Tag: Ban

RuneScape Slams Clue Scroll Exploiters With Banhammer


Jagex has dropped the banhammer hard on six accounts found to be exploiting a bug in this past week’s clue scroll overhaul. Jagex posted on the RuneScape Subreddit to note that while six accounts were banned for utilizing the exploit, more than 50 other accounts were banned for attempting to trade said exploited goods for real money. The exploit involved a very specific set of circumstances and led to rewards being duplicated and then distributed around the economy.

In the post, Mod Infinity noted that Jagex is confident that most of the items have been swept up, that the impact on the economy would be negligible, and that items that were sold to other players will be removed with the gold reimbursed to the buyer.

It was indeed much harder to reproduce than just having a full inventory, that just sends excess loot to the bank. This required you to have a specific inventory set-up, a specific final clue step, and a specific final clue challenge. Those exact circumstances sadly did not manifest in testing.

(Source: Reddit #1, Reddit #2)

Bungie’s Statement in Regards to Destiny 2 Bans


Bungie has released a statement regarding the Destiny 2 bans that MMO Fallout reported on last night. For the sake of clarity, we are posting the statement in its entirety.

We have seen lots of questions about bans being issued in the PC version of Destiny 2. To provide some information, we would like to share some facts.
The following is true:
  • Destiny 2 cannot automatically ban you, only Bungie can ban a player after a manual investigation
  • Yesterday, we banned approximately 400 players on PC
  • Bans were applied to players who were using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game
  • We did not (and will not) issue any bans for the use of overlays or performance tools, including Discord, Xsplit, OBS, RTSS, etc.
  • Information on using third-party applications can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Help/Article/46101 
  • We are overturning 4 of the bans that were issued during the PC Beta
We are committed to providing an experience that is fun and fair for the millions of players who have joined us in this community.

*URGENT PSA* Recording/Overlay Software Is Causing Permanent Destiny 2 Bans


(Update: Bungie’s PC Project Lead has called this “Internet BS.”)

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It looks like certain recording software is triggering permanent bans in Destiny 2 on PC.

Head on over to the Bungie forums and you’ll find tons of posts from players reporting that they’ve been banned within hours, some within minutes of booting up Destiny 2 for the first time, some before even making it into the game. According to an FAQ on the official website, software with “overlay” features is incompatible with Destiny 2 due to security features programmed into the game to stop how certain cheats are injected into the game code. While the website uses the term “incompatible,” it doesn’t actually state that using said software regardless might be a bannable offense.

Well it is. Permanently.

The list of “incompatible” programs includes the Nvidia Geforce Experience, Fraps, Discord, Mumble, Afterburner, and more. Virtually any program with some sort of overlay feature is incompatible to some extent with the game. And to top it off, according to numerous users affected by these bans for game overlays, Bungie support is doing absolutely nothing to help. According to Bungie’s support, they will not review bans under any circumstance:

There are NO options to dispute or overturn account restrictions or bans. Permanent account bans are only implemented with rigorous checking to ensure that the innocent are not punished alongside the guilty. Bungie does not comment on or discuss individual account restriction or bans.

If players are getting immediately banned for overlay software, that makes Bungie’s claim of “rigorous checking” a complete lie. Bungie might want to check their policy at the door in this case, because they are looking at a PR disaster and very likely some litigation if the issue is as widespread as it appears.

As of yet, none of Bungie’s social media accounts have acknowledged the bans, nor have any staff posted on the forums. MMO Fallout is attempting to get in touch with Bungie/Activision for contact and will follow up once we have more information. Please note that this is technically unconfirmed on our end, but the sheer number of people claiming bans for the same issue has led us to issue this warning.

Blizzard Again Promises Tough Punishment For Overwatch Trolls


If you could formulate a plan to effectively punish, and get rid of, toxic players in your community, you might just become the richest person in the gaming industry. Until then, we’ll need to sit back and watch as developers continue to commit to punishing toxic community members and hope that everything works out for the best.

For Blizzard, the ongoing discussion of toxicity has come back up after director Jeff Kaplan posted on the official forums regarding an account that had miraculously accrued more than two thousand complaints, been silenced for more than a year’s worth of time, and has been suspended three times.

"That account has a total of 2247 complaints filed against it — making it one of the worst offending accounts we’ve seen. The account has also been silenced for a total of 9216 hours. There are 3 gameplay suspensions on the account as well as 7 silences against this account (these are for abusive chat and/or spam). There is also a manual GM account suspension for "massive griefing" levied."

Blizzard’s plans to alleviate grief include removing silencing altogether and utilizing suspensions/bans more. For competitive, Kaplan stated that the company is in the process of handing out bans/suspensions for players who boosted in Season 5 of competitive mode, also adding that players will be permanently banned from competitive if they are found to be abusing it repeatedly.

"We will do this as it is our responsibility but we’d like to spend more time rewarding good players rather than having to focus on poor sportsmanship and unacceptable bad behavior so much. Like it or not, this is an "us, the OW community problem" and not just an "OW team problem". For better or for worse, we’re in this together."

Long term plans involve promoting positive behavior. Toxic behavior is a problem that MMO Fallout has reported endlessly on, with various developers flexing their muscles and threatening harsher punishments and longer bans. For developers, especially those with large competitive communities, the fight against toxicity is a constant uphill battle.

Valve Drops 40,000 Accounts In Mass Ban


It may not surprise you to learn that Valve bans thousands of Steam accounts every day for cheating, between two to four thousand VAC bans and just as many game bans on a daily basis. A website that tracks and estimates inventory value determined that a total of $7,387 in items were taken out of the market along with the banned accounts. This makes for the highest ban day in Steam history, by a long shot.

In case you were wondering about timing, the bans were laid down right after the end of the latest Steam summer sale. VAC bans will extend to all accounts that share the same phone number and will ban that phone number from being reused for three months. In addition, players will be unable to move items from VAC banned accounts, meaning those expensive weapon skins are now permanently stuck to a tainted account.

(Source: VAC Database)

Zenimax Permanently Bans Hundreds of ESO Accounts Over Morrowind Codes


A bunch of players logged into their emails to find some bizarre notifications this week. For some, they were learning that not only had their subscription been cancelled but their accounts were permanently disabled. While MMO Fallout is not a stranger to reports of mass bans over cheating or bug abuse, this one is a bit peculiar. As it turns out, Zenimax Online permanently banned players over their Morrowind game codes.

The issue, at least for many, appears to stem from the player having entered an early access code for Morrowind without later entering in the full product code (which would indicate that they pre-ordered for early access and simply cancelled). Others noted that they had cancelled their pre-orders due to issues with Amazon not shipping/delaying physical copies of the collector’s edition. Others went further, stating that they had not only received their copies but had entered the codes only to find their accounts banned due to not owning the content anyway.

The thread discussing the incident can be found here, with players complaining of being locked out despite customer service claiming to reactivate their accounts for 24 hours to resubmit their product key. Codes which, for users who already redeemed the keys on their accounts, will be useless.

“Thank you for reaching out to us about your account. Our records show that this account has been deactivated as a result of not applying a valid Morrowind game code. This account has been notified on multiple occasions that we required a Morrowind Collector’s Edition code to be redeemed on the account, and as a result of this code not being redeemed, the account has been turned off.

However, we are willing to make a one-time exception and have reactivated this account for 24 hours. During this time, we ask that you please redeem a valid Morrowind game code to your account. Should your account not have a Morrowind game code redeemed on it within 24 hours, the account will be permanently deactivated. If you have any questions or issues redeeming a code, please respond to this message, and we’d be happy to provide assistance.”

The accounts have since been reactivated. Zenimax’s official statement:

Yesterday, we deactivated a few hundred game accounts due to not applying a valid ESO: Morrowind game code. However, we found that some game accounts were wrongfully suspended and we are in the process of fixing those accounts now. This should only take a couple hours to complete today; we appreciate your patience while we correct this issue. If you are still not able to access your account by this afternoon, please contact our Support Team and they will follow up with you. Thanks in advance, and we apologize for the confusion this has caused.

Entertainment Software Association Speaks Out Against Immigration Ban


The entertainment industry is speaking out against recent orders by the Trump Administration to impose a travel ban over the weekend, with the Entertainment Software Association being the latest to comment. In a press release issued today, the association had this to say:

“The Entertainment Software Association urges the White House to exercise caution with regard to vital immigration and foreign worker programs. As a leading force in technology and exporter of entertainment, the U.S. video game industry thrives on the contributions of innovators and storytellers from around the world. While recognizing that enhancing national security and protecting our country’s citizens are critical goals, our companies rely on the skilled talent of U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, and immigrants alike. Our nation’s actions and words should support their participation in the American economy.”

Protests have sprung up all over the United States and in countries abroad, over orders suspending entry to the United States of people with nationality in a list of countries identified as ‘terrorist hotbeds.’ Countless organizations have weighed in on the issue, including the Game Developers Conference who have promised to refund tickets to anyone unable to attend.

(Source: ESA)

EA Is Working To Restore Access To Myanmar


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Electronic Arts has responded to complaints that the Origin service is unavailable in Myanmar, with Community Manager EA_Tom announcing that the company is working on restoring access to affected customers.

The whole ordeal started with players in Myanmar finding out that their access to legitimately purchased Origin games had been blocked. According to ‘Champions,’ EA’s volunteer moderators, the block was due to complying with economic sanctions not allowing Electronic Arts to do business in specific countries. Players have no ability to access their games and, as it appears, EA had no intention of offering any sort of compensation for those who were locked out of their games or had bought newer titles (Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, etc) only to find that their purchases are useless.

For those who pay attention to political games, the ban makes no sense. According to users on the forums, the bans only went into place last month despite Myanmar being under economic sanctions by the US for years now with EA doing nothing to prevent purchases from the country. Furthermore, the economic sanctions were lifted by President Obama on October 7th, meaning that Electronic Arts is continuing to enforce economic sanctions that haven’t existed in close to a month.

Many are also doubting EA’s handling of the situation as other digital services in Burma/Myanmar (Steam, Good Old Games, etc) have been functioning in the country just fine. MMO Fallout will update as soon as we have more information.

tom

Kakao Permanently Bans Bug Abusers


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Forum moderators over at Black Desert Online are no doubt getting ready for the barrage of “I was banned for nothing” threads as Kakao has permanently banned a number of accounts over an incident that occurred this week. A number of players figured out an exploit involving the shovel item and empty bottles, resulting in the use of both items being temporarily disabled while the team figured out how to fix the exploit.

The use of exploits to gain an unfair advantage over other Players is an egregious violation of our Terms of Use. As such these Users have been permanently removed from the game. We wish to make our stance clear regarding this type of behavior; it will not be tolerated.

(Source: Black Desert Online)