The official Halo 5 "Why was I banned?" thread

Games Halo 5: Guardians
884

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> > > > > 343i,
> > > > >
> > > > > THE BANHAMMER NEEDS TO BE REMOVED ENTIRELY. Why force a player to play a match that they either can’t finish because of life’s disruptions, or simply don’t want to because they’re getting annihilated by the opposing team? People will ALWAYS quit, no matter what you do to them. THEY WILL ALWAYS QUIT. Stop wasting time and resources banning them, and just let them quit. You can’t force a player to do something that they really don’t want to do, it’s actually wrong of you to do that if you really think about it. These are PAYING CUSTOMERS. They paid for your product, and you’re banning them from doing the thing they PAID YOU to do. You’re essentially robbing them. Let them quit, absolutely no one should be banned from playing a game THEY -Yoinking!- PAID FOR. In order to discourage players from quiting, why not simply demote them? Give 'em a huge drop on their rank, that’s why people quit anyway - they don’t want their rank to drop. Banning them only pushes your fanbase away (quite literally). A player will only go through so many in-game -Yoink- whoopings before they decide, “-Yoink- this, I’m done.”. And after a few rage quits resulting in increasingly lengthy bans, they’ll start to think, “Man, -Yoink- this, I get my -Yoink- kicked every time I come on here, that’s no fun at all! And I can’t quit because then I get banned for several hours, and that’s even less fun! It seems to me that every time I play this game, all I get is stressed out and frustrated, and that’s definitely not why I pay $60 for videogames. This sucks, I can’t even play what I paid for. I think this was a waste of money”. And so players will start to leave, and they might even stay gone when you push your next installment out - remembering how unenjoyable your previous product was. IT IS NO EXAGGERATION WHEN I SAY THAT THE BANHAMMER INFURIATES PLAYERS TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT THEY WILL LEAVE THE FRANCHISE, AND STAY GONE. So PLEASE, remove the banhammer altogether, and instead demote quiters for quiting. Cause they’re always gonna quit, and you know what? They have a right to do so, they paid for the damn game. No one should be banned, it absolutely BLOWS.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks for your time 343i, and despite the tone of this message, I actually love what you’re doing with the Halo franchise (except the banhammer), and you can expect for me to continue supporting you guys for a looong time (yes, even if you don’t remove the banhammer). I’m angry because I care <3
> > > > > A true fan, JAAS12
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Like with another person, you seem to misunderstand the nature of the transaction you made when purchasing the game. You don’t own the game outright; you own a license to play the game. And that license comes with rules and conditions, such as “don’t copy and distribute this game”, and “343i can deny service for any reason”, yada yada. Also included in those rules is the terms for banning. It says right on the playlists that quitting, idling, and betraying can get you banned. So if you do those things, you run the risk of suffering consequences. It’s not hidden, it’s in plain sight. You choose to continue quitting, you can’t be surprised when you get banned. The idea behind the banhammer is to hold players accountable for online interactions, and make it the best multiplayer experience for everyone. Quitters, betrayers, and idlers ruin the multiplayer experience for others, and so banning them is a way to both inform bad players to change their ways and to get rid of those bad apples for a time. 343i isn’t forcing anyone to do anything; the ability to quit is right there. SImilar to how the law cannot force you not to commit crimes. But when you do commit crimes, you go to jail. Think of quitting as a video game crime and the banhammer as video game jail.
> > >
> > >
> > > No sir, I understand that a person is purchasing the rights to use 343i’s product, not outright ownership of the product. And be that as it may, it doesn’t void my argument in any way. Customers have paid to use this product, and the banhammer does not allow them to do that. The banhammer is attempting to combat an inevitability. And as is very apparent, it is failing massively. I argue that people will quit no matter what you do to them, so why run the risk of pushing away a sizeable portion of your fanbase, when you can simply demote them to discourage quiting, or come up with another solution that doesn’t involve outright alienation of paying customers? Because the truth is that players don’t care if they’re paying for permission to use the game, or paying for ownership of the game. All they care about is that they paid to play, and the banhammer doesn’t allow them to do that for doing something that everyone, at some point or another, does. If 343i doesn’t want to lose this very sizeable portion of their fanbase, they should get rid of the banhammer altogether, and demote players for quiting, or come up with another solution that, as I said before, doesn’t involve alienation of paying customers.
> >
> >
> > Paid to play under certain rules/conditions. You go to a movie theater and pay to see a movie; if you disrupt other people’s experience and get ejected from the theater, you don’t get a refund. Same principle in games.
> > As for your ideas to replace the banhammer, quitting already does contribute to losing rank. Other solutions may be viable and could be explored in the future. But those sorts of things would waste more time/resources than just temp banning quitters. And you say yourself that quitters will never stop, so even other methods won’t get rid of it 100%. Banning is probably the worst kind of punishment that can be dished out (and the easiest), so it probably remains the most effective way of deterring quitters, even if it doesn’t work on everyone
>
>
> Stupid example.
>
> I paid to play a game.
> i cannot play the game because they exclude people.
> why ?
> Because of the hammer.
> ok !
> Good!
> No body told us that there is a hammer while i was purchasing, and if someone told me i would have never bought it.
> i think to be clear !
>
> and if you aren’t from 343I JUST fuckkk off ! because i am not here to waste my time with idiots !

Luckily I have every right to reply to whatever post I choose, so long as I abide by the rules.
Can you name a game with multiplayer/online features that does not have any sort of banning system? I sure can’t.
But at the end of the day, no matter how much you whine, the Halo 5 banhammer isn’t going away. It may change, become more/less strict, but it won’t go away. And players who don’t learn to adapt to the strictness of the banhammer or choose to quit whenever they want will continue to suffer the consequences.
You say you have every right to quit games. You do, absolutely. And 343i has every right to ban you for it.

885

Quick question, if you don’t play halo 5 for say; a few weeks, months, etc, will the ban times (So if you got banned for 8 minutes, and soon after got banned for 10 minutes) get shorter? (DONT JUDGE. IM A NOOB)

886

As far as we know, the automated ban system builds a case on your profile for every time you quit, DNF, betray, idle, etc. This case, and the infractions that comprise it, don’t get reset after any known amount of time. So bans can likely only increase in time; I don’t think your infractions ever reset.

887

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> I have been banned because at the end of the match when I won an FFA the dedicated server crashed and the game said " Lost connection to the dedicated server." I would like my ban lifted as I have done nothing wrong. I used to be a frequent quitter but have turned a new leaf but because I used to quit a lot, if I leave to go and eat dinner or the dedicated crashes the game will automatically ban me for 3 hours even if I hadn’t left a game in ages.
> Edit: My ban has ended but please look into this problem, thanks.

One problem with the banhammer appears to be that it does not reset the timer after a long period of time.
It should also include a system that checks and compares its cases, what it expects you to leave, and see if you do or do not, based on that then keep or decrease ban time.

However, if you leave to go eat dinner, that’s still on you. Time management is important.

888

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> This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not purposely bypass the word filter.
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> > > > > 343i,
> > > > > THE BANHAMMER NEEDS TO BE REMOVED ENTIRELY. Why force a player to play a match that they either can’t finish because of life’s disruptions, or simply don’t want to because they’re getting annihilated by the opposing team? People will ALWAYS quit, no matter what you do to them. THEY WILL ALWAYS QUIT. Stop wasting time and resources banning them, and just let them quit. You can’t force a player to do something that they really don’t want to do, it’s actually wrong of you to do that if you really think about it. These are PAYING CUSTOMERS. They paid for your product, and you’re banning them from doing the thing they PAID YOU to do. You’re essentially robbing them. Let them quit, absolutely no one should be banned from playing a game THEY -Yoinking!- PAID FOR. In order to discourage players from quiting, why not simply demote them? Give 'em a huge drop on their rank, that’s why people quit anyway - they don’t want their rank to drop. Banning them only pushes your fanbase away (quite literally). A player will only go through so many in-game -Yoink- whoopings before they decide, “-Yoink- this, I’m done.”. And after a few rage quits resulting in increasingly lengthy bans, they’ll start to think, “Man, -Yoink- this, I get my -Yoink- kicked every time I come on here, that’s no fun at all! And I can’t quit because then I get banned for several hours, and that’s even less fun! It seems to me that every time I play this game, all I get is stressed out and frustrated, and that’s definitely not why I pay $60 for videogames. This sucks, I can’t even play what I paid for. I think this was a waste of money”. And so players will start to leave, and they might even stay gone when you push your next installment out - remembering how unenjoyable your previous product was. IT IS NO EXAGGERATION WHEN I SAY THAT THE BANHAMMER INFURIATES PLAYERS TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT THEY WILL LEAVE THE FRANCHISE, AND STAY GONE. So PLEASE, remove the banhammer altogether, and instead demote quiters for quiting. Cause they’re always gonna quit, and you know what? They have a right to do so, they paid for the damn game. No one should be banned, it absolutely BLOWS.
> > > > > Thanks for your time 343i, and despite the tone of this message, I actually love what you’re doing with the Halo franchise (except the banhammer), and you can expect for me to continue supporting you guys for a looong time (yes, even if you don’t remove the banhammer). I’m angry because I care <3
> > > > > A true fan, JAAS12
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Like with another person, you seem to misunderstand the nature of the transaction you made when purchasing the game. You don’t own the game outright; you own a license to play the game. And that license comes with rules and conditions, such as “don’t copy and distribute this game”, and “343i can deny service for any reason”, yada yada. Also included in those rules is the terms for banning. It says right on the playlists that quitting, idling, and betraying can get you banned. So if you do those things, you run the risk of suffering consequences. It’s not hidden, it’s in plain sight. You choose to continue quitting, you can’t be surprised when you get banned. The idea behind the banhammer is to hold players accountable for online interactions, and make it the best multiplayer experience for everyone. Quitters, betrayers, and idlers ruin the multiplayer experience for others, and so banning them is a way to both inform bad players to change their ways and to get rid of those bad apples for a time. 343i isn’t forcing anyone to do anything; the ability to quit is right there. SImilar to how the law cannot force you not to commit crimes. But when you do commit crimes, you go to jail. Think of quitting as a video game crime and the banhammer as video game jail.
> > >
> > >
> > > No sir, I understand that a person is purchasing the rights to use 343i’s product, not outright ownership of the product. And be that as it may, it doesn’t void my argument in any way. Customers have paid to use this product, and the banhammer does not allow them to do that. The banhammer is attempting to combat an inevitability. And as is very apparent, it is failing massively. I argue that people will quit no matter what you do to them, so why run the risk of pushing away a sizeable portion of your fanbase, when you can simply demote them to discourage quiting, or come up with another solution that doesn’t involve outright alienation of paying customers? Because the truth is that players don’t care if they’re paying for permission to use the game, or paying for ownership of the game. All they care about is that they paid to play, and the banhammer doesn’t allow them to do that for doing something that everyone, at some point or another, does. If 343i doesn’t want to lose this very sizeable portion of their fanbase, they should get rid of the banhammer altogether, and demote players for quiting, or come up with another solution that, as I said before, doesn’t involve alienation of paying customers.
> >
> >
> > Paid to play under certain rules/conditions. You go to a movie theater and pay to see a movie; if you disrupt other people’s experience and get ejected from the theater, you don’t get a refund. Same principle in games.
> > As for your ideas to replace the banhammer, quitting already does contribute to losing rank. Other solutions may be viable and could be explored in the future. But those sorts of things would waste more time/resources than just temp banning quitters. And you say yourself that quitters will never stop, so even other methods won’t get rid of it 100%. Banning is probably the worst kind of punishment that can be dished out (and the easiest), so it probably remains the most effective way of deterring quitters, even if it doesn’t work on everyone
>
>
> Stupid example.
> I paid to play a game.
> i cannot play the game because they exclude people.
> why ?
> Because of the hammer.
> ok !
> Good!
> No body told us that there is a hammer while i was purchasing, and if someone told me i would have never bought it.
> i think to be clear !
>

No, because people can’t abide by rules, restrictions or follow guidelines. Those players are excluded for a period of time.

Every game has a “hammer”, they just punish people for different things, not all games are as strict as Halo 5, but there are also stricter games than Halo 5.

889

> 2741700308880869;20:
> > **I didn’t do anything wrong, and you can’t prove it. Will you please reverse my ban?**Our automated system builds up a digital case of wrongdoing before any ban is enacted. If you accidentally disconnect a time or two, you won’t get banned. Instead the system looks for patterns that can’t happen accidentally. If the banhammer detects enough wrongdoing, you were doing wrong.
>
>
> ^^^^ Wrong.
>
> I lagged out of one game when I haven’t even played in the last few days. I didn’t quit out of anything today, the lag out was not my fault and I got banned right away. It was over quickly, but I still should not be getting banned for a single lag out that is the fault of my internet provider.

I also keep Keep getting banned for quiting to many games when in reality I just keep getting kicked in the middle of the games I try to play and it’s putting the blame on me. I’m just done with halo at this point. Not such a great experience for a first time halo player.

890

> 2533274864304862;882:
> I got banned once for ten minutes in Grif because someone jumped in front of me deliberately as I was sword lunging the bomb carrier at my teams goal post. First game of Arena in three weeks and I get a ban. I play two days later, same thing, trigger happy troll kicks me for the same thing. People are starting to find newer effective ways to grief players and their Reputation by getting them banned with the boot system. This isn’t fair to those who don’t do anything wrong. My enforcement reputation is as clean as can be.
> Between the trolls in Grifball, the random disconnections or fireteam change issues, I can’t play Arena anymore which is my favorite thing to play.
> Sure my ban timer is currently left at 20 minutes, but I’m truly afraid to play it again and risk getting the 40 minute ban next or something crazy. I love playing Grifball and it truly saddens me that I have to be afraid to use a sword or a hammer because of how many trolls there are or people who are oblivious and jump right in front of me no matter how much I stay away from them.
>
> As a Halo player since Halo: CE, I am a very dissatisfied customer due to the way the servers have been running lately as well as the boot system. This is like the tenth time I’ve had this problem in Arena now. I’m no quitter and I definitely am no griefer. I’m simply a customer trying to enjoy a competitive match of Grifball and SWAT.

I too have been having this same issue. It’s getting to the point that I don’t want to play grifball anymore, and that sucks as it has been my favorite game type since Halo 3. Personally I believe that ban rules should be removed from grifball. Players in grifball are all equipped with gravity hammers, which, as everyone knows, have splash damage. It’s hard not to accidentally betray teammates even when you’re avoiding them. If not remove the ban rules, at least look at the timing in between betrayals or the total number of betrayals as players trying to grief are likely to have more than a player simply betraying by accident.

891

> 2533274878053887;890:
> > 2533274864304862;882:
> > I got banned once for ten minutes in Grif because someone jumped in front of me deliberately as I was sword lunging the bomb carrier at my teams goal post. First game of Arena in three weeks and I get a ban. I play two days later, same thing, trigger happy troll kicks me for the same thing. People are starting to find newer effective ways to grief players and their Reputation by getting them banned with the boot system. This isn’t fair to those who don’t do anything wrong. My enforcement reputation is as clean as can be.
> > Between the trolls in Grifball, the random disconnections or fireteam change issues, I can’t play Arena anymore which is my favorite thing to play.
> > Sure my ban timer is currently left at 20 minutes, but I’m truly afraid to play it again and risk getting the 40 minute ban next or something crazy. I love playing Grifball and it truly saddens me that I have to be afraid to use a sword or a hammer because of how many trolls there are or people who are oblivious and jump right in front of me no matter how much I stay away from them.
> >
> > As a Halo player since Halo: CE, I am a very dissatisfied customer due to the way the servers have been running lately as well as the boot system. This is like the tenth time I’ve had this problem in Arena now. I’m no quitter and I definitely am no griefer. I’m simply a customer trying to enjoy a competitive match of Grifball and SWAT.
>
>
> I too have been having this same issue. It’s getting to the point that I don’t want to play grifball anymore, and that sucks as it has been my favorite game type since Halo 3. Personally I believe that ban rules should be removed from grifball. Players in grifball are all equipped with gravity hammers, which, as everyone knows, have splash damage. It’s hard not to accidentally betray teammates even when you’re avoiding them. If not remove the ban rules, at least look at the timing in between betrayals or the total number of betrayals as players trying to grief are likely to have more than a player simply betraying by accident.

Exactly. It wasnt in Halo 4 or Halo: Reach. The splash damage so simply so strong in Halo 5, that it’s unavoidable, and within milliseconds of a betrayal, people are eager to hit the boot button without considering the possibility that it’s an accident. If it was on purpose the betrayals would happen continously every ten or fifteen seconds about four or five times.

This issue of players deliberately jumping into people’s hammers or swords to get them booted and cause ban grief is just getting way too out of hand. I’m truly afraid to use a weapon in Grifball to the point I don’t want to play it anymore.

So to the people made the ban system in Halo 5, I ask, do you want players to truly be afraid to play a gametype you put into the game, out of fear that they’ll risk hour or day bans at the evil of trolls and people set to grief the ban system?

You could look at my Warzone reputation, I have not one ban on there and I play it more than I do Arena.

892

i have Never quit a game in Halo 5. Including times when it has been 4 v me!!

Banned last night because of Lag. Fuming!
And now this is on my records, and all my good will has been dumped on.

Not fair.

893

Hi, I got banned earlier today for six minutes in grifball for “griefing teammates”. I’m not angry, I just want to know what I did wrong.

894

> 2533274976975090;893:
> Hi, I got banned earlier today for six minutes in grifball for “griefing teammates”. I’m not angry, I just want to know what I did wrong.

You probably betrayed one too many teammates in Grifball (either by accident or on purpose), so the game flagged that as inappropriate behavior and temp banned you.

895

I was just banned and booted out of a ffa game after hitting onyx 1731 for the first time in ffa by winning my previous game. I didnt quit a game yet my screen said i was banned and not allow me to play in arena. I didnt even do anything wrong. I got no message either over duration. It is incredibly unfair.

I reset my xbox and the ban message was gone. Woohoo. Yet i lost 30 csr i spent several games earning. All cos i was booted for a phantom ban. I havent quit in a very long time ( 4 times deliberately months ago due to lag or unplayable matches) so i cant understand what happened. I do however want my 30 csr back ( i am now onyx 1737, but would be 1767 but for my unjust penalty). Please sort it 343, you are welcome to check my records as i have nothing to hide at all.

896

Is there any place we can see what our “ban score” is? I would just like to see what actions are causing issue and what my next ban length will be. If it gets to large, is there a way it can be appealed, cleared, or at least award good behavior?

897

i keep getting banned for quitting matchs…but I’m not quitting!!! this happened every day what the hell is going on!!!

898

So, I was in a Team Arena match (Slayer on Empire) and some of my friends invited me to a custom game. I decided to join, and when I did, I got a notification that told me that I was banned for the next 6 1/2 hours. I almost NEVER EVER EVER leave games, and when I do it’s only out of the greatest necessity (like joining my friends for a couple of laughs and fun, or family matters.) I’m a little bit ticked off and if someone can give me enough evidence as to why I was banned that would be amazing. This isn’t a big issue, but I have 30+ games on my Xbox, and out of those I play Halo 5 the most. Now the game treats me like crap. If I did for some reason leave to many matches in too short an amount of time, I’ll gladly accept this ban, but as far as I’m concerned I didn’t. I have never been banned before. (quote) “First offences are generally low and last only a few minutes, but will increase in duration incrementally with each subsequent ban.” I might have hit a couple people with my nades, but almost none ( if any) betrayals. HELP!

EDIT: It was only a 6 1/2 minute ban, but my point still stands.

899

I was banned while playing Grifball, because for some reason kicking teamates is allowed on this playlist. I demand proof and actual reasons of why I got kicked and banned from the game after this match.
Ohh, and I also bring proof of why I shouldn’t be banned… Does your “automated system” has anything to say about this?

http://xboxclips.com/The+Lucky+J0ker/f372846c-11c1-4efe-9469-c2a94f87ef50

900

To whom it may concern. I was playing a game of slayer on arena where all but one of the kids on the other team were playing. We had almost the full length of time left in the game to play. 4 vs 1 where a kid just hid and crouched. If I get on to play I get on to play, not play hide and seek. In the interest of making the most of my time I quit and got banned from Arena for 20 minutes. This also isn’t the first time I have ended up in a 4 vs 1 game because people quit. I wanted to not only bring this to you guys attention but also wanted to make a suggestion. I feel it would be in everyone’s best interest that if a game of arena ends up 4 vs 1 the game should end and the team with 4 members is automatically awarded the win. It seems crazy to me to make the party of 4 stay in game trying to hunt down 1 guy for up to 10 minutes. Not to mention the guy left alone probably feels its a waste of time as well. I understand you guys have been cracking down on people who quit by banning them however I feel I was unjustly banned and there are other people who have done the same and been banned as well. My solution may or may not be one you guys consider but felt I should bring it to your attention.

901

What is the appeals process please for reviewing a ban decision?

902

> 2533274883717656;899:
> I was banned while playing Grifball, because for some reason kicking teamates is allowed on this playlist. I demand proof and actual reasons of why I got kicked and banned from the game after this match.
> Ohh, and I also bring proof of why I shouldn’t be banned… Does your “automated system” has anything to say about this?
>
> http://xboxclips.com/The+Lucky+J0ker/f372846c-11c1-4efe-9469-c2a94f87ef50

if this was your first betrayal that game the boot message never would have come up

903

> 2535427484971596;897:
> i keep getting banned for quitting matchs…but I’m not quitting!!! this happened every day what the hell is going on!!!

you have 8 DNF out of 40 games, it certainly appears you quit every day. some of them are 2-3 in a row