Recent Wave of Account Actions

[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/to...0109?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 ...