Quote Originally Posted by 'Unholy[S
haman',index.php?page=Thread&postID=62827#post6282 7]I'm still trying to figure this out.

Is arena point SELLING and BUYING legal? If you think about it, you join a team, you loose every game and so get kicked after 5-10 games and they make you pay them 500g because you lowered their rating:P

I can see how win trading is illegal but still. I think blizzard is taking this all a bit seriously. Its just a game and in my opinion, blizzard ruined a good game with arena, and now players are speaking up and ruining arena?

If blizzard is not clever enough to program random matching even if peak time arena takes a minute queue. Blizzard should just make it so that its hard to queue up against same teams over and over again. So say every minute or so blizzard chooses random team matching, not choose a pair as soon as a pair is found.
These excerpts from teh rules were quoted by Reythur (Blue):

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

1. 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;
2. Conduct prohibited by the EULA or these Terms of Use, including without limitation that conduct prohibited by Section 2(C); and
3. Anything that Blizzard considers contrary to the "essence" of the Program.
(emphasis by Reythur)
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Q u o t e:
Abuse of Game Mechanics

The distinction between exploiting bugs and abusing game mechanics is a fine one. While bug exploitation involves the abuse of what is essentially a programming mistake, the abuse of game mechanics is the act of taking advantage of the limitations of the World of Warcraft game systems. Since the line between the sanctioned use and the abuse of game mechanics is sometimes unclear, we prefer to educate players before taking any action against the account being used. This category includes using/distributing game mechanics in a manner unintended by their design that:

* Damages another character, their gameplay, the service itself and/or its economy

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Win trading was definitely against the ToS according to blizz, therefore no surprise here. Point selling (and buying) is a bit less clear since it was never announced as being against the ToS, but it seems fairly clear to me at least that falls under abuse of game mechanics - i.e. the Arena rating / point system was set up with the intention that players compete fairly against each other to earn ratings and points to give them access to better gear - buying/selling points circumvents this, and as a side effect ruins gameplay for those playing within the spirit of the Arena system. It's similiar to the time before AFK'ing was a reportable / bannable offense. Blizzard had said it wasn't specifically against the rules, even though most players felt it wasn't in the spirit of BG's. Then they finally brought down the banhammer on a bunch of AFK'ers and came out and said that it was no logner allowed.

My guess is Blizzard's philosophy is that they shouldn't have to make a ruling on every aspect of the game, that some actions should be self evidently against the spirit of the game. And that if it gets to the point where action has to be taken, it will be swift, brutal and without warning.

Belfaire stated in a post that more bans are coming too...this was just the first wave.

Cheers,
Stealthy