Why is Hotsauce's HotUtils not against ToS?

I will post once in here, as I know people of all types are out with their pitchforks right now.

Are bots out there technically against the T.O.S., yes they are.

A T.O.S. agreement is made to specifically be as broad as possible to protect the interest of the company providing the game/service/etc, and not the user of that service. It would make no sense for CG to alter that, as they want to stay in full control of what they are providing, and yes can pick and choose at their own discretion what is ok and what is not. That is their right.

It is also now the right of the community to be upset with those decisions, feel that they are unfair, and thus protest. I myself think Ahnald brings a lot to the community, and have had a great relationship with him, even after he just drove over me with a bus in his latest video :). The quality and production values of his videos are amazing, and he seems like a really good guy.

So now if the argument is, well why does he have his ALT account banned, yet these bots and services technically use a form of account sharing, them and everyone involved should be banned as well, here is my perspective.

Bots/Services: These are overwhelming designed to HELP players with THEIR OWN accounts. It is to improve their quality of life, bring improvements to their game experience, and continue to help engage them in the game and building their own accounts.

Account Trading/Selling/Buying: Yes this happens in many games, and almost unanimously game developers try and stop it and don't want it to happen. It is for financial and legal reasons I am sure.

So now looking at what CG did. They used their broad T.O.S. to ban Anhalds alt account, which happened to be a mega kraken account from a different region that he obtained, basically starting at the very end of the game without having to invest any money. On top he had to phone into support, in which support now was needed to repair the state of the account if he was going to use it/purchase with it. Now of course, that all triggered community outrage. I would break this down in several ways.

1) Ahnald should of been allowed to keep it due to everything he does for the game and community. I somewhat agree with this take, however I also understand the negative side for CG and the precedent in doing this.

2) Since a T.O.S. violation was used, every single person in the community that could possibly fall under that same T.O.S. violation, should also be shutdown or banned or its unfair. I understand the argument at face value, but again CG as the owners of the game and us having agreed to the agreement, do and should have the right to choose when and how to apply it, just like everyone here has the right to be upset by the choice.

In summary, it sucks that Ahnald and other youtubers do not have maxed test accounts anymore. I wish they did, and do I want what happened to him to blowback on all the services out there that are filling in holes to help make the game better for us all, I seriously, seriously hope not.

I wish Ahnald all the best, If I had any say in the matter I would hope that Ahnald and CG could connect up and work this out. Meet where the sun shines (at a safe social distancing), and work out the issue, there has to be better solution than whats happening now!

Hotsauce (HotUtils)