World of Warcraft has seen another huge wave of account actions resulting in either bans or 6-month suspensions in December 2023. It seems that Blizzard Entertainment is rallying up its forces to ensure that more and more cheaters are being restricted from playing.
World of Warcraft has always struggled with bots and gold buyers, which are even more prominent in WoW Classic or Season of Discovery. There is seemingly no end to the bots plaguing the game and oversaturating the in-game economy by allowing GDKPs to prevail in most stages of the game.
Although gold buying has been an issue for several years, it seems that it has been ramping up ever since the release of WoW Classic with players aiming to get the best gear, even through buying gold with real-world money.
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WoW Huge Ban Wave
This was the biggest wave of actions against accounts in 2023. It seems that Blizzard not only understands just how many bad actors are currently running around in Azeroth, but it also shows that the company needs to take better steps at detecting these bad actors and preventing them from causing too much damage to the player base. As per Blizzard's latest blue post:
To provide more transparency on the actions we take against cheating and exploitation, here is an accounting of the number of actions that were taken over the last month, December 2023:
Total Exploitative WoW Account Actions in December 2023: 270970
All of these actions were for cheating or exploitation, which primarily result in permanent bans or 6-month suspensions. This number does not include other actions such as those taken on accounts with character name or in-game language violations. We continue to evolve our methods and act against these malicious accounts on a daily basis.
This is a startling number in comparison to other months in 2023 which had the following number of accounts getting either banned or suspended:
- June 2023 - 127,014
- July 2023 - 116,921
- August 2023 - 145,566
- September 2023 - 136,014
- October 2023 - 203,026
- November 2023 - 197,455
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WoW Ban Wave Community Reaction
The overwhelming consensus of players is that although these are good steps, they do not ultimately help fight the bigger issue which is gold buyers. Not only are they going against Blizzard's ToS but they are also harming the experience for other players trying to play World of Warcraft fairly. It is as if the very fun is being sucked out of the game in favor of acquiring items through malicious ways.
Currently, the overwhelming majority of the community believes that the gold buyers are responsible for the massive amount of bots running wild. If there were no gold buyers, there would be no incentive to have as many bots in the first place.
Overall, we might see a shift in the way Blizzard approaches detecting and punishing players who use exploits in World of Warcraft. The active player base remains skeptical of Blizzard's actions or lack thereof regarding tackling the sheer number of cheaters and bots, but hopefully, players will get to experience 2024 without falling victim to bad actors actively tarnishing and ruining the fun for everyone else.
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