Why Did I Get Banned - The Official Thread

Games Other Halo
221

> > > getting zero kills (because the banhammer thinks you are afk)
> >
> > Zero kills? What if you simply suck? will you get banned for simply sucking. “Oh, i get 0 kills because i suck at the match” “You are banned because we think you are afk” Yoink!. So just because someone had to go to the bathroom or something they have a risk of not only losing but getting banned? Please correct me if i have my info wrong.
>
> You went to the bathroom for an entire match (~15 minutes). Something doesn’t quite sound right.

No i meant it seems unfair if you get banned for simply not having kills.

222

I’ve been in support of the bans since Reach first launched, but now I see that it does have it’s flaws and it isn’t as perfect as everyone thinks.

Long story short, I convinced a buddy of mine to buy a 360 so we could play Reach together after he had a blast playing at my house. He’s been quite busy for the last few months, but we finally started to regularly play together again. His kid just turned 5 years old and took an interest in the game his dad was playing, so when he called me up to ask how much a cheap controller for his son would be, I told him not to worry about it and gave him my old back up for free.

It turns out, that after one or two games of the three of us playing together (one of us being a 5 year old boy that has never played Halo, let alone held a controller before this week), he was banned from earning credits, because his five year old child did not manage to score a kill, on his guest account, against veteran players on his maiden voyage into FPS.

I never knew that simply being a five year old that hasn’t mastered Halo yet is deserving of any type of ban, but I suppose I know better now. I mean an automated system of judgment, based entirely on heuristics can’t be wrong… right?

223

> I’ve been in support of the bans since Reach first launched, but now I see that it does have it’s flaws and it isn’t as perfect as everyone thinks.
>
> Long story short, I convinced a buddy of mine to buy a 360 so we could play Reach together after he had a blast playing at my house. He’s been quite busy for the last few months, but we finally started to regularly play together again. His kid just turned 5 years old and took an interest in the game his dad was playing, so when he called me up to ask how much a cheap controller for his son would be, I told him not to worry about it and gave him my old back up for free.
>
> It turns out, that after one or two games of the three of us playing together (one of us being a 5 year old boy that has never played Halo, let alone held a controller before this week), he was banned from earning credits, because his five year old child did not manage to score a kill, on his guest account, against veteran players on his maiden voyage into FPS.
>
> I never knew that simply being a five year old that hasn’t mastered Halo yet is deserving of any type of ban, but I suppose I know better now. I mean an automated system of judgment, based entirely on heuristics can’t be wrong… right?

An ounce of common sense would tell me that… perhaps it isn’t a good idea to subject other players, especially potential teammates, to playing with a 5-year old… and maybe setting up a custom firefight game if you want the kid to play. You obviously knew about the bans, so why would you risk it?

224

I got a perma console and account ban for modding my service tag. I believe this was unfair. People boost and AFK everyday and get a temporary ban. If I mod it I get a perma console and account ban? I think my actions were meant to be bannable, but not with that much impact. I have to use my friends account to play Halo Reach now.

225

> I got a perma console and account ban for modding my service tag. I believe this was unfair. People boost and AFK everyday and get a temporary ban. If I mod it I get a perma console and account ban? I think my actions were meant to be bannable, but not with that much impact. I have to use my friends account to play Halo Reach now.

KEYWORD HERE IS MOD! It is never ever ever ok to mod your console, period, for any reason, ever. Now, the question then becomes, knowing a mod would get you a swing of the banhammer, even if it is something as stupid as a service tag, why would you even risk it? I do not feel bad for you. Ive said it before and ill say it until i turn blue in the face, MODDING your console, controller, nameplate, service tag, reticle, armor color, anything at all really is just poor judgement on your part. Your forgetting the fact that XBL itself, not even halo, has you in a contractual obligation to never ever mod your console for any reason, ever. Joke is on you, i would imagine you will get no pity or understanding in this matter. Why even do that knowing you might get a ban?

226

> I got a perma console and account ban for modding my service tag. I believe this was unfair. People boost and AFK everyday and get a temporary ban. If I mod it I get a perma console and account ban? I think my actions were meant to be bannable, but not with that much impact. I have to use my friends account to play Halo Reach now.

I would like to remind you that it is actually against the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use, consider yourself lucky it was just a Reach Console Ban & Account Ban.

Otherwise you would be pitching in for a new account & new console.

227

> > I’ve been in support of the bans since Reach first launched, but now I see that it does have it’s flaws and it isn’t as perfect as everyone thinks.
> >
> > Long story short, I convinced a buddy of mine to buy a 360 so we could play Reach together after he had a blast playing at my house. He’s been quite busy for the last few months, but we finally started to regularly play together again. His kid just turned 5 years old and took an interest in the game his dad was playing, so when he called me up to ask how much a cheap controller for his son would be, I told him not to worry about it and gave him my old back up for free.
> >
> > It turns out, that after one or two games of the three of us playing together (one of us being a 5 year old boy that has never played Halo, let alone held a controller before this week), he was banned from earning credits, because his five year old child did not manage to score a kill, on his guest account, against veteran players on his maiden voyage into FPS.
> >
> > I never knew that simply being a five year old that hasn’t mastered Halo yet is deserving of any type of ban, but I suppose I know better now. I mean an automated system of judgment, based entirely on heuristics can’t be wrong… right?
>
> An ounce of common sense would tell me that… perhaps it isn’t a good idea to subject other players, especially potential teammates, to playing with a 5-year old… and maybe setting up a custom firefight game if you want the kid to play. You obviously knew about the bans, so why would you risk it?

An ounce of common sense? How would the rest of his team (which consisted of me, his father and another friend) be subjected to anything? Maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to judge, though apparently you’ve already exhausted your common sense reserves with that last ounce. By the way, we won the match.

He plays campaign, though I hardly see how that is any of your business.

As far as “knowing about the bans”, of course I knew of them. I just assumed that after all the assurance Bungie gave us that their heuristics were infallible were true. Obviously, they aren’t. He did absolutely nothing to warrant the punishment; no rules were broken, no cheating took place, nobody was “subject”- he just didn’t score any kills.

228

For all those who want to use “my kid, my friend, my dog, etc” is no good, please the banhammer does not simply look at kills over the game. Never has, this is just a theory people try to use, Bungie (nor 343) have not specifically stated what banhammer looks for other than a pattern of behavior. I can honestly tell it does not like simply at kills.

If you want to continue to dispute this fine, but understand I do play with my daughter, she has her own GT. You can look at my history and probably determine who, fine. Then look at her stats, numerous games in the first page of multiplayer (you must filter the search because we play a lot of firefight). NEVER been banned, because she PLAYS. What does this mean. She is not in the same spot all the time, not running randomly in circles (ie rubberbanding a controller). This is easily detectable, and it SHOWS on the heatmaps and game viewers in the game history.

Looking at those who claim to be banned because of bad players, most of those games the player is killed in the spawn point. Now can spawn traps happen, yes, but looking at the stats of the game that is not the case. Because other players on the team were positive and killing those players shortly thereafter killing the AFK player, meaning at that point if a spawn trap was even set it was broke.

I am going to give a point of advice to those claiming bans for this reason, please do not use my friend, kid, etc is bad; it is overplayed and easily debunked. I have seen, posted and commented on many of the threads at B.net about ban disputes, those who have every been reversed had one simple commanality, HONESTY.

I know what many will do now, “I am telling the truth, etc, etc, etc”, but remember I play with a player in the same set of circumstances you claim and neither one of us has been banned. That tells me the simple theory of the banhammer looking only at kills is wrong.

229

> For all those who want to use “my kid, my friend, my dog, etc” is no good, please the banhammer does not simply look at kills over the game. Never has, this is just a theory people try to use, Bungie (nor 343) have not specifically stated what banhammer looks for other than a pattern of behavior. I can honestly tell it does not like simply at kills.
>
> If you want to continue to dispute this fine, but understand I do play with my daughter, she has her own GT. You can look at my history and probably determine who, fine. Then look at her stats, numerous games in the first page of multiplayer (you must filter the search because we play a lot of firefight). NEVER been banned, because she PLAYS. What does this mean. She is not in the same spot all the time, not running randomly in circles (ie rubberbanding a controller). This is easily detectable, and it SHOWS on the heatmaps and game viewers in the game history.
>
> Looking at those who claim to be banned because of bad players, most of those games the player is killed in the spawn point. Now can spawn traps happen, yes, but looking at the stats of the game that is not the case. Because other players on the team were positive and killing those players shortly thereafter killing the AFK player, meaning at that point if a spawn trap was even set it was broke.
>
> I am going to give a point of advice to those claiming bans for this reason, please do not use my friend, kid, etc is bad; it is overplayed and easily debunked. I have seen, posted and commented on many of the threads at B.net about ban disputes, those who have every been reversed had one simple commanality, HONESTY.
>
> I know what many will do now, “I am telling the truth, etc, etc, etc”, but remember I play with a player in the same set of circumstances you claim and neither one of us has been banned. That tells me the simple theory of the banhammer looking only at kills is wrong.

I’ve never been banned. Nor would I ever or am I attempting to appeal one.

Your daughter also appears to be semi-competent at FPS, unlike a five year old who was playing his first game.

Again, I wasn’t banned, my friend never suggested I come here and post on his behalf. He only asked my what a credit ban meant and why he got one. If you would like to see the two games for which the cR ban was issues, I’d be happy to oblige.

One thing you stated does have a bit of truth to it. Nobody besides Bungie and 343 know the exact heuristics and neither do you. So why do you pretend to?

That said, for all any of us know, the banhammer could weigh having zero kills more heavily than other factors. Again, we aren’t privy to that information (nor should we be), so I don’t understand how you can definitively state that isn’t the case. I never said nil games were the only determining factor, though I suppose that was just your attempt to erect a strawman.

Anyway, thanks for the cliched lecture.

230

Hey guys I woke up this morning and my account was banned from credits. I was playing last night with a friend, and then he left and i didn’t log him off and i played a couple games just by myself.

231

> Hey guys I woke up this morning and my account was banned from credits. I was playing last night with a friend, and then he left and i didn’t log him off and i played a couple games just by myself.

That would be where you went wrong. If your buddy has left the game, You need to sign him out. Using him to gain credits will warrant a ban. And you didn’t do it just once… :wink:

232

> Hey guys I woke up this morning and my account was banned from credits. I was playing last night with a friend, and then he left and i didn’t log him off and i played a couple games just by myself.

Your buddy was technically AFKing then, next time remember to sign out.

233

I dont think its fair to be banned when you are getting disconnected…I keep having this prob. Ive got a technician coming out Monday to try and fix the problem…but when I call them they say I have a good connection…very frustrating.
Is it bad when after being disconnected and the game continues with the 2 people, you keep playing or should we quit the game? Does it count as 2 quits if you do this?

Thanks

234

9:15 AM Hello all, just now my dad and I fired up some reach like we always do, but I have one complaint this time around, I received a message stating “this console has been temporarily banned from earning credits.” Can a mod or someone with the power to over turn this please help me? I have done nothing wrong to deserve this treament, and demand something be done. At the very least I deserve and explaination of your actions. thanks :slight_smile:

235

> 9:15 AM Hello all, just now my dad and I fired up some reach like we always do, but I have one complaint this time around, I received a message stating “this console has been temporarily banned from earning credits.” Can a mod or someone with the power to over turn this please help me? I have done nothing wrong to deserve this treament, and demand something be done. At the very least I deserve and explaination of your actions. thanks :slight_smile:

Your ban has to do with the numerous AFK games that Revealing Monkey had in Premium Battle (I am assuming this is your dad since this GT is in most of your games). His GT and console are banned, I am assuming you play on the same console, therefore you can not earn credits on that console.

And before you say he was not that good, this GT usually manages some kills and assists every game, except this chunk of games from yesterday afternoon, evening.

236

> I’ve never been banned. Nor would I ever or am I attempting to appeal one.
>
> Your daughter also appears to be semi-competent at FPS, unlike a five year old who was playing his first game.
>
> Again, I wasn’t banned, my friend never suggested I come here and post on his behalf. He only asked my what a credit ban meant and why he got one. If you would like to see the two games for which the cR ban was issues, I’d be happy to oblige.
>
> One thing you stated does have a bit of truth to it. Nobody besides Bungie and 343 know the exact heuristics and neither do you. So why do you pretend to?
>
> That said, for all any of us know, the banhammer could weigh having zero kills more heavily than other factors. Again, we aren’t privy to that information (nor should we be), so I don’t understand how you can definitively state that isn’t the case. I never said nil games were the only determining factor, though I suppose that was just your attempt to erect a strawman.
>
> Anyway, thanks for the cliched lecture.

At no point was I specifically referring to you, but if you look through the posts here and the constant threads that have popped up at B.net and here regarding this when people have guests, etc, the excuse is the same, player X is bad at the game.

As for my post, read what I said again, I said that Bungie has said before it does not simply look at kills, if this was the case, she or even I would be banned. I play many games with her where I drive Warthogs in Score Attack, and because of this I get zero kills.

As to why I pretend to know how the banhammer is programmed, I never did. I only debunked the theory that zero kills means the player is AFK to the banhammer. Again, go back to my post, if the banhammer only looks at kills (as many have claimed in their posts here) then I would have been banned because of my daughter. That is the only point I made besides the ability to look at heatmaps and gameviewers when people use the player is not good excuse. Any person can view these and see the player died in the spawn point, therefore not moving and AFK.

Before you respond with little snide remarks to me, please read my post. I provide proof to the items that I put in my post, which only covered one topic, the banhammer is only based on kills. I provided two items to back up my thoughts (my daughter’s play and heatmaps) showing the claims are not correct.

237

First off I understand this isnt so much a forum as it is a place to officially have your ban viewied by someone who can ddo somethin about it! Now with that said I have a couple of complaints/ideas on the issues at hand.

I’ll start off with i did AFK a descent amount back in NOV time frame (alot of the games woudl be me and a firedn so he coudl get more kills and get his commendations up) . Also was invited to a few boosting games and a like once or twice was accidently delivered via matchmaking into some! but that has only been like 2 0r 3 times and was rather weird.

Now do I want my Cr back! YES, Am i getting it back NO! I would like to express some opinions which would make this alil easier in the future.

  1. To stop AFK’n have it where if the controller is idled for a certain period of time it kicks you out of the game! Something reasonable like 120 +seconds

  2. If someone defies the rules they shoudl be punished but only for what they have done wrong. AKA i idled 14 games but played 50 total soo I shoudl lose the Cr for the 14 but keep it from the other 36. After all I’m still spending my time playing your video game that I purchased.

I see it as this! I bought your game and am entitled to play it how I see fit. Once my playing affects someone else’s gameplay then it becomes an issue (even though it says online game play can’t be rated). But you the admin guys can do what you see fit with the game and thats respectable! However then you run into ppl like me. I played the game until i was an eclipse probably only boositng a total of maybe at best 400k Cr and thats being very generous on that end (im assuming around 250k is about right but I’m not sure) However your network should be able to make a quick formula and tell exactly how many Cr was earned form idling/boosted games. Thats neither here nor there for this conversationg. I went from playing 10-15 games a day (thats work days! I’m in the military and work 12 hr days when not deployed) and like 50+ gameson the weekend to now I play like 10-15 games a month if that.

Have i transistioned to a new and far more superior game, NO. I mereley have been pushed away from my xbox and halo. I understood what happened was wrong and I went about it wrong but felt the punishment was just to severe for the crime and Don’t really care to partake in the game anymore.

I have played every halo and have bought every halo game and will continue so because I like the campaign far more then most games but I also request if your going to play the games parental unit that you actually put someone in charge of it and give it the R&D like any other mode of this game.

With all that said I enjoy your games. My fav features are the campaign , FORGE!!!, and the overall adaptibility of the gameplay! I don’t expect my Cr to be returned to me but merely have you work on a better disciplanary system is all.

P.S. sorry for any misspellings or poor grammar as I did get alil bit worked up in there !

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Nerf Herder 83,

I would like to address a couple of points in your post. The first is getting the credits back you legitimately earned. There was a two fold answer why a reset happens when this was an issue on bungie’s website. First they said they do not have the information for the credits earned from games individually simply because the amount of data to store that would be too much more. While some people used all the stats, game history, they were able to limit that data since it was tied to multiple gamers at a time in a data base. With credits it is seperate to the player, the higher the rank the more credits, so to store that for every game for every player would be more storage than they were willing to invest in.

The second about resets, resets were used for those who were the worst offenders. I am not saying you are or what their criteria for the worst offender is, but that is how they defined resets. Remember the banhammer has been imported from Bungie, so I am going off what Bungie has said about it over the last 10 months.

Last, the phrase “I bought the game and I can play it how I want” (paraphrasing as I did not quote your post), is not correct. Games, music, movies, etc fall under intellectual property. When you purchase them, you purchase the rights to use them as the owner sees fit, right now that is 343. This is where the all encompassing phrase “All Rights Reserved” comes in on items you buy, like Halo: Reach. If 343 feels you are not using their property in the right manner, under US Copyright Law (and this is asknowledged through the world as the US enforces other copyrights from other countries) 343 has the right to take any steps they seem fit including repossesing the game itself and stripping of said purchased rights. So 343 does have the right to tell us how to play the game under copyright law.

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touche’ Like I said theres nothing they can do about it. I just want them to look into it if they plan on using disciplinary actiosn in the future! Its part of the game same as mm or campaign and needs just as much attention. lol i had got 99% armory completetion and really enjoyed the game but i hardly play anymore! However i do love forging if anyone neds help or would like to check out my maps.

But you can tell who boosted more and what not just by looking at their stats and commendations! however not in depth but you can get the jist of who has actually played a good deal and who just sat idley by.

Still looking forward to anniversary and 4 and hopefully map packs and DLC between them

240

Hello, first post on these forums. Took me a little while to find a link here that wasn’t dead. I believe my GT is tied to the account I made, but if not… Etrexium.

I’ve been banned for about four days not. “This xbox has been temporarily banned…” “This account has been temporarily banned…”

I’ve had this happen to me before, and I generally waited out the ban. They only lasted a day, generally. After four days, though, I started to lurk, and I think I’ve pinpointed why I was banned.

My guests suck.

Horribly.

Occasionally I have some friends over, and they love to play Gears of War, Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood, and Halo: Reach. After some thinking, I realized that my bans had occurred after I played with friends who didn’t manage to get any kills. So now that I know what to look for, I know how to avoid getting banned again. I won’t let them play online.

Anyways, I could use some help. If I could get it reversed- awesome. If I could just get a date so I know when to start playing again?.. Cool.

So, thanks for any help offered. Hope this ends soon.