Bans for grinding

Ommamar

Last night a high ranking member of one of my guilds stated that players where getting banned for "grinding". This made no sense as certain goals demand that you farm for motifs and materials to use those motifs. Not there yet but from what I hear grinding is a common practice once you have reached a certain point in the current vet level system. I would really like someone from ZOS to come on to state exactly what the situation is regarding this perception.

Yusuf

I'm no ZOS-Employee but i'll tell you this: grind all you want as long as you don't exploit anything

Csub

I would really be surprised if it was the case, I doubt it is against the TOS to grind. Maybe that high ranking member just wants all the spots for himself or herself! Or was simply drunk. :P

Gythral

Grinding - unlikely to get a ban.
Not allowing others to complete a quest goal or being abusive to others for trying to quest etc, maybe...

mandragor1996

Hehe half the server would be banned if that was the case

Ommamar

mandragor1996 wrote: »

Hehe half the server would be banned if that was the case

I agree Mandragor. It bother me though that someone had that perception particularly when they have played since release and have their own guild.

Nestor

Ommamar wrote: »

Last night a high ranking member of one of my guilds stated that players where getting banned for "grinding".

I bet those "banned" people are still on today.

Unless you are using a macro or a script to accomplish this, you can do whatever you want in the game and ZOS won't care. I think if you harass other players in various ways you can have some action taken against you. But other than that, if you are in human control of your character, then they sky is pretty much the limit as to what you can do.

Here is what I really think is going on. Some people are control freaks and have this need to tell others how to do things. Some of them will make up crap to justify their way of doing things and get others to believe it. Or, he was being out farmed and was trying to get others to stop so he could get his harvest. While the rest of us just come back to the place in 30 minutes and do our path. I recognize that there are some out there that are better at farming than me, I let them have the area and come back. The game always spawns more, no need to try and beat them.

For the record, killing mobs over and over again is farming to me, other people will call it grinding as they are just looking for exp, while I am looking for loot.

Now, there is a favorite delve for me to farm. When other players were in there, I would always wait on going after the boss until they were ready. I know that is the main reason they are usually in there, and it's not cricket to take out the boss on my grinding path before them. So, I would pause, wait for them to engage, then help them with the kill. Then I would go on with my path. Everybody is happy.

Ommamar

I agree Nestor. You never get the whole story and when pressed he just said it was someone he knew who said they where grinding when they got banned. It is likely he was doing something to interfere with someone else to receive a ban. So when he was telling the story he didn't mention that part or the person focused on the activity of grinding.

AlexDougherty

Ommamar wrote: »

Last night a high ranking member of one of my guilds stated that players where getting banned for "grinding". This made no sense as certain goals demand that you farm for motifs and materials to use those motifs. Not there yet but from what I hear grinding is a common practice once you have reached a certain point in the current vet level system. I would really like someone from ZOS to come on to state exactly what the situation is regarding this perception.

After you finish Cadwell's gold, there is only Grinding.

So ZOS unlikely to ban people for grinding.

Now using Exploits, Griefing, stopping others from getting at bosses, and repeatedly broadcasting the same idiotic message twelves times a minute, these could get you a ban/suspension.

yodased

I don't need anyone from ZOS to tell you that the person who was claiming to be banned for 'grinding' is completely misconstruing the word.

One of those, that word doesn't mean what you think it means.

Only bans I have ever seen in this game:

Duping
Harassment
Cheating
Spamming (Most are false, but whaddyagonnado)
BOTs
Z-Axis Hacking
Speed Hacks
PvP Exploits
Griefing

Now, if he means that he is using a program to go node to node and collect resources, this is not grinding this is cheating.

If he is threatening other players because they are taking 'his' resources, thats 'griefing'

too many details left out of the situation to warrant a hypothesis.

Ommamar

That was my logic too Alex. There are just some points and goals that require you to grind. I did have a guy last night follow me around for 20 minutes or so using the yell emote or the war horn because I apparently mined an ebony node he thought was his then some Bugloss he had ran past. I mentioned sending a harassment message to ZOS and he left. Maybe that is what happened with this persons acquaintance.

Nihil

Way long ago I heard of some people who got temporary banned for "grinding" but they were abusing an exploit that helped them level faster, which when asked they basically said it was an exploit but it was okay XD.

Ommamar

Well Yodased I am glad you don't need any one from ZOS to tell me but I would prefer if they did.
I am glad that you know so much about me that you know what that word means to me.

With all that I do agree there isn't much to go on. He simply stated in guild chat don't grind because you will get banned. When pressed he said one of his friends had been banned for grinding. What else that friend might of been doing while grinding wasn't stated.

yodased

Doesn't matter what the word means to you, it matters what the word means to ZOS lol

Draxys

This brings up another issue: there need to be better way to grind levels, they are few to non-existent right now. Those of us with max level characters should have the option to grind our alts up in a decent amount of time, instead of doing a second round of tedious chores.

AlexDougherty

Nihil wrote: »

Way long ago I heard of some people who got temporary banned for "grinding" but they were abusing an exploit that helped them level faster, which when asked they basically said it was an exploit but it was okay XD.

Well that's stupid of them, an exploit is never ok, if you know it's an exploit you have no defence, and it's not much of a defence if you don't know.

Using a known exploit is like yelling at ZOS "Ban me Ban me"

Ommamar wrote: »

That was my logic too Alex. There are just some points and goals that require you to grind. I did have a guy last night follow me around for 20 minutes or so using the yell emote or the war horn because I apparently mined an ebony node he thought was his then some Bugloss he had ran past. I mentioned sending a harassment message to ZOS and he left. Maybe that is what happened with this persons acquaintance.

That's probably it, they were either using exploits or behaving like idiots.

ZOS_AmeliaR

Hey everyone. We certainly understand the frustration your guildmate is likely experiencing and we're happy to provide some clarification on the questions you have around what is permitted in-game and what is not.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom actually provided a great explanation of this when we launched ESO back in April and some folks had similar questions about whether farming (in that particular case, farming bosses) was a violation of our Terms of Service.

Manual grinding experience/loot or farming for a certain item are not violations of our Terms of Service. As Jessica explains in the post linked above, using a botting or macroing program to do these things would, however, result in disciplinary action on the account in question.

All this being said, per our rules on discussing disciplinary action, we will be closing this thread, as we cannot assist with these types of issues on the forums. If your guildmate hasn't done so already, we recommend that they submit a ticket using the process detailed here in order to appeal the ban on their account. That will be the most effective way to get their situation addressed by the appropriate team. Thank you for understanding.