Farming in Legion BOEs (Account Bans for "Bot Farming")

[Khrymoar]

WARNING –

Several member of our F2P community have had their accounts banned for “bot farming” last night, all at the same time. These are people that DO NOT use software or any bots that would violate Blizzard’s TOS.


Some of us suspect there were disgruntled levelers in Legion zones that reported us – en masse, but others suspect it may have been the work of fellow F2P players for purposes of malicious trolling/competition.


Players have been farming for many months now since the beginning of Shadowlands, but for this many people to have been banned, and all at the same time looks extremely suspicious, and they were mostly all on Horde.

If you have been competing against other groups for farm spots, whether from the opposing faction or same, please keep note of who they are.

 

[Nechiforus]

WARNING –

Several member of our F2P community have had their accounts banned for “bot farming” last night, all at the same time. These are people that DO NOT use software or any bots that would violate Blizzard’s TOS.


Some of us suspect there were disgruntled levelers in Legion zones that reported us – en masse, but others suspect it may have been the work of fellow F2P players for purposes of malicious trolling/competition.


Players have been farming for many months now since the beginning of Shadowlands, but for this many people to have been banned, and all at the same time looks extremely suspicious, and they were mostly all on Horde.

If you have been competing against other groups for farm spots, whether from the opposing faction or same, please keep note of who they are.

US or EU?

 

[Chops]

US or EU?

been hitting US pretty hard. No idea about EU

 

[selkit]

yea i got hit as well its bullshit. I hope blizzard can fix this have never botted or used software to multibox. Got hit with the ban last night.

 

[ohti]

Let's not do the whole tin foil hat thing lmao.

We farm some of the most killed quest mobs in some of the most populated leveling zones in the game. It is very simply a group of levelers who don't know any better and GMs who have already banned hundreds of Val'Sharah bots and don't look into us enough.

Appeal, best of luck.

 

[Asylum]

...others suspect it may have been the work of fellow F2P players for purposes of malicious trolling/competition.

Players have been farming for many months now since the beginning of Shadowlands, but for this many people to have been banned, and all at the same time looks extremely suspicious, and they were mostly all on Horde.

If you have been competing against other groups for farm spots, whether from the opposing faction or same, please keep note of who they are.

i highly doubt this was twinks reporting, please remember it's space moose week, and levelers relish in policing the game.
few people who have gotten banned have said they've had 60s inspecting them @ kobolds (which is where the archeo objectives are)

 

[icehawk]

Blizz hot on our trails?
Was the ban specific for farming/botting? Or, even worse, did everyone who got a ban had a 54 Artifact?

 

[Emelia]

Sounds about right! Multiboxing is cheating according to those that are ignorant of such things. Botting and multiboxing look the same when you have no idea how either work.

The crusaders that we had right after 3rd-party software ban died down and most have left the game.
Now we have a slightly different issue. Low player count in the world makes you stand out more as a farmer to those that are not knowledge about farming methods/multiboxing.

If you want to avoid being banned then don't multibox. The issue isnt if you are cheating or not. The issue is casuals don't know the difference OR DO and F U anyways.

My advice: Farm multibox but not stacked....also try having different names for your farmers...

Or just do what winterly had to do. Enjoy a temp ban after pleading for it to be changed from a perma ban. Start new accounts and farm on those until you get unbanned.

Casuals get their hard-ons for reporting you. Blizzard GM's feel important banning cheaters. Bobby's new boat is only 1mil away from a new upgrade. Buy more accounts to get banned again by casuals/gm that don't know the game.

I feel sorry for all those affected by unjust bans. This is the World of Warcraft we live in...

 

[DeLindsay]

Sounds about right! Multiboxing is cheating according to those that are ignorant of such things. Botting and multiboxing look the same when you have no idea how either work.

This is categorically false. ONLY, and only recently, has Blizzard taken ANY stance against Multiboxing, and ONLY one specific action, the application of pressing 1 key that then copies that key press to every other Account within the Software. That's it, nothing else.

Bot'ing is absolutely and completely different from Multiboxing, as there is usually only 1 Character and it's movements usually break the Game Code (teleporting from Node to Node, added speed, hovering over the ground while moving, exact same pattern of movement across a Zone for hours at a time, etc).

Also, if you read the OP, they stated they weren't using Multibox Software. Now, I can't attest for the truth or validity of that statement but Blizzard does some seriously dumb as shit, on a near daily basis, so I wouldn't put it past them to ban someone doing something completely normal after multiple reports from randos over a short period of time.

 

[Chops]

You don't have to be botting for multiboxing to be against the TOS/EULA these days.

When they re-wrote it back in Jan/Feb or whenever, they included not just software assistance but any "hardware mechanism ... used to automate or streamline multiboxing in any way"

So doing the thing where you minimize like 5 windows and just cycle your mouse over them with a scrollwheel macro? Could be read as a violation.

It's insanely draconian towards multiboxing and is worded widely enough to include almost anyone even dual boxing carries through a dungeon who is just real fast at alt tabbing.

 

[Emelia]

This is categorically false. ONLY, and only recently, has Blizzard taken ANY stance against Multiboxing, and ONLY one specific action, the application of pressing 1 key that then copies that key press to every other Account within the Software. That's it, nothing else.

Bot'ing is absolutely and completely different from Multiboxing, as there is usually only 1 Character and it's movements usually break the Game Code (teleporting from Node to Node, added speed, hovering over the ground while moving, exact same pattern of movement across a Zone for hours at a time, etc).

Also, if you read the OP, they stated they weren't using Multibox Software. Now, I can't attest for the truth or validity of that statement but Blizzard does some seriously dumb as shit, on a near daily basis, so I wouldn't put it past them to ban someone doing something completely normal after multiple reports from randos over a short period of time.

Um...I was talking from the perspective of those that don't understand the difference. Therefore to them it is cheating... but I guess that's wrong? and somehow op is banned...

 

[DeLindsay]

Um...I was talking from the perspective of those that don't understand the difference. Therefore to them it is cheating... but I guess that's wrong? and somehow op is banned...

My bad, I'll retake my reading comprehension class.

 

[Malgibbon]

You don't have to be botting for multiboxing to be against the TOS/EULA these days.

When they re-wrote it back in Jan/Feb or whenever, they included not just software assistance but any "hardware mechanism ... used to automate or streamline multiboxing in any way"

So doing the thing where you minimize like 5 windows and just cycle your mouse over them with a scrollwheel macro? Could be read as a violation.

It's insanely draconian towards multiboxing and is worded widely enough to include almost anyone even dual boxing carries through a dungeon who is just real fast at alt tabbing.

Wow - so my ghettoboxing might get me banned lol. I'd come out and kill stuff on my 10 f2ps.

 

[Symandria]

If you aren't using any automation hardware or software you should be safe and able to appeal and have it overturned. If you are innocent and the first GM refuses to look at it appeal again and again, you have nothing to lose and sometimes it is escalated and fixed.

Using keyboard programmed macros are not allowed for anyone who cares, they run independent software and can easy be programmed to do repetitive tasks. So that's 3rd party software running on your system sending more than 1 instruction per key press.

They do not care about alt-tab, that is in fact not even a command to the game, but to the OS. They don't care about how many accounts you have open, though it can lead to false positives in some cases (especially coupled with reports.)


Best of luck to everyone who was banned, I hope you are all able to get right back out there and enjoy the game! : )

 

[selkit]

No software used just youtube in background. all characters were different classes all unique named. I was grouped with other people talking with them and actively playing. some of the othe rpeople go hit with bans 2 . I was playing a warlock most of the time others were playing warriors. im done ranting if it doesnt get overturned so be it. They just lose customers over randoms mass reporting and having shitty customer service. Bans should never be automated like it clearly was.
[doublepost=1629215903,1629215684][/doublepost]And its been 3 days no response to the appeal

 

[Gouged]

A few of the guys banned were only on one account. I feel like it was just mass reporting in high mountain with the increase traffic from the archeology event.

 

[ZenwØw]

LOL

 

[ohti]

LOL

YOUR ACCOUNT WAS YUMMY !

 

[Vail]

And its been 3 days no response to the appeal

You can ask about the status of your appeal on their CS forums, and a blue will likely respond (assuming within business hours), but, if multiboxing was involved, don't bother asking for them to specify EXACTLY why you were banned, because all they will do is quote the rules... Don't say anything bad about Blizz there ether-- That particular forum is patrolled by a rabid gaggle of white knights, and it will just start a fight with them.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/c/support/customer-support

 

[selkit]

You can ask about the status of your appeal on their CS forums, and a blue will likely respond (assuming within business hours), but, if multiboxing was involved, don't bother asking for them to specify EXACTLY why you were banned, because all they will do is quote the rules... Don't say anything bad about Blizz there ether-- That particular forum is patrolled by a rabid gaggle of white knights, and it will just start a fight with them.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/c/support/customer-support

got unbanned last night all accounts