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Microsoft reversing recent Xbox Live bans caused by software error
Microsoft is reversing specific Xbox Live bans, issued between August 29 and September 9, that were caused by a software error. The platform holder is looking to console those affected by providing them with three free months of Xbox Live and 1600 Microsoft Points ($20) for the inconvenience. Customers who were affected don't have to do anything -- the company is in the process of reversing the bans and updating appropriate accounts. "In this case, it was one of those very, very rare circumstances where we were using software on the Xbox 360 to assist [in policy enforcement]," Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse told Joystiq this afternoon. He noted that his team regularly looks at a variety of information and bans are done conservatively with human oversight. "An issue came up that we felt the right thing to do after we determined some [consoles] weren't tampered with was to undo the suspension." "We know exactly who was impacted," Toulouse stated. "This is a tiny fraction of the overall user base. This is not some widespread problem. If your console was suspended between the dates, the quickest way to find out if you were impacted by the software issue is to simply reconnect your console. If you can log in, you were impacted by the issue and we've unsuspended the console."
Amazon axes copied content, duplicate Kindle Store ebooks get the boot
If we take a can of Spam and call it "Engadget's precooked pork meat product," you'll still know it's the same mystery meat you ate for lunch, right? Under the idea of "private label rights," authors can do just that: sell their works to others who can rebrand and resell them. This week, Amazon cracked down on duplicate ebooks in its Kindle Store, pulling titles because they "diminish the experience for customers." One copycat who got the smack down called it a "kick in the pants" when his 22 titles got yanked. He did, however, admit he had the swift one coming. Aping authors can expect more book banning Kung Fu as Amazon continues to rid itself of "undifferentiated or barely differentiated versions of e-books." Hi-yah!
Blizzard responds to Swifty ban incident
As you might have heard, Razer WoW gamer Swifty, along with numerous other players, were banned due to server disruption violations during one of Swifty's live streams that crashed a server. While Swifty acknowledged that he never intended to crash the server, Bashiok responded to the bans by stating that even if no one intended to crash servers or disrupt gameplay, the emote spamming and influx of players brought down many servers. Swifty livestreams events with his guild on occasion and even hosts parts of the stream himself. Being the WoW gamer celebrity that he is, his stream attracts a good number of viewers. His own YouTube video response to his ban acknowledges between 4,000 and 5,000 people were watching his livestream. People flocked to the server, and the disruptions began. A number of players, including Swifty, were banned. Over the course of the day, Blizzard reviewed the information and decided to unban Swifty.
Banned WoW player offers $1,000 for reactivation
If you lost an MMO account through hacking, banning, or any other method, what would you pay to get it back? One California World of Warcraft player didn't hesitate to put a hefty price tag on that possibility. "I got my WoW account banned yesterday during the archaeology bot ban wave. I wasn't a gold farmer or seller, never bought gold. I just botted archaeology because it's a boring profession. I'm looking for a WoW Account Admin [...] to unban my account for $1000USD. No questions asked - your anonymity will be preserved." The plea for reinstatement says it all. The anonymous player posted via Craigslist last week, offering any form of payment the recipient might ask for -- including "an envelope under a tree." While it's a safe bet that nobody on the WoW team will open this particular can of worms, it's an interesting look at how far some players will go to preserve the time invested (or not invested, in this case) in gameplay.
South Australian Attorney General wants to remove MA15+ games rating
Australia's Standing Committee of Attorneys-General are in the process of actively discussing the implementation of a (long overdue) R18+ rating for games in the territory, following the approval of said rating by the nation's federal cabinet earlier this month. However, South Australian AG John Rau recently introduced a thought-provoking idea to the committee: Should the R18+ rating be adopted, Rau believes that the MA15+ rating currently used by the Australian Classification Board should be removed altogether. Rau, who replaced longtime anti-R18+ advocate Michael Atkinson earlier this year, explained to Gamespot, "My reason for wanting to get rid of MA15+ if an R18+ is passed is that it will provide a crisper delineation between adults-only games and games that are for children." He later added, "if MA15+ comes out of the mix altogether, I think parents will have a clearer idea what games are for children, and what games are for adults." Should the MA15+ rating be repealed, the next-lowest rating used by the ACB would be M, which the board applies to games which "contain material that requires a mature perspective, but is still not enough to be deemed too strong for younger viewers." There's no age restriction applied to these games at Australian retailers, making it roughly equivalent to the Teen classification used by the ESRB. Rau's got a compelling argument, here -- but it won't make much of a difference if the Committee fails to approve the R18+ rating in the first place. C'mon, guys! We believe in you!
Exploring Eberron: The race discussion has been banned
Don't worry, it's just a one-week ban. Once again, it was an interesting week for Dungeons and Dragons Online fans. Tuesday night's banhammer took everyone by surprise, and the reactions on both sides were pretty interesting. I was really excited to discuss DDO races this week, but this week's problems left me thinking long and hard about the dynamics of player/developer interaction in this game. Check out that handy comments section at the end too, because I'd really love to hear what you have to say on the banning issue. Follow along after the break, then weigh in!
Microsoft apologizes for suspending 'Fort Gay' gamer
Microsoft has apologized to a 26-year-old gamer after suspending him from Xbox Live because his online profile listed "Fort Gay" as his location. It turns out that nobody Binged Fort Gay, West Virginia, the happy hamlet of 819 citizens. Heads-up, Microsoft: Mount Gay, West Virginia is also a real place. Xbox Live enforcement master Stephen Toulouse acknowledged the mistake and said that the training of his banhammer-wielding team had already been updated. Microsoft altered its Xbox Live policy earlier this year to allow acknowledgement of sexual orientation terms for people, following concerns over the company's policies toward the GLBT community.
Proposed Swiss game ban detailed, won't target all violent games
Until very recently, there had been a massive void in our knowledge about the violent game-banning bill which was recently ratified by Switzerland's National Council. With language stating it would outlaw the sale of games featuring "cruel acts of violence against humans and human-like creatures for in-game success," we feared it would constitute a ban on, like, everything. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case -- Swiss politician Evi Allemann recently explained in an interview with Swiss news site 20 Minutes (via GamePolitics) that the bill would only affect around 12 "individual games" with extremely graphic content, such as Manhunt and Mortal Kombat. Allemann commented that PEGI is "not enough," stating that Switzerland or even Europe needs its own body for video game ratings. Apparently, not everyone agrees -- the 20 Minutes article includes a link to a petition against the bill, as well as its adjoining measure which would outlaw the sale of PEGI 16 or 18 games to minors. We'd like to remind these petitioners that Swiss 16-year-olds can legally drink beer, so hey, let's not get greedy.
Apple banning sexual content in the App Store?
Jon Atherton, the developer behind Wobble iBoobs, has just told TechCrunch that he received an email from Apple stating his application was being removed from the App Store because of a new policy change: "We [Apple] have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store." The full email: The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately. We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you believe you can make the necessary changes so that Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored) complies with our recent changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit for review. Sincerely, iPhone App Review At this time it's unclear if Apple is removing all apps with the "over the age of 17" warning that contain sexual content, or just specific apps whose sexual content is deemed "overt" by Apple. While iBoobs has been removed, I was still able to download an app called "Sexy Screen Wash Lite" at the time of this writing. TechCrunch has also been able to download other "sexy" apps, which makes Apple's working definition of "overtly sexual content" unclear. This isn't the first time iBoobs has been removed from the App Store. In 2008, Apple rejected it on the grounds of "objectionable content." The app was later allowed back in the App Store. I wish Apple would either remove these apps, or file them all under a special "sexy" section in the App Store that remains hidden unless enabled. Of course a free T&A app is going to be a popular download, but when I'm searching for cool new free apps, it's annoying when the top list is populated by "sexy" junk apps.
Final Fantasy XI cracks down on cheating
Square-Enix can get very touchy about certain things with Final Fantasy XI. Revealing the precise numbers and mechanics behind many of the game's elements seems to be one of them that none of the game's fans are terribly pleased with, but they're just as touchy about people cheating in the game, which fans can't help but be happy about. The game's terms of use clearly state that the use of third-party applications interacting with the game is expressly forbidden, and the game has recently dropped the hammer for good on one of the distributors of third-party hacks. The announcement, which can be found on the official site or mirrored on Allakhazam.com, states that the game's team had been monitoring the sale and distribution of certain undisclosed third-party applications, and they had subsequently shut down both the servers for the programs as well as the sellers. The specific applications are not named, as is normal for Final Fantasy XI -- they don't want to encourage anyone to seek out the cheats, after all. The announcement also includes the usual warnings about bannings and account security when connected with third-party cheats. It's always good news when the less scrupled side of a game's community gets shut down -- now if only we could pass some of this along to NCsoft for their recent woes.
See an Aion GM in action blowing up spammers
NCsoft has always been fairly vocal about about their assault on Aion's goldspammer and bot epidemic. They bolstered the game's spam filter a while ago and their Game Surveillance Unit reportedly banned over 27,000 botting accounts just last week. It's great to hear about these positive statistics, but if your game experience has been ruined in the past by some of these unsavory characters, you might be looking for something more visceral -- and thankfully, we've got that for you. Enter Youtube user MidoriPeanut, who managed to catch an Aion GM in the throes of a banning spree and recorded it all for the rest of us to enjoy. The movie features the GM blowing up a number of goldspammer ad stores, all set to the dramatic Syringe by Emilie Autumn. Sure, this could all take place behind the scenes and the offenders would quietly disappear from the world, but isn't it a lot more fun seeing them cast off to hell by a cutesy animal? Get out the popcorn and head past the break to see the banishing in action.
Whitten: Xbox Live banning 'a cat and mouse game'
Speaking to VentureBeat, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten discussed the recent round of Xbox Live bans. According to Whitten, banning users from Xbox Live is "a cat and mouse game." Said Whitten, "These were people that were pirating software." He added that Microsoft looks at banning users "from a safety and anti-cheating perspective" and that the company looks out for its partners. Responding to the widely reported story that Microsoft banned over a million Xbox Live users, Whitten said that the figure is inaccurate. "I cannot explain to you why people would think it was a million people," said Whitten, then adding quite succinctly, "It wasn't a million people." Whitten went on to state his belief that Microsoft does "a really good job" of monitoring the activity on Xbox Live, specifically in terms of piracy and online harassment. He concluded that the company is "committed to making [Xbox Live] better and better." The interview also covers the recent integration of Facebook on Xbox, the effect Modern Warfare 2 had on Live activity (hint: a big one) and whether or not we'll be playing Facebook games on our consoles anytime soon. Don't expect a straight answer on that last one though, as the closes Whitten gets is, "In the future, they will move much closer together."
Firm considers class action over Xbox Live bannings
Boutique law firm AbingtonIP is "investigating" what it considers the "convenient" recent Xbox Live bannings. The firm posits that the "tens of thousands" of banned Xbox Live subscribers who used modded consoles deserve recompense due to the timing of the action. The firm believes that said timing -- i.e., after Halo 3: ODST and shortly before Modern Warfare 2's releases -- was executed to net Microsoft as much money as possible out of potential Xbox Live subscribers before banning the modded devices. The class action lawsuit would attempt to obtain a refund for the prorated sums left on the banned Xbox Live subscriptions. According to Joystiq legal columnist Mark Methenitis' analysis: "To me, this certainly sounds a lot like a cash grab directed at a company with deep pockets, but perhaps there are more facts than they are letting on." He explains that a user savvy enough to have a modded console would also know not to connect it to Live without "serious risk." Methenitis concludes, "If, in fact, Microsoft is inducing people to buy a service only to terminate them, then there's certainly a deceptive business practice concern. But this seems far more cut and dry than that." [Thanks, C. Carl Carlston]
Cheat at Monster Hunter 3, get banned until 9999 AD
Even long after Bruce Willis has saved the universe, identified cheaters will still be unable to play Monster Hunter 3. At least that's the case for one Japanese player, who tried to connect online and was given a dismissive prompt (in Japanese; machine translation here), indicating that he'd been banned until December 12, 9999.The message cited "modded data" as the cause for the banning, and while we can't confirm that there was any questionable data on the system, we will say that if you're looking to hunt monsters (possibly around early 2010), you may want to avoid the uber hax!!1! option. We'd hate for you to have to go on living a lootless life for the next couple thousand years.[Via Kotaku]
Matt "Positron" Miller prepares his radioactive banhammer against mission architect abusers
Mission architect -- an amazing system that allows a very creative player-base to finally take the reigns of creation and make amazing in-game arcs that feature personalized stories, personalized characters, farming, well made.... wait, what?Yes, you heard that right, people have already began to leverage City of Heroes's architect system into nothing more than powerleveling tool, and the community doesn't find that to be too enjoyable. Luckily, Matt "Positron" Miller, the lead designer, has already stepped up with a post to the community on the City of Heroes message board about how they plan on dealing with these problems.The team wishes to remove the rewards some characters may have gained through powerleveling, all the way up to removing access to characters that were solely leveled up via mission architect exploits. Past working on a player by player bases, some badges will be changed while others may be removed entirely due to the exploiting groups surrounding them. Lastly, but certainly not least, the team will be proactively banning missions that are created to exploit the system.For Matt's full plan, check out his post over on the City of Heroes message board.
Darkfall bans another wave of cheaters
Adventurine's public voice for Darkfall, Tasos, has announced through their forums that the have banned another 213 players for cheating using 3rd party programs. This is claimed to be 90% of the currently detected cheaters, with the final 10% awaiting verification. Cheaters were detected automatically but the verification process is manual.The message contains a warning that cheaters tend to be very outspoken and so are expected to be proclaiming innocence on the forums. These threads will be deleted and those accounts will also be banned. Darkfall has a zero tolerance attitude to cheating, and previously Tasos has declared that there were a couple of bannings per day.
You wouldn't like Aventurine when they're angry...
Aventurine smash! Well, they smash people who attempt to impersonate GMs and cheat in their game, at least.Over at Hardcore Casual, Syncaine has put up a post discussing Aventurine's hardline attitude to players in their game, Darkfall. The company has already said, straight out, that they will ban players for an offense like attempting to impersonate a GM or cheating in their game. No warnings, no temporary boots, we're talking a full ban on the first offense.What is unclear, from the perspective of a player, is how well Aventurine is implementing their own policies. From one player's perspective, it seems that the GMs are certainly on the ball and are dealing with people who attempt to use joke names. But as to how many people may have been banned by Aventurine's staff? Well, that's an unknown number that most likely will never be released outside of the company.Even so, a hardline stance like the one Aventurine is taking isn't seen very often in MMOs. Companies worry about alienating their player base with moves such as those.Interested in the full post? Check it out over at Hardcore Casual.
Death Grip wormhole is a bad, bad thing
As much as we enjoyed watching what is arguably the most phenomenally fun bug ever, it should come as no surprise to anyone that exploiting it is a very bad thing. In particular, GMs have been alerted to the bug and are on a keen watch for players who attempt to do it. After Elizabeth Harper's experimentation -- all done in the name of journalistic investigation, we promise -- resident killer Rogue Chase Christian attempted it, too. He was very swiftly messaged by a Game Master informing him that he would be banned if he ever did it again.The boys over at DeathKnight.info confirm the same thing, not only because it is under close watch by GMs, but because it has serious repercussions for players who are 'pulled' into the wormhole. Players with the temerity to try it out have reported getting stuck in limbo and had to submit tickets to get their characters unstuck. No doubt a deluge of tickets describing suspiciously similar circumstances was more than enough to raise alarms over at Blizzard. So while we enjoyed showing that video of the Death Grip bug, we hope you didn't follow such bad examples. I mean, you didn't, right? Of course not. Good boys and girls.
Lame scams still profitable in Guild Wars, over 1000 bans every week
Would you fall for this? (Please say 'no'...): A complete stranger approaches you on the sidewalk outside of your bank and shows you a rare coin he says is worth twenty thousand dollars. "I want to just give this coin to you," he says, "but I don't want anyone to know we did this... tax issues, you see." The stranger suggests putting it in your safe deposit box, but because he's so concerned about privacy, he wants access to your safe deposit box to be sure the rare coin gets there, with no one the wiser. The problem is that he can only get in there with your express permission...We're guessing 99.99% of you would never get suckered by something asinine like this, but why then do people fall for the exact same thing in the virtual realm? Specifically, it seems that Guild Wars players regularly turn over their login info to account thieves in hopes of getting something for nothing, as mentioned by Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats. This ultimately leads to a continuous deluge of stolen accounts, tears, and rage.
178 starbases involved in EVE Online's multi-trillion ISK exploit
The last several days have brought us some news of a rather significant exploit in the sci-fi MMO EVE Online. The game boasts a dynamic virtual economy which is in many ways integral to the game itself. (Inter Stellar Kredits, or ISK, is the currency upon which EVE Online's economy is based.) When rumor broke of a multi-trillion ISK exploit in the game, it raised a few eyebrows. However, when CCP Games themselves confirmed it and announced they would launch an investigation into the matter, it became more serious, as reflected by the economic impact on the market in the game. (Remember kids, internet spaceships are serious business... EVE tends to have more drama than the average massively multiplayer online game.)CCP Games provided an update on the investigation today, stating that 178 starbases were discovered exploiting the issue and have been destroyed. This is the first time they've been willing or able to put a solid number on how extensive the exploit was, in terms of the scope of the operation. CCP stated: "We have also banned all those we have found directly involved and all accounts we have found to be connected to those players. The investigation is still under way and will take a while to conclude." Also part of the investigation is the Internal Affairs aspect, which some players have been following. CCP Games reports that they haven't found links between any of their own staff (or the Council of Stellar Management, for that matter) and the starbase exploit. See the official announcement from the EVE developers for more details on how the investigation is progressing.
