wow 100 Million Gold Bank Alt Account for Sell Runs Banned for Advertising

[Starym 3,776]

 

This is a pretty strange one. GhormorASC from the "Azeroth Sales Community" gold boosting service posted a very large thread to reddit in which they explain the circumstances that lead to the banning of a bank alt account that held a LOT of gold from the sales.

The post itself is a complaint related to the behavior/decision of GMs and seemingly unannounced changes to Terms of Service stipulations which led to the ban. We'll quickly summarize what exactly happened, but you might want to read the full thing at the bottom, as it's a pretty interesting story and is sure to evoke a lot of opinions. The summary below is just of Ghormor's account of what happened.

Ghormor was on his bank alt and advertising the gold boosting community in Trade Chat, and the account was later silenced due to another player or players reporting the low level character. Apparently this happens a lot so Ghomor opened a ticket to get un-silenced. The GM that responded to the ticket did remove the silence from the account... but also banned it, in this very peculiar interaction:

The response seems somewhat strange, as the first paragraph from the GM doesn't quite seem to connect to the second. The added problem for Ghomor here (as if losing 100 million gold wasn't enough) is that it wasn't all his gold, but rather was supposed to go to other members of the boost community. The ban was appealed and reached a Lead Game Master and a "manager", but there was no change to the decision:

Some final thoughts from Ghomor:

Quote

I’m pissed. I’ve spent years building up hundreds of millions of gold, and I’ve dedicated so much time into running my boosting community. The boosters themselves have put in hours upon hours to run people through dungeons, raids, PVP, mounts, and more. The worst part is all of the gold lost and the fear of not being able to fully pay those people for their time. I’ve worked so hard to make this community, and it’s a real slap in the face when Blizzard is unwilling to actually take time to explain rule changes or look more deeply at an appeal.

If I'm to be the martyr for this new rule, that's fine, but at least update your practices to prevent things like this happening to others in the future.

Just to be very clear, we don't actually know whether this really happened exactly the way it was explained or not, nor do we know if the screenshots are legitimate. But if they are this might be considered a little unfair due to the sudden change in rules without any notice, regardless of what you may think of gold boosting communities.

In any case it's a very interesting story, and hopefully we can actually get some clarification from Blizzard on whether the changes are in fact intended, as they actually seem like a positive modification of the rules, but perhaps should have been communicated in a more clear way. Also, whether this was just a way to stir the community to help overturn the rightful ban or a legitimate frustrated player reaching out for some help is up in the air and up to everyone to decide for themselves.

And finally, here's the full reddit post with all the details and, as you'd imagine, a whole lot of negative comments:

[IrishGuy81 4]

*filtered* he's paying the price now for doing the wrong thing

[Wildwitch 108]

Good - stop spamming your runs for gold!!! People block these spammers because of the SPAM and the SPAMMERS keep making new accounts and new names!!! STOP SPAMMING!!!! (Who the HELL needs 100 million gold in this game?)

Thank you Blizzard.

End of story.

[Aernath 173]

Well... 🙂 

[Phast 3]

Serves him right! I'm getting tired of all the boost spamming *filtered* in trade channel, we dont need em! I keep reporting all spammers/boosters I see and I hope many others do. Ignoring these spammers also wont do *filtered* since they keep making new lvl 1 characters. Hopefully blizzard will change the ignore feature to make us ignore all characters made on the WHOLE ACCOUNT and not just for that character which they will delete after spamming a while.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Phast

[Freehongkong 8]

I am stunned people are happy about this, it’s a free economy and if you don’t like 1 aspect you have the option to ignore it. He clearly followed the rules and scumtivision is pulling their old tricks. “Who needs 100 million gold” are you really that upset someone plays the game differently from you and can give away dozens of mounts and etc? I’m ashamed for all of you, the sound of your entitlement is deafening. I know you’ll send me hate so I’m just gonna say every breath I take without your permission brings me increasing ecstasy

Edited January 5, 2021 by Freehongkong

[breck 29]

The gm said it was ok to advertise run gold for runs in trade so he lifted the silence. In the course of investigating the issue the Gm found that the account was made solely to advertise in trade and that was not ok so he banned that account. Clear violations. The mitigating factor is that according to the player he was never informed of a change in policy. This does make a difference to me and i feel he has a grievance here. When did blizz update the tos, is it in patch notes or the tos for shadowlands?

[Freehongkong 8]

Exactly. These other users want people they believe have inconvenienced them to burn for no reason. Blizz is *filtered* I don’t trust anything they do anymore

[calledyouout 16]

Somehow, someone with 3 accounts and 1 purely for advertising. Surely there was something dodgey going on.

Feels like there was some "not so ToS" trading going on

[Razekiel 11]

0 sympathy for spammers and gold sellers / boosters.

[Harvey 59]

It seems like he was spam advertising on a low level character. Which begs the question, why is a low level character spamming advertisement instead of leveling or enjoying the outdoor experience? Hence, the conclusion "solely being used to advertise".
Granted the player is free to do what he wants (non-illegal stuff), but there is a reason why the general player population considers low level advertisers as scammers, and he did annoy the other players affecting their gameplay experience.

Also, according to BLIZZARD EUL AGREEMENT (https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/fba4d00f-c7e4-4883-b8b9-1b4500a402ea/blizzard-end-user-license-agreement),

License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following: 
...
Prohibited Commercial Uses: Exploit, in its entirety or individual components, the Platform for any purpose not expressly authorized by Blizzard, including, without limitation (i) playing the Game(s) at commercial establishments (subject to Section 1.B.v.3.); (ii) gathering in-game currency, items, or resources for sale outside of the Platform or the Game(s); (iii) performing in-game services including, without limitation, account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment; ...

Termination
...
Blizzard reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most Account suspensions and terminations are the result of violations of this Agreement. In case of minor violations of these rules, Blizzard may provide you with a prior warning and/or suspend your use of the Account due to your non-compliance prior to terminating the Agreement or modifying or deleting an Account.

In the event of a termination of this Agreement, any right you may have had to any pre-purchased Game access or virtual goods, such as digital cards, currency, weapons, armor, wearable items, skins, sprays, pets, mounts, etc., are forfeit, and you agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on your Account prior to any termination of this Agreement.  In addition, you will not be able to use the Platform.
 

TLDR: Unfair agreement to be sure but players did agree to it when they played. He did violate the account boosting in exchange for payment, so he has no right to complain about either the penalty nor the loss of in-game assets.

[Halock 156]

1 hour ago, Freehongkong said:

I’m ashamed for all of you, the sound of your entitlement is deafening. I know you’ll send me hate so I’m just gonna say every breath I take without your permission brings me increasing ecstasy

Your point is fine; it would sound a lot better if you didn't immediately undermine it. Assuming people will 'hate' is poor form, but then turning around and saying premptively saying provocative things to them just makes you look like a tiny bit of a loon. What about the poor fellow, most fellows, who wanted to engage with your point?

To the point where you might very well be making a joke. I honestly can't tell. 🙂 Just making the point is better!

[Spazilton 0]

21 minutes ago, Harvey said:

...
Prohibited Commercial Uses: Exploit, in its entirety or individual components, the Platform for any purpose not expressly authorized by Blizzard, including, without limitation (i) playing the Game(s) at commercial establishments (subject to Section 1.B.v.3.); (ii) gathering in-game currency, items, or resources for sale outside of the Platform or the Game(s); (iii) performing in-game services including, without limitation, account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment; ...

TLDR: Unfair agreement to be sure but players did agree to it when they played. He did violate the account boosting in exchange for payment, so he has no right to complain about either the penalty nor the loss of in-game assets.

The "Payment" that is referred here in the TOS under contract law would most likely be interpreted as something of tangible pecuniary benefit, or in layman's terms real money. He has a legitimate gripe here.

[IVaccount 12]

On the one hand, I really don't have sympathy for run sellers. On the other hand, it seems like Blizzard is being Blizzard and the GM's definitely seem incredibly disconnected and like they aren't even talking about the same issue the seller is having, it's like they aren't taking into account even half of what they are saying. I've had similar issues with GM's, and compared to how they used to be in the past, nowadays they seem like a waste of a paycheck to even have employed.

[Allseye 96]

24 minutes ago, Harvey said:

It seems like he was spam advertising on a low level character. Which begs the question, why is a low level character spamming advertisement instead of leveling or enjoying the outdoor experience? Hence, the conclusion "solely being used to advertise".
Granted the player is free to do what he wants (non-illegal stuff), but there is a reason why the general player population considers low level advertisers as scammers, and he did annoy the other players affecting their gameplay experience.

Also, according to BLIZZARD EUL AGREEMENT (https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/fba4d00f-c7e4-4883-b8b9-1b4500a402ea/blizzard-end-user-license-agreement),

License Limitations. Blizzard may suspend or revoke your license to use the Platform, or parts, components and/or single features thereof, if you violate, or assist others in violating, the license limitations set forth below. You agree that you will not, in whole or in part or under any circumstances, do the following: 
...
Prohibited Commercial Uses: Exploit, in its entirety or individual components, the Platform for any purpose not expressly authorized by Blizzard, including, without limitation (i) playing the Game(s) at commercial establishments (subject to Section 1.B.v.3.); (ii) gathering in-game currency, items, or resources for sale outside of the Platform or the Game(s); (iii) performing in-game services including, without limitation, account boosting or power-leveling, in exchange for payment; ...

Termination
...
Blizzard reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most Account suspensions and terminations are the result of violations of this Agreement. In case of minor violations of these rules, Blizzard may provide you with a prior warning and/or suspend your use of the Account due to your non-compliance prior to terminating the Agreement or modifying or deleting an Account.

In the event of a termination of this Agreement, any right you may have had to any pre-purchased Game access or virtual goods, such as digital cards, currency, weapons, armor, wearable items, skins, sprays, pets, mounts, etc., are forfeit, and you agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on your Account prior to any termination of this Agreement.  In addition, you will not be able to use the Platform.
 

TLDR: Unfair agreement to be sure but players did agree to it when they played. He did violate the account boosting in exchange for payment, so he has no right to complain about either the penalty nor the loss of in-game assets.

Exchange for payment does (as fae i know) relate to realmoney transactions. Boosting for ingame gold is allowed - otherwise we would have much more bans out there. 

In my opinion i do absolutely not like these boosters/spammers. It was akward to see people selling Castle runs while it wasn't released and they hadn't clear it themselves.

On the hand, it is simply not fair to change TOS and get suddenly banned for something that has been done over a long time period.

Propsal to a solution in this case: do not ban, but give a 30 day ban and speak a warning to advertise. Change TOS to clearly forbid advertise in any forms (no spamm, no links to external pages, no "bodypainting" on floor and so on). Comminicate this and give people a warning for advertising while 30 days after communication. After this 30 days, any advertise will directly lead to  ban. This wouls be fair and we would get rid of these spammers. 

[Halock 156]

39 minutes ago, Harvey said:

TLDR: Unfair agreement to be sure but players did agree to it when they played. He did violate the account boosting in exchange for payment, so he has no right to complain about either the penalty nor the loss of in-game assets.

I think a decent non-legalistic line is that if you're trying to do something 'not expressively authorised by Blizzard' and it's something which arguably causes damage to the community (as opposed to, say, creating artwork) you're taking a risk. You're in the grey area where they may have to engage that awful 'terminate this agreement... for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice' line.

You're skirting, if not out-and-out breaking, both the rules and decentness. And unfortunately he seems to have come a cropper of it. Worse than most would've, but there you go. 

 

13 minutes ago, IVaccount said:

On the other hand, it seems like Blizzard is being Blizzard and the GM's definitely seem incredibly disconnected and like they aren't even talking about the same issue the seller is having, it's like they aren't taking into account even half of what they are saying. 

They seem sympathetic to me, and they seem to consider it a decent problem -- despite his complaint they're not looking at it 'deeply'. The second reply is from a lead GM, and apparently they brought a manager to doublecheck it to. I find it a little hard to make out what exactly they're saying about the nature of his third account, but assuming they were correct about it I don't see what else they could do. Everything else he says appears to be irrelevant, except as a plea of good character.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Halock

[Bigcountry 1]

What does someone need 100 million gold for other than to sell it for real money.I say good riddance. These boosting communities all need to be dealt with.If it is against the tos and from the looks of it it is then bye bye dirty gold.

[Alastor7783 11]

In a shocking turn of events that surprises no one Activision's Customer Support is the equivalent to human waste of space. The last time I actually got help from a GM was when they released names on inactive characters... These days they just copy/paste the link to some article that may or may not be slightly relevant to your issue (usually it's not).

[Bigcountry 1]

2 minutes ago, Alastor7783 said:

In a shocking turn of events that surprises no one Activision's Customer Support is the equivalent to human waste of space. The last time I actually got help from a GM was when they released names on inactive characters... These days they just copy/paste the link to some article that may or may not be slightly relevant to your issue (usually it's not).

Well support has been outsourced for some time now.long gone are the days of the good ole blizz customer support.

[tw1st4h 1]

100% deserved filthy booster

[plukkie070 1]

it is what it is.

Edited January 8, 2021 by plukkie070

[Baharok 234]

I do not use tradechat since years because of trashtalk and boost/lfg spam and keep reporting WTS spam in the tool as well (because they allways get around filteraddons somehow....). I appreciate that Blizzard does this step now.

[Vedney 0]

3 hours ago, Bigcountry said:

What does someone need 100 million gold for other than to sell it for real money.I say good riddance. These boosting communities all need to be dealt with.If it is against the tos and from the looks of it it is then bye bye dirty gold.

It was to pay the boosters.

[SidonisAntares 288]

3 hours ago, Harvey said:

Blizzard reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most Account suspensions and terminations are the result of violations of this Agreement. In case of minor violations of these rules, Blizzard may provide you with a prior warning and/or suspend your use of the Account due to your non-compliance prior to terminating the Agreement or modifying or deleting an Account.

In the event of a termination of this Agreement, any right you may have had to any pre-purchased Game access or virtual goods, such as digital cards, currency, weapons, armor, wearable items, skins, sprays, pets, mounts, etc., are forfeit, and you agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on your Account prior to any termination of this Agreement.  In addition, you will not be able to use the Platform.

This right here has been in the ToS/EULA from day one. You may not like the ban, you may not agree with the ban, you may not think interpretation of the rest of the ToS/EULA fits this situation, but none of that matters because of these two paragraphs that have ALWAYS been there.

[Shillien 2]

im glad he got ban, more of those spamming boost sellers should of get it every day. /2 is unreadable without addon that filters those spamming I***ts, for example in last 3 days my addon blocked OVER 10 000 spammers (no pun intended), and those are only from: nova, sylvanas and icecrown community spammers.