Major Warcraft Bannage – 105,000 Accounts Closed

Posted by Stropp on December 22, 2006

Also from the forums comes the news that Blizzard has banned more than 105,000 accounts during November in their on-going efforts to prevent cheating and gold selling. The announcement on the World of Warcraft General forum follows:

In our continued efforts to combat cheating in
World of Warcraft, more than 105,000 accounts were closed and over 12
million gold was removed from the game economies in Europe, Korea, and
the US in the month of November. The closed accounts were associated
with activities that violate World of Warcraft’s Terms of Use, such as
using third-party programs that allow cheating, and farming gold and
items. These types of activities can severely impact the economy of a
realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.

We will continue to aggressively monitor all World of Warcraft
realms in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful
effects of cheating. Please note that selling World of Warcraft
content, such as gold, items, and characters, can result in a permanent
ban of the involved accounts from World of Warcraft.

Many account closures come as the direct result of tips reported to our GMs in game or emailed to our Hacks Team <http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=eHacks000>
by legitimate World of Warcraft players. If you suspect that a World of
Warcraft player is using an illegal third-party program to farm gold or
items, or is otherwise violating our Terms of Use, please report the
suspected infraction via one of the means listed above. All reports
will be investigated, and those that prove false will not result in
corrective action.

As always, thank you for your continued support, and best of luck with your continued adventures in Azeroth!

It’s good to see that Blizzard take cheating in the World of Warcraft seriously. In a single player game, it really hurts no-one but the player if they use a hack, crack, or cheat code. MMOs, however, are a different sort of beast. Cheating, Gold Farming/Selling, and even just violating the terms of service, have a effect on other players.

If gold, for example, is bought from a gold seller, the buyer will generally be prepared to pay larger amounts for some items. This then inflates the price of those items beyond what other, honest, players can easily afford. Since Blizzard has removed over 12 million gold this round, prices can return to more reasonable amounts. Yay!

However, there have also been some reports that legitimate players with large gold balances have also been banned. A couple of these players have been reported to be players that are operating as guild banks with nearly 20,000 gold.

It looks like Blizzard is using an algorithm that checks for extraordinary bank balances, 20k gold is pretty extraordinary, and are automatically flagging these accounts for a ban. It seems they are then relying on players complaining in order to reinstate legit accounts.

Of course, the reports that are being made, may not be genuine. The forums are not known for honesty or fair commentary. Having said that, it does still seem prudent of Blizzard to make sure they aren’t banning genuine players. It’s not a good way to treat your customers.

If you have been banned, and are a legitimate player, your best course of action is to contact Blizzards Customer Support at: http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/

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