Blizzard has apologised after a recent World Of Warcraft ban wave resulted in people who were banned for account sharing being told they were actually being punished for real money transactions (RMT).
As reported by PCGamesN, over the last day there have been reports of players who feel they have been mistakenly banned for “exploitative activity: real money transaction,” which refers to spending real money to buy in-game gold via third-party sites.
Many of these players – after being banned – then reported getting a second ban, this time for account sharing.
After some confusion, Blizzard has stepped in to say that while the ‘real money transaction’ reason was incorrect, the bans were in fact for account sharing and had been applied intentionally.
“There was a banwave this evening – unfortunately, some initially received an RMT notice in error. The second [ban] they would have received would have been the one that was applied,” said a Blizzard customer support agent, who added that they “apologise for any confusion this may have caused.”
Within World Of Warcraft, RMT and account sharing can go hand in hand. This is because some players are known to use a service whereby they pay real money to other players, who then log into their accounts to “boost” them through challenging content to earn its rewards.
Boosting is not against the rules if no account sharing is committed and no real-world money is exchanged – for example, if a party escorts someone through a tough raid and does all of the work, no rules would be broken.
One famous booster is none other than Blizzard’s own president, Mike Ybarra, who caused controversy when it was revealed that he offered in-game raid boosts along with his in-game guild.
In other news, Ubisoft has moved its Six Major tournament from the United Arab Emirates following concerns from the community regarding the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
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