Zalmoran Account Suspension - 29 Hours Later

Greetings Readers,

It's been 29 hours since my World of Warcraft account was given final warning and suspended for 72 hours. I wish that at this time I had more to report in terms of communication with Blizzard regarding the issue, but I have not received an email at this time.

This post largely will be speculative, serving to provide an account of my activities as I'm certain most people would be wondering exactly what I had been doing up until the suspension. The information I provide here, again, is speculation, and has not in any way been confirmed by Blizzard or any representative of Blizzard at this time.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I do use Auctioneer in order to handle my interactions with the Auction House. This does not provide additional access away from the auction house, nor do I use it to provide me any notifications that I could not get through the existing, Blizzard-made interface. Literally all of my interaction with this app must be done at the Auction House. That said, there is a supplemental addon, AucDb, which provides material costs, action recommendations, and average prices that the items sell for on US and EU servers. However, it has been mentioned on several forums that this addon has not caused bans in the past, and does not fall within a Term of Service violation. It also could not reasonably lead to me controlling the auction house, as prices are only recommended. It does not automate the sale or purchase of items. It also, as mentioned above, does not notify me of when I've been undercut, outbid, or any other interaction, except when I search my auctions at the Auction House. Thus, I figure it is not likely that this was the cause of my suspension.

The next possibility would be a belief that I was gold farming. I have admittedly made on average for Zalmoran 50g per day according to my statistics. I do not know if that is a high number, but I do attribute the success to careful attention to the trends in inscription sales on my server, and making glyphs that either sell high or are not represented often on auction. An hour before my ban, I had flown all over Zangarmarsh collecting herbs and ingredients to fill my new 32-slot inscription and herbalism bags. I then proceeded in similar fashion in Elwynn Forest to collect low-level ingredients to continue my minor inscription research, since I had been getting low on those supplies. I suppose it is possible that, since I was on in the morning before work and performing mind-numbingly repetitive tasks, they may have believed that I was not manually controlling the character. I would be surprised if this was the action that got my account suspended, since I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be the only person going around performing mind-numbingly repetitive tasks. This is an MMO after all, and I've seen people with 450 fishing skill.

It's possible that they believe I was selling gold, I suppose. I have, on several occasions, provided small gifts of gold and items to family or friends that start an account on my server, as well as primary characters joining our guild at low level. An accounting of these would show that I have given approximately 30g, 1 guild tabard, and 1 bag or pet to each of these individuals. In total that may come to about 120g (one person refused cash), 5 guild tabards (which I spent 1g on each), 2 pets (both cats, given to family members, 30s each), and 3 netherweave bags (about 8g each). That would make my total in contributions toward all of the characters almost 150g. Divided between them that still only comes to 30g each. If I had sold that to them, I couldn't imagine I'd have gotten much since the common ads on my server list 1000g for $15. (Yes, we get enough of them for me to remember the offers rather easily. Not much of a price war there.) Based on that as a market rate, if they had paid me for that stuff, we're talking a microtransaction of about 45 cents each. I can't imagine it would be worth it to me, since I have a full-time job that pays me far more than 45 cents per hour, which would be a generous estimate on the time I've put toward those contributions.

Also, there's the possibility that they would believe I was using a power-leveling service. It is true that, in less than 3 months, I got my primary character up to 72, a couple alts up to 33, a couple more alts in the 20s, and a couple more into the teens. I don't know the average rate at which a person levels. To me, it does seem that this could have been fast, but it can easily be explained. When I began my account, it was under recruit-a-friend with my sister. Shortly after, I used recruit-a-friend with my significant other. This meant that every time I grouped with either of them, for the first 90 days of my account, I was gaining triple experience on all enemies and quests. In addition, the Midsummer Festival occurred during that time, and the daily quests it provided were easily giving me more than 10,000-15,000 experience at level 30. I believe the high end got it up to almost 20,000. I was very quickly leveling at that time, when you account for 3 daily quests each day and several honor/extinquish the flames quests. For my alts, most levels were gained this way, though one used the recruit-a-friend free levels from my partner's primary in order to gain approximately 20 levels. The recruit-a-friend levels I gained through this translated 1:2 for me to give levels to my sister. I did as many as I could from that character to her primary on the same server, and then switched to my primary to level her up further with the levels he had earned. This resulted in us each having fairly high level characters with admittedly minimal work, but all through approved perks in the recruit-a-friend program administered by Blizzard. Ultimately, it seems most likely to me that this progression was monitored and inadvertently translated to power-leveling. The fact that I put a little time in each morning doing the short, repetetive, tasks before I play again when I get home from work could be a contributing factor to this theory.

The only other possibility would be an accidental association. When I first arrived in Northrend, a player immediately sent me a group invite. I accepted and was surprised to see a level 59 player. Not wanting to appear rude, I continued with the quests I was working on. I attempted several times to talk to the person, and ask them what quests they were on, etc, and didn't get any response. I became suspicious and asked my guild for advice. While they were responding, I noticed he'd go invisible during a battle, then claim the loot. At that point I booted him from group, angry that he was not assisting, and under the advice I received from my guild. It occurred to me at that time that the person may have been a farmer, and that I had assisted them in getting a very small amount of loot to sell. On retrospect, this could be the most likely case for the issue, though I don't think it would fall under an 'economy exploit'.

Anyway, that's all I've got. I'm hoping to get some people I talk to in game to read this blog and provide insight. Anyone else who has any, please post. I also could use the support on this. I've been going without sleep, and feeling highly stressed, trying to figure out exactly what happened.

In time, this and all things will pass into eternity.

Zalmoran (US - Kirin Tor)