My Story

Good morning fellow exiles,

This is my first forum post ever, so please bear with me. I would also like to state this is a newer account and will not be the account referenced in my story. Its also a lengthy story but if you have the time, please read.

First, a little backstory, I have played PoE for quite some time now. It started kind of slow as I learned the game and fought the challenge of all the skill trees, mechanics, etc. On my steam account I have clocked in around 1800 hours plus the hours on this account, which I'm not really sure. Every league I try and dedicate myself to a new league mechanic and strategy for making currency to learn the ins and outs and better understand it as a whole, if that makes sense. Well last couple leagues all that knowledge has started to pay off and I have seen great success in making money and getting my character to a point that makes me proud. Believe me, I love PoE and it shows with the amount of money I have invested into the game via supporter packs. I forgot the exact number but I want to say around the $800 USD mark, with the latest and greatest purchase being the $500 supporter pack that let you design a Valdo's Puzzle Box and got the awesome map device that displays monster kills in map.

Now this is where the story starts, Affliction league. League start pretty much the same as the previous league, I had a duo partner that built an aura bot and I went a Tornado Shot Magic Find build and we hit the ground running. We broke our previous leagues record of getting a headhunter and all that jazz. As we all know once you really get into the end game of PoE gumball currencies get out of hand, to a point where its like "Will I ever really use 20,000 orbs of alchemy." Well what do you do with all that extra?? You bulk sell it!! Post it on the trade site and wait for somebody to message you etc etc. This of course involves tons and tons and tons of clicking of items in trade window and gets old fast.

This is where I am in the wrong. I decided to use a macro, similar to macros I have used for other games. That basically went through and clicked all the inventory slots of my character to then transfer it to the other window (Trade, stash, etc) I should have did my research on it more before deciding to use such macro as I did not know it was against the games Terms. If I would have known, believe me no such thing would have been used and I would like to apologize to the community for the use of such a macro.

Naturally, my account receives a ban. Of course shock and confusion hit when I go to log in and I start to panic. I am checking emails and notification on PoE website to see what happened, nothing. I email the support team at GGG and look for a response. (Side note: That $500 supporter pack was purchased literally the night before, less than 12 hours before ban) The support team was busy around that time, as a lot of people were having similar issues. Apparently, it was a big ban wave that went out and a lot of people were affected. Well, around a week later I get my first response stating I violated section 7 of terms of use. Correct me if I am wrong but I read it as I violated line C "Utilize any automated software or 'bots' in relation to your access or use of the Website, Materials or Services."

So at this point I literally just got the support pack and my accounts banned. At the time I am fully flustered, I would do anything to get the account I have worked so hard on back. The moment I came to realize the macro was the problem it was uninstalled, deleted, everything. I pleaded my case with the support team in hopes I could receive a second chance or even at the very least get my money back for that latest transaction if my account was just truly locked for good. To which every reply I get just seems copied and pasted from a script or even a bot replying to me. After a few days of emailing back and forth trying to work out some way to prove to the support team, I gave up. They won. I have seen many stories were people were offered second chances, but for me that opportunity did not exist.

Remember that duo? Well majority of our collective currency resides on that accounts stash and it was gone now. However, after a week or two of defeat, I swallowed my pride and made a new account (This one) to continue the league with my friend because I felt bad that his league was cut short of this and honestly I cannot help that I do in fact love this game.

Fast forward a bit and PoE is releasing these new quality of life improvements in the upcoming league. I decide to watch them and the first big one that catches my eye is the new mass currency move. Where you Control + Shift + click a currency item and guess what? The entire stack of currency moves into whatever window you are in (trade, stash, etc) Sound familiar? It was the main reason I did use that macro, mass trading currency items.

I got a little angry, my friends that stood next to me during the Ban got little angry, but I pushed that aside and saw hope. Hope that maybe this could be a little more leverage for me to reason with the support team and get my account back!!!! Wrong. I got the same response over and over stating "This account has already been evaluated and will remain closed." I have tried asking for a reevaluation or to speak to a higher person on the totem pole with no luck. Same response.

I write my very lengthy story today to really get feedback from the community. What should I do? What would you do? Why do I not deserve a second chance?

I have asked stuff like: can I get a grace period to prove the problem is resolved? Can you look at this new account (granted it is lot fresher) and see that I am no longer using that macro?

Any feedback is welcome. Thank you for reading my story

do GGG rly ban for macros ? or specific macros only. what macro did you manage to create that it was counted as bot? program ? mouse macros ?

you cheated, you got banned what is there to talk about?

you automated interactions of the game, and no it doesn't matter which action those were. It also doesn't matter that those actions made into the basegame. and it never helped whining about it in the forums.

To my knowledge and understanding is you can have a ONE button to ONE action. However, mine was ONE button to MULTIPLE actions which I believe resulted in the ban. Wouldn't quote me on it though

Thanks for the reply

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Rage2 wrote:

To my knowledge and understanding is you can have a ONE button to ONE action. However, mine was ONE button to MULTIPLE actions which I believe resulted in the ban. Wouldn't quote me on it though

Thanks for the reply

o y that pure ban then. its considered pure cheating,

i still kinda find it strange that GGG perma bans with 1 offense

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tsunamikun wrote:

you cheated, you got banned what is there to talk about?

you automated interactions of the game, and no it doesn't matter which action those were. It also doesn't matter that those actions made into the basegame. and it never helped whining about it in the forums.

You are right, not arguing your points at all. This post is more of a vent than anything else. I just want my story to be heard instead of receiving seemingly automated responses in emails. If that makes sense

Thanks for the reply

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anti4z500 wrote:

"

Rage2 wrote:

To my knowledge and understanding is you can have a ONE button to ONE action. However, mine was ONE button to MULTIPLE actions which I believe resulted in the ban. Wouldn't quote me on it though

Thanks for the reply

o y that pure ban then. its considered pure cheating,

i still kinda find it strange that GGG perma bans with 1 offense

Yeah, trust me I highly regret it. I would have liked some sort of warning or even a temporary ban to educate me in the wrong doings and that way I could have fixed it right then and there.

Yup one button multiple action is insta ban. People in the past used to tinker with their trade macro to do some extra stuff and also were banned for it.

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Aynix wrote:

Yup one button multiple action is insta ban. People in the past used to tinker with their trade macro to do some extra stuff and also were banned for it.

Oh yeah found that out the hard way. But just like in the other reply, the main reason I just feel puzzled is there was no warning or anything where i could fix what i was doing wrong. Then ofcourse my personal feelings are hurt in the lost of money thats being burned

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Rage2 wrote:

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Aynix wrote:

Yup one button multiple action is insta ban. People in the past used to tinker with their trade macro to do some extra stuff and also were banned for it.

Oh yeah found that out the hard way. But just like in the other reply, the main reason I just feel puzzled is there was no warning or anything where i could fix what i was doing wrong. Then ofcourse my personal feelings are hurt in the lost of money thats being burned

They may also be prep'ing for all the salty people losing the LMB for instant skills that plan to use a macro to replace that function full well knowing that's not allowed.

Perhaps they intend to provide no leniency because of the onslaught of cheating that is to come.