Son banned from Overwatch competitive play AGAIN

cheesyboy · 10 Jan 2017 at 10:49

AndyCr15 said:
Lets hope so. Why wouldn't they?

Because the historic meta of FPS arena shooters is built on the shoulders of glitch exploits. Rocket jumps, strafe jumping etc.

And if it's in the game, then it's part of the game, surely?

MooMoo444 · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:00

Haggisman said:
Really?

Get banned for no apparent reason and are met with a brick wall when trying to find out why, and yet want to throw more money at them?!

It's very unlikely there's no apparent reason. One, the account has a history of leaving games early (even if some are not intentional) and we don't know the story behind this latest ban. Something would have triggered it. Most likely a report by other players for abuse or the like.

Rroff · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:06

cheesyboy said:
Because the historic meta of FPS arena shooters is built on the shoulders of glitch exploits. Rocket jumps, strafe jumping etc.

And if it's in the game, then it's part of the game, surely?

Glitches that involve leaving the intended map area or being able to shoot with invulnerability are usually (and rightly) frowned on though.

Gee · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:12

cheesyboy said:
Because the historic meta of FPS arena shooters is built on the shoulders of glitch exploits. Rocket jumps, strafe jumping etc.

And if it's in the game, then it's part of the game, surely?

Since when has Rocket/Strafe Jumping been an exploit? Using Reaper's teleport to get out of the map, but still able to kill people without others targeting you, THAT'S an exploit, which they did issue bans for.

OP - Blizzard won't ban/suspend without reason so it's most probably due to the previous disconnects he was experiencing, or went AFK during a match and got kicked which made the other players report him. I believe they'll suspend for bad conduct too; swearing, feeding, using abilities to troll etc, providing people reported him in the first place. IIRC 2nd suspension is about a week.

AndyCr15 · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:14

Exactly. Rocket jump isn't even close to a glitch.

Getting boosted into an unattackable area inside an object perhaps, where you can shoot out but no-one can shoot you (for example, as something I have seen) is cheating as far as I'm, concerned.

Rroff · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:15

Gee said:
Since when has Rocket/Strafe Jumping been an exploit?

OP - Blizzard won't ban/suspend without reason so it's most probably due to the previous disconnects he was experiencing, or went AFK during a match and got kicked which made the other players report him. IIRC 2nd suspension is about a week.

Back in the day rocket jumping wasn't originally an intended mechanic - not really an exploit though and strafe jumping techniques used to exploit rounding errors to move faster/further than the supposed distance.

jas72 · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:22

Thanks for the feedback I will try other avenues.

My son is 11 and school has started again so for me the ban comes at a nice time as he has studies now

However Im surprised after talking to two different support crew from blizz that they can't access the reason for bans. I'm sure I'm not the only one complaining about it.

If it was a hack (and he was caught) then I'm sure Blizz would ban the account not just comp play.

It's probably too many disconnects again but it would be nice of Blizz to admit it or even log for their Support the ban reason or better yet be more explicit in the game or send an e-mail god knows I get enough blizz spam in my inbox I'm sure they could implement a system that e-mails the account owner when a game bans you.

Anyway thanks for the thread title change as well.

He wouldn't be reported for abuse as we are in the same room I'd notice if he had started shouting at someone

cheesyboy · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:32

Rroff said:
Back in the day rocket jumping wasn't originally an intended mechanic - not really an exploit though and strafe jumping techniques used to exploit rounding errors to move faster/further than the supposed distance.

Of course it was an exploit. As you say, it wasn't an intended mechanic, so making use of it was exploiting the physics engine. That it was later deliberately incorporated into games agrees back to my original post.

If the Overwatch exploits have a negative effect on the competition, then they should surely be programmed out? Seems a bit harsh to issue bans for making use of game mechanics, however unintended.

That said, I guess the situation is such that the exploit was banned in the rules and only continued use was then met with bans (?). On those lines it wouldn't seem as harsh as I first imagined.

Gee · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:33

I doubt it was for using hacks anyway, Blizzard's Anti-cheat (Warden) is one of the best and the bans aren't instant if you're caught either. They do it in waves every month or two IIRC.

It might be worthwhile doing a traceroute or pathping to the Overwatch servers to see if there's any drops in connectivity along the way.

https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/718
https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/7648

prosk · 10 Jan 2017 at 11:35

Blizzard support doesn't give information on bans. Not much you can do other than beg them to reverse it.

Surfer · 10 Jan 2017 at 12:54

However I've upgraded the PC wifi connection and its solid

What kind of upgrade was it? Better than an ethernet connection?

tbh but im saying hacks. You might think he is 100% honest but nah...hacks

varkanoid · 10 Jan 2017 at 13:25

I would check his account hasnt been hacked. Check for activity when hes not using it. Would explain the ban if someone has been misusing his account.

Haggisman · 10 Jan 2017 at 13:41

MooMoo444 said:
It's very unlikely there's no apparent reason. One, the account has a history of leaving games early (even if some are not intentional) and we don't know the story behind this latest ban. Something would have triggered it. Most likely a report by other players for abuse or the like.

There probably is a reason, but in that case support should tell him what it is. Currently it appears they've banned him for no reason, which seems to be a good business decision since people are now recommending he buy another copy of the game...

fullmetaltony · 10 Jan 2017 at 13:45

prosk said:
Blizzard support doesn't give information on bans. Not much you can do other than beg them to reverse it.

This is fact, but I hate it. I don't think bans should be handed out without at least an indication to the reason. I know there are a majority of bans that are perfectly valid. But statistically speaking alone, several of those bans are going to be applied to people who simply don't deserve them and have payed good money to play a game they cannot access.
I don't think game studio policy on banning is quite where it should be at the moment and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of regulation or precedent in the courts (sooner or later) which force game companies to be more open about the reasons for bans and offer better support.

jasoncb · 10 Jan 2017 at 14:19

fullmetaltony said:
Good luck trying to get this resolved, I find it terrible that you can spend quite a sum of money on an online only game and then get banned with no explanation. If they're so busy with managing the playerbase by banning/investigating, then surely they've sold enough copies to finance better communication at least?

I love Blizzard games, play Battlenet games probably as much as Steam and there's a tiny amount on there compared. But stories like this turn me off any company, no matter how much I like their products (Overwatch is the only BNet game I don't own BTW, not keen on twitch shooters, too old for all that, and it's too pricey for what it is IMO)

To be fair most companies are the same, very few give any information on bans.

jasoncb · 10 Jan 2017 at 14:26

fullmetaltony said:
This is fact, but I hate it. I don't think bans should be handed out without at least an indication to the reason. I know there are a majority of bans that are perfectly valid. But statistically speaking alone, several of those bans are going to be applied to people who simply don't deserve them and have payed good money to play a game they cannot access.
I don't think game studio policy on banning is quite where it should be at the moment and I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of regulation or precedent in the courts (sooner or later) which force game companies to be more open about the reasons for bans and offer better support.

They will simply state they don't want to offer information regarding bans as it allows the cheat devs to know which cheats are being detected.

The problem is with high ping is some cheats replicate this so blizzard wouldn't be sure if his son had a cheat or it was simply a high ping problem.

andicole0 · 10 Jan 2017 at 14:31

Isn't Overwatch age rated 13 and he's 11.
Andi.

DONOHUE07 · 10 Jan 2017 at 14:34

There was a ban wave recently for aim boting, if your lad didn't run a hack it's GPU g to be very hard to prove otherwise, dose he use mods on any other game? Blizzards anti cheat is as good as any out there, I'm afraid the odds aren't looking good

Omaeka · 10 Jan 2017 at 15:01

Very likely something innocent in the background got flagged on his PC by Blizzards anticheat. They don't ban unlawfully although their support is bad, not Valve level bad but it is bad. Have you been through his PC to see what's installed and what kind of processes run in the background?

jasoncb · 10 Jan 2017 at 16:24

Omaeka said:
Very likely something innocent in the background got flagged on his PC by Blizzards anticheat. They don't ban unlawfully although their support is bad, not Valve level bad but it is bad. Have you been through his PC to see what's installed and what kind of processes run in the background?

Yes it could be anything, my guess would be he was browsing overwatch sites and came across a dodgy one and downloaded something not realising it was malware or a cheat.