UPDATED: Bungie Responds to Destiny 2 Ban Rumors

SBFord

UPDATED: Bungie Responds to Destiny 2 Ban Rumors

UPDATED INFORMATION: 

After a day's worth of the rumor mill grinding away about Destiny 2 and mass bans ostensibly at the hands of third-party programs like Discord overlays, Bungie has responded definitively in order to stop the flow of disinformation. 

We have seen lots of questions about bans being issued in the PC version of Destiny 2. To provide some information, we would like to share some facts. 

The following is true:

• Destiny 2 cannot automatically ban you, only Bungie can ban a player after a manual investigation
• Yesterday, we banned approximately 400 players on PC
• Bans were applied to players who were using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game
• We did not (and will not) issue any bans for the use of overlays or performance tools, including Discord, Xsplit, OBS, RTSS, etc.
• Information on using third-party applications can be found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Help/Article/46101 
• We are overturning 4 of the bans that were issued during the PC Beta

• We are committed to providing an experience that is fun and fair for the millions of players who have joined us in this community.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Bungie's Hard Line Ban Hammer May Be Swinging at the Innocent - Destiny 2 - MMORPG.com

Destiny 2 News - Bungie had a rather rocky day with yesterday's Destiny 2 launch as hundreds of players flocked to the internet to complain they had been banned for "third party application" usage. Many opined that using Discord overlays and other game capture programs were triggering the ban hammer. Bungie came in to reassure the fan base that bans were not being issued for using third-party programs. "Applications that aren't compatible with D2 may cause the game not to run but not result in a ban".

Read the full story here

Robbgobb

Really horrible title. Seems very much like click bait to get views.

SBFord

Robbgobb said:

Really horrible title. Seems very much like click bait to get views.

How so? If people are being banned for using things like Discord overlays, aren't they technically "innocent" of any wrongdoing that would warrant a ban? 

Eldrach

Seems like you only get booted from the game, not slammed with a Ban if you use overlay programs - So Discord is not the reason.

SBFord

Eldrach said:

Seems like you only get booted from the game, not slammed with a Ban if you use overlay programs - So Discord is not the reason.

Exactly. In the full article, there is a Twitter post from one of the devs saying just that.

That's why we provide the "read more" link in the OP in any forum thread.

DeadSpock

That's good that they are being serious about not allowing any cheating in their game but discord and overlays should be allowed every game I play on PC has no issues with those. Edit: I play D2 on PS4 and in pvp this guy was lagging so bad and it was on purpose very hard to kill him yet he was killing everyone, I was teamed up with a friend he saw same thing as me we reported his ass.

Forgrimm

Some people are reportedly receiving the bans almost instantly after logging in to the game.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/25/destiny-2-pc-players-reporting-mass-bans-and-no-one-has-explained-why

Wellspring

The real question is... How is it working? Is it stopping the cheaters?

If so, maybe other FPS games can learn from this "hard-line" stance.

Viper482

Let's be honest here.....you know damn well a good chunk of these "innocent" people were probably really cheating. PC multiplayer FPS games are a cesspool of these jerks using 3rd party programs to cheat. I'm surprised anyone will even make one for PC anymore.

Asm0deus

Haha looks like some folks might get banned for using afterburner or evga precision...lolz Seems like this game is off to a rocky start.

Phry

Asm0deus said:

Haha looks like some folks might get banned for using afterburner or evga precision...lolz

Seems like this game is off to a rocky start.

Afterburner is a program that comes with your GPU, i have an MSI 980ti gaming edition, and it comes with the afterburner software, if that would cause my game to be banned then i think i might just hold off ever buying this game, rather than just waiting 6 months.

Gazimoff

I was running Destiny 2 yesterday, and found that Slack was causing the game to crash. I also noticed that Discord sneaked out a quick patch yesterday. Here's hoping I'm not banned!

sdeleon515

I'm having a laugh with tons of the comments honestly! I'll just lay out the simple framework: if overlays and other aspects of the game that don't impact your overall ability to communicate with your party, that's not an argument that's really and simply a principle that standing on is pretty ridiculous. Likewise if you are proclaiming that "well Bungie is doing horrible stuff by making me not use my ideal programs to play the game", fact is this isn't a great game by any standard and that should be the ONLY standard to not buy this game PERIOD! Anything else beyond this is like the whole FF14 Vers 1 debacle: a game that looks good and extremely polished can still be a very very horrible game to play and any tools that can be added to the game doesn't stop it from being a very very bad game.

Just saying the criteria for not buying a game should be more than program(s) you can/can't use...

TheScavenger

Good. I hope more games ban the use of discord. Every MMO I go to, the vast majority of guilds are "discord or gtfo". I hope this is the first of many games to come that ban the use of it.

SBFord

TheScavenger said:

Good. I hope more games ban the use of discord. Every MMO I go to, the vast majority of guilds are "discord or gtfo". I hope this is the first of many games to come that ban the use of it.

They're not banning people for using Discord, just the overlay that allows people to see guild chat in the game. I'm no fan of Discord, but don't pass disinformation.

TheScavenger

SBFord said:

TheScavenger said:

Good. I hope more games ban the use of discord. Every MMO I go to, the vast majority of guilds are "discord or gtfo". I hope this is the first of many games to come that ban the use of it.

They're not banning people for using Discord, just the overlay that allows people to see guild chat in the game. I'm no fan of Discord, but don't pass disinformation.

ah, its just the overlay. Maybe that will still get people to use discord less. its nearly impossible to go to any MMO, no matter what MMO, without 99% of the guilds requiring discord or can't join the guild or even be in it lol

Cazriel

Good.  If anything, this shows Bungie's commitment to a clean game.  They should have a hard line.  If Discord can't get on the right side of that line, that's on Discord. 

I'm not saying that getting blocked from the game you are sweating blood to play isn't a royal pain, but I'd be a bit more circumspect about characterizing the efforts of a studio to provide a cheat-free game to its fans.  This is exactly what Bungie needs to do.  They should not back off one bit.  

Anireth

It's probably not Discord or MSI Afterburner and such things, but if, it's on Bungie. Not only is it various apps from various developers, almost no other games has any issues with these kind of apps. Every few years there's one or two games that ban people for using it, but any time news like this came up, it was the game.

On the topic of Discord itself: Where's the problem? The time you could join random guilds online without voice chat are gone by since at least 10 years. Discord simply replaced TS³, but besides that nothing changed. Heck, Team Speak was so well known even in 2006 that it made it into a South Park episode.

TheScavenger

Anireth said:

It's probably not Discord or MSI Afterburner and such things, but if, it's on Bungie. Not only is it various apps from various developers, almost no other games has any issues with these kind of apps. Every few years there's one or two games that ban people for using it, but any time news like this came up, it was the game.

On the topic of Discord itself: Where's the problem? The time you could join random guilds online without voice chat are gone by since at least 10 years. Discord simply replaced TS³, but besides that nothing changed. Heck, Team Speak was so well known even in 2006 that it made it into a South Park episode.

If its not in the game itself, then it shouldn't be required to use it. I never used Teamspeak either.

Either the developers should provide it in-game, or guilds shouldn't force people to use outside programs for their guild.

If its not in the game, then it shouldn't be a requirement.

Rusque

It seems we go through these mass bannings and proclamations of innocence every so often. However, I can't remember the last time that when the dust settled that we didn't discover that the bannings were warranted and the "innocent" revealed as liars.

Funny thing about cheaters is that they also are liars. So we'll see how this plays out, but history is not on the side of the "innocent".

Kyleran

I'm not sure the bans are justified or not,  but the no appealing them process is a bit borked.

They claim perma bans are only done after careful review yet some players report being banned shortly after logging in to just the character creator. 

Right now the big disconnect is players say using overlays is resulting in bans while other reports say Bungie has stated they won't even result in restrictions.

Something isn't adding up and we need more info before putting the torches to the bonfires.

ConstantineMerus

SBFord said:

Robbgobb said:

Really horrible title. Seems very much like click bait to get views.

How so? If people are being banned for using things like Discord overlays, aren't they technically "innocent" of any wrongdoing that would warrant a ban? 

"No one's really innocent," he said in a husky voice. 

SlyLoK

I will repeat what the article said since it seems many didn't read it.

There is no autoban. Bans only happen after a manual investigation by bungie.

Xingbairong

SlyLoK said:

I will repeat what the article said since it seems many didn't read it.



There is no autoban. Bans only happen after a manual investigation by bungie.

So basically they see someone is on the character creation screen and think "this guy is cheating like hell... look at that purple head his making for his character. BAN!"

Seriously I experienced a similar ban back when I made the mistake of trying h1z1 during the hype wave. Got banned with 1-2 hours of game play and 2 kills(talk about hacking like crazy right?)... 3 months later I was unbanned without even asking for it, but I never installed the game ever again.

Haven't had any issue with D2 so far, but honestly I'm starting to debate whether I should ask for a refund. I don't like the idea of supporting companies that ban people for no reason and give the copy/paste BS answer and never really delve into the issue at least not until few months in the game.

Celcius

Like I figured originally, the people were cheating and just crying foul on the forums. This is why you don't go to random forums for news.

SlyLoK

Xingbairong said: 

SlyLoK said:

I will repeat what the article said since it seems many didn't read it.



There is no autoban. Bans only happen after a manual investigation by bungie.

So basically they see someone is on the character creation screen and think "this guy is cheating like hell... look at that purple head his making for his character. BAN!"

Seriously I experienced a similar ban back when I made the mistake of trying h1z1 during the hype wave. Got banned with 1-2 hours of game play and 2 kills(talk about hacking like crazy right?)... 3 months later I was unbanned without even asking for it, but I never installed the game ever again.

Haven't had any issue with D2 so far, but honestly I'm starting to debate whether I should ask for a refund. I don't like the idea of supporting companies that ban people for no reason and give the copy/paste BS answer and never really delve into the issue at least not until few months in the game.

That isn't remotely what is happening. The ones investigating know what overlays look like and can tell the difference between that and say an aimbot or infinite ammo.