Excessive false positives on STF's automatic ban program

[saevel]

Currently there is a rash of bannings happening against players who are not violating the ToS but are somehow being caught up on the STF's automatic banning program. When contacting customer server they refer you to the in game team, when contacting the in game team they say that because it's the Special Task Force, the in game team can't help you and that there is no way to contact the Special Task Force. The most you can is them telling the player to make a feedback post on the Official Web Forum but the Official Web Forum doesn't have a place for that.

When it first started we all thought it was people doing bad things like using Third Party Programs. Now it's become apparent that something is wrong as people who've done nothing but log on and sit in jeuno, have been banned for section 2.1.

Can we get some feedback directly from the STF, not a form message or some vanilla community response, but an actual member having an open conversation between them and the customers. Someone who has the power to implement change or review policy.

For the time being I'm going to deactivate my account as a preemptive way to prevent accidental STF banning and I suggest everyone else to do the same.

[Draylo-]

Agreed, there should be some transparency or you need to tone down your system. At this rate you will ban a large portion of your subs and that leaves a nasty taste in peoples mouth in regards to your product.

[Olor]

Someone is reporting being suspended for multi-boxing and not using anything but windower. So who knows what that could even be or if that person is lying. I don't see how you could be banned for that, how would they even detect something like that? I know people who use different PCs for each character they multi-box and don't see how that is at all against the rules.

Huh, I thought that windower was a 3rd party program...

Was playing on an alt today, ran around all day with GM flag and speed, used noclip several times.
Was perfectly fine.
I always have the Tako map open on my third screen because I use it like ApRadar.
Went to alt tab and click something in chrome, ended up accidentally hitting the map and teleported across the zone.
Banned 20 seconds later.
Not enough samples to say that pos warping will get you an auto ban, but from my experiences, it seems that way to me.

Got banned on first offense early this morning while doing Salvage.
Well deserved ban, for the past 4 years I don't think I turned my speed under 400%.

These don't sound like people getting banned for nothing...

Now I personally think it is silly to ban people for just using windower... but the rules are the rules, so I don't think people should be surprised if they get banned for breaking the rules.

[Draylo-]

Man I wish they had a block feature on this site... People will be surprised when this company didn't ban for windower for over a decade and now all of a sudden they are. It's most likely an automated ban system which is what the OP is talking about. If you don't know then why are you posting and wasting our time stating the obvious.

[dasva]

These don't sound like people getting banned for nothing...
.

This isn't an all or nothing. It's possible there can be some justified and some unjustified ones...

[Hoshi]

Huh, I thought that windower was a 3rd party program...

Talks about windower but gives two examples of flee hacking software.

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1. Another person was banned and they're not sure why but at their best guess it was from being in the same skirmish run as someone who was flee hacking. If you're going to get STF banned for playing the game for too long or being in a party with a cheater that is concerning. I'm all in favor of banning people blatantly abusing game mechanics but these examples are not those kinds of players.

[saevel]

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1. Another person was banned and they're not sure why but at their best guess it was from being in the same skirmish run as someone who was flee hacking. If you're going to get STF banned for playing the game for too long or being in a party with a cheater that is concerning. I'm all in favor of banning people blatantly abusing game mechanics but these examples are not those kinds of players.

This is why I've deactivated my subscription. I knew some of those people and they aren't the type to lie about this stuff. They honestly were not using TPP or violating the ToS but somehow got caught into SE's automatic YOUR-BANNED lottery. I'm honestly beginning to think it's a random lottery, like if the STF doesn't make their monthly metrics for required banned accounts they just randomly add some NA accounts onto the pile to meet quota. Wouldn't surprise me considering job performance is often tied to such reportable metrics. In any case the STF should NOT be handling this unless they have a customer facing entity. Both the customer support and In Game team (GM) have customer facing elements, though Customer Support should be able to conference in a GM during a support call to prevent the catch-22 of needing to contact the in game team while being suspended.

The STF needs a customer representative to talk with players and offer some insight along with a process for reinstatement if the suspension was possibly in error. They are human, they make mistakes like everyone else but right now nobody is fixing or dealing with those mistakes.

[Rinuko]

Not commenting anything regarding STF but as a fellow customer service rep I can see some flaws in SE GM and CS agents.
Recently I filed a ticket in game to GM (took nearly a week just to get a response) due to I accidently dropped a valueable item. My understanding was then the GM had to send my request to a S-GM in japan to restore my item.
How is this going to work after november I wonder. It would make sense if they decide to remove some of the GM / CS staff for XIV when stopping the major dev for this game.

Edit: Should clearify that I'm not a SE employee but work with Customer Service in a diffrent company (ISP)

[Olor]

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1.

If it's the same story I read, that guy said he was also using a third party program... not a cheaterly one, but one nonetheless

Like I said, I don't agree with banning for (non cheating) 3rd party programs, but if SE found a way to detect them, and decides to ban people for using them, it's not for nothing, it's for breaking a rule.

Like the rule, dislike the rule, the rule is there. If you break the rule, you are taking a chance.

People will be surprised when this company didn't ban for windower for over a decade and now all of a sudden they are.

Maybe they couldn't detect windower before, and now they can? We don't know. It's been against TOS all along, so again, people should expect that if they get caught they might get banned.

[bazookatooth]

I can assure you that SE can tell who is and who isn't using windower and has been able to probably since the day windower was invented. I can think of a ton of ways off the top of my head. They might not be able to prove it, but they don't have to. They don't even have to tell you why. They just cancel your account and tell you to buy their new mmo ffxiv. I seriously doubt they are banning for windower. They've known about it forever. I think it's most likely that they have a new auto-ban feature gone haywire that is banning people for stuff that SE has always been able to detect, but silently allowed in the past and I doubt they care enough to do anything to "Fix" the ban bot. But then again, there's probably only one thing that SE has ever been consistent with in this game and that is being inconsistent.