Account Sharing & Multi-Instancing?

[segfault]

I know that account sharing is technically against the TOS, but can anyone comment on the likelihood of getting banned while multi-boxing accounts which you have permission to access? I, for example, am a relatively poor college student (there is no way I could afford keys/monthly fees for 3 accounts), but since both of my roommates play WoW, we thought that tri-boxing would be an interesting experiment. Two of the accounts share the same last name (they are brothers), but I wouldn't want to put their accounts at risk of a ban/suspension, especially given the high visibility of multi-boxing. Does anyone have any experience with this? I have no idea how well-enforced this portion of the TOS is.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Kedash00]

you are more likely to get your accounts looked at since you will draw more attention to yourself and get /reported more so than the normal player...
That being said, yes if you are caught sharing accounts they can ban any account that has been played on that pc and or ip address.

[badashh]

HIGH

[segfault]

HIGHThis makes me sad. I was really looking forward to multi-boxing while our mains collect dust waiting for S4. Oh well. :S

[yarr]

HIGH

this is true. We've had multiple cases of people on these forums suspended/closed for account sharing. Simply put, account sharing sticks out like a sore thumb while multiboxing.

I think we've even had people suspended who technically own all the accounts involved, but had different names on their accounts (i.e. they used bogus account names on 1 or more), they were able to re-gain control though . NOt 100% sure about this, but i think i remember this happening a few months ago.

[cepheus]

Post edited by myself.

This was meant as a bad joke only, and seems just to put ideas to peoples heads. Sorry for ever posting it.

If you want to multibox: Buy your own accounts, or just dont do it.

[kllrwlf]

BAD BAD BAD.

[cepheus]

I agree that it isnt a good thing, and personally I would never share my account with anyone. But I have on one occation let a friend try my multibox rig for one BG fight.(he did however not get my accountinformation or anything) I hardly think that Blizzard would have taken any action against that.

[kllrwlf]

Do a search for "account sharing"..... BAN !!!

[cepheus]

Do a search for "account sharing"..... BAN !!!

I am totally aware of that.

But my point was: Is it considered accountsharing if a friend played your toon WHILE you are physically there and watching, and you never gave him your account information?

Dont get me wrong, I am in no way supporter of account sharing, lending away or anything. Never done that, and never will.

I've let a friend try out how it feels to oneshot things in pvp once and I stood right by him all the time watching what he was doing.

[Dorffo]

I agree with you Cepheus - action in that example would be very unlikely... However going back to the original poster's question:

If you multibox you will get extra attention from the lovely GM staff. If they find anything wonky with account info you will most likely lose those accounts without any hope of appeal.

[kllrwlf]

I agree with you Cepheus - action in that example would be very unlikely... However going back to the original poster's question:

If you multibox you will get extra attention from the lovely GM staff. If they find anything wonky with account info you will most likely lose those accounts without any hope of appeal.

Agree with the above...

[cepheus]

Yea, my first post might have been a bit off. I was merly suggesting having your friends pay for your new accounts. :D

Get yourself a litte extra job. A few extra accounts isnt THAT expensive if you come to think about it.
(well might depend on where you live, but atleast not in my country)

[kllrwlf]

If you can't afford it... it might not be for you at this time.

Since you're in college right now, I would suggest you work harder on your studies so that you can have a kick-ass job that pays well (or run your own company)... then you can buy all the toys you ever wanted.

[cepheus]

If you can't afford it... it might not be for you at this time.

Since you're in college right now, I would suggest you work harder on your studies so that you can have a kick-ass job that pays well (or run your own company)... then you can buy all the toys you ever wanted.

I would have to agree with this.

Multiboxing can be very addictive. If you start it while in college, you would risk that it could affect your education.

[leukos]

You could always call up/email Blizzard support or file a GM petition and ask them. It isn't us that is enforcing Blizzard's internal policies, or us that will suspend/ban your account.

Let us know what they tell you.

[Vyndree]

I agree that it isnt a good thing, and personally I would never share my account with anyone. But I have on one occation let a friend try my multibox rig for one BG fight.(he did however not get my accountinformation or anything) I hardly think that Blizzard would have taken any action against that.

Just because you can get away with murder, doesn't mean you should. ;)

Account sharing is against the rules. There is no gray area. Not getting caught should not be considered a gray area. What goes around comes around -- 2 days from now, 2 months from now, 2 years from now... The paranoia is not worth it.

[leukos]

I did a quick grep through the Warcraft Terms of Use and found some interesting facts:


1. The word "should" is only used twice:

"YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING WORLD OF WARCRAFT TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT" and
"you should always remember to protect yourself in areas where the members of hostile races can attack you"

2. The phrase "may not" is used nine times:

"You may not share the Account or the Login Information with anyone other than as expressly set forth herein."
"You may not host or provide matchmaking services for the Game"
"You may not disrupt or assist in the disruption of"
"You may not create derivative works based on the Program without Blizzard’s prior written consent"
"you may not use any name:"
"You may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above"
", you may not:" ... long list of things you may not do. Its all listed in Section 5(B)
"You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account,"
"you may not sell items for "real" money or otherwise exchange items for value outside of the Game."

3. The characters "fun" appear four times, as part of the words:
reFUNd
reFUNd
reFUNd
malFUNction

4. The word "Ownership" occurs three times:

As a section title.
"you acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership or other property interest in the Account"
Another section title called "Ownership/Selling of the Account or Virtual Items."

5. The word "not" occurs 54 times. Here are the first two:

"IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST CLICK "REJECT.""
"Any use of the Service not in accordance with the Terms of Use is expressly prohibited."

6. The word "suspend" occurs four times. Here is a highlight:

"BLIZZARD MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE THE ACCOUNT AT ANY TIME WITH ANY REASON OR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE."

7. The character "termina" as in TERMINATE, TERMINATION, TERMINATED, TERMINATING your account occur 17 times.


Do we need to hit the dead horse over the head any more.

[cepheus]

As I can see here, it is sharing your account information that is against the ToU, nothing about another person sit down at your computer for a limited amount of time when you are allready logged in.

I might just make an ingame ticket about this to ask if my "murder" was really a ban-reason.

[Knytestorme]

There was a question about this on the CS forum a few days ago....Belfaire (or might have been Malk) stated that even having a friend playing on your account for a little bit while you are there is considered account sharing and they have the trial accounts for people trying to get their friends interested in playing.

[Basilikos]

I know that account sharing is technically against the TOS...

Why couldn't this have just stopped there? If you know what's going to happen, why ask? Here's the deal: You're going to attract attention and if the GMs see that the accounts being multiboxed don't belong to the same person, they all get banned. Done deal. Don't try it.

[Tonuss]

But my point was: Is it considered accountsharing if a friend played your toon WHILE you are physically there and watching, and you never gave him your account information?If I had to make a guess, I would say that Blizzard would almost certainly take action against your account(s) under this scenario. The way they see it, if you play another person's account under any circumstance, it's a violation of the rules. This avoids them having to judge whether or not you're telling them the truth about your friend's permission and cooperation (after all, how do they go about verifying this?). Blizzard takes account ownership extremely seriously, and so they take a very strict black-and-white approach to dealing with it.

Edit- Sorry ceph, for some reason I confused your question with the OP's. My above comment is directed at the OP.

However, in regards to letting a friend play the account for a short time, it's a ToS violation according to Blizzard. The likelyhood of you getting caught and actioned is very small so long as this occurs within a computer or computers that you typically use to access WoW (ie, they would assume that it's you playing your account, not someone else). I think it's an issue like what I described, that because of the way they consider account ownership they don't take any chances at all and are very strict in interpreting what is a violation.

[Steph]

Don't share accounts. Ever. It is simply not worth it. Even less so when you are multiboxing and have a higher profile and higher likelihood to be noticed and banned.

Also, asking a GM is not necessarily a good idea. If you are already doing what you want to ask about and say that, you just reported yourself. Otherwise you just flag your own account for attention.
Talking about using someone's else's account also does the trick. You know that Blizzard logs everything. If your buddy Bob says in whisper or whatever chat channel that he is using Joe's account, that can show up on a straightforward query and let Joe's account be investigated and closed. Just reward for being stupid and then shooting your mouth off about it.

Blizzards policies are clear and publicly available on their website - with many examples. They wont change just because you pretend they are not there or that you didn't understand them.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20460 ('http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20460')

To have absolutely zero ambiguity with my accounts, I bought four more copies of WoW and four more copies of BC and never looked back. The joy of having a white vest, for the same monthly fee. I don't get how someone can not go for it. ?(

[Vyndree]

As I can see here, it is sharing your account information that is against the ToU, nothing about another person sit down at your computer for a limited amount of time when you are allready logged in.

In correct. Account sharing ('http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20576&searchQuery=account%20sharing&pageNumber=1') is simply that -- you are sharing your account in the circumstances you lined out above. It doesn't matter who logged in.


Limitations placed on Account Access
The ToU speaks extensively about what you may and may not do with a World of Warcraft account. This section highlights a few passages from the ToU that are most relevant to this policy. The core message is that you, and only you (with the exception of a minor authorized to use an account by a parent or guardian), should be accessing an account registered in your name.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=20460&pageNumber=1

In general...
It is your account (that is, your name is listed as the account owner).
If at any point someone other than you is using your account, it is considered account sharing.
Account sharing is against the terms of use.
Anything against the terms of use can get you banned.
Sometimes people sneak around "under the radar" and miss getting banned, but that does not mean that they cannot, will not, or should not get banned.


We're edging very close to breaking our Community Guidelines ('http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Board&boardID=31') so I'll end this by saying that the dual-boxing forums aren't necessarily the best place for clarifying what is, or isn't against the blizzard terms of use.
If for any reason the definition of "account sharing" is unclear to you, your best course of action is to either ticket a GM or post on the official Customer Service forums ('http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11112&sid=1')

[cepheus]

Ok, I think I throw in the towel here, and just apologize for my posts. It was not inteded that my bad joke (let the OP's friends pay for his accounts) should start a full blown discussion for what is and isnt considered a violation of the TOU

I have never shared my logininfo with anyone since I started playing wow during the open beta. I am just admitting to letting *once* a friend try my 5-box rig for *one* time. If admitting this is so close to the edge of this forum's guidlines, I apologize for any harm this have come to the community.

That beeing said, I was more concerned about my reputation as a bad pvp-multiboxer than beeing banned at the time, as my friend never had any expirience with multiboxing :)


I should also clarify that I am in no way supporting accountsharing, and hope that everyone that read my posts understand that. If you cant pay for your own accounts, you should probably be more intressted in earning money than playing wow anyway.

[Greythan]

So, three college roomates set up three WoW accounts under one roomates name/credit card. Using a network from the dorm/apartment, the three accounts are logged in and multi-boxed by any of the three or all three log in each account and solo play them. Seems low risk to me. Now, this doesn't address the OP's desire to maintain what I presume to be high level, well-geared toons on the three disparately registered accounts.

[cepheus]

So, three college roomates set up three WoW accounts under one roomates name/credit card. Using a network from the dorm/apartment, the three accounts are logged in and multi-boxed by any of the three or all three log in each account and solo play them. Seems low risk to me. Now, this doesn't address the OP's desire to maintain what I presume to be high level, well-geared toons on the three disparately registered accounts.

This WOULD be considered a violation of the TOU what so ever low risk it is, therefor at violation of the forum guidelines too. It was a bad joke from my side, and should probably just be deleted by some of the admins.

Edit: Just edited it away myself. Please remove any qoutes from my posts, my bad joke seems to put ideas in peoples head :( This was not intended. Or better yet, just delete this thread.

Dont do this if you want to multibox and be a part of this communtity.

[wrs]

I think the short answer is this, rationalize it any way you want, but you will find little support from the majority of people here.

[Vyndree]

If admitting this is so close to the edge of this forum's guidlines, I apologize for any harm this have come to the community.

There's a difference between admission and promotion. I just felt we were at the edge of telling users that might not know better our opinions on rule interpretation, instead of letting the experts (Blizzard) do it for us.

I don't like having to censor people -- honestly, I don't. But we have, in the past, had malicious wowforum trolls misquote us in order to give the multiboxing community a bad name, and that's pretty much the only time I step in. That and Ellay's nicely written community guidelines ('http://dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Board&boardID=31'), which are very clear about not discussing anything that's against the terms of use.

Until I get a Blizzard quote informing me that letting a person play on your account is NOT against the rules, I'm not comfortable letting that train of thought continue for the reasons I've mentioned above. :)



I'm locking the thread as it's starting to get out of hand (I'm not blaming anyone here, I'm just saying we've gone off the beaten path).

Feel free to start up a new thread as long as it doesn't start rolling into discussions on "get around the rules", "stay under the radar", "low risk", "blizz won't ban you" discussions.

Feel free to PM me with a link to a blizzard post confirming the legality of these discussions if I have locked this thread in error and I will publicly apologize for the mistake. :)