Ice
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- Aug 17, 2018
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I'm gonna apologize for the essay, but I assume this will be a pretty controversial topic so I usually try to make my argument as clear as possible.
Before March 31st 2017, if you received an anti-cheat ban then it was permanent with no chance to appeal. After that date, you were able to appeal your ban with the minimum time in between your ban and appeal being at least 6 months. Although this might seem generous, 6 months is an extremely long time. Many players change their favorite games in that time, others may have lifestyle changes that don't allow them to play games as long, and still there might be some people who sit there patiently waiting to get unbanned. I'd like to talk about how to let reformed players get the chance to play again without waiting half a year. Let's take a look at another community's ban lengths.
Here is the KZ Global team's Ban Policy: http://www.kz-climb.com/index.php?threads/new-ban-policy.1855/
As you can see, they have different punishment lengths based on the type of cheating involved, but what's important to note is that they still use a two-strike system. One chance is okay - two times though, and you're out permanently. I agree with a two-strike system because usually if a person hasn't learned after the first time, they won't after the second, so their ban policy resembles ours except the ban lengths are so much shorter. This is because usually if people are want to reform and play legitimately, they'll do it immediately, rather than after an extremely long period of time like 6 months.
Let's look at some stats. Here is some data posted from every ban and public ban appeal, starting from May 1st 2019 to today (July 7th). Only 3% of people banned actually make an appeal, and of those roughly half are accepted, and half are denied.
Total Bans: 4301
- Duplicate account bans: 1816
- Real (Unique) estimated bans: 2485
Total Appeals: 78
Accepted: 34
- (16) false positives/mistakes
- (10) regular unbans (immediately unbanned)
- (4) bans removed due to age
- (4) bans lowered to 1 month
Summary:
- If we assume false positives aren't real bans, we're left with 18 accepted appeals. With a lowered punishment system, the 10 regular unbans would not change, but the 8 bans lowered/removed due to age would be forgiven and probably removed entirely, meaning that 100% of accepted appeals would most likely be unbanned immediately and not have to wait.
Denied: 44
- (30) bans were denied due to Racism/Cheating/Being rude, with no chance to re-appeal or lower their ban time. The majority of these were from people lying on appeals.
- (9) bans were told to reapply in 6 months because of anti-cheat bans.
- (5) bans were KZ global bans, so their ban time lies with the KZ Global team.
Summary:
- Nothing can be done about the people who lie on their appeal. I don't have any pity for people who do that, because it's clear they're not interested in reforming, or at least aren't ready yet. KZ Global bans do not apply here, so we're left with 9 bans from people that are told to reapply in 6 months. This means around 20% of people who appeal technically got their appeal accepted, but now they have to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to play again. With a more lenient punishment system, this means the 20% of reformed players would be able to join the community in 1-3 months rather than 6.
Final Notes:
I don't want to make excuses for people who cheat. But rather than target the cheaters themselves, I feel like it's better to try and offer help to those who are truly sorry they did it, and wish to play again legitimately. If you go out of your way to appeal your ban, it's usually clear that you care about coming back into the community and playing legitimately, and with a more lenient two-strike system it gives people that chance to redeem themselves. As it is now, even if someone knows they made a mistake and truly wishes to play legitimately and not touch cheats again, they have to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to. At that point, who knows if they'll even be playing the same game anymore? Is it really counting as being generous when they have to wait half a year before being able to join the community again, even though they were ready to start fresh soon after their ban? What if they have a group of friends who also play on these servers - if they want to play together, their entire group has to leave or they get left out, which isn't great for anyone involved.
Anyways, I know it's not really my place to decide the rules or punishments, but after seeing appeals like this one it really stinks seeing a player that's aware they made a mistake, they're truly sorry, and yet they still have to wait out a month or more because of a harsh punishment system. If a shorter two-strike system was implemented, not only would it encourage more people to appeal, but the main players who benefit are those who actually want to reform. Cheaters who cheat again would get permanently banned again regardless of which punishment system is used, so overall it seems like a less harsh system would benefit everyone involved. Moving to either a tier-system where different punishments have different ban lengths, or to a more lenient two-strike system seems to be a better option all around.
Sorry for the long read, but I'd appreciate it if others could let me know their thoughts on this.
Before March 31st 2017, if you received an anti-cheat ban then it was permanent with no chance to appeal. After that date, you were able to appeal your ban with the minimum time in between your ban and appeal being at least 6 months. Although this might seem generous, 6 months is an extremely long time. Many players change their favorite games in that time, others may have lifestyle changes that don't allow them to play games as long, and still there might be some people who sit there patiently waiting to get unbanned. I'd like to talk about how to let reformed players get the chance to play again without waiting half a year. Let's take a look at another community's ban lengths.
Here is the KZ Global team's Ban Policy: http://www.kz-climb.com/index.php?threads/new-ban-policy.1855/
As you can see, they have different punishment lengths based on the type of cheating involved, but what's important to note is that they still use a two-strike system. One chance is okay - two times though, and you're out permanently. I agree with a two-strike system because usually if a person hasn't learned after the first time, they won't after the second, so their ban policy resembles ours except the ban lengths are so much shorter. This is because usually if people are want to reform and play legitimately, they'll do it immediately, rather than after an extremely long period of time like 6 months.
Let's look at some stats. Here is some data posted from every ban and public ban appeal, starting from May 1st 2019 to today (July 7th). Only 3% of people banned actually make an appeal, and of those roughly half are accepted, and half are denied.
Total Bans: 4301
- Duplicate account bans: 1816
- Real (Unique) estimated bans: 2485
Total Appeals: 78
Accepted: 34
- (16) false positives/mistakes
- (10) regular unbans (immediately unbanned)
- (4) bans removed due to age
- (4) bans lowered to 1 month
Summary:
- If we assume false positives aren't real bans, we're left with 18 accepted appeals. With a lowered punishment system, the 10 regular unbans would not change, but the 8 bans lowered/removed due to age would be forgiven and probably removed entirely, meaning that 100% of accepted appeals would most likely be unbanned immediately and not have to wait.
Denied: 44
- (30) bans were denied due to Racism/Cheating/Being rude, with no chance to re-appeal or lower their ban time. The majority of these were from people lying on appeals.
- (9) bans were told to reapply in 6 months because of anti-cheat bans.
- (5) bans were KZ global bans, so their ban time lies with the KZ Global team.
Summary:
- Nothing can be done about the people who lie on their appeal. I don't have any pity for people who do that, because it's clear they're not interested in reforming, or at least aren't ready yet. KZ Global bans do not apply here, so we're left with 9 bans from people that are told to reapply in 6 months. This means around 20% of people who appeal technically got their appeal accepted, but now they have to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to play again. With a more lenient punishment system, this means the 20% of reformed players would be able to join the community in 1-3 months rather than 6.
Final Notes:
I don't want to make excuses for people who cheat. But rather than target the cheaters themselves, I feel like it's better to try and offer help to those who are truly sorry they did it, and wish to play again legitimately. If you go out of your way to appeal your ban, it's usually clear that you care about coming back into the community and playing legitimately, and with a more lenient two-strike system it gives people that chance to redeem themselves. As it is now, even if someone knows they made a mistake and truly wishes to play legitimately and not touch cheats again, they have to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to. At that point, who knows if they'll even be playing the same game anymore? Is it really counting as being generous when they have to wait half a year before being able to join the community again, even though they were ready to start fresh soon after their ban? What if they have a group of friends who also play on these servers - if they want to play together, their entire group has to leave or they get left out, which isn't great for anyone involved.
Anyways, I know it's not really my place to decide the rules or punishments, but after seeing appeals like this one it really stinks seeing a player that's aware they made a mistake, they're truly sorry, and yet they still have to wait out a month or more because of a harsh punishment system. If a shorter two-strike system was implemented, not only would it encourage more people to appeal, but the main players who benefit are those who actually want to reform. Cheaters who cheat again would get permanently banned again regardless of which punishment system is used, so overall it seems like a less harsh system would benefit everyone involved. Moving to either a tier-system where different punishments have different ban lengths, or to a more lenient two-strike system seems to be a better option all around.
Sorry for the long read, but I'd appreciate it if others could let me know their thoughts on this.