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Instagram is working on new rules for banning accounts
Less than a week after banning Alex Jones and other far-right extremists, Instagram has revealed that it is working on a new policy for account removals. These upcoming guidelines, which the company told Engadget will start rolling out "soon," are going to change how Instagram determines when an account should be removed from its app. Right now, it relies on a policy that allows "a certain percentage" of violations within a window of time before it decides to ban someone, but Instagram says this can create leniency for users who post often. Basically, the more an account posts, the higher the number of violations they're allowed. You can see why that would be problematic.
Steam hands developers the power to ban cheaters
Cheating in multiplayer games isn't big or clever, but people still think they can successfully get away with it. That's a problem for the folks at Valve, who are constantly trying to ensure that Steam is a nice place to play. It's one of the reasons that the company has now revealed that it'll hand the power to police users straight to the developers behind each game on the service. Now, rather than Valve staff racing to deal with each incident, the teams that made the title can rule on what they consider to be fair and unfair practices.
Path of Exile unholsters the banhammer for cheaters
The team behind Path of Exile has been pretty forgiving up to this point. Players have been a bit more commonly warned that there will be penalties if they're cheating. But that's over now. The latest race season has finished, and players who were found to have cheated have been given a grand total of no rewards even if they were technically eligible. Nearly 4,000 players will log in to find a warning to disable any cheats they have running before they get banned. From this point forward, any incidents with cheating software will result in a ban, end of discussion. This is true even if the player in question argues that the cheat was being used for quality-of-life purposes; those issues will be addressed in the future and don't justify cheating. Players are reminded that they are allowed to run tools that don't require the client to be running and single-action hotkeys without a problem, so don't worry about being punished just for having Fraps in the background. Just... don't cheat.
LotRO cracks down on superman exploit
An exploit that is allowing Lord of the Rings Online players to super-charge their toons is on the end of a stern warning by Turbine today. The studio says that it has already banned and will continue to ban accounts seen using this deliberate loophole. "It has come to our attention that some players have been utilizing an exploit to change how powerful their characters are in the game world," the studio posted today. "Upon receiving reports of the issue we began an investigation. Due to the way our log system works we can definitively detect every account that is taking advantage of this exploit." Turbine is currently working on a fix for the problem. [Thanks to Superswim for the tip!]
EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators
Players who have been skirting EVE Online's TOS might find themselves on the bad side of a ban come 2015, as the studio is rolling out tougher rules on violators in the new year. CCP posted a security blog in which it outlined how real-money traders will be punished, as well as those engaging in other activities such as input broadcasting and multiplexing. While CCP didn't post the number of bans it performed in 2014, it did show a few graphs illustrating where the problem areas lay. Banned accounts this year, permanent and temporary, were divided up by macro use (56%), ISK selling (18%), ISK buying (5%), modified clients (4%), ISK spamming (1%), and other (16%). On the brighter side of news, the team is hard at work on January's Proteus patch with sneakier combat recon ships, improved asteroid belt visuals, and the retirement of industry teams. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
Kmart joins Target in taking GTA 5 off Australian store shelves
Kmart became the second major Australian retailer to remove Grand Theft Auto 5 from sale following a 45,000 strong online petition. In a statement provided to Kotaku, a spokesperson for the department store chain said it plans to take the game off store shelves "immediately." "Following a significant review of all content in Grand Theft Auto games Kmart has taken the decision to remove this product immediately," reads the statement. "Kmart apologizes for not being closer to the content of this game."
CCP to target EVE Online botters in 2015
Last week, CCP Games updated its policy on multiboxing and input automation within the spaceship sandbox EVE Online. Multiboxing -- that is, " playing as multiple separate characters, simultaneously, across a number of accounts, either by using multiple computers to run the game, or by using a number of instances of EVE on a single computer" -- will continue to be allowed, CCP wrote. But input animation is off the table. "Input Automation refers to actions that are commonly also referred to as botting or macroing," explains the studio. "This term is used to describe, but is not limited to, the automation of actions which have consequences in the EVE universe," including automated "activation and control of ships and modules, navigation and movement within the EVE universe, movement of assets and items within the EVE universe, [and] interaction with other characters." Botters caught violating the rule after January 1st will be punished with a temporary ban on the first offense and a permanent ban on the second.
Blizzard issues thousands (more) Hearthstone bot bans
Good news, Hearthstone players. If you've been using a bot to automate your gameplay, you'll log in today to find a shiny new prize! Specifically, that shiny new prize is not being able to log in because you've been banned. Your prize was being banned. Blizzard has awarded this prize to "several thousand" Hearthstone accounts using third-party tools to automate gameplay; the bans are permanent, so no need to worry about losing them at the end of the season. Players who have not been botting and violating the game's TOS will also log in to find a shiny new prize, which is a play environment with far fewer bots. Isn't that nice? The official post reminds players to report suspicious behavior by emailing the development team so that in the future another group of cheaters can wake up to find a brand-new lifetime ban locking them out of the game. Those of you who can still log in may also want to take the opportunity to vote on the next teaser for the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Hearthstone bot-generator site closes down after bans
Blizzard's recent round of bans in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft have forced the closure of Crawlerbots, a site that provided automated gameplay options to Hearthstone and WoW players. Last week, Blizzard announced that it had banned "several thousand" accounts associated with third-party programs that automate actions in Hearthstone. The accounts were banned until 2015. The Crawlerbots website now carries the following message: "This is our last official announcement. The recent ban wave in Hearthstone hit a lot of users. After discussing this with Blizzard, it's clear we have to take off our services/products now. Please note that we're not going to be commenting further on this. Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn't work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye." When Blizzard announced the bans, it said, "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated." In September, Blizzard revealed that Hearthstone had 20 million players worldwide.
Turns out Blizzard found more Hearthstone cheaters to ban
Earlier this week, Blizzard banned "several thousand" botter accounts in MMOTCG Hearthstone for the crime of botting. But the bans were only temporary, and the problem players will be back in the game by the turn of the year. The subjects of a new wave of bans, says Blizzard, won't be let off so easily. Community Manager Whirthun told forumgoers last night that win traders have and will continue to be banned -- permanently: We've recently banned Hearthstone accounts that were found to be participating in win trading. Win trading at any rank is something that we do not take lightly, and is in violation of our Terms of Use. As we mentioned in our previous statement regarding fair play in Hearthstone, instances of cheating will not be tolerated. Accounts that were discovered participating in win trading have received permanent account closure and disqualification from events where ranking is used as a method of qualification. Win trading is an exploit of the matchmaking system to position accounts for easy ladder climbing. PC Gamer reports that several big-name Hearthstone players have already fallen to the ban, including a grey hat player who went public with the exploit nearly a year ago in the hopes of provoking Blizzard to fix it.
Blizzard mass-bans Hearthstone cheaters
Last night, Blizzard announced that it's brought the banhammer down on cheaters in its MMOTCG, Hearthstone. "Several thousand" botter accounts have been banned for the next two months, though the studio warns it won't be so lenient next time: We've recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as "bots" or "botting." These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated. We're committed to creating a fun and rewarding environment for our players, and we will continue to closely monitor activities within Hearthstone and take appropriate action against cheating in any form, as outlined in our Terms of Use. From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning. Blizzard encourages players who encounter exploits to contact the hacks team; those who believe they've been wrongly banned can appeal their ban through the customer service department. [We've corrected our original story, which directed folks to the hacks team for all issues.]
Blizzard gives thousands of Hearthstone bots the boot
"Several thousand" bots have been banned from Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft recently, Blizzard revealed in a Battle.net blog. The developer found that the accounts were associated with third-party programs that automate actions within the game, and they will now be banned from the game until 2015. "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated," the developer said. "From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning." Hearthstone players that believe they've encountered an exploitative account in the game are encouraged to report it to the developer at hacks@blizzard.com. The popular digital card game will reach Android tablets by the end of the year with Android smartphones and iPhone following in early 2015. [Image: Blizzard]
WoW Archivist: The Martin Fury incident
WoW Archivist is a biweekly column by WoW Insider's Scott Andrews, who explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? It first appeared on our sister site on April 25th and is included here by permission. Almost exactly five years ago today, WoW Insider broke the news about one of the craziest stories in WoW's history. Some called it a "scandal," but I disagree with the term. Everyone involved, I believe, acted without malice. The entire affair was a matter of one colossal blunder, followed by a series of unfortunate assumptions and, ultimately, heavy-handed repercussions. The real victims here, after all, were the bosses. But the event is a fascinating and unique one: one player, given the kind of unlimited power that only a game master or developer was meant to wield. How did it all go down?
Turkish government bans YouTube following attempt to remove corruption videos
If you're currently in Turkey, get ready to fire up that VPN. The Turkish government has just added YouTube to its list of banned websites, which as of last week also included Twitter (that site is reportedly back online). According to Webrazzi, the ban is already active with some ISPs, while other networks are in the process of blocking access as well. A Wall Street Journal report last week stated that Google declined a government request to remove YouTube videos that allegedly feature an audio recording of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan telling his son to hide money from investigators. It's easy to speculate that today's ban is a final attempt to curb the spread of the aforementioned corruption videos, but given that millions of viewers have already tuned in, this latest effort likely won't be effective. We can only hope Turkey lifts the ban soon.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame
If there's one thing that seems to be fairly static among low and mid-level League of Legends players, it's that they dislike the metagame. If I weren't such an exception (being a kind of bad player overall), I'd say that probably 100% of low-level players challenge the meta. This kind of complaint hits the comments, my email inbox, or IMs all the time: "LoL is so dumb! There are only four viable champs in each role, and the meta is static." The first thing I'd like to point out is that those statements, regardless of variation, are all wrong. LoL as a game changes wildly from patch to patch and season to season, and while the existing Summoner's Rift solo queue metagame is more or less fixed in terms of roles (duo bot, one jungler, a "support" who does not CS in favor of giving it to an ally), none of that applies to premades of three or more players or other game modes. Even between the roles, there's a wide variation in expectations of what those roles should do. Stop blaming the game; think outside the box and start seeing the game for what it really is.
Over 6100 accounts banned for cheating in Final Fantasy XIV
It's been hard to miss the spam in Final Fantasy XIV lately. You can't walk into a major city without seeing several dozen people shouting repeatedly about selling in-game currency, which has resulted in a lot of people getting to really kick their blacklists into overtime. But Square-Enix isn't ignoring the problem, and as of today we've been informed that a lot of players are out of the game for cheating. If you can really call them "players." 6,154 accounts have been removed from the game for advertising RMT services, while another 156 have been removed for "illicit activity." The game has also undergone a bit of maintenance to help eliminate the (unspecified) methods of item use that contributed to the problem. Whether or not this will eliminate the shouting spam that plagues the major cities remains to be seen, but it's certainly worth hoping, and it's always good to see the RMT crowd get what's coming to them. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!]
Blizzard brings out the Diablo III banhammer
If there is one particular group of fools that Blizzard Entertainment cannot suffer, it is nefarious tricksters attempting to sneak an advantage in its games through the use of hacks, bots, and other malicious cheats. The company has just confirmed its latest round of mass-bannings in Diablo III, and while no specific number or reasoning is given, the post leans heavily on the rules regarding botting and hacking. Reiterated in the ban-wave announcement are the things that Blizzard prohibits players from doing with third-party software, including automate gameplay, obtain information about the game that isn't normally available to players, modify D3's game files, and change the way the game interacts with Battle.net. Blizzard also noted that using hacks and bots isn't a victimless crime; third-party software can sometimes cause big technical issues for both the offender and other players. More info on Diablo III's exploitation policy is available on the official Blizzard support website.
Counter-Strike: GO lets community police itself with Overwatch
Valve has introduced a new community discipline program for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that it calls "Overwatch," designed to let players govern themselves when it comes to problem behavior. Overwatch will deputize some players as "investigators" (based on stats like wins and hours played), who are then given a replay of a match from a reported player, and asked to rule on whether "the suspect" was cheating, griefing, or if there's "insufficient evidence" to rule. Once a collective verdict is reached, Valve will then determine if a ban needs to be given, and investigators will be rewarded if their judgments all agree. The process sounds very much like League of Legends' Tribunal program, which Riot Games has been using recently to try and cure that game of toxic player behavior. Valve says the system is currently in beta, and that it will be adding test cases to make sure the program works correctly. Eventually, however, the plan is to make Overwatch completely driven by the community.
BioWare 'actively investigating' recent SWTOR bannings
If you follow Star Wars: The Old Republic at all (and judging by the response to our tip line, you do!), you've heard the hullabaloo involving crystals and account bans going on right now. It appears some players have found they can bypass the fee necessary to unlock crystals account-wide in the Collection UI by spawning multiple crystals and using the Legacy system to trade those crystals to alts. As a result, a number of accounts have received temporary bans for exploiting. However, a number of players also claim they were caught in the cross-fire just for having a large number of legitimate crystals in their inventory, not realizing that was considered an exploit. BioWare has issued a statement that it is aware of the situation and is actively investigating and that more information will be posted when it is available. In regard to the deleted and locked threads involving the issue, BioWare also reminded players that posts discussing exploits or action taken against accounts is not permitted on the forums. [Thanks to all who sent in tips!]
Blizzard reversing some short-term PvP suspensions
WoW Insider recently posted about Blizzard taking decisive action against players who had been discovered win-trading. In the original post we also reported that Nakatoir had been very firm that these suspensions had been thoroughly investigated and would not be reverted. Bashiok posted the following today: Bashiok Earlier this week, several player accounts were given short suspensions and had their ratings wiped for being involved in Rated Battleground win-trading. Upon further review, we determined that some of the players initially identified as cheating may not have purposefully participated in the exploitive behavior, and as a result, we're in the process of lifting suspensions and restoring ratings to all but the most egregious offenders. This process should be completed following the Tuesday maintenance. As always, our goal is to identify cheaters while making sure people playing by the rules aren't inadvertently penalized. Rest assured that we'll continue to take action against players who aren't competing in the spirit of fair play. source This comes as a bit of a surprise, although WoW Insider's original post did point out the difficulties of discerning, in some cases at least, players who had involuntarily faced win-trading teams, from players who had actively engaged in win-trading. Nonetheless, the attitude that suspending innocent players is worse than letting a few guilty players get away with cheating is probably one to be applauded. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
