OK, so I got an email from Blizzard that said that they were justified in canceling my account. Here is their email:
Greetings _____,
Thank you for contacting us regarding the World of Warcraft account you use. Upon further review of the action taken upon this account, we have determined that our original findings were accurate and the action was in line with our current policies. When account is used for any form of mass advertising, the account will be disabled. This is to help prevent any form of disruption for our players as well as prevent exploitive advertising like gold selling.
In this case, we determined the account listed below was advertising in multiple channels. Any form of advertising for any website even wow related is a violation of our Terms of Use.
Account Name: ______
Realm: Trollbane
Character Name: Xandarr
Account Action: Warning
Reason for Action: Harassment Policy Violation - Advertising
Details (times listed in Greenwich Mean Time, GMT):
2009/06/07 13:35:39 Xandarr Trade - City "http://theexperiencednoob.blogspot.com Please check it out, Podcast is upcoming. Contest for $25 J!NX gift card!"
The chat above is in violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask that you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html.
You may not transmit or post any content or language which, in the sole and absolute discretion of Blizzard Entertainment, is deemed to be inappropriate or offensive.
Please keep in mind that while certain language may seem appropriate to you, another player in the game may find the same language inappropriate or offensive. In the end, we want World of Warcraft to be a fun and safe environment for all players.
We base all of our actions on the severity of the violation, and we take previous violations into consideration. This action has been taken in accordance with the Terms of Use and our In-Game Policies (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20309).
As a reminder, only the Account Administration department can address disputes or questions about this account action. To learn more about how we are able to assist you, please visit us at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21505.
We hope this has resolved any concerns you may have had. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Remokh
Account Administration Supervisor
They didn't give me a warning before shutting my account down. Had I known this was any kind of violation and had been warned about it I would have happily stopped advertising the blog. Especially i the warning included the threat of termination. I have played my toons since just before BC came out and wouldn't put my account at risk in that way.
What do you think?
So from Blizzard's definition of "Warning", that means, "account cancellation"... I would think you'd get an e-mail, but NOT get your account canceled. This just seems excessive.
ReplyDeleteNow, I do agree that advertising your site in-game is a bit much. So I'd discuss the site in more private chat, like party, whisper, or even guild.
Now that they've given you an explanation it makes sense, but its horrible policy to cut you off without warning. Obviously there's someone watching this stuff that sees you doing it. How hard is it for them to pop in and say "hey, you better shut it or we're locking your account."?
ReplyDeleteLooks like Zero Tolerance for posting URLs to me. Which I can see them being particularly worried about.
ReplyDeleteBut if they don't want to go to the time/expense of investigating individual cases then they should make a lot more noise about the policy.