Perm-banned for buying from DMF-Vendor

[fuffi]

Hey everyone,
I'm here to appeal against the ban of my Account(s) fuffi (fuff2 and fuff3 are also banned). I'm honestly dumbfounded as to how this is a perma-bannable "offense" so i will just start with giving you guys a timeline of yesterday and then explain why I feel the ban is unjustified. This is gonna be a lot of text, so bear with me.

Part 1: The Timeline
In early evening servertime i started buying herbs (specifically Wild Steelbloom, Ghost Mushroom and Dreamfoil) from the DMF-Vendor on the Account fuff3. This was done manually and without any automation. I just interacted with the NPC normally and used an in-game macro consisting of the command /script BuyMerchantItem(index, amount) to buy the herbs whenever the NPCs inventory refreshed. There were already a LOT of people there at the time, sometimes even Horde.
I proceeded playing on my main account during most of this until i was contacted by a GM for the first time around 10pm servertime. Since it is not forbidden to have a 2nd Account Online at the same time (for banking purposes etc.) I assumed using a 2nd Account to buy from the Vendor would also be ok. This GM (Pottu or Pottru or something of the sort) informed and warned me that this was not the case and that I could only continue using one Account at a time. Here is one important part: I explicitly asked him if buying/camping the DMF-Vendor with a Macro was OK and he said “Yes”.
So I logged off on fuff3 using only one Account online from then on out. Later in the evening (close to 12pm servertime) I logged back onto fuff3 to continue buying from the DMF-Vendor but shortly after the items of interested started getting removed on the DMF-Vendor and I logged back onto my main account. Around 12:20pm servertime I was transferred to the GM Island by an unknown GM who refused to give his name. He “interrogated” me on the issue (he seemed clueless about the issue) and informed me that all 3 accounts had been “compromised”, that it was a Major Exploit (E) and all of my accounts had to be permanently closed. With the caveat that if I were to rat out everyone in my guild who did the same until Sunday via a PM to “Tyrael” my “Sentence” would be reduced.
Sadly I only have parts of the GM Conversation Screenshot on Imgur here (http://imgur.com/a/bq05w) and no Screenshots of that conversation with pottu but I trust that you have your GM Conversations logged.

Part 2: My Defense
Exploit or No Exploit
How was I meant to know that buying items from a vendor that said vendor is meant to sell would be considered an exploit at all? Many people were there at the time and knew. This was done with no malicious intent by neither me nor any of the other people (from many guilds btw.). There is even a plethora of guides online that describe buying from the DMF-Vendor as a Gold making technique. Excerpt from one of them (http://www.secretwarcraft.com/content/darkmoon-faire-sw23.html):
“The money-maker is the opportunity to buy large quantities of limited-supply items from the two Exotic Goods vendors. They share a tent at the back of the Faire grounds. …
Normally, limited supply items come up for sale on a 1-hour, 2-hour, 4-hour, or even once-a-day timer. The more valuable and desirable items are always on very long timers. But at the Darkmoon Faire, we're looking at re-spawn timers measured in minutes, not hours, even for some very valuable profit-making items.”
Severity of the Punishment
A perm-ban on all 3 accounts is way too harsh a punishment even IF you (which I do not) consider it an exploit. The impact on the economy of my doing at ban-time was zero (no herbs were sold or used) and all items could have been very easily removed if it was deemed unintended. I was very cooperative towards the GM.
A smiliar situation arose recently when black lotus was introduced to AV in too high quantities. Here you chose to remove (some of) the items gotten by players instead of banning them. Let alone perm-banning.

Closing Words:
I hope I have made my case for the reinstatement of my account(s) and that you will investigate the issue. Hoping to hear from you guys soon.

[Tryptamyne]

The impact on the economy of my doing at ban-time was zero (no herbs were sold or used)

There were many people buying from the vendor at all times, so the herbs that you bought would have been bought anyway, just by someone else.

If a vendor sells items below market price, that item is always going to be bought. Go to that cave in Winterspring and try to buy Felcloth. It's going to be sold out. I wanted to buy the tailoring pattern for Runecloth Bag, but the vendor in Winterspring was being camped so I had to buy the recipe for more expensive from the AH. Why don't those people get banned?

Expecting people not to buy those items is ridiculous and permabanning them boggles the mind.

If someone bought 1 Dreamfoil from the vendor, would he also be banned? Would 3 Dreamfoil be a ban? Is a stack too much? Two stacks?

This seems so arbitrary to me.

And according to your screenshots fuffi was banned for "Major Exploit" which isn't even listed in the Terms of Use https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8 on this website.


The closest one is "Abuse of major in-game bugs;" in the Terms of Use? What was the bug even? You implemented a vendor and people bought from the vendor. Did you expect people to not buy the items from the vendor that you implemented? If you don't want the items bought, don't implement the vendor. I honestly don't understand.

This ban seems entirely unjustified.

[SnowFlakes]

Bump, this is autism level banning.

[Pottu]

At the time when I warned you not to multibox, I was not aware that the vendor inventory was refreshing every 2 minutes, allowing you to purchase highly sought-after herbs for very little money, making a nice profit in the AH. You could have prevented your ban by simply asking me whether it is normal that these herbs are available in such numbers. I would have told you that it's not normal, it's an exploit and it will be hotfixed soon.

Instead you hid that fact from me and proceeded to exploit an obvious bug for personal gain.

This is nothing new, we have banned bug exploiters before and will continue to do so in the future. If you are unsure of something in the game being a bug exploit, please make a ticket and ask a GM.

[Pottu]

Don't spam.

[fuffi]

I honestly considered it the intended behaviour. There was no malicious intent at all. I can understand the warning and the removal of all herbs but at the time i assumed (like many others) that this was the intended behaviour. How could i have known that its not? I DO NOT have encyclopedic knowledge about vanilla. I am returning after more than 10 years.

[Plask]

At the time when I warned you not to multibox, I was not aware that the vendor inventory was refreshing every 2 minutes, allowing you to purchase highly sought-after herbs for very little money, making a nice profit in the AH. You could have prevented your ban by simply asking me whether it is normal that these herbs are available in such numbers. I would have told you that it's not normal, it's an exploit and it will be hotfixed soon.

Instead you hid that fact from me and proceeded to exploit an obvious bug for personal gain.

This is nothing new, we have banned bug exploiters before and will continue to do so in the future. If you are unsure of something in the game being a bug exploit, please make a ticket and ask a GM.

So if you wanna buy something from a vendor you gotta ticket a GM and ask if it's okay?

Also what the hell is wrong with the behaviour of the GM, he is trying to extort him for gods sake. Is this how you wanna treat players? Tell them they are gonna get banned and then use them to try find something to ban their friends for too?

Besides, the ban is really harsh. I know the players getting AV exalted in 2 hours got banned for a week. But buying from a vendor that respawn herbs a few min faster then they should is a permanent ip ban.

Also Pottu, I think you should think over this. You're no the one to blame here, but if the players are supposed to realise when something is wrong you should be expected to do the same. You were asked if it was okay to use a macro to buy from the vendor, why did the player want to buy stuff from the vendor? With this logic that players are supposed to realise it's wrong, at this point you should have realised that something was wrong with the vendor aswell when there is tickets asking about it.

But no, that is so far fetched. I really hope the GM team reconsider this if you cannot, as my confidence in the Nostalrius GM team just went rock-bottom (and I'm sure for many others aswell).

Oh while were on this vendorcamping witchhunt, maybe check all the others vendors that is camped. For example Darkwhisper Gorge vendor that sells felcloth is a commonly camped vendor.

[Casieqt]

Splitpull the last Diremaul boss is legal? AV-groupjoin script exploit response in a 1 week bann? Buying three herbs every two minutes without realy inpact about the servereconomics result in a PERMABANN? Maybe be sure to don't release "Major-Exploitable-Bugged" Content and punish player for obvious servermisstakes.

greetings

[Pottu]

So if you wanna buy something from a vendor you gotta ticket a GM and ask if it's okay?

No. But if said vendor has a limited amount of high value items and those items respawn every 2 minutes instead of 20 minutes or 2 hours or 2 days, then common sense would say that something is wrong.

But buying from a vendor that respawn herbs a few min faster then they should is a permanent ip ban.

Because it could potentially have an massive impact on the economy. Exactly same as with the fishing exploit or the chest exploits.

[Plask]

So if you wanna buy something from a vendor you gotta ticket a GM and ask if it's okay?

No. But if said vendor has a limited amount of high value items and those items respawn every 2 minutes instead of 20 minutes or 2 hours or 2 days, then common sense would say that something is wrong.

But buying from a vendor that respawn herbs a few min faster then they should is a permanent ip ban.

Because it could potentially have an massive impact on the economy. Exactly same as with the fishing exploit or the chest exploits.

You know there is hundreds of lotus and mountain silversage affecting the economy way more then DMF?

Also if you just fixed the vendor it wouldn't have an impact. Or remove the items temporary until someone changes the DB entries, or heck even remove vendor until it's hotfixed.

Once again, I do not understand the reasoning. It is too harsh, it is unjustified and most of all everything good the the developers is building gets overshadowed by this stance towards the players. I get the feeling that GMs rather punish players then being there to help them. Warn a player for doing something the is under "Major sanction E" (lol)? Nah, lets extort him instead and try to catch his friends!