EDIT: See the end result of the erroneous ban I received due to the actions I took to protest it:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5699624#5699624
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I recently received the following e-mail after being booted from Defiance without any warning;
Original e-mail from Defiance's GM Sharkie
Hello,
You are receiving this notification because it has been determined that this account is exploiting our game client and/or using an unauthorized 3rd party program in order to gain an unfair advantage within Defiance. As a result of these actions your account has been suspended for 72 hours and you will not be able to access the game during this time.
This is your first and final warning for these actions. We skruggin hate cheaters here at Trion and insist that you knock this shtako out immediately. Any future violation of this policy will result in the immediate and permanent closure of this account.
If you wish to dispute this action, you may do so by emailing appeals@trionworlds.com. Please be sure to include this ticket’s reference number, XXXXXX-XXXXXX.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and, as always, for playing Defiance.
Sincerely,
GM Sharkie
Trion Worlds Inc.
I have never, nor would I ever, use an in-game exploit or 3rd party hack in a video game. This would ruin the enjoyment for me and simply knowing others are doing so makes me furious. I've racked my brain to figure out what made them think I was doing so. I'm not using SweetFX (which I guess alot of people are) or any other graphic enhancing program. While I use teamspeak while playing Defiance, I do not use the overlay because I have multiple monitors. The only thing I can think of is I use the Logitech Gaming Software for my wireless Logitech Mouse and my Logitech G13 Gamepad. The software allows for you to customize the buttons on each device, but does not interact with other saftware such as the Defiance client, so I am not sure how this would count.
That being said, I know people will say or think, "I play alot and don't use exploits or hacks either, but I didn't get banned. You must have done someothing wrong to get banned!"Well I'm not here to change your mind or convince you otherwise as you are entitled to you opinion. This thread is to provide information to others who find themselves in the same situation as myself. Being banned for exploiting or hacking without justification for such an adverse action. If you don't know what they considered to be inappropriate, how can you not do it later and prevent your game from being permanently banned? The answer is you need to notify Defiance of the mistake they've made.
Here are the action you can take in an attempt to have Trion Worlds Inc correct their erroneous action against you;
- Contact appeals@trionworlds.com immediately and keep a copy of your e-mail. They wont respond to you in a timely manner if at all, but at least you'll have documentation to show you did it.
- Attempt to contact someone through live chat. They will simply tell you the same thing they told me in each of my three attempts, "[...] there is nothing we can do for you." At this point request to the issue to be escelated to Tier 3 support for a review by a custoemr service lead. To confirm this action was done as requested, you should receive an e-mail which will contain a transcript of you live chat in addition to confirmation the issue was escelated. Keep this as part of your records.
- Try to call Trion Worlds Inc offices at (650)631-9800. Do not choose to be transferred to customer service, it will play a pre-recorded greeting advising you to go to the website for live chat assistance. You can attempt to leave a message for their receptionist requesting a response regarding your ticket. Again, so you can say you tried since it is unlikely you will receive a response. Keep a record of this action.
- File a complaint with the California Department of Consumer Affairs BEARHFTI by completing this form. In addition to listing your action taken to remedy the false claim and corresponding adverse action, the necessary business information you will need to complete the form is provided below.
- File a complaint with the San Jose, CA Better Business Bureau by completing this form. In addition to listing your action taken to remedy the false claim and corresponding adverse action, the necessary business information you will need to complete the form is provided below.
- Write a letter to the executives of Trion Worlds Inc provided below protesting the erroneous action and requesting for Trion Worlds Inc to reconsider their policies to prevent such destructive actions from being taken without justification in the future agaisnt you or other customers.
Trion Worlds Inc contact information and listing of executives to take the actions listed above is as follows;
Trion Worlds Inc
303 Twin Dolphin Dr., Ste 500
Redwood City, CA 94065
Dr Lars Buttler, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Keith Winter, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Nicholas Beliaeff, Senior Vice President of Developement
Mark Rizzo, Senior Vice President of Operations
Kelly Conway, Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs
Nathan Richardsson, Executive Producer for Defiance
Why would I take the time to research all of this and take all these actions? Because the ban was completely unwarranted and I am certain if this happened to me, then other gamers have surely found themselves in the same situation. This is not only poor customer service, but will inevitably hurt the Defiance franchise. Since I did not use any exploits, 3rd party hacks, take any other action to give myself an advantage, then if I return to playing the game it likely means I will be permanently banned for whatever the Defiance client and/or GMs saw that made them give me a 72 hour temporary ban in the first place. The same thing will also happen to any other gamers who find themselves in the same situation. Taking the actions above will hopefully change whatever policies are in place which allow these mistakes to be made by Trion Worlds Inc in the first place.
I'm not here to convince you that I didn't do anything if you don't believe me, but bookmark this thread so you can reference it in the event your account is banned for no reason in the future....
Comments
Here we go again. If you didn't do appeal. if not, your own fault. I hope people on this forum will say the same thing I have.
Their game, their rules. If you are macroing and they dont allow that, they can tell because a macro allows for faster times between key strokes. Some people that are innocent do get caught, it happens. Appeal then.
Don't bring your complaints to a 3rd party forum - take it to Trion.
QFT.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
In the end you can only do what they ask to remove any suspicion, but at the end of the day its really this^
I've been reading online game forums for the last 13 years and I don't recall ever seeing anyone post something like: "I was banned because I used cheat program X"...
However, I've probably read thousands of posts made by innocent people who were randomly and unfairly banned for no reason at all. It seems to be a fairly common occurrence, so much so that some particularly unlucky individuals get banned from more than one game for no reason at all.
Apparently, there's a minor epidemic of cheating in the Defiance PVP instances, so I guess Trion may be a bit overzealous atm in their pursuit of perps.
This is only meant to be a source of information to others in the same situation. Most people would not know what their options are, so I provided their options above. I already took all my own advice provided above. Obviously I am not asking for resolution on this forum. What would that accomplish? Your completely missing the point of the entire thread likely because you didn't read anything but the topic.
As for PvP, I don't participate. Okay, to be fair I did do one PvP match for the episode 2 pursuits and I was lucky enough to manage 1 kill. I've never been banned before either and have been playing MMOs actively since the original version of Ultima Online launched.
What you are doing is pooping on this game and ruin it's sales. You are self-appointed and who really likes those types of people? We have zero way to prove what you are saying is true. The one thing we do know is what you are doing here. Some people get off on creating posts like this.
In any case, is this the place to resolve your issue with the ban? No it is not. Since it is not, it comes of as having an axe to grind or worse. Contact their support and appeal.
I will assume that if you just don't drop the issue here now that you have "informed us", that you are really just playing games. I suspect you are playing games. You can prove it by dropping out of the thread.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
To quote myself in my original thread, "I'm not here to convince you that I didn't do anything if you don't believe me, but bookmark this thread so you can reference it in the event your account is banned for no reason in the future...."
I'll still be playing this game after the ban is lifted from my account. But other people still need this information so if they are wrongfully banned they too can take the actions listed above. If you are never one of these people, great.... I know in my own clan there have been several. All of which are still playing. I'm not discouraging anyone from playing Defiance because it is a great franchise. Trion Worlds Inc just needs to look into why players are being erroneously banned and correct their policies. This wont happen unless we ask them to review their policies currently in place. By doing so I am encouraging people to help make Defiance better because I plan on spending years playing.
Just curious if Logitech Gaming Software for his wireless Logitech Mouse and his Logitech G13 Gamepad is considered illegal or macroing? He might be quicker in reaction time compared to me on a very common keyboard/mouse but only because I consider him to have better "legal" equipment for it.
I am sure that my gaming system has a quicker response time then a person who is using a standard low range system. Would people also consider me a cheat and should I also build/buy a low range system so I know I am on equal grounds with everyone who is using a low range system?
I do agree on bringing the complaint to Trion as OP has shown there are multible options to do so. But apart from that this is the kind of frustration the OP has I do understand.
Just because you add a disclaimer doesn't make what you got called out for any less true. I'm sure getting your posts moderated on the original forums didn't hurt your displeased attitude either.
Now go be a good boy and go talk to Trion instead.
If Macro'ing isn't allowed, then yes that software can be considered illegal!
I hate those Logitech keyboards and mouses with a strong passion! As especially with their top end keyboards and software it comes pretty darn close to botting / automation.
So about time if people get banned for it.
It doesn't seem likely that someone willing to cheat on a video game is going to come to a forum an honestly talk about cheating. It seems a lot more likely that a person who cheats and gets banned would come to a forum seeking attention to feel better about getting banned.
That doesn't mean the innocent people are all guilty, just that there's no particular reason to actually believe anyone on these forums.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Every time someone posts about being banned from this game or that on these forums, they are always innocent...go figure...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
What? I have 7 buttons on my mouse that I map to numbers 1 to 7 on the keyboard. How is that even close to cheating or botting?
It happened in the GW2 forum here. Some person was banned for letting a friend use his account for gold selling then he came here and whined about it. That was after he was banned from the A.Net GW2 forums for whining about the ban. It does happen.
If this is true all gaming company's should place warnings on the gamebox or list that using logitech software is illegal.
I banned any Logitech software from my computer. No idea what's happening with their drivers dev team but I had so many conflicts with their stuff over the years that I just gave up...
Do you read the EULA BEFORE you accept it? It is all in there. They tell you your rights, etc. People need to read before they just blindly accept.
They don't have to put it on the box when it is in the EULA.
The OP is either:
incredibly naive, and doesn't realise that they're inadvertantly creating bad PR for the game
or
very devious, by creating a passive-aggressive post which has the subtext: "Trion is banning so many people for no reason that I need to make a public service announcement to help all these innocent victims"
Which is it, I wonder ?
I can't tell from your post, maybe I skimmed some instead of reading it as thoroughly as I should have, but was the issue resolved? Did your account get unbanned due to taking these steps?
because this game doesn't have enough bad pr already?
and because mmorpg companies obviously never ban any innocent people/ make mistakes ever?
you are such a fruitcake.
Innocent people can get caught in a purge of botters, etc. It happens. All you do is plead your case and if they don't unban, never play a Trion game again. Most have no issues and the guilty do protest, loudly and on other forums, when they get caught.
Just appeal through the official channels. Explain that you have no idea what you were doing that was flagged as cheating, and would like specific information so you can prevent it from happening again. If they don't respond or don't provide an actual answer, post it on *their* forums. As long as you don't come off throwing acusations and hyperbole around, a mod will more than likely be able to either answer your question, or get the appeal fast-tracked.
Posting on these forums will do absolutely nothing for you.
You make me like charity
A long time ago on WoW someone apparently told the GMs I was a bot.
I was grinding faction, and had broken the spawns to the point where I had a good routine worked out and had been grinding so long I'd gone into zombie mode. No guildies were on, and the chat was vapid at best, but mostly non-existant, so I totally ignored the chat window. After a while, some jerks came along and and decided to attack everything, including the 3 spawn areas I'd been working. Nothing I could do, so when they started insulting me, I put them on /ignore. About 10 minutes later they tried to train the entire area on me. I went invisible and they got wiped by their own attempt. They didn't come back. About an hour and a half later, still grinding, someone in cool gear appeared in front of me with a Blizz name. That brought me out of zombie mode again, and I waved at him. He then started started chatting with me, and I found out he'd been watching me for about 10 minutes and was about to ban me for being a bot !? I was shocked. Apparently he had used the normal /say earlier and I didn't respond. I explained I was in zombie mode grinding and ignoring the prepubescent immature chat that rarely happened in this zone. He then told me about the accusation by other players, I explained to him what happened, he pulled up the logs from his end, laughed, and bid me a good night. I never saw those two pcs again, even though I occassionally checked the /who for them for about a year afterwards.
Mistakes happen. Automated snoop programs make mistakes. People make mistakes. People can also accuse out of sheer spite even though they are lying. It happens. Of course, upon request, the company should tell you specifically what you are accused of so you can help clear up these issues and prevent them from happening again. Also, not all the people you deal with will be helpful. If you get a jerk that's blowing you off, get another rep, but be polite the whole time or you will get flagged as a troublemaker and be ignored by everyone that could have helped you.
Lost my mind, now trying to lose yours...
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/05/mindark_im_sorr.html