I'm not a lawyer or expert on law in this area. I dont know if any pre-existing cases that are similar to this. But, Blizzard banning players in the way they do seems so illegal. Just using my common sense, it seems blizzard would have a hard time justifying their actions if a competent lawyer presented the case well against them.
So a lot of people grew up playing games and there's this gigantic cultural belief that if you 'cheat' at a game, you deserve negative consequences. cheaters are lesser people and deserve everything they get. they should be banned for life, etc etc. Botters dont have a voice. we pretty much can't fight this label. It's really sad to me. No one think's critically about the situation. Cheating, botting, it's all looked at very black and white. I have a big problem with that because I bot but I dont consider myself a cheater. To me a cheater is someone who gains real life unfair advantage. So what's unfair vs fair? To me, it's subjective, and not black and white. But it's easy for people to not use their brains and think so simply and not thinking critically about this question. For example, I do not consider myself a cheater when I used honorbuddy because I dont feel like I had a unfair advantage. I believe unfair advantage only applies to real life things, like cheating at gambling. I never did anything in the game to gain a real life unfair advantage. Here's an example, to me the majority of honorbuddy players are those that have gotten older and now have real life responsibilities. They have less time to play and are easily at an in-game disadvantage over younger players. I could argue that a 18 year old adult living at home with no job, able to play all day, has an unfair advantage. Why isn't this person punished in real life like the older adult using a bot? I'm asking you to think outside the box and not in your gamer bubble. I know what im saying sounds weird. To me it does not sound weird though. I try and break everything down to a fundamental level. Cultural bias and influences i throw out. Any indoctrination believes I throw out. I clear my mind and try and not let anything influence my thinking. Honestly when you start thinking like this, you realize how much lies and distortion there is in life. Everyone wants to control you and make you live in fear. I digress.
I could go on and on, but blizzard made the game, and the decision makers at blizzard are going to decide what to do with botters based on their own beliefs. Those beliefs are not necessarily legal. and that is my problem. I dont think they are legal. I think they are illegal and no one has sued them yet due to popular cultural beliefs, stigma, etc. No one taken them on because they probably feel that cant win. which may be true. winning and what's correct are not always the same
My biggest problems with blizzard banning me and others is this:
1) They ban indiscriminately. So you can have someone who fired up honorbuddy for 30 minutes and they get the same ban as someone who ran gatherbuddy 24x7 and sold gold for real life money. To me this seems really lazy on blizzard and really bad because one person is actually much more in the wrong (the gold seller) because they are making money off someone else trademark property. The other barely did anything and harmed no one.
2) I spent a TON of time playing the game. Botting and not botting. A ton of time. All that time was a progression that is now taken away from me. I suffered hugely by this. like I cant even put into words the damage this does to someone who puts all this time into the game. My time is worth something to me , and they took it. They are thieves. Thieves get sued. right?
3) MONEY. I paid blizzard lots of money. I'm sure many of you did. I didnt abuse the economy. I contributed to the game, gave them my money, and they take everything away without any compensation. This is the biggest part that seems illegal to me. Infact it's why I believe blizzard no longer "perma ban" botters, because it's a legal liability to them that they dont want to risk. but they will risk timed bans. they even risk not giving you any of your money back. thats more thievery imo
So theres more I could add to this, but I'm tired of typing at the moment. I think blizzard's actions are illegal and they are just abusing their "power" over the little guy.
So a lot of people grew up playing games and there's this gigantic cultural belief that if you 'cheat' at a game, you deserve negative consequences. cheaters are lesser people and deserve everything they get. they should be banned for life, etc etc. Botters dont have a voice. we pretty much can't fight this label. It's really sad to me. No one think's critically about the situation. Cheating, botting, it's all looked at very black and white. I have a big problem with that because I bot but I dont consider myself a cheater. To me a cheater is someone who gains real life unfair advantage. So what's unfair vs fair? To me, it's subjective, and not black and white. But it's easy for people to not use their brains and think so simply and not thinking critically about this question. For example, I do not consider myself a cheater when I used honorbuddy because I dont feel like I had a unfair advantage. I believe unfair advantage only applies to real life things, like cheating at gambling. I never did anything in the game to gain a real life unfair advantage. Here's an example, to me the majority of honorbuddy players are those that have gotten older and now have real life responsibilities. They have less time to play and are easily at an in-game disadvantage over younger players. I could argue that a 18 year old adult living at home with no job, able to play all day, has an unfair advantage. Why isn't this person punished in real life like the older adult using a bot? I'm asking you to think outside the box and not in your gamer bubble. I know what im saying sounds weird. To me it does not sound weird though. I try and break everything down to a fundamental level. Cultural bias and influences i throw out. Any indoctrination believes I throw out. I clear my mind and try and not let anything influence my thinking. Honestly when you start thinking like this, you realize how much lies and distortion there is in life. Everyone wants to control you and make you live in fear. I digress.
I could go on and on, but blizzard made the game, and the decision makers at blizzard are going to decide what to do with botters based on their own beliefs. Those beliefs are not necessarily legal. and that is my problem. I dont think they are legal. I think they are illegal and no one has sued them yet due to popular cultural beliefs, stigma, etc. No one taken them on because they probably feel that cant win. which may be true. winning and what's correct are not always the same
My biggest problems with blizzard banning me and others is this:
1) They ban indiscriminately. So you can have someone who fired up honorbuddy for 30 minutes and they get the same ban as someone who ran gatherbuddy 24x7 and sold gold for real life money. To me this seems really lazy on blizzard and really bad because one person is actually much more in the wrong (the gold seller) because they are making money off someone else trademark property. The other barely did anything and harmed no one.
2) I spent a TON of time playing the game. Botting and not botting. A ton of time. All that time was a progression that is now taken away from me. I suffered hugely by this. like I cant even put into words the damage this does to someone who puts all this time into the game. My time is worth something to me , and they took it. They are thieves. Thieves get sued. right?
3) MONEY. I paid blizzard lots of money. I'm sure many of you did. I didnt abuse the economy. I contributed to the game, gave them my money, and they take everything away without any compensation. This is the biggest part that seems illegal to me. Infact it's why I believe blizzard no longer "perma ban" botters, because it's a legal liability to them that they dont want to risk. but they will risk timed bans. they even risk not giving you any of your money back. thats more thievery imo
So theres more I could add to this, but I'm tired of typing at the moment. I think blizzard's actions are illegal and they are just abusing their "power" over the little guy.
