12 votes

Lost Ark is being review bombed after incorrectly issuing permanent bans to inactive players, which leaves a mark on their Steam profiles

11 comments

  1. [6]
    cfabbro
    Link
    Official response on the Lost Ark forums acknowledging the fuck up: False Bans Following January Bot Ban Waves

    Official response on the Lost Ark forums acknowledging the fuck up:

    False Bans Following January Bot Ban Waves

    Greetings Heroes of Arkesia,

    Following a recent wave of bot bans, we’ve seen an increase in ban appeals from players who have been incorrectly impacted by these bans.

    We have determined the error that triggered these false bans, and are actively working on reversing them for all affected legitimate players regardless of whether a support ticket who has been filed. In the meantime, you are still welcome to submit a Ban Appeal ticket to Customer Support so that the team can more quickly assist with restoring your account and removing all penalties.

    Thank you for your reports and patience as we work to make this right with affected players.

    10 votes
    1. [5]
      cfabbro
      Link Parent
      New addition to the forum post:

      New addition to the forum post:

      Update: Bans are currently in the process of being reversed, which will remove your game ban and any marks to your Steam account. We will let players know when this work has been completed.

      7 votes
      1. [4]
        cfabbro
        Link Parent
        Another:

        Another:

        Update: All bans related to this incident have been reversed, both for the Lost Ark game and Steam accounts. If for any reason you have persisting issues, please reach out to Customer Support. Thank you!

        7 votes
        1. [3]
          JCPhoenix
          Link Parent
          At least they cleaned it up quickly. Still pretty bad that it happened at all. Like I sorta understand why they might have done it. I've had this happen with Guild Wars 2. Hadn't played in over a...

          At least they cleaned it up quickly. Still pretty bad that it happened at all.

          Like I sorta understand why they might have done it. I've had this happen with Guild Wars 2. Hadn't played in over a year, so my account was locked. But they stated that it was a security measure and provided instructions on how to contact support and what to provide to unlock the account. Within 24hrs, my account was unlocked. A little annoying since I had to provide information that I wasn't sure I still had: receipt, last 4 of credit card (is that card still active?), character name (I have various names I use), last mailing address provided. But at least it wasn't a simple ban like this and there was a clear path forward.

          I would think think there are better ways to do inactive account security, other than bans/locks though.

          4 votes
          1. [2]
            cfabbro
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            I think you might be a bit confused. It's very unlikely they did this intentionally, and its very unlikely it was done for inactive account security purposes either. Lost Ark has a huge bot...

            I think you might be a bit confused. It's very unlikely they did this intentionally, and its very unlikely it was done for inactive account security purposes either. Lost Ark has a huge bot problem, and by the sounds of it (based on this and other articles I have read on the situation) their new, much vaunted, "highly-effective" bot detection code actually had a serious bug in it which they failed to notice in QA before going live with it. And this bug is what caused it to not only scan long-time inactive users, but also incorrectly flag a significant amount of them as being bots. That's why all this happened during their latest bot ban wave, and why they were so quick to admit the mistake and work to reverse it.

            6 votes
            1. JCPhoenix
              Link Parent
              I was basing it off stuff I heard on reddit. People wouldn't lie on the Internet, surely...

              I was basing it off stuff I heard on reddit. People wouldn't lie on the Internet, surely...

              1 vote
  2. [5]
    Bullmaestro
    (edited )
    Link
    This is a monumental fuck-up and one that I hope both Amazon and Valve face legal action for if they don't immediately put things right. EDIT: Okay, I misunderstood the seriousness of this ban. It...

    This is a monumental fuck-up and one that I hope both Amazon and Valve face legal action for if they don't immediately put things right.

    EDIT: Okay, I misunderstood the seriousness of this ban. It does leave a negative mark on your Steam account, but lacks the negative ramifications of being unable to join Valve Anti-Cheat enabled servers that a VAC ban would otherwise leave you. It is still quite defamatory to be labelled a cheater in a situation like this.

    9 votes
    1. [4]
      gravitas
      Link Parent
      Not sure about DOTA, but the CSGO Rulebook says “The TO [Tournament Organizer] will not qualify, nor allow in any qualifying event, any player who has been "Valve Anti-Cheat" banned ("VAC Banned")...

      Not sure about DOTA, but the CSGO Rulebook says “The TO [Tournament Organizer] will not qualify, nor allow in any qualifying event, any player who has been "Valve Anti-Cheat" banned ("VAC Banned") in CS:GO.”, i.e. VAC bans for Lost Ark would not affect CS:GO major tournaments.

      But the ban isn't a VAC ban: It's a Game ban, which, as far as I know, any developer can use.

      3 votes
      1. [3]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Yeah, according to PCGamer they were just regular 'game bans', which still show up on your Steam profile as a form of public shaming, but unlike VAC bans don't actually prevent you from playing...

        Yeah, according to PCGamer they were just regular 'game bans', which still show up on your Steam profile as a form of public shaming, but unlike VAC bans don't actually prevent you from playing any other Steam games, or on VAC protected servers. So it's still a pretty embarrassing fuck up, but not as monumental as @Bullmaestro thinks it is.

        Those "new and highly-effective tactics" have apparently also caught up a large number of players who simply hadn't logged in for a while, resulting in a game ban that appears on their Steam profile.

        That's because players caught up in this wave are receiving game bans rather than VAC bans. The difference is that VAC, or Valve Anti-Cheat, is "an automated system designed to detect cheats installed on users' computers" as Valve explains. Game bans let developers decide who to ban, and those bans are visible to anyone who looks at a user's profile. As Valve says in the Steam support page, "It can be frustrating to play a game with a cheater, and it helps to know when such a user is removed from the matchmaking system." It's a public shaming, one that will make people in other multiplayer games consider you a cheat.

        https://www.pcgamer.com/lost-ark-players-with-inactive-accounts-caught-by-wave-of-bot-bans/

        6 votes
        1. [2]
          Bullmaestro
          Link Parent
          That's my misunderstanding of Valve's system.

          That's my misunderstanding of Valve's system.

          3 votes
          1. cfabbro
            Link Parent
            No worries. Truth be told I wasn't entirely clear on the distinctions between the ban types before this either. And I had absolutely no idea that regular game bans could show up on your profile...

            No worries. Truth be told I wasn't entirely clear on the distinctions between the ban types before this either. And I had absolutely no idea that regular game bans could show up on your profile page. I had always assumed those ban labels on people's profile pages referred to VAC bans.

            2 votes