Ban

There are two kinds of actions that the Guild Wars Support Team may take in reaction to a breach of the Rules of Conduct and/or the Guild Wars: User Agreement. Although both are commonly called "bans," that is a misnomer. The two levels of sanction placed by Support are:


 * Account Suspension (a temporary block on an account)
 * Account Termination (a permanent ban on an account)

Block
The vast majority of players against whom the Support Team takes action are given a temporary suspension, a "block." A block can last for a few days or it may extend for a week or longer. Common causes of blocks are spamming, the use of offensive chat, choosing an unacceptable name for a character, linking to an offensive website, etc. That is not to say that such misbehavior will only receive a suspension or block, but it is to say that a block may be the most common outcome of engaging in such behavior.

Escalating scale
The length of a block is based on the severity of the offense and on the past behavior of a player. A player who has an occasional mild breach of the rules may have only a few days' suspension. A player who repeatedly flouts the rules will find his suspension extended, and may have his account terminated altogether. This is because blocks increase on an escalating scale every time a player gets an account mark. This is explained in depth in the Conduct Breaches and Outcomes document.

Ban
An account termination, or ban, is generally considered permanent. An account is terminated for a serious breach of the User Agreement. Bans have been given for the use of disallowed third-party programs, such as a bot program; for the exploitation of a bug or game glitch; for abusing another player through a  scam; for real money trading, for repeated violations of the User Agreement, and for other situations, as explained in the Conduct Breaches and Outcomes document.


 * Since the May 26th 2010 update, Dhuum appears in-game whenever an account is terminated or suspended and kills the player. A video can be seen here.