So I was playing last night and got booted off. Upon signing back in, I am notified that I am voice banned for 1 week. I was utterly confused and in shock to see such a notification. All the years of playing halo, I get a voice ban within the first 2 weeks of playing halo 4. Curious, I googled it and read quite a few links to come to a conclusion why I might have gotten banned. I’ve come to the conclusion that I most likely got banned from being muted. I’ve heard from players that my brand new rocket fish headset was creating a buzzing sound. I tried everything to get the buzzing to stop, but with no avail. I do like to communicate with my team members/friends during matches and think that it is rather unfair to be banned for using a product that makes a buzzing noise and being muted for it. I love playing halo and being able to talk/chat in game, but if I am going to continually be penalized for an issue I can’t control, I might just have to stop playing. I am 30 years old, have a family, work full time and game when I can. I as a player do not like to play halo without communicating with my team and I as a consumer do not like your automated voice ban procedure. I look forward to your response 343.
It isn’t unfair at all. You’re responsible for everything you own for your 360. If your headset is making an annoying sound people will mute you, and in turn, you will get a voice ban.
The ban has nothing to do with Halo 4 however, you’re just being muted while playing is all. So sorry to say it but the ban was justified.
> So I was playing last night and got booted off. Upon signing back in, I am notified that I am voice banned for 1 week. I was utterly confused and in shock to see such a notification. All the years of playing halo, I get a voice ban within the first 2 weeks of playing halo 4. Curious, I googled it and read quite a few links to come to a conclusion why I might have gotten banned. I’ve come to the conclusion that I most likely got banned from being muted. I’ve heard from players that my brand new rocket fish headset was creating a buzzing sound. I tried everything to get the buzzing to stop, but with no avail. I do like to communicate with my team members/friends during matches and think that it is rather unfair to be banned for using a product that makes a buzzing noise and being muted for it. I love playing halo and being able to talk/chat in game, but if I am going to continually be penalized <mark>for an issue I can’t control</mark>, I might just have to stop playing. I am 30 years old, have a family, work full time and game when I can. I as a player do not like to play halo without communicating with my team and I as a consumer do not like your automated voice ban procedure. I look forward to your response 343.
Get a new headset.
Consider how other players are trying to enjoy the game and constantly having to listen to your broken headset.
The mute functionality is for reasons exactly like this and by extension so is the voice-ban.
> <mark>It isn’t unfair at all.</mark> You’re responsible for everything you own for your 360. If your headset is making an annoying sound people will mute you, and in turn, you will get a voice ban.
>
> The ban has nothing to do with Halo 4 however, you’re just being muted while playing is all. So sorry to say it but the ban was justified.
It is unfair when the voice ban is a broken system.
You can get into a party of 15 players and start a BTB in matchmaking. When the random 16th person joins, everyone in your party can mute and unmute the 16th random person and get them mute banned.
The voice ban system was broken in Halo Reach, and to bring it into Halo 4 was a stupid idea.
THERE IS A MUTE OPITION FOR PLAYERS TO USE FOR A REASON!!! The mute ban is not needed and out of place. Just like getting banned for quiting games. Why give people the opition to quit out of games if your just going to ban them?
Makes 0 sence…
> > <mark>It isn’t unfair at all.</mark> You’re responsible for everything you own for your 360. If your headset is making an annoying sound people will mute you, and in turn, you will get a voice ban.
> >
> > The ban has nothing to do with Halo 4 however, you’re just being muted while playing is all. So sorry to say it but the ban was justified.
>
>
> <mark>It is unfair when the voice ban is a broken system.</mark>
>
> You can get into a party of 15 players and start a BTB in matchmaking. When the random 16th person joins, everyone in your party can mute and unmute the 16th random person and get them mute banned.
>
> The voice ban system was broken in Halo Reach, and to bring it into Halo 4.
>
> THERE IS A MUTE OPITION FOR PLAYER TO USE FOR A REASON!!! The mute ban is not needed and out of place. Just like getting banned for quiting games. Why give people the opition to quit out of games if your just going to ban then?
>
> Makes 0 sence…
Actually, the way I see it…if someone has a horrible headset or obnoxiously loud voice. I’m not going to listen to that crap. If I want to mute someone I will.
I know the system isn’t perfect, but at the end of the day if your mic sucks, you deserve the ban.
Buy a new headset? It is brand new and less than 2 weeks old. I tried to Resolve the issue in consideration for other players, with no positive result. It works fine on my end and does not buzz on every player. I have muted other players that buzz on my set up, but I do not think that they or I deserve to be banned for it. I do believe the child screaming, “WHY DID YOU SLEEP WITH MY GIRLFRIEND?!?!” continuously throughout the match that I had muted deserves one though. Muting a player is a tool to silence someone you don’t want to hear. There should be no consequence or them being muted.
> Buy a new headset? It is brand new and less than 2 weeks old. I tried to Resolve the issue in consideration for other players, with no positive result. It works fine on my end and does not buzz on every player. I have muted other players that buzz on my set up, but I do not think that they or I deserve to be banned for it. I do believe the child screaming, “WHY DID YOU SLEEP WITH MY GIRLFRIEND?!?!” continuously throughout the match that I had muted deserves one though. Muting a player is a tool to silence someone you don’t want to hear. There should be no consequence or them being muted.
There is no consequence, unless you’ve been muted multiple times. In which case, you clearly annoyed enough people to warrant a ban. I’m not saying it’s what’s right however. I know the ban system is broken on Xbox Live, but if you think asking here is going to change anything when 343 aren’t even the ones in control of that, is going to fix anything…you’re sadly mistaken. 
As for buying a new headset. I wouldn’t say to do that. I’d just stick to party chats until you can figure out what’s wrong with it. If it’s YOUR stuff that’s causing a disturbance, in the eyes of Microsoft you deserve a ban.
If your headset is malfunctioning and it is brand new, I suggest you contact either the store you bought it from or the manufacturer as that is not normal.
Constant buzzing is an extreme irritation for me and I would have muted you as well. You cannot expect people to put up with it because you want to talk to them and have good teamwork when it’s constantly buzzing.
You’re right, I mute everyone I don’t want to hear and that includes equipment that is malfunctioning and impairing my ability to enjoy the game and/or communicate with my friends/teammates.
I don’t think you should be voice banned for being muted. That’s pretty dumb. Some people just mute everybody in every game they get into because they don’t want to hear anybody talk.
it seems unnecessary to ban people when its easy enough to mute them, I’ve never thought “well darn i have to mute this guy, my gaming experience for the evening is ruined”. if they’re really a problem then report them to xbox live, not have a mute bot do it, its kinda overkill.
Wired or Wireless controller?
> There is no consequence, unless you’ve been muted multiple times. In which case, <mark>you clearly annoyed enough people to warrant a ban</mark>.
That’s a bad assumption to make.
There are people who mute because they don’t know about the removal of Proximity Voice. There are people who mute because they don’t know about the audio/video settings that disable enemy chat in lobbies. There are people who know about the options, but who mute anyway because that’s faster and they don’t care about handing out false tickets to Banchorage. And there are people who mute because they know about the mute ban and are deliberately exploiting it.
Returning to the subject of this thread: Do players need to be responsible for their property, accessories, and headsets? Yes. Is it okay to mute people who have poor-quality headsets? Yes. But it is never a good idea to implement an automated voice ban that works by blindly counting player mutes, irrespective of the circumstances of those mutes. Muted when in Party Chat? It still gets counted. Muted in-game by an enemy player that literally cannot hear you? It still gets counted. Muted when you don’t have a mic at all? It still gets counted.
It should only take two seconds to mute a player, so there should be no need for a mute ban. In Halo 4, it takes ten, because the scoreboard is now hooked to the D-Pad rather than the joystick, forcing you to claw the controller. If 343i fixes that, then they can remove the exploitable, false-positive-prone mute ban without causing any real inconveniences. Making people take two seconds to mute is quite a bit better than falsely banning tons of players from in-game communication.
If you are muting them to better your gaming experience due to them creating unwanted noise, why is it further necessary to ban them ruining their gaming experience when the issue is already solved? you shouldn’t be banned for being muted. You should be banned for being reported. Of all the people I have played with on my team, only 4 people have notified me of the issue.
Well said Jacob.
@lycan: wireless with plug and play wire.
> If you are muting them to better your gaming experience due to them creating unwanted noise, why is it further necessary to ban them ruining their gaming experience when the issue is already solved? you shouldn’t be banned for being muted. You should be banned for being reported. Of all the people I have played with on my team, only 4 people have notified me of the issue.
I don’t disagree that the mute ban is less than optimal and don’t mistake my post as agreeing with the mute ban. I was just saying that I don’t blame those who have muted you for having an obnoxious sounding mic.
Lycan’s post reminded me of something though. I know when I use my headset, I cannot use my play and charge kit at the same time as that causes an awful buzzing type noise, is that possibly the source of your problem?
I have not tried that, but I’ll give it a try when this rediculous ban is lifted.