Hello, I'm Mr Paranoia, please meet my child Unjust Banning.
I seriously don't believe you did something this ridiculous!
I'm a lifer veteran who has done substiantial work on both characters and now I'm afraid to touch chat, for fear I may get an autobann.
You haven't disclosed what are the keywords to get banned, which means anything could be the trigger.
And personally, I've seen many people share internet links via chat channels, when they want to share something amusing or about STO.
At the very least, you could just change the system to silence a player for 24hours.
A permabann is an extreme overreaction.
And did you consider how this may affect players, who (like myself) play more then one Cryptic game?
If my account is banned, there goes my ability to play CO too.
And if I played NW, I'd lose access to that as well!
And do you realize how much trade chat goes on in CO?
I can personally assure you, the words selling and gold are quite common when someone is ingame selling items.
Are they going to get banned too?
What is the point of having a chat system if nobody will dare to use it because they're afraid to say something that might accidentally get them banned?
And over 2 years of dealing with Cryptic GMs has left me under no illusions they do not actually fix problems.
For all the human interaction I get, it's like automated mail software.
Maybe they should change that, so the GMs have to chat directly with the client instead of via mail and tickets.
I know other companies do that and it leads to a much speedier resolution of your problem.
Also, it will make someone feel better if they're engaging in dialogue in real time with an actual person.
You realize every player you lose is a paying or a potentially paying customer, that by doing this you're losing money coming into the company via c-store point purchases, lifetime subs and legacy packs?
And then we have the word of mouth issue.
Everyone who gets banned is going to tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.
Which will inevitably result in a snowball effect of bad publicity!
And that way, someone who may have been considering coming to STO will hear about it and decide not to come.
So therefore, you've lost potential customers as well.
And if you do this to enough of your clients, I believe the next thing you will hear from them is the words "lawyers" and "class action lawsuit".
And, as others have said, this achieves nothing, it doesn't stop the goldspam, it just ruins the experience for honest players.
Just get rid of it and let us resume our normal gaming experience without having the Sword of Permabann hanging over our heads.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
48 hours into my ban and my account has been re-instated. Also I'm not globally muted.
First off thank you for re-instating my account...however this does not change the fact that the system you implemented was completely, both logically and morally, 100% wrong.
What you effectively did was have a line-up of 8 suspects, and shot them all to make sure you got the guilty one.
48 hours into my ban and my account has been re-instated. Also I'm not globally muted.
First off thank you for re-instating my account...however this does not change the fact that the system you implemented was completely, both logically and morally, 100% wrong.
What you effectively did was have a line-up of 8 suspects, and shot them all to make sure you got the guilty one.
That's the problem. As long as it's cheaper for them to unban people that it catches wrongfully than it is to monitor the stuff in the first place, they'll keep doing it. That's why they did it in the first place: Hiring enough people to actually check all the chat-filter autoreports would cost too much.
But this is costing them money too, directly and indirectly.
Directly in that every person that gets wrongfully banned probably either A.) Quits all PWE games and gives them no more money or B.) Sends in a ticket that has to be looked at by a rep, thus increasing CS load and requiring more CS personnel to deal with.
Indirectly via people (Affected and unbanned, or just heard about it) that quit, or like me resolve to stop doing anything that gives them money at all over this. (No buying Z with dil, no buying lobi or dil requiring items or lockbox items with EC...etc) Or just don't start playing because they hear this an great example of how stupid Cyptic/PWE customer service is.
Ironically, the cheapest path is what they were doing before: Don't automatically do anything and rely on player reports which are then vetted.
The ideal would be if they were using the 'report spam' button for this, but it gets abused so badly... They need a system on that like what newgrounds used to do for its Abuse Whistle (they probably still do, hell if I know, I haven't been there in years). Works like this:
If you report an item, and it turns out that you were correct to do so and it gets removed, you get 'whistle points'. Get enough 'whistle points' and your whistle basically 'levels up' and gets more effective (I think they had a threshold number of reports before someone looked at it, and higher level whistles counted as multiple reports, because the person in question is apparently accurate).
Contrarily, if you whistle badly, and upon review it turns out that the item didn't violate any policies, you lost whistle points. This could cause you to lose whistle levels...or if it sent you negative, could level you down past the basic whistle to 'broken whistle.' If you had a broken whistle, you could still 'report' things, but your reports no longer count. They will never cause an item to be examined and can't get it removed. The whole reason you still can is that if you stop being a moron about reporting stuff you can still get whistle points for reporting accurately, potentially repairing your broken whistle.
A system like the above in place on the 'report spam' button would end the majority of the abuse AND lower the workload of the people checking the reports: People who consistently file bad reports would lose the ability to clog up the system with junk reports. The key point would be only counting 'report spam' for this, with normal ignores not counting (unlike now where normal ignores count towards a 24 hour silence).
If you are both still banned from game, please check your pm's on our fleet website, as I have a fix for you both, which should get you back in game quicker...
I'm going to keep an eye on this topic, just to find out if Cryptic ever removes the autobann function.
And if you hear of them doing so in another thread or announcement, can you please let me know?
I'm not a heavy forum reader, so generally, I miss most of the stuff here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are Devs (in general) not big on giving feedback?
It's like they come into a post, say, yes, we acknowledge your concerns, but we're not going to fix it.
And then we never again hear from them.
The worst example of this is the Borderlands2 Third Person thread.
90 pages of many many fans insisting they get an official 3rd person view and not one Dev comment.
By the way, from reading the Gearbox forums, they've in the "Devs are right, you're always wrong" viewpoint, because on several issues, they've blatantly ignored the fan's opinions!
That's not a good way to run any business, it loses you customers.
I hope STO isn't going that way.....
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Branflakes said the way the system is supposed to work but looks like system isnt working the way its supposed to....you should always get a warning first.
I personally suggest not only following his link but make sure the support team knows about it too....might be their report thing isn't sending information likes its supposed to.
This game isn't supposed to auto-ban you for typing a five letter word or for that matter discussing something with others....unless you are being stupid about it and doing it in zone chat in some area.
Yeah the defense of I was simply discussing it with people in my fleet or whatever over zone chat doesn't hold water.
if you where discussing it truly with your fleet you would do it in fleet channel.
Also the warning messages usually come in the form of email that you tied to your account...so if you are not using that email....well no one can help you there.
And when you get the message check it.....because you might have thought you where banned for something when it might be entirely different.
But again.....you will always get a warning first......though if you rapidly do the same bad things over and over real fast not sure if that would just do a quick revoke or not.
But again this sounds like part of the system isn't working......this might be related to the bug system not taking bug reports....not I was getting a connection time out when I sent a bug report.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
I'm going to keep an eye on this topic, just to find out if Cryptic ever removes the autobann function.
And if you hear of them doing so in another thread or announcement, can you please let me know?
I'm not a heavy forum reader, so generally, I miss most of the stuff here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are Devs (in general) not big on giving feedback?
It's like they come into a post, say, yes, we acknowledge your concerns, but we're not going to fix it.
And then we never again hear from them.
The worst example of this is the Borderlands2 Third Person thread.
90 pages of many many fans insisting they get an official 3rd person view and not one Dev comment.
By the way, from reading the Gearbox forums, they've in the "Devs are right, you're always wrong" viewpoint, because on several issues, they've blatantly ignored the fan's opinions!
That's not a good way to run any business, it loses you customers.
I hope STO isn't going that way.....
CRYPTIC/PWE please read!
I really cannot believe that there is still no apology over this. I put down the silence to the holiday weekend but now...VERY bad form indeed! As I stated earlier, had I read about this before I purchased the expansion I would have kept my money. It is only after the recent improvements that I decided to start supporting you again financially (I'm an original lifer) as I believed that things were changing for the better. The fact that you let a thread this big continue as you have without feeling the need to admit to any wrongdoing whatsoever speaks volumes about your consideration towards your players and about your future intentions towards us.
There has already been at least one person that has posted stating that this had put them off subbing altogether and whilst we cannot force you to apologize here to those involved I can tell you that no more of my money will be spent on your company until you do. It's simple manners and if you cannot manage that then all my purchases will be with in game currency from this point on.
Well... actually it should be plain and obvious that the system is driving away customers - since that's exactly the designed functionality of it. Banned person is by definition no longer a customer. :P
still banned ffs come on guys I don't want even an apology or any free stuff, I just want my account back so I can try the new stuff out. ive been crying for like a year about how we need more shuttle missions because Ive got all these shuttles and except for the vault they are vanity pieces. I was literally queueing for the new shuttle event when I got banned. I just wanna pick up where I left off and forget about this whole mess.
I'm completely oblivious to whats going on here, Reading post about people being banned for mentioning "certain" words or things ... I think Cryptic SERIOUSLY needs to start a forum post about whats going to get you banned, Cause the amount of money I've spent on this game, If i got banned because someone "tricked" me into saying something, Or i said it unknowingly, I Would be a little more than pissed off ...
I love the game, but the support is pretty bad when it comes to certain things, it should be a lot better / faster
As requested, I have sent a mail to customer support.
I'll let you know what they say when they respond.
And do you know how difficult it is to check my mail on my gaming computer?
I have to turn on my Mac laptop just to do it!
That's where I am at the moment, by the way, I had to start it up to send the mail to customer service.
The reason for this is that yahoo mail has some kind of error code that apparently, doesn't happen when my Mac goes to the website.
So much for Microsoft superiority! :rolleyes:
And I'll give you one more thing to think about until I post again:
One of my Fleet was banned for saying PAYPAL.
Now, to realize how totally idiotic that is, how do non-Steam players pay for Legacy packs?
Tell someone how you paid for it, instant ban, that's way beyond moronic.
---post above is tilarta----
EDIT: "Paypal" is not on the list, so it's not possible they were banned for just saying that word. -Brandon
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
As requested, I have sent a mail to customer support.
I'll let you know what they say when they respond.
And do you know how difficult it is to check my mail on my gaming computer?
I have to turn on my Mac laptop just to do it!
That's where I am at the moment, by the way, I had to start it up to send the mail to customer service.
The reason for this is that yahoo mail has some kind of error code that apparently, doesn't happen when my Mac goes to the website.
So much for Microsoft superiority! :rolleyes:
And I'll give you one more thing to think about until I post again:
One of my Fleet was banned for saying PAYPAL.
Now, to realize how totally idiotic that is, how do non-Steam players pay for Legacy packs?
Tell someone how you paid for it, instant ban, that's way beyond moronic.
Okay that's bizzare with the yahoo thing since I can use it on my windows 7 PC without issue. But when they respond to you, don't post the whole thing as posting private correspondence isn't allowed on the forums
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Any word if this issue will be addressed in terms of removing this auto ban feature or at the very least putting the warning on the Administrative channel or perhaps the in-game email?
Well... actually it should be plain and obvious that the system is driving away customers - since that's exactly the designed functionality of it. Banned person is by definition no longer a customer. :P
Hey I like your sig and I think it really will help bring awareness to the issue, any chance you could post it so we can paste it to our own sigs? Then we can get a community wide take up of it (or at least myself) to spread awareness.
Also Psychickitty, as far as I know the people were banned when they were chatting in fleet channels, private channels or tells. The ban as far as we know does not only work on Zone chat it is chat wide. Also the warning you do receive is on the same channel as all those lockbox messages, ya know system chat, which most people had the good sense to move out of the main chat window or disable when lockboxes came out.
The problem that most people have with this isn't JUST the automated ban, the poor communication of a warning, the low strike count or the lack of resolution. It's also where this is heading. Long time players will move chat outside of STO and start using TS only or other chat clients. This will leave chat only populated by casual players or most likely gold sellers circumventing the ban. This could end up damaging the game and community.
Also where will it go from here? Make too much dilithium in an hour because you are so fast at doing elite STF and got 11 neural processors per drop? What about taking the mick and calling the company Craptic like some do from time to time? They might turn round and say they don't like people selling starbases and access to the goodies at higher tiers too. Could permanently ban people and not say a word like they're doing now.
But really a smarter man said it best with this:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
This is one of many reasons way i do not speak in the in-game chat system.
This auto ban stuff is really ridiculous is many ways.I mean sure it is a good way to keep the gold spammers away from sto but it will end in a bad way.
But hey just found another way around it as normal like the in-game mail system.
It is just like the Report spam option it is abused way to much and on top of that it get's to the point where is there really any point on playing a game that has this many restrictions.
What are we turning into Disney games now where they do not even allow numbers in chat system.
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
I assume what happened is the autoban software keyed off the last 3 letters in Paypal, which happens to be very similar to the word we must not speak of.
No system is perfect, especially if it's a new one.
There must be a lot of Cryptic overtime for GMs getting accounts reactivated thanks to this.
My inner cynic says this is just a reason for GMs to get paid to do more! :rolleyes:
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
I assume what happened is the autoban software keyed off the last 3 letters in Paypal, which happens to be very similar to the word we must not speak of.
No system is perfect, especially if it's a new one.
Its utterly stupid to use 3-letter keywords; they are WAY too short. Wait till someone get banned for saying "I'm with you pal", or "color palette", or "paltry"... Just like the cabinet guy.
There is a lot of issues with the system as it is, it COULD work in theory if it just filtered words and covered them with profanity filter; this way people would get a laugh from it (at worst). Spammers already circumvented it; I found fresh spam in my mailbox couple minutes after I was able to get back after un-ban. Now its just killing off normal players.
Okitsunega - please, allow us to copy your signature.
May 2013, automatic permanent ban for mentioning gold-seller sites pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
Hey I like your sig and I think it really will help bring awareness to the issue, any chance you could post it so we can paste it to our own sigs? Then we can get a community wide take up of it (or at least myself) to spread awareness.
(SNIP)
(SNIP)
Okitsunega - please, allow us to copy your signature.
Sure, I don't mind at all. It was the main reason I put the sig up in the first place - I don't post very much on the forums so it won't show up in many places.. but if it makes a couple people aware of the issue, and gets them to warn their fleets about the potential ban.. then it's served it's purpose. I've also mentioned and linked the thread a few times on zone chat, just so people would become aware of this... feature. In my opinion the worst scenario is people getting banned by the system without ever having known it was in place, and never actually intentionally even mentioning anything related to the gold sites.
So, if anyone wants to copy the sig, they're perfectly free to do so:
========== CUT HERE ==========
(link to sig)
May 2013, automatic permanent ban (link) for keywords in all forms of chat pwebranflakes (link): this system is currently in place and working the way it should. moradum (link): I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
========== CUT HERE ==========
The signature can be set by following the blue User CP link at the top of the page (or the link on this line). Both will take you to same page, where you can edit your forum account properties, including the signature.
You can extract the full text from this message (including the embedded links on the names to this thread) by clicking the Quote button on top of this message (or the link on this line) and doing copy/paste from the editor window that opens. You can 'cancel' the reply afterwards if you don't want to post it.
Just warned my fleet about that madness. AFAIK no randombans there yet. I have not got any goldseller spam yet (not even aware how they are called besides the ones mentioned in this thread) but since you apparently can get banned when parts of what you say contain certain words makes me very afraid of my account.
Would be better reduce my ingame communication to "yes" and "no" just to be safe but thats kind of impossible as a leader
Maybe he said something along the lines of "yadda yadda yadda, e.g. paypal"? With a slightly different use of punctuation and spaces, I could easily see this being caught by the new autoban feature.
Would be better reduce my ingame communication to "yes" and "no" just to be safe but thats kind of impossible as a leader
Ironically, I'm in the same position as you.
I'm also a channel moderator, which adds extra complications.
I'm usually quite verbose, but thanks to this policy, I'm saying as little as possible and when I do type, it's usually with an economy of language, using the absolute minimum of words that I can get away with.
Since I don't know, nor have we been told what the trigger words are or how the system may react to completely innocent errors, I'm choosing to err on the side of caution.
And as, the poster above me pointed out, the system can indeed make an error.
The cabinet guy I have no explanation for, but now I'm afraid to use numbers and units of measurements!
And heaven forbid we mention the computer equipment supplier!
Also, as it has been shown, this "solution" did not stop anything.
The only thing it achieved was to penalize the honest players, not the guilty parties.
Given that it's so flawed and it didn't even stop the intended targets down for no more then an hour, I'd get rid of it so we can just go back to enjoying the game without worrying about what random word may get us banned.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
This is a good example of what we can expect out of communism. I mean PWE is a Chinese company, no? I got nothing against China, just so you know, but its a hilarious thought nonetheless, that they might be teaching us Westerners about how we will be treated in a few years. Say something the government does not like: insta ban your IP and have the Feds Storm your house in less than 30 seconds, that or a predator drone melts your brain with a military laser.
OK maybe I am making a joke sound like something more serious, or is it? I mean, if this is the way a company behaves, what can you expect? Exaggerated as my scenario might be, I am cognizant there are people who take such notions more seriously. And who is to say there is not a person wishing they were that kind of Dictator? Not gonna point fingers, but there are people doing that already.
I feel sorry for those who got banned, and just knowing there is this kind of psychological engineering going on in a small scale, even if its unintentional, makes me worry, and loose all interest in the game. Suddenly I regret purchasing the Romulan Pack.
EDIT: I have decided not to play Cryptic games until this is fixed, removed or a list of words that will get you banned is presented and an apology given to my fellow players who have become victims of this system. In fewer words, lest go on stirke people!
I do have my principles and I abide by them. Even if I have to sacrifice my enjoyment.
Possibly...the lack of response from PWE bar Brandon's 'Paypal is not on the list' quote (which I have to say confuses me somewhat that that has been the only response considering how serious an issue this actually is) is that the person responsible is on a longer holiday and as such has not 'instructed' the staff to change it or respond.
I think we are overdue an explanation here...
PWE and Cryptic...you have the responsibility of not just a franchise MMORPG but of canon relating to the Trek Universe. With behaviour such as this you are SINGLEHANDEDLY destroying the legacy that Star Trek envisaged and the countless fans enjoy. This isn't World of ******** or Never Winter which has no real history... This is a responsibility that YOU have taken on to keep the torch alight.
Get a grip... These things have a tendancy to snowball out of control as you well know.
People are now trying to name there characters after these gold spam websites with the intention of trying to get people of typing these names into chat to get them banned. Freaking fix the problem Cryptic.
Here is the support ticket
ticket ID #1,711,073
do something with this failure to do proper game management and making innocent paying customers suffer this BS
Comments
Remove this system until you come up with an actual one.
I seriously don't believe you did something this ridiculous!
I'm a lifer veteran who has done substiantial work on both characters and now I'm afraid to touch chat, for fear I may get an autobann.
You haven't disclosed what are the keywords to get banned, which means anything could be the trigger.
And personally, I've seen many people share internet links via chat channels, when they want to share something amusing or about STO.
At the very least, you could just change the system to silence a player for 24hours.
A permabann is an extreme overreaction.
And did you consider how this may affect players, who (like myself) play more then one Cryptic game?
If my account is banned, there goes my ability to play CO too.
And if I played NW, I'd lose access to that as well!
And do you realize how much trade chat goes on in CO?
I can personally assure you, the words selling and gold are quite common when someone is ingame selling items.
Are they going to get banned too?
What is the point of having a chat system if nobody will dare to use it because they're afraid to say something that might accidentally get them banned?
And over 2 years of dealing with Cryptic GMs has left me under no illusions they do not actually fix problems.
For all the human interaction I get, it's like automated mail software.
Maybe they should change that, so the GMs have to chat directly with the client instead of via mail and tickets.
I know other companies do that and it leads to a much speedier resolution of your problem.
Also, it will make someone feel better if they're engaging in dialogue in real time with an actual person.
You realize every player you lose is a paying or a potentially paying customer, that by doing this you're losing money coming into the company via c-store point purchases, lifetime subs and legacy packs?
And then we have the word of mouth issue.
Everyone who gets banned is going to tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends.
Which will inevitably result in a snowball effect of bad publicity!
And that way, someone who may have been considering coming to STO will hear about it and decide not to come.
So therefore, you've lost potential customers as well.
And if you do this to enough of your clients, I believe the next thing you will hear from them is the words "lawyers" and "class action lawsuit".
And, as others have said, this achieves nothing, it doesn't stop the goldspam, it just ruins the experience for honest players.
Just get rid of it and let us resume our normal gaming experience without having the Sword of Permabann hanging over our heads.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
So, This person here is **EXACTLY** the reason this system is too flawed to exist.
First off thank you for re-instating my account...however this does not change the fact that the system you implemented was completely, both logically and morally, 100% wrong.
What you effectively did was have a line-up of 8 suspects, and shot them all to make sure you got the guilty one.
That's the problem. As long as it's cheaper for them to unban people that it catches wrongfully than it is to monitor the stuff in the first place, they'll keep doing it. That's why they did it in the first place: Hiring enough people to actually check all the chat-filter autoreports would cost too much.
But this is costing them money too, directly and indirectly.
Directly in that every person that gets wrongfully banned probably either A.) Quits all PWE games and gives them no more money or B.) Sends in a ticket that has to be looked at by a rep, thus increasing CS load and requiring more CS personnel to deal with.
Indirectly via people (Affected and unbanned, or just heard about it) that quit, or like me resolve to stop doing anything that gives them money at all over this. (No buying Z with dil, no buying lobi or dil requiring items or lockbox items with EC...etc) Or just don't start playing because they hear this an great example of how stupid Cyptic/PWE customer service is.
Ironically, the cheapest path is what they were doing before: Don't automatically do anything and rely on player reports which are then vetted.
The ideal would be if they were using the 'report spam' button for this, but it gets abused so badly... They need a system on that like what newgrounds used to do for its Abuse Whistle (they probably still do, hell if I know, I haven't been there in years). Works like this:
If you report an item, and it turns out that you were correct to do so and it gets removed, you get 'whistle points'. Get enough 'whistle points' and your whistle basically 'levels up' and gets more effective (I think they had a threshold number of reports before someone looked at it, and higher level whistles counted as multiple reports, because the person in question is apparently accurate).
Contrarily, if you whistle badly, and upon review it turns out that the item didn't violate any policies, you lost whistle points. This could cause you to lose whistle levels...or if it sent you negative, could level you down past the basic whistle to 'broken whistle.' If you had a broken whistle, you could still 'report' things, but your reports no longer count. They will never cause an item to be examined and can't get it removed. The whole reason you still can is that if you stop being a moron about reporting stuff you can still get whistle points for reporting accurately, potentially repairing your broken whistle.
A system like the above in place on the 'report spam' button would end the majority of the abuse AND lower the workload of the people checking the reports: People who consistently file bad reports would lose the ability to clog up the system with junk reports. The key point would be only counting 'report spam' for this, with normal ignores not counting (unlike now where normal ignores count towards a 24 hour silence).
If you are both still banned from game, please check your pm's on our fleet website, as I have a fix for you both, which should get you back in game quicker...
That's what good fleet leaders do!
www.EliteDefenseStarfleet.com
Best fleet in Star Trek Online...
We even have our own merchandise!!! Come join us today...
www.cafepress.com/elitedefensestarfleet
And if you hear of them doing so in another thread or announcement, can you please let me know?
I'm not a heavy forum reader, so generally, I miss most of the stuff here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are Devs (in general) not big on giving feedback?
It's like they come into a post, say, yes, we acknowledge your concerns, but we're not going to fix it.
And then we never again hear from them.
The worst example of this is the Borderlands2 Third Person thread.
90 pages of many many fans insisting they get an official 3rd person view and not one Dev comment.
By the way, from reading the Gearbox forums, they've in the "Devs are right, you're always wrong" viewpoint, because on several issues, they've blatantly ignored the fan's opinions!
That's not a good way to run any business, it loses you customers.
I hope STO isn't going that way.....
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Branflakes said the way the system is supposed to work but looks like system isnt working the way its supposed to....you should always get a warning first.
I personally suggest not only following his link but make sure the support team knows about it too....might be their report thing isn't sending information likes its supposed to.
This game isn't supposed to auto-ban you for typing a five letter word or for that matter discussing something with others....unless you are being stupid about it and doing it in zone chat in some area.
Yeah the defense of I was simply discussing it with people in my fleet or whatever over zone chat doesn't hold water.
if you where discussing it truly with your fleet you would do it in fleet channel.
Also the warning messages usually come in the form of email that you tied to your account...so if you are not using that email....well no one can help you there.
And when you get the message check it.....because you might have thought you where banned for something when it might be entirely different.
But again.....you will always get a warning first......though if you rapidly do the same bad things over and over real fast not sure if that would just do a quick revoke or not.
But again this sounds like part of the system isn't working......this might be related to the bug system not taking bug reports....not I was getting a connection time out when I sent a bug report.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
=^_^=
CRYPTIC/PWE please read!
I really cannot believe that there is still no apology over this. I put down the silence to the holiday weekend but now...VERY bad form indeed! As I stated earlier, had I read about this before I purchased the expansion I would have kept my money. It is only after the recent improvements that I decided to start supporting you again financially (I'm an original lifer) as I believed that things were changing for the better. The fact that you let a thread this big continue as you have without feeling the need to admit to any wrongdoing whatsoever speaks volumes about your consideration towards your players and about your future intentions towards us.
There has already been at least one person that has posted stating that this had put them off subbing altogether and whilst we cannot force you to apologize here to those involved I can tell you that no more of my money will be spent on your company until you do. It's simple manners and if you cannot manage that then all my purchases will be with in game currency from this point on.
PLEASE do the right thing and apologize!
I love the game, but the support is pretty bad when it comes to certain things, it should be a lot better / faster
I'll let you know what they say when they respond.
And do you know how difficult it is to check my mail on my gaming computer?
I have to turn on my Mac laptop just to do it!
That's where I am at the moment, by the way, I had to start it up to send the mail to customer service.
The reason for this is that yahoo mail has some kind of error code that apparently, doesn't happen when my Mac goes to the website.
So much for Microsoft superiority! :rolleyes:
And I'll give you one more thing to think about until I post again:
One of my Fleet was banned for saying PAYPAL.
Now, to realize how totally idiotic that is, how do non-Steam players pay for Legacy packs?
Tell someone how you paid for it, instant ban, that's way beyond moronic.
---post above is tilarta----
EDIT: "Paypal" is not on the list, so it's not possible they were banned for just saying that word. -Brandon
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Hey I like your sig and I think it really will help bring awareness to the issue, any chance you could post it so we can paste it to our own sigs? Then we can get a community wide take up of it (or at least myself) to spread awareness.
Also Psychickitty, as far as I know the people were banned when they were chatting in fleet channels, private channels or tells. The ban as far as we know does not only work on Zone chat it is chat wide. Also the warning you do receive is on the same channel as all those lockbox messages, ya know system chat, which most people had the good sense to move out of the main chat window or disable when lockboxes came out.
The problem that most people have with this isn't JUST the automated ban, the poor communication of a warning, the low strike count or the lack of resolution. It's also where this is heading. Long time players will move chat outside of STO and start using TS only or other chat clients. This will leave chat only populated by casual players or most likely gold sellers circumventing the ban. This could end up damaging the game and community.
Also where will it go from here? Make too much dilithium in an hour because you are so fast at doing elite STF and got 11 neural processors per drop? What about taking the mick and calling the company Craptic like some do from time to time? They might turn round and say they don't like people selling starbases and access to the goodies at higher tiers too. Could permanently ban people and not say a word like they're doing now.
But really a smarter man said it best with this:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
It is through repetition that we learn our weakness.
A master with a stone is better than a novice with a sword.
Has damage got out of control?
This is the last thing I will post.
Well, at least we know Brandon is back.
This entire thread and not even so much as a "We're looking into it" canned response. Just a hateful "You deserved what you got" message.
This auto ban stuff is really ridiculous is many ways.I mean sure it is a good way to keep the gold spammers away from sto but it will end in a bad way.
But hey just found another way around it as normal like the in-game mail system.
It is just like the Report spam option it is abused way to much and on top of that it get's to the point where is there really any point on playing a game that has this many restrictions.
What are we turning into Disney games now where they do not even allow numbers in chat system.
No system is perfect, especially if it's a new one.
There must be a lot of Cryptic overtime for GMs getting accounts reactivated thanks to this.
My inner cynic says this is just a reason for GMs to get paid to do more! :rolleyes:
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Its utterly stupid to use 3-letter keywords; they are WAY too short. Wait till someone get banned for saying "I'm with you pal", or "color palette", or "paltry"... Just like the cabinet guy.
There is a lot of issues with the system as it is, it COULD work in theory if it just filtered words and covered them with profanity filter; this way people would get a laugh from it (at worst). Spammers already circumvented it; I found fresh spam in my mailbox couple minutes after I was able to get back after un-ban. Now its just killing off normal players.
Okitsunega - please, allow us to copy your signature.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
Sure, I don't mind at all. It was the main reason I put the sig up in the first place - I don't post very much on the forums so it won't show up in many places.. but if it makes a couple people aware of the issue, and gets them to warn their fleets about the potential ban.. then it's served it's purpose. I've also mentioned and linked the thread a few times on zone chat, just so people would become aware of this... feature. In my opinion the worst scenario is people getting banned by the system without ever having known it was in place, and never actually intentionally even mentioning anything related to the gold sites.
So, if anyone wants to copy the sig, they're perfectly free to do so:
========== CUT HERE ==========
(link to sig)
May 2013, automatic permanent ban (link) for keywords in all forms of chat
pwebranflakes (link): this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum (link): I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"
========== CUT HERE ==========
The signature can be set by following the blue User CP link at the top of the page (or the link on this line). Both will take you to same page, where you can edit your forum account properties, including the signature.
You can extract the full text from this message (including the embedded links on the names to this thread) by clicking the Quote button on top of this message (or the link on this line) and doing copy/paste from the editor window that opens. You can 'cancel' the reply afterwards if you don't want to post it.
-- edited to update sig code --
Would be better reduce my ingame communication to "yes" and "no" just to be safe but thats kind of impossible as a leader
Ironically, I'm in the same position as you.
I'm also a channel moderator, which adds extra complications.
I'm usually quite verbose, but thanks to this policy, I'm saying as little as possible and when I do type, it's usually with an economy of language, using the absolute minimum of words that I can get away with.
Since I don't know, nor have we been told what the trigger words are or how the system may react to completely innocent errors, I'm choosing to err on the side of caution.
And as, the poster above me pointed out, the system can indeed make an error.
The cabinet guy I have no explanation for, but now I'm afraid to use numbers and units of measurements!
And heaven forbid we mention the computer equipment supplier!
Also, as it has been shown, this "solution" did not stop anything.
The only thing it achieved was to penalize the honest players, not the guilty parties.
Given that it's so flawed and it didn't even stop the intended targets down for no more then an hour, I'd get rid of it so we can just go back to enjoying the game without worrying about what random word may get us banned.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
OK maybe I am making a joke sound like something more serious, or is it? I mean, if this is the way a company behaves, what can you expect? Exaggerated as my scenario might be, I am cognizant there are people who take such notions more seriously. And who is to say there is not a person wishing they were that kind of Dictator? Not gonna point fingers, but there are people doing that already.
I feel sorry for those who got banned, and just knowing there is this kind of psychological engineering going on in a small scale, even if its unintentional, makes me worry, and loose all interest in the game. Suddenly I regret purchasing the Romulan Pack.
EDIT: I have decided not to play Cryptic games until this is fixed, removed or a list of words that will get you banned is presented and an apology given to my fellow players who have become victims of this system. In fewer words, lest go on stirke people!
I do have my principles and I abide by them. Even if I have to sacrifice my enjoyment.
I think we are overdue an explanation here...
PWE and Cryptic...you have the responsibility of not just a franchise MMORPG but of canon relating to the Trek Universe. With behaviour such as this you are SINGLEHANDEDLY destroying the legacy that Star Trek envisaged and the countless fans enjoy. This isn't World of ******** or Never Winter which has no real history... This is a responsibility that YOU have taken on to keep the torch alight.
Get a grip... These things have a tendancy to snowball out of control as you well know.
Here is the support ticket
ticket ID #1,711,073
do something with this failure to do proper game management and making innocent paying customers suffer this BS