Abusing the Automated Ban system -- please give me your opinion on my suspension

General Discussion
1

I just got banned after a game in which I told a mercy, duoing with a pharah, me: mercy heal the entire team, not just your duo partner
him: youre stupid, you have no awareness

The situation was, a bastion and myself both were in relatively safe spots, but got chipped down/died. Mercy, was just flying around behind with his partner Pharah, and made no effort to heal or come and revive either – which prompted my comment.

OK. So that’s all done. How do I know the ban was automated? Because IMMEDIATELY after the game finished, I got banned. I never insulted this person. I even gave him the last line (which was, “you have no awareness”)

So who could have reported me… The person who lashed out at me for asking him to be a better team player, and his partner.

This automated ban system is actually ridiculous. It seems that people abuse it and will just use it to report you out of spite, regardless of context, regardless of if what you’re saying is or isnt actually toxic.

No, not everything I say is “Great job guys, bunnies, flowers”. If something isn’t going well, I’ll comment “can you stop being so passive, push up”. This is what chat is for. For team communication. This is a competitive game.

I’ve had my account punished in the past, which I can understand. I don’t agree with it, but I understand why. I’ve never been egregiously toxic (no racism, homophobia, sexism, vitriolic harassment, etc), but I have been negative. Fine. I can accept those bans, if people are so sensitive.

However, since my last punishment, I HAVE NOT insulted a single person.

Blizzard NEVER gives you any feedback. They don’t tell you what you did. Nor are there any guidelines. They have characters in the game with voice lines that are far more toxic than the things I’ve said.

Since my last suspension, I never once insulted anyone. I had a warning pop up “stop being toxic” which is empty, because I truly don’t understand WHAT is toxic. Is typing things in team chat toxic because someone is offended?

The report system is VERY clear on the the things that are reportable, and I can say that I have not infringed on any of these. If this community is honestly going to report you for everything and anything, than this may just be my last straw with this game.

I’m sure there will be a “you’re not telling the truth”, but I assure you, since my last suspension, I’ve kept things clean and followed blizzard’s guidelines since then. But alas, it doesn’t matter, because the system allows for automated bans.

I’ve had a game recently where someone kept typing homophobic slurs, no punishment. People ragequitting out of games. People sabotaging games. People just going idle in games to avoid punishment. None of these people who actually deserve punishment did.

But ok, “Mercy, heal the team and not just your duo partner”… And my account is suspended.

I’d love for a Blizzard employee to actually tell me what is going on, because anytime I write a support ticket I get a canned response of “we reviewed, and it’s justified”. Leaving me wondering. This time, I KNOW I followed the rules. I’m not saying I was always super positive and cheerful, because I’m not, nor should I need to pretend to be.

4 Likes
2

Yeah, you were banned because 2 people in your most recent match reported you. Just those 2. Not others previously. Ever. Just them. Sure.

11 Likes
3

Well, seeing as the reporting system is automated, But it acts on number of bans

There is most likely a previous history that should have gotten you a nice backlog of reports, and this one was the last one that triggered the ban

There is no knowing what happend exactly in that match either, maybe you said something more your not telling us, or something of the sorts

But there is something i can say though, if you have a pharah and you’re mercy, Pharah is just so fragile that she dies instantly if your not pocketing her, so you cant blame your mercy for that, ive had matches where im solohealing as mercy and then i drop down from pharahs back to heal my other teammates and she dies instantly

You also said the mercy was saying that you had no awareness so you mayhave been in a bad position yourself

4

and there it is…
but at least you’re being honest about it. Look the bottom line in this game is like it or not, you just can’t call anyone out directly anymore. You can stick to general statements but unless one is high rank and a known player most statements directed at a person directly is all risk and near zero reward.

ya can’t make them do anything, so just don’t bother to try.

1 Like
5

It is automatic. It just you have to hit a certain number of reports over a period of time.

This game was just the straw that broke the camels back when the duo reported you and you passed the thresh hold

4 Likes
6

Just curious as to how you know that. Did you message them after the match and ask if they got warned/banned?

I do agree the process needs more transparency so players can contest unfair bans and use warnings effectively. It’s possible you were suspended for something from a previous game and it simply didn’t kick in until later.

7

Once you get flagged once, the next suspension comes easier. And yes, they will not overturn the ban even if you ask them to review and they lack evidence to take action. So you need to be on more than the straight and narrow. You need to just outright pretend to be a Saint.

8

That is not proof of an automated ban. You should know how proof works with the name QED.

I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong. At least part of the system must be automated, but the evidence or proof cited is not sufficient for your claim

In my experience it’s more like you just have to not be a complete butthole.

4 Likes
9

I guess that is technically what I meant. Zero toxicity.

10

I don’t really care for the word toxicity in this context as it has been overused.

I think you can have some negativity. You can express frustration. Just don’t make it personal and things should be fine. I’ve never been banned and I’m not a saint and I am sort of “toxic” sometimes, I just don’t make it personal

1 Like
11

Definitely. If you antagonize people, they will report you. If you just get tilted or something, nobody is going to mind. There was some trash Zarya complaining about our Rein and our DPS. Our Rein was just complaining about generic things (such as why Rein cannot cancel his charge, or how annoying Lijang was.) Guess who we reported? Not the Rein.

1 Like
12

I don’t understand why you would do that. It’s obvious to me that the only thing that’s going to do is make the Mercy player angry at you. The best you could hope for is that they don’t hear you or choose to ignore you, but more likely is something like what actually happened. At least they didn’t throw the game at the same time.

I mean, it sucks, but you can be reported by anyone for anything, and you already have a bad record so it takes less reports for you to be disciplined.

There’s simply no point in saying abrasive things like what you said. Calling out a teammate’s play, no matter how correct you are is only going to tilt them, and they might turn abusive, or throw the game, or leave the game, or report you.

There are, of course, times when if you do it politely you can suggest a better way to play… but when you do so it’s really important not to sound like you’re blaming the person that you’re making the suggestion to or else things will just go south in a hurry.

13

U cant get ban becouse of 2 people,probably u are a toxic player and now u try to get unban.And on this match why u didnt pick another support if she was solo

1 Like
14

Yes you can. It’s next to impossible. But you can.

15

Really? Do you have anything to back that up besides your assertion?

1 Like
16

U cant :slight_smile: just make a ticket and let blizzard show u the all reports and what did u say

17

Sure. Simple logic. Call out Papa Jeff with slurs. One GM bans you. Boom, that simple.
Theoretically it’s very possible… just impractical, and unbelievably improbable.

18

That was not the point of my post at all, but I completely expected condescending responses like this.
I’m sure much more than 2 people reported me, but were those reports justified? Tons of people get salty over small issues, hence my point (which was in the title) of the system being abused. Just because 10 people all report you, doesn’t mean any of those 10 reports are actually justified.

I told it exactly as it happened. The match was very neutral, except that I made the comment to the mercy at the midway point after he let 2 of us down to just fly around with his duo partner. The mercy, like I said, called me stupid after. And I’m sure he reported me, if not also his duo.
You can choose to believe me or not, but at this point I don’t exactly care anymore if this is how the community in this game is, and this is what Blizzard allows.

We were defending the second point in Route 66, the doors had just opened, and I was soldier, we had a bastion, we were sitting back at the first turn. Bastion was getting picked off, so I stayed near him to drop an E if he needed it. Bastion kept taking damage, didn’t move. I then got gone of those freak Orisa bursts, and couldnt escape, then died.
For both of these, Mercy was just flying around behind with Pharah, and could have helped either me or bastion, and moreover, could have res’d either of us.
That’s not the point though. The point is my comment was not insulting him, nor did it break any guidelines. I don’t care if he didn’t think it was something positive. Not all comments need to be. I don’t need him to be my friend. His reaction however was toxic. He could have just said, “You didn’t see what happened, I wasn’t there”, or said nothing at all, if he was embarrassed about admitting his fault. Instead, he falsely reported because his feelings got hurt and he did it to spite me.

It was there from the start. I have nothing to hide, and if I’m being honest, the punishments I received in the past were also not justified, albeit, the one I received now was definitely frivolous.
You also hit the nail on the head. “You can’t call out anyone directly” … I don’t know why this is the case, because if someone tells me “lucio, you should have been healing instead of speed”, I does NOT justify me reporting him because I’m salty that he called out my mistake.
You’re right that I can’t make people do anything, but that is all besides what the report system is actually for. At least what it says it’s for.
I work at a bank with a bunch of other STEM graduates, and it is perfectly ok for one person to criticize another if something needs to be fixed. We are a team, and everyone understands that criticism is a necessary part of improvement. The workplace is not toxic, and everyone gets along fine.
While that is RL and this is video game land, I don’t understand how here in a game that has toxic characters/voice lines built into it, that they are so ready to punish people if you are offering criticism.

Apparently… Which is my point, that this “threshold” system is not a just one.
Blizzard is thinking “well, most people who are actually toxic will get reported”, which is true, but then you are leaving your system open to also punishing false cases. Again, if I type in every game that I play, and I only win about 50%, then in 50% of games, there will be a lot of salt. Thus if I get reported every so often because someone is salty, even if I was never breaking guidelines, then the system is not working correctly.

Most people I play with are awesome, and get along just fine. People in game criticize me too, and I just acknowledge it. People tell me “wait, group up, you’re going to suicide”. So I consider it, and retreat to push with the team. No big deal. I don’t go reporting people who tell me “WTF” when I died doing something dumb.

I know it because I’ve received confirmations in the past for punishments. In the past couple of months, the number of people I’ve reported (people calling others “fgt”, racism, etc) I haven’t seen the number of punishments ever match up.
The people I’ve reported for purposely throwing matches, haven’t seen those punishments. That’s how I know.

A possibility, but I know for a fact that I was clean since my last suspension ended. The limit of my comments were “wtf guys, stop pushing solo, group up”. Things of that nature.

I don’t know why you’re trying to teach me about proofs. Maybe because your name is Sine… but you know exactly what I mean – I’m not laying out a mathematical proof.
It’s a “proof” in the colloquial sense. I.e. I have sufficient evidence to make a claim.
The game ended, and I was INSTANTLY suspended. Hence, we can reasonably assume that no human being checked whether the reports were justified.
This happened to me last time as well. I played in a game with a toxic group of people. They were harassing me, and at the end, I got my account suspended. Very, very shortly after the game ended.

I agree with you. And I can say that I’m not a “complete butthole”. Most games I’ll have positive interactions with teammates.

I would have hoped so, but apparently not. As clearly, my account is “not fine”. Is calling out mercy to heal everyone personal? Not in an ad hominem sense. It’s personal in the context of the game, but it’s nothing that anyone should misconstrue as an attack on their person or character.

I’ve asked for the reports before and received a canned response (I suspect it’s also automated). Never anything specific. If I get another blanket statement I’ll happily move on from this game.

19

If you had a bad session of like 10 games and you play an off meta heroe, then you’ll have more chance to get banned.

It’s how the automated system work, sorry for you buddy.
Toxic players abuse it.

20

I know you’re not, but the fact remains that your experience is completely insufficient as proof and to even pretend that it is in a thread is, in my opinion, pretty dishonest.

It’s not though; that’s the point.

And maybe you were suspended from reports that happened several games ago and you just got banned?

How did you rule out the possibility that the timing was just a coincidence? We can’t even reasonably assume that reports in that match necessarily lead to your suspension.

You sure do get your account suspended a lot.
And, of course, correlation is not causation.

Okay but the rest of us don’t have issues being banned and suspended over and over so clearly we’re doing something different.

Especially if the report system is as automated as you imply.

But my account is, and so are the accounts of many, many people. As I admit I am not a white night or a perfect player, but even I have only been suspended once since season 1.

Your behavior must be different than ours or at least mine.