Highlights

  • Blizzard takes banning seriously, having previously banned a record number of World of Warcraft accounts and even handing out bans for default pet names.
  • World of Warcraft fans were both entertained and annoyed by the recent ban of a Hunter player for a Carrion Bird pet with a default name.
  • Unfortunately, unjustified bans for default pet names have happened in the past, with some players being mistaken for bots or gold farmers.

World of Warcraft recently banned a Hunter player for having a Carrion Bird pet that still used the default name. Though the bizarre scenario is comical in some ways, World of Warcraft fans were left puzzled and frustrated by the inexplicable ban.

It is no exaggeration to say Blizzard takes banning seriously. In January, World of Warcraft banned a record number of accounts for botting, cheating, and other abuses, and Hearthstone followed suit in February.

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However, it seems some bans World of Warcraft hands out are given undeservingly. WoW Classic fan and Redditor Nobuuudy recently shared a snapshot from an email they received informing them of their ban from World of Warcraft. They had tamed a pet of the Carrion Bird family as a Hunter in WoW Classic and forgot to rename it. According to the email, their fellow players reported the default name “Carrion Bird” as inappropriate multiple times, leading to the pet being renamed the account’s suspension.

WoW Wrongfully Bans Player for a Default Pet Name

While it was obviously an error, it is hard to imagine how such an incident happened in the first place. Some players surmised fans wrongfully reported Nobuuudy’s character assuming they were a bot, as many gold farmers in Classic WoW often play Hunters with unnamed pets to capitalize on the class' powerful solo ability. Others surmised the error happened because of an automated banning system, attributing the mistake to the recent Microsoft layoffs, which impacted most of Blizzard's customer service team.

Either way, judging from the hundreds of comments on the thread, fans were both entertained and annoyed by this circumstance. Some fans made light of the situation, jokingly being thankful that “this scum is off the streets,” poking fun at Hunter players in World of Warcraft, or making parodies of “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas featuring the Carrion Bird. Others expressed their frustrations with Blizzard, debating with their fellow players about how and why the company hands out certain bans. Either way, most agreed that Nobuuudy will most likely be able to get the ban overturned, given that they didn’t do anything wrong.

Unfortunately, World of Warcraft Hunters have a rough history of unjustified bans. In the comments of Nobuuudy's thread, players showed evidence of Hunters catching bans for default pet names from as far as five years ago. Others have even been mistaken as bots in the past before, such as when a 70-year-old World of Warcraft Hunter player was banned after he was misidentified as a gold farmer. Nobuuudy is not the first World of Warcraft Hunter player to catch a ban by mistake, and sadly, they likely won’t be the last.