Blizzard has announced that it’s rolling back its recent wave of suspensions for World of Warcraft accounts found to be operating third-party software “that undermines the security of the World of Warcraft client.” In the initial banwave, an unspecified number of WoW players’ accounts were suspended for 180 days for use of the software that takes advantage of an exploit that “allows for very malicious activities such as gameplay automation or rotation/interrupt botting.”
However, upon reviewing the matter — probably due in no small part to community outcry — the team “found that some suspended accounts appeared to be only using the detected exploit to do client-side character model alteration.” Although this is still technically a violation of the game’s Terms of Service, Community Manager Kaivax says that the moderation team “would prefer to respond [to such infractions] with a warning, rather than a suspension, this time,” and as such, the team has “reversed all of the suspensions issued in this action.” Unsurprisingly enough, the whole kerfuffle has been the subject of much meme-ing over on the World of Warcraft subreddit.
While those caught in the banwave are safe for now, Kaivax reminds players that the use of third-party software that modifies the game client is against the Terms of Service and warns that “Any future use of software that bypasses the security of the game client, regardless of intention or gameplay advantage, will be detected and sanctioned with increased penalties.”
