Has anyone been banned?

Just curious if any multiboxers out there have been banned for whatever reason. I've been multiboxing for about a month now, playing a paladin and 4 warlocks (Horde). I KNOW I've been reported a few dozens times for botting and/or exploitation. I even have some entertaining screenshots of conversations with some Alliance Characters I killed whom logged onto their Horde characters to tell me they are reporting me.

So, if you have been banned while multiboxing, please post here and tell us the entire story, resolution, Blizzard e-mails, screen shots, or whatever!

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Originally Posted by daanji

Just curious if any multiboxers out there have been banned for whatever reason. I've been multiboxing for about a month now, playing a paladin and 4 warlocks (Horde). I KNOW I've been reported a few dozens times for botting and/or exploitation. I even have some entertaining screenshots of conversations with some Alliance Characters I killed whom logged onto their Horde characters to tell me they are reporting me.

So, if you have been banned while multiboxing, please post here and tell us the entire story, resolution, Blizzard e-mails, screen shots, or whatever!

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Never had a GM tell me what I was doing was bannable. Quite the opposite reaction actually. Multiboxers are Blizzes best customers.

LOL, wouldn't you know. Days after I post this thread, one of my accounts get NAILED.

The weird thing is, only one account out of the 5 I have was banned. Here is the letter Blizzard sent me.

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***Notice of Account Closure***

This is a notification regarding the World of Warcraft account <Blank>. Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation. While we try to be as lenient as possible in our assessments of the results of exploitation investigations, exploitative endeavors on your accounts have ultimately lead to their closure. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.

As a result, this account will no longer be able to access any aspect of World of Warcraft. This action has been taken in accordance with the Terms of Use (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) and our game policies (http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowgm/?id=agm01712p). According to the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, to which all players agree when installing World of Warcraft, Section 5, Paragraph C [Rules Related to Game Play] states that you may not do anything that Blizzard Entertainment considers contrary to the "essence" of World of Warcraft.

Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.

Thank you for your time and understanding of our position in this matter. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Regards,

Valcar
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.WorldOfWarcraft.com

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Here is what Section 5 Paragraph C has to say.

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Rules Related to Game Play

Game play is what World of Warcraft is all about, and Blizzard strictly enforces the rules that govern game play. Blizzard considers most conduct to be part of the Game, and not harassment, so player-killing the enemies of your race and/or alliance, including gravestone and/or corpse camping, is considered a part of the Game. Because the Program is a "player vs. player" game, you should always remember to protect yourself in areas where the members of hostile races can attack you, rather than contacting Blizzard's in-game customer service representatives for help when you have been killed by an enemy of your race. Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players;

Conduct prohibited by the EULA or these Terms of Use, including without limitation that conduct prohibited by Section 2(C); and

Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Program.

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So, I'm not entirely sure what I did. It seems as though they are accusing me of violating the "essence" of the game and/or exploitation. Though, I did none of these things. I used no exploits, third party software, or anything else to cheat. The only thing I ever did was multibox. At first, I tried using Micah's multibox program and Autohotkey, but I broke down and bought additional computers and the Vetra multicasters. So, I was 100% legit for the majority of play time. Though, why one account and not all?

I wrote them a lengthy letter back asking specifically why I was banned. They haven't responded yet, though I guess it will take a few days. I'm thinking it must be a mistake. They only thing I can think of is that I mailed on character a TON of items. I have a bunch of mules that were full, so I created a new character to hold some stuff. I probably sent him 5-7 banks full of stuff. Would something like that raise a flag? Would they outright ban someone for sending a character WAY too much stuff?

Or perhaps they were sick of hearing from alliance characters how my crew would "DOT and GO”. I play a paladin and 4 warlocks. Sometimes I would be traveling somewhere for some quests and I would see some jerk alliance members ganking a poor horde character. I would DOTx4 all the alliance character and continue without stopping. All of them died. I'm sure a lot of these people would report me, since 4 locks dotting in perfect synchronization is odd.

The entire situation pisses me of. I'm in limbo. I'm not sure what I did wrong and I fear they will ban the 4 other accounts.

Does anyone has suggestions as to what to do?

Well I hope they give you a fair chance to explain whats really going on.

This...

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permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation.

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...indicates that your account has been identified as exploiting a known dupe bug that they're actively investigating and banning for right now, not because you multi-boxed at all.

If your account was incorrectly flagged for investigation, it's likely that any subequent investigation will exonerate you, although the wording suggests that the investigation has already been concluded.

If you're innocent, I wish you luck in getting your account back, but I don't believe this is anything to do with you choosing to multi-box.

The way it is worded they banned not for playing more than one character.

The transfer of a ton of items onto one character may has signaled a flag. Have you every purchased gold? (not trying to come off mean)

daanji,

you posted in other threads on this forum that you are using several WoW clients on one machine, using Autohotkey to send keystrokes to the inactive windows.

That may be the reason for the ban just like the postal activity might be.

In any case, good luck.

Did you sell gold? Was that account hacked? Has it even been? The use of 3rd party software (multibox, etc) is suspect but it seems like something else was going on there not multiboxing. It is possible you were flagged for something else but I highly doubt if they were going to ban you for multiboxing they would have sent you that message and only banned one character.

The cause and effect just don't add up there.

The mass sending of items is a possible flag - MOST people do not send like 5 banks of stuff to a single account. The trouble with multiboxers is we fall outside of the "normal" account activity and as such are more likely to get caught up in blizzards "scans". I always spread my gold out across the Zins and items too - just in case.

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Did you buy/sell Gold?

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Of course not.

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Was that account hacked?

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Unlikely. Never shared the account information with anyone and I use strong passwords.

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you posted in other threads on this forum that you are using several WoW clients on one machine, using Autohotkey to send keystrokes to the inactive windows.

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Yes, at one point I was using that setup. However, I switched to the vetra-5 machine solution. So at the time, I was 100% legit. Though, if they were back logged in their bannings, perhaps that could be it. But why only 1 account? Doesn't make sense?

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identified as exploiting a known dupe bug that they're actively investigating

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Actually, this might be it. A couples days before the banning, I was trying to send some items to a mule. For some reason, it kept erroring and said that the character could not be found. However, on the other characters, I could send the items to the mule. So, I simply traded the items to the other character and mailed it that way.

The ODD thing is, all the items I tried to send were sent back to bugged character...a few times over....And this is the character/account that got banned.

Could this be it? I did not intentionally try to exploit any known bug. All the duped items were low level food stuff. I just shrugged and moved on. Perhaps that is why I got banned.

I guess if I were try to argue with them, it would be fruitless. How does one differentiate the honest people accidentally duping a couple items and a person that does it on purpose?

I still have not heard back from Blizzard. Hopefully, it will be this week.

I tried contacting a GM and asking why they banned my other account. They said they are not permitted to talk about other accounts, even if I own them...for safetey reasons.

That's almost certainly it.

If it was all low-level food stuff then let's hope common sense prevails when they look more closely at your case. Assuming you can persuade them to look more closely, that is :(

how long did u switch to all hardware set up? (it take time before they actually banned the account(s) sometime it take months) i have 1 priest and 4 locks setup. but i always use all hardware at the begining. i have a lot of reported (all multi-boxing, especially the 5 boxes, going to get top reported in server anyway). i have a lot of people love it and a lot of people hate it. but no reaction from horde 'cause i'm on PVP server. i'm pretty sure they hate me :)
multi-box is completely legit as long as u do all hardware set up. for the software part is in the gray area.