wotlk-classic Recent Actions Against Exploitative Accounts: July 2023

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard announced on the official forums they've suspended almost 117K WoW accounts for cheating or exploitation over the last month, July 2023. This official post comes from the Wrath Classic forums.

The accounts involved were suspended permanently or for 6 months.

(Source)

To provide more transparency on the actions we take against cheating and exploitation, here is a breakdown on the number of actions that were taken over the last month, July 2023:

Total Exploitative WoW Account Actions in July 2023: 116921

All of these actions were for cheating or exploitation, which primarily result in permanent bans or 6-month suspensions. This number does not include other actions such as those taken on accounts with character name or in-game language violations. We continue to evolve our methods and act against these malicious accounts on a daily basis.

Thank you!

[Grumar 188]

there goes half the player base.

[Borgoff33 101]

when that many accounts can cheat/exploit you are the biggest problem

[TheRagingwolf 258]

2 hours ago, Borgoff33 said:

when that many accounts can cheat/exploit you are the biggest problem

Except they got caught. Anything man-made can be unmade by man. In other words, any security measure created can be circumvented and will be given enough time. So, yeah.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

2 hours ago, Grumar said:

there goes half the player base.

Doubt that but would love to see the proof of your statement.

[Harvey 60]

Wait, is this 117K accounts only on the NA servers or on all servers? O.O

[Cham79 87]

I find it hard to believe that it's not worth it for these bots to just make new accounts and still profit with how little effort Blizzard put into reprimanding this.

[Devine 0]

9 hours ago, Harvey said:

Wait, is this 117K accounts only on the NA servers or on all servers? O.O

Where is region mentioned? All I see is This official post comes from the Wrath Classic forums

[TheRagingwolf 258]

15 hours ago, Harvey said:

Wait, is this 117K accounts only on the NA servers or on all servers? O.O

The only specific information is that the post was made on the Wrath Classic forum so, likely it has to do with cheating/bots on any Wrath Classic realms, but the above blue post doesn't go into detail.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

14 hours ago, Cham79 said:

I find it hard to believe that it's not worth it for these bots to just make new accounts and still profit with how little effort Blizzard put into reprimanding this.

They are following the ToS which they created. You can't go outside your own punishment guidelines at your whim.

[Grumar 188]

On 8/7/2023 at 3:49 PM, TheRagingwolf said:

Doubt that but would love to see the proof of your statement.

settle down dear child it was a joke, when you grow up you will realize it's okay for people to make fun of things you happen to enjoy

[asparagusprisoners 1]

I lost all 8 of my accounts on a single bnet last month. Blizzard is banning people who use auction house addons that "afk" scan the ah. Ones like TSM's sniper can get you banned if enough people report you for being on all day on an alt. Blizzard is making moves to remove gold makers from the game.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

28 minutes ago, Grumar said:

settle down dear child it was a joke, when you grow up you will realize it's okay for people to make fun of things you happen to enjoy

We are on a public discussion forum and I was attempting to further the discussion. You can say you were joking if you like, but nothing in your initial post would lead anyone to take it as such. Being demeaning by calling someone a "dear child" comes across as childish on its own and does not help your side of the argument.

As for "making fun of things" others enjoy, my question was not defensive, it was inquisitive as questions are meant to be. I do not expect you to be rationale after this latest comment, but I await your next reply with all the anticipation of a child expecting a trip to Disney World.

[Grumar 188]

10 minutes ago, TheRagingwolf said:

We are on a public discussion forum and I was attempting to further the discussion. You can say you were joking if you like, but nothing in your initial post would lead anyone to take it as such. Being demeaning by calling someone a "dear child" comes across as childish on its own and does not help your side of the argument.

As for "making fun of things" others enjoy, my question was not defensive, it was inquisitive as questions are meant to be. I do not expect you to be rationale after this latest comment, but I await your next reply with all the anticipation of a child expecting a trip to Disney World.

you must be fun at parties "sure the chicken wanted to get to the other side, but WHY, lets discuss." 

[TheRagingwolf 258]

4 hours ago, Grumar said:

you must be fun at parties "sure the chicken wanted to get to the other side, but WHY, lets discuss." 

Not sure where you get that comparison but it has nothing to do with this discussion. Do you have an answer to my initial question or do intend to keep switching subjects?

[Grumar 188]

15 minutes ago, TheRagingwolf said:

Not sure where you get that comparison but it has nothing to do with this discussion. Do you have an answer to my initial question or do intend to keep switching subjects?

yeah the answer was it's a joke you loon

[TheRagingwolf 258]

1 hour ago, Grumar said:

yeah the answer was it's a joke you loon

Ah, personal insults and avoidance. You really took the discussion to a new level.

[Cham79 87]

10 hours ago, TheRagingwolf said:

They are following the ToS which they created. You can't go outside your own punishment guidelines at your whim.

The only thing they would need to do to update their ToS is update their user agreement and make us click a button. This has always been the case for multiplayer games. So you can change the guidelines at a whim.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

Except that's not what we're talking about. They enforced what was in place at the time of the transgression. Sure, you can change your ToS whenever you like, but you can't change it today to punish transgressions from yesterday.

[Cham79 87]

16 hours ago, TheRagingwolf said:

Except that's not what we're talking about. They enforced what was in place at the time of the transgression. Sure, you can change your ToS whenever you like, but you can't change it today to punish transgressions from yesterday.

My original comment was talking exactly about today, and what the bots will do to circumvent the alleged banning. I never mentioned anything past tense.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

10 hours ago, Cham79 said:

My original comment was talking exactly about today, and what the bots will do to circumvent the alleged banning. I never mentioned anything past tense.

Based on that original comment:

Quote

I find it hard to believe that it's not worth it for these bots to just make new accounts and still profit with how little effort Blizzard put into reprimanding this.

My statement regarding the ToS stands. Your initial comment is essentially stating that you expect Blizzard to do more than they did regarding the latest wave of punishment. That comes down to them going outside the punishments outlined in their ToS meaning, the only way to do more would be to change the ToS. However, you cannot change a contract to retroactively affect actions, or in other words, you cannot make a change today that affects yesterday. So, while you did not speak in the past tense, you were wanting present day actions to affect the past despite the policies in place at the time of the transgressions not allowing for such actions.

[Cham79 87]

1 hour ago, TheRagingwolf said:

Based on that original comment:

My statement regarding the ToS stands. Your initial comment is essentially stating that you expect Blizzard to do more than they did regarding the latest wave of punishment. That comes down to them going outside the punishments outlined in their ToS meaning, the only way to do more would be to change the ToS. However, you cannot change a contract to retroactively affect actions, or in other words, you cannot make a change today that affects yesterday. So, while you did not speak in the past tense, you were wanting present day actions to affect the past despite the policies in place at the time of the transgressions not allowing for such actions.

Again, I said nothing about changing ToS and then punishing past rule-breakers, as that would be unethical. This is something you have injected into the argument which was never mentioned.

[TheRagingwolf 258]

9 minutes ago, Cham79 said:

Again, I said nothing about changing ToS and then punishing past rule-breakers, as that would be unethical. This is something you have injected into the argument which was never mentioned.

No, you didn't say anythign about changing the ToS or punishing past rule-breakers, directly. But what you did say was:

Quote

I find it hard to believe that it's not worth it for these bots to just make new accounts and still profit with how little effort Blizzard put into reprimanding this.

To which I stated:

Quote

They are following the ToS which they created. You can't go outside your own punishment guidelines at your whim.

You see, the punishment Blizzard is currently imposing is directly from the ToS as it was when the botting/cheating occurred. In order for Blizzard to punish in any other way, they would need to modify their ToS. Therefore, your statement of "how little effort Blizzard put into reprimanding this" is saying without saying that you feel Blizzard should either:

1. Go outside the existing ToS and choose a different punishment

or

2. Change the ToS to redefine the punishment for these transgressions

Neither one is feasible.

I have not injected anything new into this discussion, it seems that there is confusion in terms of what you are wanting to convey compared to what I am interpreting from your statements.