and voice my concerns. There has to be a way for them to flag our accounts as legit boxers and not be thrown into this botting group.

If enough of us voice our concerns, whether you've been suspended/banned or not, should lead them too at least look into it a little deeper. If not then I'll save the potential $150/Mo and use it for something else.

Be pro-active on this issue.

NS

[Sam DeathWalker]

As to prepared; It looks like he does rated bgs


http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/kiljaeden/Aredone/pvp#bgs

And with 217 characters looks like he is trying to have a large selection available, also looks like he is leveling up right now and not doing much else.


And given he is between 40-60 percent wins he is probably not being reported much.

Ya 15X15 is not available.

[MiRai]

As to prepared; It looks like he does rated bgs (10x10 wonder why not 15x15)
http://www.wowpedia.org/Rated_battleground

[Fat Tire]

As to prepared; It looks like he does rated bgs (10x10 wonder why not 15x15)

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/kiljaeden/Aredone/pvp#bgs

And with 217 characters looks like he is trying to have a large selection available, also looks like he is leveling up right now and not doing much else.

Its funny to see that all 40 lvl 90s have very close to the same rbg rating. Couldn't be just a coincidence.

[crowdx]

To be cynical, what is to stop a person botting from telling blizz they are multiboxing. Just contacting Blizz to have your account flagged as a multiboxer is a very unlikely workable solution.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well its illegal to use que addons, no wonder everyone is being banned:

http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/rated-battlegrounds/



Any addon that enables a full, organized Battleground group to queue against a randomly assembled group is creating a scenario where that coordinated group has a huge advantage. That is not in the spirit of the experience we want to provide in the normal Battleground queue. Playing with friends is fun and important, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the spirit of the game nor the fun of others.


Prepared is 0 of 35 wins (35 lose in a row) in eye of the storm 10v10 rated bg ....


The above is a blue post I dont think it should come as a surprise that any "organized" group that goes up against a "randomly assembled group" is considered a rules violation.

As boxers we would have to be considered "organized" even though our edge is a LOT less then 5 or 10 organized real players.

So if you go into a normal BG and use tactics which indicate you are "organized" you get banned.

That would explain spamming iwt, but even if all are from the same guild or all from the same ip, that would be an indication of "organized".

[Fat Tire]

Prepared is 0 of 35 wins (35 lose in a row) in eye of the storm 10v10 rated bg ....




EOTS shows wins and losses as only losses. You could be 100-0 or 50-50 and it would still show 0-100. Its been bugged for a while now.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I was wondering why he would keep playing after the first 10 or 20 loss ....

[tundra622]

Fight fire with fire. I am going to spam afk every single person in a bg. Gonna macro that shit into my dps key bindings.
being to trigger happy with this will get you a 3 hr ban, its only a matter of time before bliz sorts this out.

[Fat Tire]

being to trigger happy with this will get you a 3 hr ban, its only a matter of time before bliz sorts this out.

It was really just a sarcastic statement by me, personally I rarely play randoms bgs.

[djensen2010]

I was wondering why he would keep playing after the first 10 or 20 loss ....

Umm am I the only one here or am i just oblivious, but wouldnt it just make sense that he queues against himself?

[MiRai]

Umm am I the only one here or am i just oblivious, but wouldnt it just make sense that he queues against himself?
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/001/582/picard-facepalm.jpg

[djensen2010]

*face palm*
Now now Mirai I missed fat tires post. Somebody drink too much Haterade today? :P

[Ronburgundy]

Got swept up in this, Got the email at 8am even though i hadnt played since lastnight. Got a three hour suspension. Guess it just takes awhile to process?

Shit sucks. Hope some good comes of it.

[MiRai]

Now now Mirai I missed fat tires post. Somebody drink too much Haterade today? :P
Unless I misread your post, it seemed as if you were suggesting that Prepared should queue against himself to win-trade. Seeing as this is against Blizzard's ToS I gave it a facepalm.

[djensen2010]

Got swept up in this, Got the email at 8am even though i hadnt played since lastnight. Got a three hour suspension. Guess it just takes awhile to process?

Shit sucks. Hope some good comes of it.

SUcks man. One of our guys got the suspension too so we just stuck to Wpvp until they figure something out. I got a reply from a Gm when i asked why multiboxers are getting banned and he said "Multiboxing is perfectly legal." So I think its just bot reporting system and were in the cross fire.

And Mirai i meant it more like i was assuming thats what he was doing.

[Ronburgundy]

My Ticket:

I recieved a 3 hours suspension this morning for Non Participartion in Battlegrounds. I multibox so players who do not agree with my play style do sometimes report me in BG's, but I always participate in battlegrounds that I join. I actively try and accomplish objectives and engame in PvP Comabt.

I want to know how i could be flagged for inactivity when i cleary, and they logs will show, participate in battlegrounds that i join.

Please advise with specifics and not a generic copy paste.
Thx

Their response:

Hi there,

Thank you for contacting us concerning the recent action taken against the World of Warcraft account **********. While we understand your concerns regarding the status of this account, we take matters involving the integrity of the game environment very seriously. This being said, we've overturned the action, and you should be able to access the game again immediately.

Please take a few moments to look over the World of Warcraft Terms of Use (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html), which all players agree to upon initially logging into the game. The Terms of Use state that you will not "...modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client or the Service in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard" or "...use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience..." This also includes action against any behavior that Blizzard considers outside the spirit of World of Warcraft.

While we do not consider logging into multiple clients a violation of our Terms of Use, we do consider it a violation to employ automation software or hacks, as detailed above. Please review our in-game penalties policy (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20221) for more information on account actions. We apologize for any confusion this action may have caused, and appreciate your understanding.

Thank you again for your continued correspondence in regards to your account and for respecting our position.

Regards,

Account & Technical Services Rep Terrilan
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment


So, They removed the three hour ban, which had already expired. And prettymuch just told me that Multiboxing is OK. Not sure why he took the time to point out that Automation, and Modifying game files is against the EULA (likes it needs to be said), but i suppose this was a acceptable response to my ticket. At least it was in a timely manner.

Looks like they are atelast aware that were getting caught in the crossfire, and are trying to mitigate the damage. Im sure accounting doesnt want us all rage quiting.

[ebony]

That's odd because I have not seen one single boxer report that they have gotten this suspension. In fact i played my single shaman that didn't get hit all day yesterday with no problems. So as soon as I ramp it up to 4 characters (multiboxing) I get suspended. Multiboxing is legal yes. Is their a problem with their system right now, yes. Is it hitting multiboxers in battlegrounds, yes. Tell me where i'm wrong.


a few players in the guild i am ingot hit by it single boxing. so its not just targeting us. though av let to see anything on the wow forums about it, a few was taking about it in trade most players don't even care is 3 hours!


@Ronburgundy (http://www.dual-boxing.com/members/58489-Ronburgundy) ya more or less that put in my tickets and what they said on the phone as well (though it took 3 times to get in touch with someone) maybe because i said i need to close my alt accounts as i can not do pvp and the i wont let me because the AP is still on some off them even though am getting nothing from it as the mount is BoB now.

[Cyphoner]

Well i am not sure whether they changed policy or not in specifics when it comes to multiboxing.
This in fact is a little scary.. The other day when i spoke with account support with a guy called Steve who also work as a gamemaster, told me that:

"Multiboxing is allowed, such as running several copies of the game - But automation such as some of the programs offer by sending a key to each and every window while not having to actually use that window is not allowed. That's when it becomes automation."

So i asked, well then, if multiboxing is allowed but not programs like isboxer, keyclone etc.. Then it's not really multiboxing is it?
Maybe i got the wrong idea of what multiboxing actually is but opening 2 windows to trade with yourself i.e is not what i refer to as boxing.

I tried to argue with him saying that i, a person, still have to sit and press the keys on my mainwindow for the other clients to do anything - They won't do anything at all unless i "tell them to".

But he didn't change his mind, it was, according to him something you could get banned for - Usually 3 hour only however since it is considered a "minor" offense, but repeatedly it may permanently close your account.

Regardless of how it is, i find it hilarious that they expect you to run i.e 10 clients and open #1 click a spell, open #2 click a spell, open #3 click a spell, open #4 click a spell, open #5 click a spell etc. and that it would otherwise be automation on window #2 - #9..

[Khatovar]

"Steve" needs to review what previous Blues (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46453-Blues-on-Boxing) have defined and current Blues defend as multiboxing. As I already posted, if they change the rules of multiboxing, they will let us know.

[Cyphoner]

"Steve" needs to review what previous Blues (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46453-Blues-on-Boxing) have defined and current Blues defend as multiboxing. As I already posted, if they change the rules of multiboxing, they will let us know.

I wonder though, is there actually a blue post saying that using programs like isboxer is fine? I've seen blue posts saying multiboxing is allowed but nothing about the programs sending the keystrokes to the other clients?

And if Blizzards definition of multiboxing is simply to run multiple clients but only control 1 at a time.. :-/

[JohnGabriel]

I wonder though, is there actually a blue post saying that using programs like isboxer is fine? I've seen blue posts saying multiboxing is allowed but nothing about the programs sending the keystrokes to the other clients?

And if Blizzards definition of multiboxing is simply to run multiple clients but only control 1 at a time.. :-/

I read through the blue posts in the link and what I see is that its fine, are you seeing something different?

[Khatovar]

Blizzard will not give an official approval to any program, as any program can change at any given time. I'd suggest you read the Blue Posts I linked, it is very clear on what is and is not allowed - including passing keys to other clients.

[Cyphoner]

I read through the blue posts in the link and what I see is that its fine, are you seeing something different?

Nothing except that most of the statements are from the stoneage, but i saw there was a "recent" one on page three, so no problem here, you? :)

[Khatovar]

That would be because they haven't changed their stance since then and they have confirmed that as recently as last week.

[valkry]

Fight fire with fire. I am going to spam afk every single person in a bg. Gonna macro that shit into my dps key bindings.

I have that macro if you want it, but I'm pretty sure it is against the rules to use it so I would advise against it. I certainly haven't used it since being told it was not allowed about 4 years ago (back when the first big wave of bots started).

[Khatovar]

I have that macro if you want it, but I'm pretty sure it is against the rules to use it so I would advise against it. I certainly haven't used it since being told it was not allowed about 4 years ago (back when the first big wave of bots started).


Yes, filing false reports is a violation and can get you actioned.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2191100109?page=2#24

[Void]

Petition entered on 12/11 @11pm. Currently 12/15-10:30 am and no response to my ticket. Nice of them to completely forget about my ticket. At least they un banned the other boxers. Totally unfair.

[MiRai]

Well i am not sure whether they changed policy or not in specifics when it comes to multiboxing.
This in fact is a little scary.. The other day when i spoke with account support with a guy called Steve who also work as a gamemaster, told me that:

"Multiboxing is allowed, such as running several copies of the game - But automation such as some of the programs offer by sending a key to each and every window while not having to actually use that window is not allowed. That's when it becomes automation."

So i asked, well then, if multiboxing is allowed but not programs like isboxer, keyclone etc.. Then it's not really multiboxing is it?
Maybe i got the wrong idea of what multiboxing actually is but opening 2 windows to trade with yourself i.e is not what i refer to as boxing.

I tried to argue with him saying that i, a person, still have to sit and press the keys on my mainwindow for the other clients to do anything - They won't do anything at all unless i "tell them to".

But he didn't change his mind, it was, according to him something you could get banned for - Usually 3 hour only however since it is considered a "minor" offense, but repeatedly it may permanently close your account.

Regardless of how it is, i find it hilarious that they expect you to run i.e 10 clients and open #1 click a spell, open #2 click a spell, open #3 click a spell, open #4 click a spell, open #5 click a spell etc. and that it would otherwise be automation on window #2 - #9..
They didn't change their policy, and if they did, it wouldn't be a "secret". We would all know about it through a public announcement or a sticky in the forums. GMs don't have all of the answers and they can have a difficult time interpreting Blizzard policy.


I wonder though, is there actually a blue post saying that using programs like isboxer is fine? I've seen blue posts saying multiboxing is allowed but nothing about the programs sending the keystrokes to the other clients?

And if Blizzards definition of multiboxing is simply to run multiple clients but only control 1 at a time.. :-/
As it's already been stated, Blizzard isn't going to specify software that's legal for multiboxing because they have no control over it. If later today they said that Software-X was completely legit for multiboxing World of Warcraft, and tomorrow Software-X decided to add automatic delays to its features (which would be against Blizzard policy), then what does Blizzard do? Make a brand new announcement less than 24 hours later that they were wrong about Software-X and that people should stop using it immediately?

What if people only saw the first announcement, but not the second? Are they then at fault? If Blizzard began banning accounts that were using Software-X, how could someone prove that they hadn't seen the second announcement?

Blizzard can't police all the third-party software that's out there to make sure that it's "World of Warcraft Approved!" and they certainly aren't expected to. They keep their rules vague to make things a little easier for them, but unfortunately, this then leaves them open for interpretation by any idiot on the Blizzard forum that dislikes multiboxing.


Nothing except that most of the statements are from the stoneage, but i saw there was a "recent" one on page three, so no problem here, you? :)
Again, as stated before, their policy hasn't changed and Blizzard isn't going to put out bi-monthly announcements stating that multiboxing is still allowed. If the policy changes, you'll know it.


I have that macro if you want it, but I'm pretty sure it is against the rules to use it so I would advise against it. I certainly haven't used it since being told it was not allowed about 4 years ago (back when the first big wave of bots started).
I'm almost positive that mass report macros were broken and the report function is now protected as of the latest patch (5.1). What that means is that it now requires a hardware event (e.g. a keypress or mouseclick from the player) and can no longer be automated through a /slash command.

[katielynn]

so from what i read blizzard doesn't want organized ppl in bgs? meaning if u queue as group u could get banned for using the stock wow feature?

[Ualaa]

It looks like, up to five players (via the Queue as Group option) is allowed.
But organization beyond that level is against their current policy, at least in regards to normal battlegrounds.

However, active boxers are being reported as AFK (we surmise), and the new system is handing out 3 hour suspensions quite commonly.
Hopefully, in the near future the system is fixed and only bots are suspended.

If you get suspended a few times and continue to break the rules, the suspensions (if legit) would become longer and eventually lead to a ban.
I'm sure there are things you could do, to be banned immediately rather than go through escalation of suspension times.

[Fat Tire]

After reading the blues that posted on Void's customer support post on the forums it could be that they are just back logged from hell from their unsuccessful recently updated automated 3 hour ban system. Hopefully they get it fine tuned and squared away soon for all you folks.

[Owltoid]

I really don't think this is a move against boxers or a rash of peeps reporting which leads to bans. If others are going to take anecdotal evidence as gospel, I'll add my own experience. Ran random BGs and queue hopped (used a 5th to find out which random popped) for at least 30 hours this week and never had an issue.

[daanji]

I'm almost positive that mass report macros were broken and the report function is now protected as of the latest patch (5.1). What that means is that it now requires a hardware event (e.g. a keypress or mouseclick from the player) and can no longer be automated through a /slash command.


This is correct. As of 5.1, you can no longer call the report AFK function from any script or addon. oQ had a feature that allowed the group leader to report bots and others (players who actively worked against the group's objective) AFK.

If you had an oQ raid of 20 people, it would send a message to all the oQ raid members and would synchronously cause the entire oQ raid to report that person AFK. With 20 reports hitting at once, it would almost always cause them to get instant booted. This was extremely useful to remove bots and non-cooperative players (people who mindless capped the flag repeatedly when told not too, who were mostly likely bots).

Before this feature was added, we typically did a count-down method AFK report. This works, but wasn't effective as you had to start what you were doing focus on the countdown.

I'm guessing Blizzard did not like PVP raid leaders having this much power over non-players and protected this function. Regardless, the old count-down method still works just fine.

[Void]

So finally got a response after all my bickering. Its now time for me to go back to work so I wont get to try it out for another week. Maybe a glimmer of hope exists.

Hey there,

Thank you for your concerns about these recent account actions on your World of Warcraft accounts.

We took special care to fully investigate your situation, and have determined that the actions resulted in error due to detecting false positive information. Our automated systems are designed to detect inactivity in Battlegrounds, and the behavior of multiple "follow" characters created by the multiboxing play style does have a chance to trigger these detections, due to their individually low contributions to the match (although the character group as a whole is quite formidable).

I've made sure these actions cease to occur in the future. If you encounter and further difficulties with this, please let us know.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
http://battle.net/support

[Sam DeathWalker]

due to their individually low contributions to the match (although the character group as a whole is quite formidable).

Kinda really sums up boxing there ...

[heyaz]

I put in a ticket to appeal the suspension as the GM didn't really have the power to do anything, will see what I get. The last part sounds promising in that they may have put a flag on your account that you're not a guy towing bots but a multiboxer and not to trigger that system.

I've now lost both a follower and a main in the middle of battlegrounds so I don't think it's simply being on follow that could trigger it... probably a bunch of conditions. Both times I was actually in the middle of combat. Both times (and my characters are fully geared) I was a high or top contributor in something (dps or healing) so I was definitely active. Be nice to get the special flag put on my account that I'm not a bot so it doesn't automatically happen on accident again.

[MiRai]

Be nice to get the special flag put on my account that I'm not a bot so it doesn't automatically happen on accident again.
That would be nice, but Blizzard isn't going to do that because people who bot are just going to claim they're multiboxers, get their account(s) flagged as so, and then go back to botting and not be harassed by the automated system.

[Ualaa]

One difference between a bot and a multiboxer might be the number of accounts.
Unless the person botting is also boxing.

It would be nice if a system could be put in, that measured damage/healing/honor kills.
But also measured contribution to objectives... holding a tower, to prevent it from capping or holding a bunker to ensure it does burn... etc.
But that is hard to implement, because in AB/EotS are you a bot sitting at Stables solo or are you active and going to call in Incoming, etc?

[Lyonheart]

So finally got a response after all my bickering. Its now time for me to go back to work so I wont get to try it out for another week. Maybe a glimmer of hope exists.

Hey there,

Thank you for your concerns about these recent account actions on your World of Warcraft accounts.

We took special care to fully investigate your situation, and have determined that the actions resulted in error due to detecting false positive information. Our automated systems are designed to detect inactivity in Battlegrounds, and the behavior of multiple "follow" characters created by the multiboxing play style does have a chance to trigger these detections, due to their individually low contributions to the match (although the character group as a whole is quite formidable).

I've made sure these actions cease to occur in the future. If you encounter and further difficulties with this, please let us know.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
http://battle.net/support

That makes me feel better.. i know in AV my followers would go afk a lot just following me around, or if i was controlling a tower/bunker.. so i would have to jump a lot to keep them active..i hope it was a simple as that 8) Thats easy to watch and fix.

[Feehza]

So finally got a response after all my bickering. Its now time for me to go back to work so I wont get to try it out for another week. Maybe a glimmer of hope exists.

Hey there,

Thank you for your concerns about these recent account actions on your World of Warcraft accounts.

We took special care to fully investigate your situation, and have determined that the actions resulted in error due to detecting false positive information. Our automated systems are designed to detect inactivity in Battlegrounds, and the behavior of multiple "follow" characters created by the multiboxing play style does have a chance to trigger these detections, due to their individually low contributions to the match (although the character group as a whole is quite formidable).

I've made sure these actions cease to occur in the future. If you encounter and further difficulties with this, please let us know.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
http://battle.net/support

I assumed that there is smt with follow and ISB.
Nox got a ban again few minutes ago after playing 2 hours BG. (he use ISBoxer/Jamba)


I played the whole weekend BG, no ban. My follow works via AHK, i only use ISB for mousebroadcasting and window swapping.
Kruschpak plays with Octopus, and he played few BGs too these days ... no ban

But, one of guild members use ISBoxer/Jamba for follow too and he still got no ban.

Strange.

[Invisahealz]

after they told me the ruling on suspensions stands i wrote them a big email. reviewed by "specialist" and got this today
Greetings,

Thank you for your follow-up contact. An additional review of the previously communicated action taken against ********* accounts on ********@*****.com has been completed. The account action has been amended.

We base all of our actions on the severity of the violation, and take previous violations into consideration. Please make sure your in continued accordance with the Terms of Use and our In-Game Policies (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policyhttp://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20309), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to participation.

We hope this has resolved any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com/support

Hopefully amended is a good thing?

[MiRai]

Hopefully amended is a good thing?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amend

[Noxdiebox]

I think the reason for the automatic ban is Jamba auto-follow strobing.

I have been playing now a few hours without Jamba auto-follow strobing and still got no ban.

[ebony]

I think the reason for the automatic ban is Jamba auto-follow strobing.

I have been playing now a few hours without Jamba auto-follow strobing and still got no ban.

nerver used auto-follow strobing and my caster dps friend never used it before both of us got added in the wave.



they could off fixed it? though i think it was that random patch we had 5.1.0A they probs can not a easy fix unless they can add something to our accounts to stop it going off. (they would never say this to us.)


all i know is i been doing av standing in towers my clones going AFK and i have been reported by some "kid" and still not more bans. (or though i did set my role and i talk in BG/Guild/party a lot)

[JohnGabriel]

All toons on everyone's team probably use the same addons and settings, and since some members get banned but others not, then its hard to see it as likely to be one single thing that is auto-banning people. Blizzard is sure to use a very complex formula containing much data we probably dont even know exists.

[heyaz]

I have not ever used follow strobing and have been suspended twice, on two different teams - just one toon from each group for 3 hours. I have never used multiboxing tools to just jump around in BGs and avoid being AFK which is what I was accused of the first time. My second suspension was for gaining an "unfair advantage" in battlegrounds, whatever that means .

I use ISBoxer. Others use ISBoxer, don't use follow strobing, queued same BGs, and didn't get a suspension. I queued 5 at a time and got suspended. Others queued 5 at a time and didn't. Some queued 10 at a time and didn't get suspended. Some did. Some had the same suspension repealed. At least two of us have had suspensions and were not able to get them repealed.

Sorry, given all of that, it just seems random or based on factors we don't know about. Something triggers it, you lose a guy. Different customer support reps give different responses.

[ebony]

I have not ever used follow strobing and have been suspended twice, on two different teams - just one toon from each group for 3 hours. I have never used multiboxing tools to just jump around in BGs and avoid being AFK which is what I was accused of the first time. My second suspension was for gaining an "unfair advantage" in battlegrounds, whatever that means .

I use ISBoxer. Others use ISBoxer, don't use follow strobing, queued same BGs, and didn't get a suspension. I queued 5 at a time and got suspended. Others queued 5 at a time and didn't. Some queued 10 at a time and didn't get suspended. Some did. Some had the same suspension repealed. At least two of us have had suspensions and were not able to get them repealed.

Sorry, given all of that, it just seems random or based on factors we don't know about. Something triggers it, you lose a guy. Different customer support reps give different responses.


this i my friend got banned and she uses her own boxing software so it is just random though. all we can say is there is a automated system in place and sometimes some how we get put in the waves. it could be anything, and probs a mix. all we know is blizzard said boxing is fine :D so carry on.

[Ualaa]

Jamba has had the strobe follow as a feature from the beginning.
And there has never been an issue with it.

It does automate the /follow command, without user input (at least while Strobe is enabled).
So I could see that as an issue, at some point.
But it has not been an issue to date.

[Khatovar]

then its hard to see it as likely to be one single thing that is auto-banning people. Blizzard is sure to use a very complex formula containing much data we probably dont even know exists.

I'd say it's this. It's not going to be one single common denominator; it's a chain reaction of things. You get reported, Blizzard's "anti-bot program" or whatever looks at damage/healing and weights it against movement and inactivity, number of current reports, number of previous reports in X amount of time, repetitive actions, amount of time doing the same activity {bgs, spawn camping, other common bot activities} blah blah blah and if you hit the magic "if it walks like a duck, kill it" in its heuristics you get flagged for an account action.

It's probably the exact same thing people complain about with transferring gold between toons (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48512-Permanently-banned-banned-and-banned) and farming mobs for XP (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48068-Farming-spots-for-cloth-leather-motes/page4) or whatever (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48443-72-Hour-Account-Suspension). PvPers aren't the only ones (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7349425075) hit recently. Combine it with GMs who don't know WTH they are doing (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46818-anyone-here-have-been-banned-for-multiboxing/page2) and you get the "ban now, repeal later" action we tend to see waves of any time they are working on killing bots. So speculating that it's this one thing or that one thing is pointless. They'll tweak things until they are done purging the bots and these suspensions will be back to freak occurrences again.

[Feehza]

I'd say it's this. It's not going to be one single common denominator; it's a chain reaction of things. You get reported, Blizzard's "anti-bot program" or whatever looks at damage/healing and weights it against movement and inactivity, number of current reports, number of previous reports in X amount of time, repetitive actions, amount of time doing the same activity {bgs, spawn camping, other common bot activities} blah blah blah and if you hit the magic "if it walks like a duck, kill it" in its heuristics you get flagged for an account action.

It's probably the exact same thing people complain about with transferring gold between toons (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48512-Permanently-banned-banned-and-banned) and farming mobs for XP (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48068-Farming-spots-for-cloth-leather-motes/page4) or whatever (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48443-72-Hour-Account-Suspension). PvPers aren't the only ones (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7349425075) hit recently. Combine it with GMs who don't know WTH they are doing (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46818-anyone-here-have-been-banned-for-multiboxing/page2) and you get the "ban now, repeal later" action we tend to see waves of any time they are working on killing bots. So speculating that it's this one thing or that one thing is pointless. They'll tweak things until they are done purging the bots and these suspensions will be back to freak occurrences again.

But its nice to see when some of us find out 1 or more indicators of this heuristic methods. So hole up and waiting for a multiboxing friendly world is much more pointless then speculating.
In Nox case its clear that strobe following is one of these ban triggers. ... very plausible imo, jamba strobe is spamming follow exactly every second. Thats not human.

[Khatovar]

Tons of people use Jamba's follow strobing, that doesn't make it an indicator that it flags accounts. You say it's clear that Jamba follow strobing is to blame, I could just as easily say it's because his tickets were escalated and his account had already been flagged as clean by a "Specialist". Or perhaps they had already adjusted their system to be less sensitive to any number of factors.

Heyaz posted just four posts up (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48573-Recent-Wave-of-Account-Actions?p=374094&viewfull=1#post374094) that he's been nailed twice and he's never used strobing.

Unless Blizzard comes out and says "These are what was getting people flagged," which they will NEVER do, all you are doing is shooting blind and freaking people out for no good reason. Compared to the number of regular users on this site, we've seen only a handful nailed in recent account actions and that's not enough to draw any valid conclusions from.

[Feehza]

Tons of people use Jamba's follow strobing, that doesn't make it an indicator that it flags accounts. You say it's clear that Jamba follow strobing is to blame, I could just as easily say it's because his tickets were escalated and his account had already been flagged as clean by a "Specialist". Or perhaps they had already adjusted their system to be less sensitive to any number of factors.

Heyaz posted just four posts up (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48573-Recent-Wave-of-Account-Actions?p=374094&viewfull=1#post374094) that he's been nailed twice and he's never used strobing.

Unless Blizzard comes out and says "These are what was getting people flagged," which they will NEVER do, all you are doing is shooting blind and freaking people out for no good reason. Compared to the number of regular users on this site, we've seen only a handful nailed in recent account actions and that's not enough to draw any valid conclusions from.

It isnt my intention to spread panic.

I will correct my conclusion:
In Nox case its clear that his strobe follow settings, which is assisted via jamba-strobe-follow contribute to his bans.

[MiRai]

I will correct my conclusion:
In Nox case its clear that strobe following contribute to his bans.
This still isn't a logical conclusion because he isn't the only person who uses JAMBA's follow-strobe feature. Many, many people use JAMBA's follow-strobe and Blizzard could have changed anything internally since the day Nox received his first suspension. Just because there hasn't been a rolling restart in the middle of the week doesn't mean that stuff/code/features/numbers/systems aren't constantly changing.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I will correct my conclusion:
In Nox case its clear that his strobe follow settings, which is assisted via jamba-strobe-follow contribute to his bans.
No, that is NOT clear. Unless you have direct feedback from Blizzard showing that to be part of the root cause, all you have is speculation. Are you saying you have this confirmation?

[edit] Also, sample size of one person over a few hours (or days) is not enough to gain any meaningful perspective.

[Owltoid]

It isnt my intention to spread panic.

I will correct my conclusion:
In Nox case its clear that his strobe follow settings, which is assisted via jamba-strobe-follow contribute to his bans.

Why is it clear that's the case? To me there is still a ton of doubt that's the smoking gun.

[Feehza]

*sigh*
no, i dont think jamba-strobe-follow is the trigger for a ban.

[Santa]

Well, they finally caught me:

"Greetings,

This is to inform you that action has been taken against your account. Please read on for further information about the action taken, and more details regarding the reason:

Battle.net Account Name: XXXXXXX
World of Warcraft Account Name: XXXXXXX

Account Action: Suspension (72 Hours, Final Warning)

Circumventing normal game mechanics has a negative impact on the game experience of other customers.

Type of Violation: Exploitation
Category of Violation: Third Party Program
Character Name Involved: XXXXXXX

While we regret to take this type of action, we have determined it to be in the best interests of the World of Warcraft community as a whole, and for the integrity of the game.
Please note that should any further violations of our Rules and Policies occur, this incident will be taken into consideration when determining the consequences for your account. This could include further warnings, account suspension or account termination.
Also note, you must log into the game after the suspension has expired to update the status of the account shown on your Account Management page."


I have only played a new team (5 man) about 3 days now after months of absence.

I have been probably reported in bg's about 98 times based on all the whispers I got.

I'm not using any addons, just plain ISBoxer setup.

Luckily I'm still on 10 day free gametime and I definitely won't be buying more after this.

Edit: And those f**kers only suspended one of my accounts so I can't play my team while one is missing.
Edit: And final warning wtf? **** *** ********.

[Fat Tire]

Circumventing normal game mechanics has a negative impact on the game experience of other customers.



This is interesting.

[Owltoid]

Any correlation between the age if the account and reporting? Anyone with multiboxing accounts that have been around for 3+ years getting banned?

[Invisahealz]

who knows what it really is. I use strobing on my 15 toons and since my first suspension have been running AV every night with no problems. Most my accounts are from 2008.
eh who knows

[JohnGabriel]

Some people using trial accounts and some people with accounts from 2008. The age doesn't seem to play a major part in it.

[Santa]

I got my suspension removed.

GM sent me this response:

"I have reviewed the action taken on your account and have decided to remove it. Please be advised that this decision was not an easy one to make as we have received a large amount of reports about your ingame activities.

Multiboxing is acceptable but please be cautious if you decide to multibox in an instance and/or Battleground. Remember that while the multiboxing might be fun and challenging to yourself , if you are not pulling your weight in the BG's or Instances and contributing to the group as well as a normal player would with a single character then your activities are not fair to others and they have a right to complain.

I cannot and will not request that you do not multibox in a BG or Instance but I would ask that you review your position and see it from other players view point. If you truly feel that your contribution is as good or maybe better than a normal single character and that you are not hindering someone elses gains then please continue.If your access to the instances/BG's is purely a gain to yourself and your contribution is limited to others than I would ask that you maybe multibox in the open while questing and killing mobs etc perhaps to avoid further issues with mass reports from other characters."



I played mainly WSG ganking the shit out of other players but I usually tried to secure atleast one flag cap per game.

Other bg I played was AB due to Call to arms and there I played strictly objectives and won over 50% of the games.

Sounds like multiboxers pvping might get banned all the time if this current action of Blizzard will continue like this. Maybe this is the end of multiboxing for me.

Edit: A strange thing I noticed: The reason for my suspension was exploiting with third party software but the response from GM makes it sound like it was just an excuse to punish me for multiboxing BG's.

[Fat Tire]

perhaps to avoid further issues with mass reports from other characters.

This is very interesting. The culprit?

[valkry]

This is very interesting. The culprit?
Blizzard thinks we live in this perfect world where people only get reported by other players if they are actually afk or cheating. I have NEVER heard of anyone getting suspended/warned for making false reports against someone else. It seems to me that people generally hate multiboxers and so report them afk to try and remove them... once we get enough against us we get auto-suspended due to a new system they are trialling to reduce the number of bots.

This is what I think is happening anyway.

[heyaz]

That's very strange, Santa. It's almost as if they were saying if you're going to multibox, don't suck at it because it's unfair to the other players and you're going to get reported. On the other hand, you said you had been winning. The other faction can report you in the same way by right clicking your portrait and clicking "report for cheating".

In my case I'd had my fair share of losses, but was on a good win streak both times I got hit. I don't know which faction put in the report. I'd lost some the same day but, WSG's like 2-3; that rarely happens PuG vs PuG so I wasn't making it unfair for my team - yeah as if a full PuG wouldn't have gone 0-3 against those alliance. In my first suspension the GM response was please actively participate from now on. The second one said I was gaining an unfair advantage. Only the latter makes any sense whatsoever I guess if you looked at if from alliance perspective; I always imagine when people don't bother to release corpse and just sit there that they're putting in a ticket against me. But why does it matter, there's nothing I can do that any 4 or 5 man premade can't do, and do better.

I really think this system is in place to take care of bots or exploiters in BGs and some of these GM's or customer service reps just have it out for multiboxers, as do the players that put in the tickets. There are not that many of us to warrant an entirely new suspension system; I've done thousands and thousands of BGs at max level in the years and run into like... 5 multiboxers maybe. The forums are absolutely flooded with complaints about the bots in BGs, sometimes exploiters, and every once in awhile, a rare post about multiboxers.

[ebony]

it was a automated ban. the GM's did not ban as they would off banned all the accounts under my email. + (most gm don't have the rank to ban it has to be a higher rank to ban players now adays)

the prob is looks like blizzard went a bit nuts on this one and there's such a mix or why some of us got banned and why they don't really say in the email why that sucks a lot.

I normally looking at where i stand in a bg and what am doing for the group/ if the group is real or not and working out what am putting in the game most off the time i getting kited by a few players i look up the players that framing my 5 chars
and the servers there guild etc. To see if there in a pemade most of the time it was not a super geared char just someone that know how to do my head in.

This is why i went to 3 chars it just feels a lot better now winning a good % off my games and getting close on a lot of games something that was not happening with 5 i was winning to easy or not at all no game changing in the last few mins.


PS: am having a really good time 3 ya i miss the power off 5 but am still doing well. i get more help from other players with 3 then i would with 5 when they just go meh boxer and then not even try.

[zenga]

"I have reviewed the action taken on your account and have decided to remove it. Please be advised that this decision was not an easy one to make as we have received a large amount of reports about your ingame activities.

Multiboxing is acceptable but please be cautious if you decide to multibox in an instance and/or Battleground. Remember that while the multiboxing might be fun and challenging to yourself , if you are not pulling your weight in the BG's or Instances and contributing to the group as well as a normal player would with a single character then your activities are not fair to others and they have a right to complain.

I cannot and will not request that you do not multibox in a BG or Instance but I would ask that you review your position and see it from other players view point. If you truly feel that your contribution is as good or maybe better than a normal single character and that you are not hindering someone elses gains then please continue.If your access to the instances/BG's is purely a gain to yourself and your contribution is limited to others than I would ask that you maybe multibox in the open while questing and killing mobs etc perhaps to avoid further issues with mass reports from other characters."

That is a stance that makes a lot of sense to me. I just don't see any system capable that can actually judge this in an objective way.

[heyaz]

For reference, here are the responses to my tickets for each of my suspensions.

Circumstances surrounding the first suspension: I'd been 5 boxing in Powerball (10 man), doing quite well most of the time or on the bad games at least doing about what a pug group would do. I was suspended suddenly on one toon Before a game actually started.

Response to that ticket:


Greetings,

Thank you for your follow-up contact. An additional review of the previously communicated action taken against the World of Warcraft account (xxxxxx) on (xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com) has been completed. Unfortunately, we have confirmed our initial findings. The account action will not be reversed or amended.

Going forward, please be sure that when you queue for battlegrounds, you are actively participating in them for the entire duration of each match and this shouldn't be an issue again. If you need to go AFK for any reason, or if you are not able to give the match your full attention, then it would be best to leave the match as to not hinder your teammates, as remaining idle for a significant amount of time in matches can lead to futher account actions.

We base all of our actions on the severity of the violation, and take previous violations into consideration. This action has been taken in accordance with the Terms of Use (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html) and our In-Game Policies (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/policy), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to participation.

While we understand that you may disagree with some of the policies or conditions, the bottom line is that they allow us to maintain a fun and safe game environment.

We hope this has resolved any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
http://battle.net/support


Second time, I was playing IOC, 4 box healing resto shaman and putting in a significant contribution when I suddenly lost one toon in the middle of battle at the docks. Response to that ticket:



World of Warcraft - Abuse of Honor System Issue

Thank you for your follow-up email regarding the account. This account was issued a 3-hour suspension and may have had Honor-related items removed after a Blizzard Entertainment investigation produced evidence indicating the account had participated in activities designed to gain an unfair advantage in the World of Warcraft Honor system. Upon further review, we have determined that our original findings were accurate and the action was in line with our current policies.

Please take a moment to review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use ( http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/wow_tou.html). You may not use or exploit errors in design to obtain a competitive advantage over other players. This includes activities such as automating play to prevent a character from being removed from a Battleground due to non-participation.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and hope we have addressed any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance to you.

As a reminder, only the Account Administration department can address disputes or questions about this account action. To learn more about how we are able to assist you, please visit us at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505.

Blizzard Entertainment
Battle.net/Support


As you can see neither of these is in line with what I was actually doing. I don't know whether I was reported in game as AFK, reported as cheating via the right-click portrait by either side, or an actual ticket was submitted describing how I was multiboxing to BG on several toons without being afk, or whatever. Maybe some combination of all. I also have no idea if it was the actual battleground I was in that triggered the suspension or if that was already set in motion - but I doubt it, the timing was just too convenient both times - being in a BG and getting suspended right there.

Unfortunately they closed both of those tickets right away, not allowing me to respond. I don't know whether to call them, open another ticket, or just continue playing as usual. I didn't have any problem during WSG or AB weekends during which I did a ton of games.

[Santa]

For reference, here are the responses to my tickets for each of my suspensions.

.

Did you make those tickets via email or web form?

Because those responses seem pretty generic.

I think in-game tickets are a better way to get service from a person who actually knows something.

[heyaz]

Did you make those tickets via email or web form?

Because those responses seem pretty generic.

I think in-game tickets are a better way to get service from a person who actually knows something.

GM's, which you contact in-game, do not have the power to appeal suspensions or really give an full explanation. My first ticket was submitted in-game to a GM which escalated it to account administration automatically, and I got a response directly from them. The second GM gave me a little sympathy, about it being frustrating to me, this and that, but to submit a ticket through b.net to administrative support as he couldn't do anything about it. So that one ended up being two tickets.I've noticed some GM's try to speculate as to what happened or offer advice but the final word always comes from account admin.

You didn't include the signature from your response - if it's an in-game GM then they will have a toon's name (I always get "Game Master Invervyr"). The other tickets about my suspension came from administration. Was yours an in-game GM?

[heyaz]

On another note, I submitted a ticket about one of those moron warlocks that some how gets on top of flags in AB and puts a teleport there, out of LOS and out of melee range, but they can AOE directly below themselves. GM hopped on that guy right away :) Also told me if I see any more of that crap to right click their portrait and select report player for cheating.

[Santa]

GM's, which you contact in-game, do not have the power to appeal suspensions or really give an full explanation. My first ticket was submitted in-game to a GM which escalated it to account administration automatically, and I got a response directly from them. The second GM gave me a little sympathy, about it being frustrating to me, this and that, but to submit a ticket through b.net to administrative support as he couldn't do anything about it. So that one ended up being two tickets.I've noticed some GM's try to speculate as to what happened or offer advice but the final word always comes from account admin.

You didn't include the signature from your response - if it's an in-game GM then they will have a toon's name (I always get "Game Master Invervyr"). The other tickets about my suspension came from administration. Was yours an in-game GM?

Yeah it was an in-game admin.

[Chivalrous]

I was going to do 5 holy paladins but after reading this thread I think I'll not pvp at all until this is over. Sorry you guys are having problems. Based on what I've read, I vote the culprit is you are all being reported. The only thing every temporarily suspended account has in common is being social while multiboxing. No anti social pve boxers have had any issues it seems.

[heyaz]

I was going to do 5 holy paladins but after reading this thread I think I'll not pvp at all until this is over. Sorry you guys are having problems. Based on what I've read, I vote the culprit is you are all being reported. The only thing every banned account has in common is being social while multiboxing. No anti social pve boxers have had any issues it seems.

Two 3 hour suspensions after 3am EST isn't a big deal man... I've kept BG'ing at the same rate, maybe even more. Can't believe I'm hearing some people are not going to BG due to a couple suspensions.

And by the way, BANNED?

794

[MiRai]

Haha ^

It's true, though... people keep throwing around the word 'banned' when it's actually a temporary suspension (which are getting amended anyway).

[Chivalrous]

Oh snap! It's inigo Montoya! Haha. I apologize for using the word 'banned,' I meant to say, temporarily inconvenienced. This is serious to me, because I only get to play two or three days per week based on my work schedule. So when I get to play a 3 hour suspension could ruin my day!

There ya go I edited it

[MadMilitia]

It's probably the dual effect of random queue changes and the /report change.

Bots are scripted these days to follow people. So when a player sees several toons packed on top of one another they are /reporting. So beware of this.

We've gone round and round on this on the WoW forums (I go by Orcmasha on there). People are now realizing what bots like honorbuddy do. They don't stand at the GY jumping up and down anymore. They actually follow and engage so long as one human is present and making decisions on objectives.

That of course means you guys will get caught up in it as multiboxing looks very much like a cluster of honor buddy bots. Could be too that you were mass reported before and it's just the /report feature change that is doing it. Either way I'd steer clear of BGs until they fix it.

[Owltoid]

Either way I'd steer clear of BGs until they fix it.

And how will you know when they fix it? If you're like me you play to PvP - without it there wouldn't be my monthly contributions. I've played in random BGs a metric shitton over the last few weeks and never had a problem. To those avoiding BGs because they're afraid the sky is falling and bans/suspensions are inevitable: your loss.

[valkry]

And how will you know when they fix it? If you're like me you play to PvP - without it there wouldn't be my monthly contributions. I've played in random BGs a metric shitton over the last few weeks and never had a problem. To those avoiding BGs because they're afraid the sky is falling and bans/suspensions are inevitable: your loss.
Agreed, though, if I was suspended 4 times in 3 days I would probably steer clear for a little bit

[Owltoid]

Agreed, though, if I was suspended 4 times in 3 days I would probably steer clear for a little bit

Heh, yeah, me too. In those very few and seemingly random cases, condelences - the sky did fall for you!

[heyaz]

Last night they popped 4 of my toons, seemingly random (a shaman here, a DK there). Same violation as usual. Put in a ticket - identical canned response "we looked into it and confirmed out findings". I'm curious to Void, who seems to be the only one who didn't get the BS canned response and got things fixed - did you call or how'd you put in a ticket?

Now I wasn't too worried, a couple 3 hour suspensions at 3am, who cares, sleep it off , but one of the accounts they hit last night was hit before, and now it's out of commission for 72 hours. So this only happens to me once a week or less, but at this rate, it'll be 72 hours across half my team, then a week, then what...?

I know it's a flaw in their detection system I just can't get a GM or rep to actually look into it - 3 tickets now and exact copy paste response.

[JohnGabriel]

Last night they popped 4 of my toons, seemingly random (a shaman here, a DK there). Same violation as usual. Put in a ticket - identical canned response "we looked into it and confirmed out findings". I'm curious to Void, who seems to be the only one who didn't get the BS canned response and got things fixed - did you call or how'd you put in a ticket?

Now I wasn't too worried, a couple 3 hour suspensions at 3am, who cares, sleep it off , but one of the accounts they hit last night was hit before, and now it's out of commission for 72 hours. So this only happens to me once a week or less, but at this rate, it'll be 72 hours across half my team, then a week, then what...?

I know it's a flaw in their detection system I just can't get a GM or rep to actually look into it - 3 tickets now and exact copy paste response.

You do seem to be in a position to maybe narrow down the reason why. Anything different about the toon that was hit a second time?

[heyaz]

You do seem to be in a position to maybe narrow down the reason why. Anything different about the toon that was hit a second time?

First time - before the gates opened in a BG - 1/5 DK's suspended.

Second time - in the middle of IoC, in combat - 1/4 shaman suspended.

Third time - afk at scarlet monastery - 2 DKs, 2 Shaman (4 accounts) suspended. I had done battlegrounds earlier that night. 4-5 at a time only, queuing as one group.

No, I don't really see a pattern. It's not lack of contribution on the ones they chose - I have screenshots of scoreboards and it's all the same - equal or higher contribution in damage, KBs, healing, objectives, whatever across all toons and compared to the other players in the BG. Wasn't anything like a toon whose action bar was on the wrong page and wasn't doing anything a whole game - I notice that pretty quick and I always check scoreboard anyway.

I'm certain there's no actual person involved in any of this - the suspension Nor the canned response I am getting to my tickets.

[heyaz]

Wow ok... so with a little pressure I got a GM to answer me in 10 minutes, with a real response, and reverse all the actions.


800

[Fat Tire]

Are you willing to share?

[Multibocks]

So I take it this is still happening? Kind of hesitant to PvP with AV weekend coming up.

[JohnGabriel]

So I take it this is still happening? Kind of hesitant to PvP with AV weekend coming up.

They have all started with 3 hour suspensions so even if you get caught in it you wont suffer too much. Go ahead and enjoy your AV weekend and in the rare case you get a suspension just take a break and it will be over.

[ebony]

They have all started with 3 hour suspensions so even if you get caught in it you wont suffer too much. Go ahead and enjoy your AV weekend and in the rare case you get a suspension just take a break and it will be over.

got done once opened ticket they removed it all, not been banned in over 2 weeks now doing none stop bg's when i play

[Percocet10n1]

I got temp banned on Christmas day. Waited 2 days for a response. They said it was their mistake. Got my accounts back. Just temp banned / suspended 3 of my accounts again just a few minutes ago.

[ebony]

I got temp banned on Christmas day. Waited 2 days for a response. They said it was their mistake. Got my accounts back. Just temp banned / suspended 3 of my accounts again just a few minutes ago.

reopen ticket ask again why? stay out off bg's a few days

[Shodokan]

until this is fixed... this is bullshit.

[Percocet10n1]

reopen ticket ask again why? stay out off bg's a few days

This is the answer I recieved:

Greetings,

After further review, the penalty has been overturned. Please understand that certain behaviors, while not directly in violation, will be classified as bot-like behavior. Should penalties continue to be applied, it will be increasingly more difficult to justify overturning them.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and hope we have addressed any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance to you.

As a reminder, only the Account Administration department can address disputes or questions about this account action. To learn more about how we are able to assist you, please visit us at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
us.battle.net/support

[JohnGabriel]

This is the answer I recieved:

Greetings,

After further review, the penalty has been overturned. Please understand that certain behaviors, while not directly in violation, will be classified as bot-like behavior. Should penalties continue to be applied, it will be increasingly more difficult to justify overturning them.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and hope we have addressed any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance to you.

As a reminder, only the Account Administration department can address disputes or questions about this account action. To learn more about how we are able to assist you, please visit us at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505.

Regards,

Blizzard Entertainment
us.battle.net/support

Sounds like we can no longer multibox PvP without risk, especially since continued penalties may not be overturned.

And do we still have no idea why its effecting boxers? Have you noticed less bots in pvp? Are people QQing less in blizzard forums now there are less bots? Are the changes they made helping anything at all?

[Percocet10n1]

Sounds like we can no longer multibox PvP without risk, especially since continued penalties may not be overturned.

And do we still have no idea why its effecting boxers? Have you noticed less bots in pvp? Are people QQing less in blizzard forums now there are less bots? Are the changes they made helping anything at all?

I'm not a pro player like a lot of people here. Just the opposite. I sit in the back ground and search out fixes to my problems. So I've never really ever seen too many bots. The only time I've ever really noticed them is when the whole opposite team seems to be bots. When they move together in one giant mob, destroying everything in their path.

[Tonuss]

I'm not a pro player like a lot of people here. Just the opposite. I sit in the back ground and search out fixes to my problems. So I've never really ever seen too many bots. The only time I've ever really noticed them is when the whole opposite team seems to be bots. When they move together in one giant mob, destroying everything in their path.
Those bots sound quite... prepared.

[Fat Tire]

Botters usually use alot of accounts because they gold sell or account sell....

One thing botters are starting to do is make characters with similar or identical names so when they get caught they can claim they were muti boxing....

[Shodokan]

Botters usually use alot of accounts because they gold sell or account sell....

One thing botters are starting to do is make characters with similar or identical names so when they get caught they can claim they were muti boxing....

lolwhat?

[heyaz]

is that so

[Fat Tire]

Well I would link stuff but it would be from websites that are not to be named.

[Percocet10n1]

Well I just got banned for 3 days. Have no clue why. I was in the middle of my 5th AV of the night and boom, dc. Went to log on, and received the ban message. Check my email and I have been suspended for 3 days for PVP Arena/Battleground exploitation.

I had all add on's turned off accept for my multi boxing program. I'm tired of this shit. 7 suspensions in 3 days. I'm done.

[ebony]

Well I would link stuff but it would be from websites that are not to be named.

yep it is true saw about 6 "boxers" today in av but they was not in the same place at the time same time all fighting and doing stuff but all with very close names some was not even on the same server but all the ally was saying multiboxer its fine don't reported it no point as its ok.


Still not been banned (3 boxing) smaller number in bg's are helping me at this bad time anyway. my names are very close.


seems to be something that's going to come up and go down though all i told is if you got picked up by the system then stay a few days out off bg's and then replay about 5 days later what they said on the phone to me. (he said he car't say how the system works)


But it seems once u get picked up and after your 1st ban your blacklisted or something and if you keep playing even one AFK report can ban you again. waiting a few days seems to work.

i don't know if this is true or not but seems to work for me and what i have "tested" with a accounts i don't care about in low level stuff. but on my test i was boxing five warlocks (mop demo so free gametime) got reported a few times got my ban wave in a few hours after (3 hours) on 4 off them after that logged back on and got reported again (a friends reported me) and got DC saying i my account was closed (3 day ban) all bans got removed ticked said sould be ok. went back in more bg's and got reported again got a life time ban

Ticket again said blah blah same posted here. unlocked accounts left it a week and all is ok again atm.

[etal]

Grüße xxxxxxxx!

Mein Name ist ist Gamemaster Arivelantes und ich schreibe dir bezüglich deines Tickets. Bitte entschuldige die Wartezeit, wir versuchen alles um bald wieder schneller zur Verfügung zu sein. Ich werde aber versuchen dir erst einmal mit diesem Brief weiterzuhelfen.

Ich habe mir deinen Fall noch einmal genauestens angeschaut, und konnte einige Hinweise darauf finden dass die Accountstrafen durch Multiboxing ausgelöst wurden.

Nach ausführlicher Untersuchung kann ich dir mitteilen dass die Accountstrafen aufgehoben wurden. Multiboxing ist ein sehr sensibles Thema in unseren Untersuchungen, weswegen die Strafen dort extrem genau untersucht werden müssen.

Leider kann es aufgund der Struktur des Systems passieren, dass erneute Accountstrafen verhängt werden. Du solltest Inaktivität im BG möglichst vermeiden. Dazu kann auch der generelle Aufbau der Multiboxingfunktionen deiner Charaktere solche Maßnahmen auslösen, welches leider nicht immer komplett nachvollziehbar ist.

Ich hoffe du hast Verständnis dafür dass wir solche Maßnahmen durchführen müssen um das Spielerlebnis für alle Spieler möglichst zu verbessern. Leider gibt es dabei manchmal auch Fälle wie deinen. Bitte entschuldige die entstandenen Unannehmlichkeiten.

Falls du noch weitere Hilfe benötigst, lass es uns ruhig wissen und wir werden uns direkt darum kümmern.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Gamemaster xxxxxxxxx
Gamemaster Team
Blizzard Entertainment Europe


Google Translate added by Khat


Greetings xxxxxxxx!

My name is Game Master Arivelantes and I am writing regarding your tickets. Please excuse the delay, we will try to soon to be available faster. I'll try but once you weiterzuhelfen with this letter. I've looked at your case again carefully, and could find some evidence that the account penalties were triggered by Multiboxing.

After extensive investigation, I can inform you that the account penalties were lifted. Multiboxing is a very sensitive issue in our study, so the punishment must be examined there extremely accurate.

Unfortunately, it can happen aufgund the structure of the system that new account penalties. You should avoid inactivity in BG as possible. This can include the general design of the Multiboxing functions of your characters cause such measures, which unfortunately is not always completely understandable.

I hope you understand that we do need to implement such measures in order to improve the gaming experience for all players as possible. Unfortunately, there is sometimes there are cases like yours. Please excuse the inconvenience.

If you still need more help, let us know and we will quietly take care directly for it.

Sincerely,
Gamemaster xxxxxxxxx
Game Master Team
Blizzard Entertainment Europe

[Chivalrous]

Greetings xxxxxxxx!


My name is is Gamemaster Arivelantes and I write to you with regard to your ticket. Please, the waiting period excuses, we try to be everything around soon again faster at the possession. However, I will will try to help you first of all with this letter.


I have most exactly looked your case once again, and could find some tips to it that the account punishments were released by Multiboxing.


According to detailed investigation I can inform you that the account punishments were lifted. Multiboxing is a very sensitive subject in our investigations, why the punishments there extremely exactly must be examined.


Unfortunately, it can happen aufgund of the structure of the system that renewed account punishments are covered. You should avoid Inaktivität in the BG possibly. In addition the general construction of the Multiboxingfunktionen of your characters cannot always also release such measures, which, unfortunately, completely understandably

aufgund of the structure of the system pass that renewed account punishments are covered. You should avoid Inaktivität in the BG possibly. In addition the general construction of the Multiboxingfunktionen of your characters can also release such measures which are not always completely understandable, unfortunately.


I hope you had to carry out understanding for it that we such measures to improve the play experience for all players possibly. Besides, unfortunately, there sometimes are also cases like yours. Please, excuses the resulted inconvenience.


If you need even other help, it lets us know quietly and we will look directly after it.


Yours sincerely,


Gamemaster xxxxxxxxx
Gamemaster team
Blizzard entertainment Europe



Bad Translation from google--hard for me to understand, is it saying that this person was punished not for multiboxing but for multiboxing poorly and ruining other player experiences in BG? Seems like a common thread recently if thats correct. Basically if you pvp don't suck at it? Maybe someone can post a better translation.

[Shodokan]

This is absurd. Their system is effecting people who have been loyal to the game for YEARS. I understand being against botters and such but this is just stupid. So now we can't multi-box anymore in PVP essentially... when this season is the worst season to do so.

[heyaz]

Only happens in battlegrounds, to my knowledge. I dunno, I've done dozens and dozens of battlegrounds, more than I can count, and it's hit me 2 or 3 times total. Frustrating, but not a big deterrent at all, hasn't prevented me from 99% of my play time. When one of the accounts hit 72 hour suspension that's when I threatened to cancel and it got their attention very quickly.

Some seem to be more unlucky than others.. ^^ 7 suspensions in 3 days?

[dancook]

I think maybe the way in which they were multiboxing triggered alarms for 'afking' - perhaps because they were on follow for a long period without action, or similar.

[sethlan]

I'm staying away from any BG's until they fix it (*and stop confusing multiboxers for BOTs, and this entire report system in BG's sucks!) I doubt they gonna change anything- if not im gonna probably quit multiboxing- and save $130 a month. it sucks when you pay monthly and for expansions, put shitload of time to get to 90' and one day they just flip the switch- and change something on their end.

[Percocet10n1]

Hey Seth - I wish you would try it. Just to see what happens. Since you use a different program then me I think you might be ok. The frustration I have is that blizz won't give me an exact answer for the 3 hour suspensions, which led me to more 3 hour suspensions and finally a 3 day suspension.

For you, I wonder if you would have any problems being you use a different software then I. Try running a few AV's. Worst thing that would happen is you would get a 3 hour suspension if you have the same problem as me. I am very curious to see someone I am familiar with go into the AV's and see if they have any problems like me. If you get a suspension just open a ticket and blizz will take care of it. Otherwise they won't fix it and you will forever be virtually self banned from doing BG's.

[sethlan]

^_ which program do you use for boxing?

[Percocet10n1]

isboxer

[Percocet10n1]

I've been using it for years. I don't think it's a isboxer or any other software issue on our end. I believe it's a blizz issue that tracks multi boxers as bots.

[sethlan]

I'm also using isboxer - I think after patch they did something and it detects multiboxers as bots. OR only it takes few people to report you as cheating and you get locked out.

But the question is : Why 3 days or 3 hours? It's some kind of warning- something like you can multibox, but stay away from Bg's. if you come you get locked again.

[MadMilitia]

The program you use is rather irrelevant. What they've done is escalated the /report function inside BGs.

How priority that is now is mystery to me but they either upped it significantly or made it so X number of reports in Y time means you are suspended.

I've been 5 boxing my B&P team for a week now and have not done a single BG. Just questing and 5 man dungeons. No suspensions at all. And I know for a fact some of the goofballs who tried to gank me open world did actually /report me before trying to.

People will /report you quick as shit when they see you are multiboxing because they despise us as much as botters. You should see some of the conversations I have with the retards on Cho'Lawl. They reported us back then too but now it's become a real problem with the functionality change.

[Percocet10n1]

LOL I didn't read your tag.. My bad. I thought you were using the other software for some reason.

[Percocet10n1]

@MadMilitia - And that is the problem. Why should you, as a multi-boxer, who does all the same things as a single player have to change the way you play the game? I mean, you quest, do dungeons and even bg/arena just like a single player. But because you use multiple accounts (that you pay for) you have to now stay away from one or several aspects of the game. Some how even though you pay just like a single player, you can't enjoy the game in the same way.

You are forced not to play certain aspects of the game just because blizzard came up with a knee jerk reaction to bots. Blizz is very hypocritical in this aspect, saying that multi boxing is ok with them and they allow it, when in reality, as of late they really don't. The bans/suspensions work in a snow ball effect as the more you get the worse the next penalty will be. And if you have lots of time to let the bans run out, the second you come up on the radar you will be banned/suspended again. They will take your money, but god forbid you get reported or you have toons on follow (what ever is causing these problems).

I also understand that I am in the minority. Not all multi boxers have had the same experience as me. I have been told that there are other MB's running AV and not having any problems. I am clueless why I received 8 bans/suspensions in 3 days. Hence why I am very upset with blizz at the moment.

[sethlan]

The program you use is rather irrelevant. What they've done is escalated the /report function inside BGs.

How priority that is now is mystery to me but they either upped it significantly or made it so X number of reports in Y time means you are suspended.

I've been 5 boxing my B&P team for a week now and have not done a single BG. Just questing and 5 man dungeons. No suspensions at all. And I know for a fact some of the goofballs who tried to gank me open world did actually /report me before trying to.

People will /report you quick as shit when they see you are multiboxing because they despise us as much as botters. You should see some of the conversations I have with the retards on Cho'Lawl. They reported us back then too but now it's become a real problem with the functionality change.

good post, thanks - it makes tons of sense. well after the patch- I play probably for 2-3 hours a day. and never got locked out of my accounts. and did crap load of open pvp world. and got reported dozens of times for sure.

[MadMilitia]

@MadMilitia - And that is the problem. Why should you, as a multi-boxer, who does all the same things as a single player have to change the way you play the game? I mean, you quest, do dungeons and even bg/arena just like a single player. But because you use multiple accounts (that you pay for) you have to now stay away from one or several aspects of the game. Some how even though you pay just like a single player, you can't enjoy the game in the same way.

You are forced not to play certain aspects of the game just because blizzard came up with a knee jerk reaction to bots. Blizz is very hypocritical in this aspect, saying that multi boxing is ok with them and they allow it, when in reality, as of late they really don't. The bans/suspensions work in a snow ball effect as the more you get the worse the next penalty will be. And if you have lots of time to let the bans run out, the second you come up on the radar you will be banned/suspended again. They will take your money, but god forbid you get reported or you have toons on follow (what ever is causing these problems).

I also understand that I am in the minority. Not all multi boxers have had the same experience as me. I have been told that there are other MB's running AV and not having any problems. I am clueless why I received 8 bans/suspensions in 3 days. Hence why I am very upset with blizz at the moment.

It might just be your battle group and / or server. Some servers are top heavy with jealous retards. Others not so much. Mind, I don't condone it. The whole boxxing looking like botting thing only came about because botters all use similar scripts so they all move together. But that isn't the reason we are getting banned. The BG community at large hates multiboxers as much as botters so they don't give a fig one way or another. They just abuse the tool that Blizzard gave them.

So Blizzard needs to take away that tool. Problem solved for us that wasn't really affecting the subtle botters anyways.

[Ualaa]

But normal battlegrounds are region specific.

Every US server is in the same pool.
As is every EU server.

So if for example, Cenarius US (my original server) detests/reports boxers but Magtheridon US (my current server) tolerates/likes boxers... there's an equal chance of having players from either server in a non-rated battleground.

As far as I know, the only time battleground matters is for Arena and/or Rated Battlegrounds.

[MadMilitia]

good post, thanks - it makes tons of sense. well after the patch- I play probably for 2-3 hours a day. and never got locked out of my accounts. and did crap load of open pvp world. and got reported dozens of times for sure.


I'm sure you did. You can always tell when they stop and do the gawking thing. They are just making sure to /report you to grief you even more when they try and gank you. Not realizing that open world /report is about as effective as sweeping sand into the ocean.

I've noticed when doing quests I see some people who just stop and do nothing like they've gone afk to take a dump. Those are the /report clowns thinking it works the same way open world that it does currently in BGs. Every once in a while someone rides by and asks for an invite to group or says something like wow dude how do you do that? Or awesome!

Sometimes I wish WoW had some anti-social mechanism like EQ had. Don't like what I'm doing? Tough shit! Here, have a train of mobs to chew on.

[zenga]

Why should you, as a multi-boxer, who does all the same things as a single player have to change the way you play the game?

As a matter of fact you don't do the same things a single player does. A single players presses 1 button and fires off 1 spell. A multiboxers presses 1 button and fires off 5 spells by using 3rd party software. That is quite a difference


Blizz is very hypocritical in this aspect, saying that multi boxing is ok with them and they allow it, when in reality, as of late they really don't.

They have said that they have no objections towards multiboxing, that they tolerate it, but that they don't support it. Which basically comes down to:

- the concept of playing multiple chars at once is fine with them, but it's at your own risk
- if something changes in the game, and it would make multiboxing impossible, then its your own problem

And that is what happened. They implement certain bot detection systems and it hits multiboxers. So according to their stance it means that it's your problem. Yet they investigate and have unbanned pretty much everyone.

[Ualaa]

Could try switching leads every 30 seconds or so?
Then a toon would be on follow, for a maximum of 2 minutes (if five boxing) or under five minutes (if ten boxing).

Not really sure if this would help any, but it doesn't hurt to experiment.
I'd assume an actual bot is going to be stuck on perpetual follow.

[Ualaa]

At the moment, it is pretty inconvenient.
But the suspensions are temporary.
And as far as I know, boxers have not been banned because of it.

[MadMilitia]

And that is what happened. They implement certain bot detection systems and it hits multiboxers. So according to their stance it means that it's your problem. Yet they investigate and have unbanned pretty much everyone.

Not to split hairs here but the mechanism they implemented was giving annoying random BG tools the ability to /report you into suspension. They have no way other than turning warden back on to differentiate between a bot and a player. They've effectively left it up to the animal farm to decide who is cheating and who isn't.

I'm just happy that it only works in BGs and not in open world. We'd really be screwed then.

[sethlan]

I'm sure you did. You can always tell when they stop and do the gawking thing. They are just making sure to /report you to grief you even more when they try and gank you. Not realizing that open world /report is about as effective as sweeping sand into the ocean.


Ya, I know I got many whispers, Reported, enjoy your ban, go kill youurself ETC, I'm not even responding- Even by reporting them on all ten guys it wont change a thing. people are just butt hurt.

[heyaz]

it can happen automatically, no one needs to report you

[Lyonheart]

I think its saying the actions multiboxers use can be mistaken for botting behavior..including the alts going afk while on follow.. maybe someone that speaks German and english can translate for us?

[Ualaa]

From what I read, it sounds like multiboxing is okay and not a reason for a suspension.
But that a multiboxer is easily mistaken as having the same characteristics as the bots...

[ebony]

From what I read, it sounds like multiboxing is okay and not a reason for a suspension.
But that a multiboxer is easily mistaken as having the same characteristics as the bots...

same as what all the tickets have said to us all. and even phone calls.


as for software i got temped with key clone as well so nothing to do with software its whatever ever blizzard tools/report afk uses and blizzard said in many blue posts they updated the report tool and my own testing its easy to get players temp banned using report afk try it with starter accounts @ level 10 reporting you self a few times.)

[Khatovar]

Sorry for any confusion, I merged etal's thread. I also added another google translation to etal's OP (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/48573-Recent-Wave-of-Account-Actions?p=374809&viewfull=1#post374809) and it indeed looks just like every other Blue response out there. "False positive...we don't have issue with multiboxing, sorry about that...Blah blah blah."

[Percocet10n1]

This is the last message I received from a GM. It gives some explanation.

I am very sorry for an inconveniences in regards to our Actioning System suspending and locking your World of Warcraft accounts. We are not able to grant our information on the details of the actions other than that the accounts were reported for AFK for a large amount of times which caused our system to check it. While it has parameters to prevent legitimate players from being actioned, there are false positives.

I have removed all suspensions and marks on the accounts that were hit and all former hits, however I cannot prevent future actions. I have sent the data to our Development Team to fine tune the Actioning System, but while they are doing that, false positives may still occur.

Game Master XXXXXXXX
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
battle.net/support

[Lyonheart]

Guess you just have to make sure you do not go afk..if people report you but your NOT afk.. you should be fine.. remember you can be fighting on your following toons and still be afk. you have to jump or interact with something and break follow ( i think? )

Anyway.. until they get a better handle on this.. I'm still scared to box in BGs.. Even if i get suspended for a few hours .. thats like taking a crack pipe and crack away and saying "ill tell you where it is in 3 hours(days) SUFFER until then!" I need my fix NOW!!!

[Owltoid]

This is the last message I received from a GM. It gives some explanation.

I am very sorry for an inconveniences in regards to our Actioning System suspending and locking your World of Warcraft accounts. We are not able to grant our information on the details of the actions other than that the accounts were reported for AFK for a large amount of times which caused our system to check it. While it has parameters to prevent legitimate players from being actioned, there are false positives.

I have removed all suspensions and marks on the accounts that were hit and all former hits, however I cannot prevent future actions. I have sent the data to our Development Team to fine tune the Actioning System, but while they are doing that, false positives may still occur.

Game Master XXXXXXXX
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
battle.net/support

Finally a 100% truthful response. Buy that GM a pony because he apologized, said it may continue to happen in the future, did not assign blame to the multiboxer, and said he could not share info about the banning system but that he would forward the data. Personally I think the response above should be included with every ticket a multiboxer opens to show the CSEs and GMs what's going on.

[JohnGabriel]

I cant believe it took 21 pages of posts before I felt like things were getting better.

[Tonuss]

Blizzard usually tries to give out just as much information as they can get away with, and if there is enough pressure to elaborate, they eventually do so. There are (IMO) good reasons to take that approach, but it leaves people hanging in the wind on occasions like this. Keep in mind that they are unlikely to offer an ETA for resolving the issue, nor will they accounce it when they have something more reliable in place.

[Multibocks]

So it sounds like you should be more active in BGs? If you have them on auto-follow that's fine, but maybe more active. I haven't been banned for doing AV yet (knock on wood) this weekend. I try not to sit in any towers, but sweep the general area killing horde that are trying to back cap. I don't know if that's the correct formula, but it seems to be working for the moment.

edit: I also just remembered that I break auto follow a lot. If I think I'm going to be standing around for a bit then I don't have it on.

[Multibocks]

Damn, Blaster had an account suspended today. All my theories are out the door.

[heyaz]

Damn, Blaster had an account suspended today. All my theories are out the door.

without doing battlegrounds at all?

[Ualaa]

Ironically, the whole oQueue system... or at least queuing multiple groups at once, with a premade, to get as many people as possible into the same BG at once is protection against the current Blizzard system.

If you had a perfect queue (which you never get for the bonus honor battleground, due to the sheer number who are queuing... so IoC during AV weekend and AV during any non-AV weekend), that would be 40 players all in the same raid and working together.
No one on your side should report you, in that situation.

The current issue is exacerbated by having so many randoms in our BGs to report us...

[MadMilitia]

Ironically, the whole oQueue system... or at least queuing multiple groups at once, with a premade, to get as many people as possible into the same BG at once is protection against the current Blizzard system.

If you had a perfect queue (which you never get for the bonus honor battleground, due to the sheer number who are queuing... so IoC during AV weekend and AV during any non-AV weekend), that would be 40 players all in the same raid and working together.
No one on your side should report you, in that situation.

The current issue is exacerbated by having so many randoms in our BGs to report us...


That is the problem in a nutshell.

If you eliminate the randoms from the BGs it will eliminate the problem. As multiboxers we need to stick together and do our so-called randoms together.

[Shodokan]

Void got suspended tonight in a skype call... yeah... fuck this.

[JohnGabriel]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, I think everyone needs to call and have them reversed every time.

[Shodokan]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, I think everyone needs to call and have them reversed every time.

unless they are closed and your suspension is up before they open.

[JohnGabriel]

unless they are closed and your suspension is up before they open.

If you call they can also remove the flag on your account that would increase the chances for auto-suspension, right?

[Percocet10n1]

If you call they can also remove the flag on your account that would increase the chances for auto-suspension, right?

Yes, once you get on the radar the punishments have a snow ball effect. I reached the 3 day suspension... (Not 3 hours, but 3 days) After 8 Suspensions in 3 days I just shut down my accounts. I did this mainly as a protest, even though they have evidently cleared my record, until they fix the problem I won't be sending them money. I'm just one guy, but if I can't play the way I want too then I don't see the need to send them any money.

[Owltoid]

Yes, once you get on the radar the punishments have a snow ball effect. I reached the 3 day suspension... (Not 3 hours, but 3 days) After 8 Suspensions in 3 days I just shut down my accounts. I did this mainly as a protest, even though they have evidently cleared my record, until they fix the problem I won't be sending them money. I'm just one guy, but if I can't play the way I want too then I don't see the need to send them any money.

Again, how will you know when it's fixed? I understand canceling in protest, but I don't understand canceling until its fixed. There likely won't be an announcement.

[Chumbucket]

I was given a 3 hour suspension after "several warnings". I was never given a warning. Just suspended. By the nature of their obvious "premade" form letter, it seems they are harassing boxers into quitting. They give two blanket replies which don't even specify the violation beyond "exploitation" and say they have investigated and confirmed the violation.

I wrote that I had cancelled all of my accounts and they didn't even acknowledge it; they just stated they would not reply to any further inquiries on this issue. I think there is a potential class action in this as they are creating damages by taking our money and not allowing us to play without giving us a specific reason for the bans. As such we are likely to violate the mystery policy over and over, losing game time while continuing to pay.

They have said on the record many times that boxing is fine and I have been boxing the same way for many years. In fact I was thinking I hadn't changed anything on my teams forever, even my macros need updating. It reminds me of when insurance companies would deny claims with blanket form letters claiming "preexisting condition" without actually looking at the condition. Like the insurance scenario we are paying a premium but are not getting the benefit of our bargain and the burden of proof is shifted to us. In the meantime we pay and they take away our game time.

There has been a long course of dealing with boxers where the exact behavior we are doing now was approved by Blizzard and they continued taking our money for years with full knowledge of that behavior. They now seem to be changing the rules but are refusing to say in what way. This only creates uncertainty and resentment and I for one have had it with Blizzard.

[heyaz]

I think there is a potential class action in this

oh god, here we go

yeah let's sue them. we're all out $75 at least

[Chumbucket]

oh god, here we go

I realize I overreacted. I just feel cheated by a long time friend. : (

[Multibocks]

without doing battlegrounds at all?

No she was doing AV during the weekend. I asked if she used any scripts to enter the BGs and she doesn't. I wish I had videos of everyone boxing that gets a suspension so I can see if there is any link. I boxed all weekend and didn't get any suspensions.

[Void]

I logged in after not playing for a week. I did 2 normal BG's (AV, we won both). Then I did 3 RBG and lost all 3. Did 1 arena and lost. 5 min after that arena 3/4 shamans were suspended. Odd part is i was running 5 chars in the normal bg(druid+4shaman) and 4 chars in rated bg+arena. I don't understand the method to being flagged. If it were the normal BG's that flagged me wouldn't it have suspended the 4 shamans in tow? In this case it seemed like it was the rated bg or the arena that flagged me because it was the 3 shaman in tow that got the suspension. Pretty much done at this point. They assured me in my last petition that it would be fixed and yet it still happens. Unsure where to go from here.

[Percocet10n1]

Again, how will you know when it's fixed? I understand canceling in protest, but I don't understand canceling until its fixed. There likely won't be an announcement.

I've been playing a long time and have made a lot of friends that multi box. So it's just a matter of keeping in touch and updated. There's also the forums to watch, here and a couple of other places. Good question though. I also expect that if things do change people will post it here. ;)

[Chumbucket]

Strangely they just suspended two more of my accounts, I guess from playing yesterday. I haven't even played since I cancelled all my accounts. So now they are suspending my cancelled accounts. Same reason:

Type of Violation: PvP Arena/Battleground Exploitation
Details of Incident: Exploitation of PvP Battlegrounds and the honor system
Consequences for Account: Account suspended for 3 hours

[widdle]

Yeh i have cancelled my subs on 9 out of 10 accounts.
The trouble to box and get suspensions for doing nothing wrong is just not worth the money.

[Ualaa]

I was given a 3 hour suspension after "several warnings". I was never given a warning. Just suspended. By the nature of their obvious "premade" form letter, it seems they are harassing boxers into quitting. They give two blanket replies which don't even specify the violation beyond "exploitation" and say they have investigated and confirmed the violation.

I wrote that I had cancelled all of my accounts and they didn't even acknowledge it; they just stated they would not reply to any further inquiries on this issue. I think there is a potential class action in this as they are creating damages by taking our money and not allowing us to play without giving us a specific reason for the bans. As such we are likely to violate the mystery policy over and over, losing game time while continuing to pay.

They have said on the record many times that boxing is fine and I have been boxing the same way for many years. In fact I was thinking I hadn't changed anything on my teams forever, even my macros need updating. It reminds me of when insurance companies would deny claims with blanket form letters claiming "preexisting condition" without actually looking at the condition. Like the insurance scenario we are paying a premium but are not getting the benefit of our bargain and the burden of proof is shifted to us. In the meantime we pay and they take away our game time.

There has been a long course of dealing with boxers where the exact behavior we are doing now was approved by Blizzard and they continued taking our money for years with full knowledge of that behavior. They now seem to be changing the rules but are refusing to say in what way. This only creates uncertainty and resentment and I for one have had it with Blizzard.


oh god, here we go

yeah let's sue them. we're all out $75 at least

I could care less about a small percentage (3 hours here or there) of each account's $15 cost, at least in monetary terms.
It's the disruption of game time...

However, even if someone were to launch a class action suit...
Blizzard is probably covered, as they don't guarantee uninterrupted game service or the like.
I'd imagine they have a team of lawyers who have designed their EULA and Terms of Service...





That said, the squeaky wheel gets the grease...

At the moment, the masses are incorrectly reporting us as AFK (even though we're not AFK), because they dislike boxing.
And these AFK reports are resulting in automatic suspensions.

Boxers might make up 1% or 2% of the player base, a very small percentage anyway.
So we have a small number of people complaining about the new system.
And a large number are relatively happy with it, as they can report away... so far without repercussion.

If a larger percentage of the player base were unhappy with the current system, that would be a much squeakier wheel.
However, randomly or intentionally reporting everyone in your BG on a consistent basis is likely a bad idea.
Once enough people are complaining, for Blizzard to remove/modify the functionality of the system... they will likely look at who is reporting non-AFKs as AFK.
While I don't have any issue with the assholes who are reporting boxers receiving a penalty, receiving one myself for reporting others AFK is not something I want.

It is tempting though...

[Percocet10n1]

For you guys that are cancelling your subs. While I canceled my sub because the game changed to make it so I couldn't enjoy the game anymore I would like to think I was sending a message to blizzard that they will be loosing my business unless things change. That being said, we are by far in the minority. Realistically saying cancelling our subs, or even if all the boxers out there cancelled their subs it would probably not come up on the radar. We are just flea's on a elephant's back.

For instance. I searched out this recent activity of suspensions and bans via the WoW forums. Everyone that I came a crossed was closed. Meaning even if you went to complain via the forum's about what is happening to you, blizzard doesn't really care. They won't talk about in a public forum other then saying that yes, multi-boxing is allowed. But try to fix an issue where you are being what is in my opinion harassed or targeted via the game mechanics and they will not even acknowledge that you exist. Understand that the WoW community is not a democracy, and that it is more like a dictatorship. What they say or don't say goes. You, as an individual do not have much input when it comes down to the bottom dollar as a boxer.

So if you are closing your accounts, or taking some time off, realize that blizzard really doesn't care. Do it because you don't want to waste your money on a game that has changed and isn't fun for you to play anymore. If you can't find another aspect of the game, other then BG's to enjoy about the game then turn it off. Move on and enjoy your life.

Don't close your accounts because you want to make blizzard to know that you as an individual customer are not happy. They don't care. I would personally like to think that blizzard as an entity would consider me closing my 5 accounts a big deal, but realistically my 5 accounts are all ready paid for. They are just loosing out on monthly charges and there are way too many single account players to make up for my little insignificant protest.

[heyaz]

For instance. I searched out this recent activity of suspensions and bans via the WoW forums. Everyone that I came a crossed was closed. Meaning even if you went to complain via the forum's about what is happening to you, blizzard doesn't really care

yeah, I disagree.

whenever you start with "X happened [or didn't happen] on the public forums therefore Y" you're on the wrong track.

I would venture to say a for-profit company does care when you cancel your account considering you just stopped paying them. They won't make a instant or drastic change to something overnight because a couple multiboxers unsubbed. Responses from multiple GMs have stated the development team is looking into it.

[Fat Tire]

I take it that 40 man boxer doesn't get suspended. Saw his stream available today.

I have yet to receive any type of suspension

[Ualaa]

They do care.
They want to make a profit, and every account counts towards that end.

If you cancel your accounts, they want to know why.
Presumably, so they can change so others like you won't cancel too.

That said, any given account is a drop in the bucket.
If you do cancel, it isn't really going to be hurting Blizzard by any large amount.

Ultimately, they'll do whatever is in the best interests of the game, in terms of what will get the most subscription dollars.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I take it that 40 man boxer doesn't get suspended. Saw his stream available today.

I have yet to receive any type of suspension

Not really relevant since probably every GM knows who that person is. If I had to guess, I'd say that guy has been reported at least 10 times every single time he's logged in and moved anywhere.

[MiRai]

For instance. I searched out this recent activity of suspensions and bans via the WoW forums. Everyone that I came a crossed was closed. Meaning even if you went to complain via the forum's about what is happening to you, blizzard doesn't really care.
I have to disagree with this as well. Account issues are a private matter and a public forum is not a place people should seek assistance. Most people know this and they would have been assisted with any account issues via a ticket attached to their BNet account or a phone call, not a forum post.

[Invisahealz]

I take it that 40 man boxer doesn't get suspended. Saw his stream available today.

I have yet to receive any type of suspension

Spoke with him right after i got suspended, he said he would try AV the next day, The next day he wrote me and said he had a few accts suspended while he was in av. So it affected him as well. Since my first suspension me and derek have been runnin bgs with no problems tho. The gm i finally spoke with said my account actions were amended and hanvt had any problems. they way i look at it if it starts happening to me ill keep playing. in the end if all my accounts get shut down then it will save me $285 a month so its whatever really.

[valkry]

For you guys that are cancelling your subs. While I canceled my sub because the game changed to make it so I couldn't enjoy the game anymore I would like to think I was sending a message to blizzard that they will be loosing my business unless things change. That being said, we are by far in the minority. Realistically saying cancelling our subs, or even if all the boxers out there cancelled their subs it would probably not come up on the radar. We are just flea's on a elephant's back.

For instance. I searched out this recent activity of suspensions and bans via the WoW forums. Everyone that I came a crossed was closed. Meaning even if you went to complain via the forum's about what is happening to you, blizzard doesn't really care. They won't talk about in a public forum other then saying that yes, multi-boxing is allowed. But try to fix an issue where you are being what is in my opinion harassed or targeted via the game mechanics and they will not even acknowledge that you exist. Understand that the WoW community is not a democracy, and that it is more like a dictatorship. What they say or don't say goes. You, as an individual do not have much input when it comes down to the bottom dollar as a boxer.

So if you are closing your accounts, or taking some time off, realize that blizzard really doesn't care. Do it because you don't want to waste your money on a game that has changed and isn't fun for you to play anymore. If you can't find another aspect of the game, other then BG's to enjoy about the game then turn it off. Move on and enjoy your life.

Don't close your accounts because you want to make blizzard to know that you as an individual customer are not happy. They don't care. I would personally like to think that blizzard as an entity would consider me closing my 5 accounts a big deal, but realistically my 5 accounts are all ready paid for. They are just loosing out on monthly charges and there are way too many single account players to make up for my little insignificant protest.
I cancelled my subs every month and said it was due to rogues being OP in PvP... then they got nerfed hard for MoP... coincidence? I don't care, still happy lol :P

[heyaz]

I cancelled my subs every month and said it was due to rogues being OP in PvP... then they got nerfed hard for MoP... coincidence? I don't care, still happy lol :P

For years I always chose "Will of the Forsaken Nerf" every time I needed to unsub. They left that one on there for ages.

It never got buffed :(

[Ñightsham]

Someone else higher in the chain of authority @ blizzard probably doesn't even know about this or how it has affected us multiboxers. Perhaps we should send a few Emails to their senior programmers :)
They are just focusing on the automation of suspending the true botters, thus "in effect" affecting us by this new method. I find it difficult to believe with their technology, they are unable to flag our accounts as "ok'd" accounts for boxing. They have IP's they can track, account payment tracking, ect... I'm certain the bottling ratio to legit boxers is huge, thus making it easier to flag our accounts as being ok.

While we are just "fleas on an elephants back" as it was said before, if those fleas reach a particular area of that elephant, this would most likely be looked into a little deeper.

[Shodokan]

Someone else higher in the chain of authority @ blizzard probably doesn't even know about this or how it has affected us multiboxers. Perhaps we should send a few Emails to their senior programmers :)
They are just focusing on the automation of suspending the true botters, thus "in effect" affecting us by this new method. I find it difficult to believe with their technology, they are unable to flag our accounts as "ok'd" accounts for boxing. They have IP's they can track, account payment tracking, ect... I'm certain the bottling ratio to legit boxers is huge, thus making it easier to flag our accounts as being ok.

While we are just "fleas on an elephants back" as it was said before, if those fleas reach a particular area of that elephant, this would most likely be looked into a little deeper.

Without account flags the automated system would need to be turned off. Also they'd need to individually investigate every "multi-boxer" to prove that are indeed a boxer but after that point you'd be able to freely bot or whatever since your account would basically be immune to that punishment due to the mechanics of the system at that point. That would also require an initial ban and appeal to get it done which in itself is a bad system and unfair to us.

Has anyone here been hit that doesn't play a melee class in bgs? (any melee at all)

[ebony]

Without account flags the automated system would need to be turned off. Also they'd need to individually investigate every "multi-boxer" to prove that are indeed a boxer but after that point you'd be able to freely bot or whatever since your account would basically be immune to that punishment due to the mechanics of the system at that point. That would also require an initial ban and appeal to get it done which in itself is a bad system and unfair to us.

Has anyone here been hit that doesn't play a melee class in bgs? (any melee at all)

i was hit with hunters at the time all i was playing. my friend got hit and she plays warlocks/druids only.

[Shodokan]

i was hit with hunters at the time all i was playing. my friend got hit and she plays warlocks/druids only.

okay so it has nothing to do with IWT i guess.

[Ualaa]

So it's not IWT use/spam...

[Nitro]

I've just received anotehr temp ban (72 hour) on 5 out of my 13 accounts while farming motes (jade temple water wierds). This time the ban was upheld and they said they would not lift it. So it's not just bans in PVP.

Account Action: 72 Hour Suspension
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs ("Hacks")

This suspension happened because one or more characters on this account were identified using an unauthorized cheat program, also known as a "hack.". These programs provide character benefits normally not achievable in the World of Warcraft. Such benefits include, but are not limited to, increased speed, teleportation, or running through walls/boundaries. Use of these unauthorized programs harm the game environment because they offer an unfair advantage over other players and superscede the intended limits of the game.

Follow up email:

Thank you for your follow-up email. An additional review of the previously communicated action taken against the World of Warcraft accounts on (emailremoved) has been completed. Unfortunately, we have confirmed our initial findings. The account action will not be reversed or amended.

[Bettysue]

I pvp regularly with a mixed group melee/casters, and I've yet to have a problem with any bans. I also play on a pvp server and have no problem camping the guys that killed me repeatedly while levelling, so I'm fairly certain I've been reported a fair number of times. I would start looking at the programs you are using to box, and the possibility they have a "feature" whether intended or not that could throw a flag. Have any hardware boxers been caught in the recent wave, or is it all software boxers?

I personally use HKN, not saying it's safe or immune, just trying to see if it's possible the reason for the account actions is related to software in any way. My apologies if this was already done, as I didn't read every single page of this thread. If we were able to find some correlating factor perhaps the author, or dev team for the software could be notified so they can remove/modify offending features or bugs. We don't really have many data points but I'm fairly certain this could be figured out, there has to be a common factor somewhere.

So I'll start...

HKN
melee and casters, no ranged (ie hunters)
IWT/CTM spam
priority casting, with FTL on select characters.
PVP during primetime bg's/arenas (central US) :: PvE world, dungeons, raid (LFR)
0 bans/suspensions

[fcha]

Personally, i do a bit concern the function "press and release".
I don't know... :/

[Quiding]

Personally, i do a bit concern the function "press and release".
I don't know... :/
This could be done with Addons back in Vanilla, not sure if it is still possible but I doubt this is the problem.

[Khatovar]

Personally, i do a bit concern the function "press and release".
I don't know... :/


This could be done with Addons back in Vanilla, not sure if it is still possible but I doubt this is the problem.

Press and release can still be done within the game today using a simple console toggle as I pointed out in this thread (http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46687-bot-i-think-so?p=360338&viewfull=1#post360338). I just did a quick test of it on one of my druids and it is still a functional command.

[JohnGabriel]

I've just received anotehr temp ban (72 hour) on 5 out of my 13 accounts while farming motes (jade temple water wierds). This time the ban was upheld and they said they would not lift it. So it's not just bans in PVP.

Account Action: 72 Hour Suspension
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Unauthorized Cheat Programs ("Hacks")

This suspension happened because one or more characters on this account were identified using an unauthorized cheat program, also known as a "hack.". These programs provide character benefits normally not achievable in the World of Warcraft. Such benefits include, but are not limited to, increased speed, teleportation, or running through walls/boundaries. Use of these unauthorized programs harm the game environment because they offer an unfair advantage over other players and superscede the intended limits of the game.

Follow up email:

Thank you for your follow-up email. An additional review of the previously communicated action taken against the World of Warcraft accounts on (emailremoved) has been completed. Unfortunately, we have confirmed our initial findings. The account action will not be reversed or amended.

Many have been mentioning the follow-up review email is just another form letter seemingly just automatically sent. But seems like everyone that has called in has had it fixed.

[KapitiCoaster]

I cancelled my 5 accounts at the release of MOP in anticipation of these pathetic actions demonstrated by the game administrators. When the Q into BG's was restructed it just gave me one of those feelings that Blizz would be structuring a list of random other issues to penalise players.
Most of us have played loyally for a long period of time - I have never used a cheat programme (nor would) and had often reported unual game behavious to the admin team to help keep the game healthy. Yet I read that many of you are simply banned for NO reason whatsoever - You pay for access to a service which allows for a level of respect to you as the client which does not appear to be demonstrated by Blizz.
To be honest in these situations - the client has the power - In New Zealand, the provider MUST provider just reason for any suspension or action towards a suspension prior to cancelling a paid service. If the provider is to cancel an account, they are legally required to send notification of cancellation in advance of the action (exception in case of criminal law offences).
I would assume that a similar consumer law protection act prosides in the United States? Regardless of the small print presented by Blizz, State/Federal/National laws override and internal policy of a business/client.
I refused to continue paying whilst the wider market offered more variety and a ZERO cost....this was my decision and I have not looked back at it one iota.
Blue post on the Warcraft forums and disregard the troll/flamers as the only important response if from Blizz management (not GM's)
If they Ban multiboxers for wall walking/teleportation/flying/ghosting then they need to prove it and ban PERIOD all use to make their state stick.
My thoughts
Tim (happy in Everquest again and other realms)