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I, the Guild Master of a guild with a Full Tier 1 City just got banned
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I don't know what it is, I know anyone can be corrupt, GM or not but I think I'd take Funcoms side on this one... all the content is said to take 250 hours to complete... althought I'm not sure if that's rushing through it or listening/reading to all quests. To be generous to players I'd say it's the listen/read time... so I'm guessing it would take maybe 125 hours to get to 80 just getting quests/skipping cut-scenes... I guess that sounds possible without exploiting to do for people that have nothing else to do but eat, sleep, and play.
But anyways, you'll most likely get your account back if you weren't cheating at all. I don't see what's in it for Funcom just to ban people that progress fast.
What was your /played time? Just curious.
Yep they will have to make sure the money you guys got was legit to buy the stuff you need and advertised for.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=48511
Questions by Benjamin J. de la Durantaye, Age of Conan Lead CM, Ten Ton Hammer
Answers by Mathis, Senior Customer Service & QA Manager
Recently there have been player bans in Age of Conan. The community has been asking for details as to what has happened and what players can do if they feel they have been wrongly banned. Today we were able to get the following details from Funcom Senior Customer Service & QA Manager, Mathis.
Ten Ton Hammer: Recently several accounts have been banned due to suspicious activity. Can you elaborate on this as to why these accounts were banned?
The downside with it all is that sometimes other people get dragged into it. If we see some suspicious behavior we might have to close accounts temporarily for investigation. It’s a way to do damage control to make sure things don’t get out of hand until we have control over the situation.
This is a somewhat touchy topic as we can’t reveal too many details about how we do this - that would give away our procedures and help people get away with it next time they find an exploit. No matter how much we work to cover everything, sooner or later there will be new exploits born in Hyboria. That’s just the way MMOs work. However, our goal is to minimize the damage, and obviously do our best to ensure that it won’t happen again.
Ten Ton Hammer: What if the accounts banned were legitimate accounts? For instance many guilds have given a guild character much gold to act as a guild bank until the in-game bank was brought back up. What can players do to get these accounts reactivated, assuming the gold was legitimate?
Ten Ton Hammer: Some accounts have had gold removed but the account wasn't banned. Is there anything these players can do to rectify the situation if the gold was legitimate?
Ten Ton Hammer: Will players be notified if their accounts will NOT be reactivated?
http://support.ageofconan.com/
Ten Ton Hammer: Do you feel the alarms for this thing may be too sensitive as they stand? What kind of plans are in place to avoid this same problem in the future, given the amount of money it requires to build a complete city?
We understand that it can be frustrating being affected by this if everything you do as a player is legit, and I can assure every customer that we’ll do our best to cover every area to minimize the impact. After all, we obviously want people to enjoy the game and what it has to offer. Together we can ensure that those cheating stay away, as we don’t support that sort of behavior and we encourage everyone to report exploits if you come across one by using exploit@ageofconan.com.
I hope that gave you some answers to your questions!
In other words, Don't panick. Follow his suggested procedure. They are in damage control and will investigate your case.
SHOHADAKU
If all these people are innocent over these past days for exploiting no matter where the exploit lie then maybe they should be given more days to play for the days they lost.
If they are guilty may they feel the full might of the ban hammer!
As I said in another exploit thread I wish there was a database among MMO companies to easily identify the guilty and keep them from ruining these games.
I will say I have no sympathy for those found guilty as I have been spammed so much by gold sellers I've lagged in PotBS, EQ2, and WoW. WIth PotBS I crashed.
I'm honored to not have seen a gold seller in this game yet. Least on my server.
Edit: hmm think that top part should read, "no matter where the problem lie" or some such...Edit2: took out duplicate wording "in another thread"
AC2 Player RIP Final Death Jan 31st 2017
Refugee of Auberean
Refugee of Dereth
I don't know if the OP or part of his guild without his knowledge exploited. From past experience those that were banned for exploiting would raise the martyr cross vs the company and would convince everyone around them that they were wrong and unjustly persecuted. I've seen it way too many times to now raise an eyebrow when somebody yells innocent.
One think is certain, I would expect companies not to perma-ban customers, especially GL with whatever that means for the guild members below them without solid proof of misconduct. Given that, I'm more inclined to believe that there was in fact some wrong-doing taking place, than just an alarm set off somewhere. Companies suspend accounts when an alarm sets off, not perma-ban.
As for the bugs, there are always be there. Just because they are there, does not justify people from using them. Nor the excuse "I was not sure" is really valid. If uncertain, avoid. Or risk your account.
Yeah bad part on funcom for having there restricted beta. But you said it man, They should have cared more about testing the game before release, and less about trying to get people to pay to play a restricted beta.
I can understand why they needed to do this. To immediatly restore the game market and remove the duped cash. They had to act quick about it. Don't blame Funcom, blame the exploiters.
SHOHADAKU
Funcom has zero incentive for banning people. They lose money if they ban your account and they get bad press. They are standing up for a principle here, something more important than money and that is fairness in game to players who play honestly.
So I'm sure Funcom feels they have a good reason to ban you and a few others. The innocent will have their accounts reinstated. The guilty get what they deserve.
Alhough I wouldn't have minded if Funcom had closed down servers for a day, given playtime credit and fixed the exploits at once. Less people abusing it, less people getting banned.
That's what happens with rushed out MMOs......
Age of Conan seems to have a problem when it comes to using terms, first with instances now with "exploits."
The problem with all these gold problems is that they ARENT exploits, they were a bugs. And because they were bugs it makes it harder to track.
An exploit is when you make the game work around its set rules making it do something that it should not be doing at all. Like copying items, copying cash, travelling faster, etc, etc. THOSE are easy to fix once they are found because is easy to spot where exactly they are going around the game mechanics.
A bug is when something in the game is not working properly. You can use two bonuses when you normally could only use one, you ability isnt firing properly,etc, etc. Those are harder to find because there is some screwy in how something is working, something is wrong in the coding, or something is not reading right. So some one needs to take a loooooong time checking every little bit of info to find out where it went wrong.
In Conan you had BUGS that were letting people repeat quests or recieve extra items/cash. Basically all that stuff is legit, the money and exp came from an actual source in the game, there was no hacking or anything, there was no tricks. The game was giving you something it created, but of course, this isn't supposed to happen normally. The limits werent working or something like that
This is why they are banning a bunch of people that get a sudden flow off cash on the spot, or have a huge ammount of it. The money and xp they have ARE real, they came from the game,is not a copy of something from the game.
What they are doing is now tracking cash that came from that bug and apparently cutting off anyone that got cash from that source. This is also probably why people have a certain ammount of money disappear. They actually went to the spot of the bug but didn't notice it and continued on, but they got their hand dirty by just being there.
AoC has a HUUUUUUGE mess on their hands because all this stuff came from normal bugs, stuff that should've been picked out before, stuff that is going to be very difficult to trace because it came from normal, but broken, game mechanics. Im guessing that now they have dudes looking at every single transsaction that was made by said NPC that had that bug that let people do such things.
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
To j_jonson:
Yes, it's a bug. People exploited the bug. Perma-ban them and good riddance.
Guilds who had pooled suspicious amounts of money and/or resources were banned, only to be found innocent later.
If it would have happened to me, ahahahahahahah, I wouldn't be coming back. I really want to know who would actually go back after all that? Lets take a close look at what is happening:
1) Their head start is lost
2) People will wander off to other guilds for progression
3) People will quit the game
4) People will have lost track of what they had been doing before, leading to lots of confusion
5) They are being slammed and slandered by the community members (lookit here at fanboys)
6) You are being kicked off the game for days, days they probably won't extend your sub to account for
7) What if it happens again?
Who would go back after all of that? What kind of people would go back after that?
For the record, I haven't been hit with this. But its just sad, sad, sad to see.
___________________
Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
either you exploited and thus i hate you with a passion and hope you never come back
or
you were unfairly treated (and should if you really love the game) come back and show Funcom how much of a mistake it was by becoming the no1 guild on your server.
good luck
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
To Gazenthia :
I agree with you. It would be pretty hard to come back as a guild, especially if a guild leader is suspended for possible exploting. As an individual it's different, you probably would be able to go back with your reputation in tact. In fact, there would be no way for people to know unless you told them.
The big mistake was swining the ban hammer. Even taking the time out and telling them that they have to suspend an account for investigation is always better then blindly banning people. You'll still get angry but they'll get over it if their account is fine.
And for the AoC community. Wow, what a piece of work. We hear one persons side of the story, and you're ready to lynch them. Even after Funcom says there may have been mistaken bans, you people still insult the OP. It's so easy to judge, but if you were in that position tell me you wouldn't act the same way. It was depressing watching the comments degrade from helpful suggestions, and emails to people telling the OP they deserved it. Now that's community.
Add to this that AoC actually has a cliffedge for a learning curve, people may not even realize they are "exploiting" the bug. This is exactly why I am keeping my head down in the game, very casually grinding monsters, until the storm clears.
Edit: Interitus evidently has the same idea
___________________
Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
Alhough I wouldn't have minded if Funcom had closed down servers for a day, given playtime credit and fixed the exploits at once. Less people abusing it, less people getting banned.
That's what happens with rushed out MMOs......
Good point.
I dont see any need to automaticly call the op a cheater or what not, esp when funcom has said they have banned accounts that have done nothing wrong.
I dont find it that hard to belive that a group of 100 people pooled together to make a city in the game, I do find it a bit disturbing that funcom is autobanning anyone with activity that they deem is out of line or suspicious.
If your going to ban someone i would hope they would check the logs and see where the money came from to save yourself from banning an innocent.
I agree with the op, i would not come back to the game and if i were one of the 100 that gave up money for a guild city, and it was lost and the money lost, id probably leave as well.
Actions like ban first and get the facts latter do nothing but kill the moral of the population, people will be afraid to make money for stuff if they think they may get banned if they make too much to fast.
I have been in a toss up as to weather or not to get this game once i get my new comp, after seeing that FC is doing this type of thing, even when they admit it some people were wrongly banned, is just disturbing.
People that want to get back to the game that were wrongly banned will have to go through the hell of customer support and who knows how long it will actually take for them to get back into game. Cause im sure they will have the loggs looked at and with as many people that are getting the boot, im sure it will take a while.
Thanks for helping me make up my mind OP and FC. Looks like the wait goes on a bit longer for a new MMO in Warhammer.
Before we are handed our ceremonial torches and pitchforks I just want to say some things.
I'm not sure if you've been following the OP but they've made a similar post in the general discussion forums of this site. Yep. Two threads about the same thing.
While that's not the nail in the coffin so to speak it's not the best way to give the impression of innocence either. Which is why I usually give the benefit of the doubt to officials unless proven otherwise.
What I'm about to say can go both ways but I will say it nevertheless, "Not everything is at it seems". Especially if a community is going to be branded. Just something to think about.
Edit: Yep forgot to add I'm having trouble finding that second thread now. Hmm......
AC2 Player RIP Final Death Jan 31st 2017
Refugee of Auberean
Refugee of Dereth
People are getting banned because of a wellknown bug that Funcom was too lazy to fix. It does't really matter if this guy actually exploited or not, the fact is Funcom should have handled this like professionals (yes, I realise that for this particular company it would be a new thing), find proof first and then use the banstick.
I say it again, Funcom should have ironed these sort of things out during beta, that's why it's there for. Now Funcom's customers, players, are paying for their money-hungry ways of handling QA.
You know this is EXACTLY what I think!
How can they BAN FIRST and THEN investigate?
Are they loonies? Think about the feelings of those banned?
It is just not okay. Not at all!
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
____________________________
Before we are handed our ceremonial torches and pitchforks I just want to say some things.
I'm not sure if you've been following the OP but they've made a similar post in the general discussion forums of this site. Yep. Two threads about the same thing.
While that's not the nail in the coffin so to speak it's not the best way to give the impression of innocence either. Which is why I usually give the benefit of the doubt to officials unless proven otherwise.
What I'm about to say can go both ways but I will say it nevertheless, "Not everything is at it seems". Especially if a community is going to be branded. Just something to think about.
Edit: Yep forgot to add I'm having trouble finding that second thread now. Hmm......
1) No one knows who the fuck he is.2) No one knows who the fuck The Box is.
3) No one would know or care if he were banned.
The only purpose of this thread is to inform the community about what kind of shit Funcom is pulling.
Before we are handed our ceremonial torches and pitchforks I just want to say some things.
I'm not sure if you've been following the OP but they've made a similar post in the general discussion forums of this site. Yep. Two threads about the same thing.
While that's not the nail in the coffin so to speak it's not the best way to give the impression of innocence either. Which is why I usually give the benefit of the doubt to officials unless proven otherwise.
What I'm about to say can go both ways but I will say it nevertheless, "Not everything is at it seems". Especially if a community is going to be branded. Just something to think about.
Edit: Yep forgot to add I'm having trouble finding that second thread now. Hmm......
1) No one knows who the fuck he is.2) No one knows who the fuck The Box is.
3) No one would know or care if he were banned.
The only purpose of this thread is to inform the community about what kind of shit Funcom is pulling.
You guys are really immature.
Flaming people for such misfortune!
This AoC community is the worst I have ever seen for an mmo since 1997 !
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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Right. Sounds like Funcom did a good job and got rid of you. A Tier 1 city and over 60 gold in a week? Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. Even with 100 peps, it's not possible other than duping. So, good ridance!!!!
You know nothing of the game dude! It is not very hard for 100 people to get 60 gold or a guild city or both. Or even thrice that. It is in fact easy.
So stop trolling people!
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CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
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