Ban – Page 8 – MMO Fallout

Temtem developer Crema today fired not so much a warning shot as a warning kill by announcing the ban of nearly 900 accounts from the newly launched MMO. All accounts in question have been permanently banned with no chance of appeal, with Crema stating their 100% confidence that each account has been caught cheating or abusing exploits.

We just completed our first batch of banned users. Almost 900 players have been permanently banned from Temtem.

Bans are final, we won’t answer or review any ban appeal. We’ve made 100% sure that every banned user is either a cheater or has abused exploits intentionally.

— Temtem (@PlayTemtem) February 3, 2020

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The statement that Crema won’t be reviewing any ban appeals had some members of the community concerned to say the least, as one could cite hundreds of examples of developers messing up and issuing false bans that are later overturned.

The team spent all morning checking banned accounts and player accounts saying “they didn’t do anything illegal”. We re-checked over 100 accounts.

Every single one of them was a legit ban.

— Temtem (@PlayTemtem) February 3, 2020

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Crema has since walked back their comment on a no appeals policy. Players who are banned and believe that it was out of error can appeal their ban by contacting Crema’s support email.

We’ve decided to review ban appeals, even though every single one of the ones we checked are legit. Like you said, having a “no appeal” policy is not good.

So, you can contact us on support@cremagames.com

Put “Ban appeal” as the subject and include your ingame ID or username.

— Temtem (@PlayTemtem) February 3, 2020

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Steam Cleaned: Valve Gives More Shady Devs The Boot

About a week ago I published an editorial talking about the existence of games on Steam that cost a lot of money and don’t exactly justify their price. Titles that look like mobile ports or Unity shovelware that nobody seems to play and not only are being sold for money but a lot of money at that. My hunch at the time was that some of these games may be falling into a less than legal realm, being used as a form of money laundering which certainly wouldn’t be surprising or the first time such a title has shown up on Steam. This isn’t an accusation, just a speculation.

Well it appears I’m not the only one looking into these games as Valve has seen fit to give several of them the boot this week. Let’s dive in.

#1: Lab3D

Lab3D was developed and published by Tantal back in August 2019 and you may need Lasik surgery if you take a look at this screenshot and don’t immediately say “paying $200 is basically robbing the developer, make it $400.” Two hundred smackers, and the developer sounds completely legitimate when responding to a question about the price with:

“No, not trolling. Consider this a kind of experiment, only shhhh. And I can change the base price at any time.”

Lab3D had one review and 51 followers. Was it a money laundering scheme? A troll game? Only the developer knows.

#2: Fantasy Smith VR

Fantasy Smith VR was a $90 product by developer Okamoto 3 Nori, and in addition to the $90 base price it also featured several pieces of DLC all priced out at $40 a pop. Fantasy Smith VR is a little odd because it started out as a $12.99 product before the price suddenly and without explanation hiked up to $89.99 where it sat until Valve banned the game this week. Out of everything on this list, Fantasy Smith VR actually seems like a real game. If you head over to the community hub you’ll find people talking about it playing it and not being happy that the developer hasn’t spoken to anyone.

One of these things is not like the other.

#3: Hunting In Ancient Asia

Hunting in Ancient Asia is another $200 game, this time by Thoth Technology Ltd. everyone’s favorite game developer. Hunting In Ancient Asia had nobody playing it, roughly four instances of one person logged in since it launched in September despite 125 followers. Thoth Technology’s ban could be linked to some questionable reviews that may or may not have been at the behest of the developer. We will never know.

Unlike the other developers on this list, Thoth Technology Ltd. actually had other games on Steam and at more of a reasonable price. In an effort to become the Digital Homicide of virtual reality, Thoth not so much released as it did spam Steam with a bunch of shoddy looking VR titles over the span of the last eleven months, one of which was being sold for $100. I have to assume that the titles sound more elegant in their original Simplified Chinese and were at some level created with education or therapy based clients in mind.

Check em out.

#4: The Ones That Remain

There is a laundry list of games that in my frank opinion warrant Valve’s second look despite the fact that if any of these titles are involved in less than legal operations those activities are probably long over and done with and the cash paid out. These are games that cost $200 (or $100), have zero customers or close to it as far as I can tell, and have no public activity by the developer.

Crisis Action VR; Pixel Wonder
Strike Mole/Physical Ball; Lize
Mouse Run; ATM Game
NUMBER; rongyao0577
LLK; Chenyun0577
Hiscores Gold; Alexander in Uganda
Lgnorant girl doll; wandwand
Adventure Trip; Sunsmaybe Games
Luna and Cynthia; wandwand
Shoot Pump Shoot; Aurora Borealis
Blast Em!; Xiotex Studios Ltd

Third Circuit Court Mutes RuneScape Lawsuit, Again

You all remember Amro Elansari, patron saint of MMO Fallout and guy who is constantly sticking it to the man. What do you stick to the man? Chewing gum, probably.

Last we heard from Mr. Elansari, he had just come off of a failed lawsuit against Jagex over claims that being muted in RuneScape constituted a violation of his freedom of speech, due process, and human rights. Judge Kearney, patron saint of shutting down nonsense, dismissed the case with prejudice noting that a private company like Jagex could not be charged with violations of the constitution. Most definitely they could not be sued on such grounds in state court. Elansari was informed that he could file in federal court should he decide to.

And he decided to, as Elansari appealed to the third circuit federal court who…shut it down immediately. In his appeal, Elansari brought forward a fourteenth amendment complaint which Judges Schwartz, Restrepo, and Rendell noted would require a state actor working with Jagex. If Jagex had a secret state government employee that they were conspiring with to squash Elansari’s constitutional rights, he might have a lawsuit. Elansari did not present any such claim of a state actor, and as a result the lawsuit is kaput.

Elansari also attempted a Title II claim of unequal treatment which would require discrimination based on protected status (race, gender, religion, etc) but Elansari did not make any claim as to his punishment being a result of discrimination. The most recent court filing dismissing the lawsuit is below.

Source: Justia

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#1: Lab3D

#2: Fantasy Smith VR

#3: Hunting In Ancient Asia

#4: The Ones That Remain

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