GamersFirst account has been suspended

[CommAce]

Good day,

Believe me or not but the following is a true story and shows GamersFirst handles their customers.

Although the game is around for some time, I've only just recently discovered APB Reloaded in the Steam store. I'd never payed much attention to it, but I was drawn to it by watching a gameplay video on YouTube.

So I downloaded the game via Steam, created an account and started playing it. Although I had'nt played it much, I was imediately impressed by the game. I also recommended the game to a friend of mine. We had the oppertunaty to play the game together only once....

Out of the blue I receive an email from GamersFirst with the following content:

"Dear Player,
Your GamersFirst account has been suspended in the past 24 hours. The ban reason falls in the category of APB Violation Auto Ban. If you would like further details about your suspension you may contact support for further clarification at http://support.gamersfirst.com.
If you have already reached out to customer service about your suspension then you may disregard this notification."

Obviously I was ammazed about this, as I had done nothing wrong! I decided to contact support for further clarification. This was the awnser I got to my query:

"The APB Reloaded servers have rejected you from entering the game. This could be due to it being associated with the use of third party tools which give you an unfair advantage over other players. These tools do not need to be associated with APB Reloaded for our servers to detect them. Our servers will not allow you to make a connection in the future.

The servers are very unlikely to accept connections from your computer for the foreseeable future. You will not be able to contest this further with GamersFirst support and should consider this ticket closed. "

Excuse me?? I could not believe what I was reading! GamersFirst was boldly accusing me of being a hacker or a cheater!! Ofcourse I tried to reply but got an email back stating that I was responding to a case which has already closed.... So I opened up a new case via the support website, but got the very same (probabely computer generated) message back that I had gotten as a reply to my first email.

Like I started of this post, believe me or not, but I've been kicked from the game, probabely based up on a false-positive from the APB servers. Like I put to them in my second email, if one honest player is getting kicked for no reason, than it looks to me that they are loosing more playes (read customers) by a flawed detection method.

As any body else had the same issue? If so, did any of you manage to rectify the issue?

I'm a bit at a loss here, does anybody have a suggestion what I could do to try and solve this or how I could talk to a REAL PERSON at GamersFirst??

Kind regards,

CommAce

[GPZ]

You are not the only one,I also had problems with this game. Maybe you can contact them by Facebook?

[Athens]

Messaggio originale di CommAce:

could be due to it being associated with the use of third party tools which give you an unfair advantage over other players. These tools do not need to be associated with APB Reloaded for our servers to detect them.

Simply said, you have something on your PC that they feel you should not have. It doesn't even need to be active. It could be something you installed ages ago that didn't even work or a remnant that was never removed. There is even a possibility that the offending item has no relation to gaming.

There is no contesting this situation as far as I know.

[CommAce]

@ Athens, thanks for you reply. I understand your explanation, but frankly I don't understand GamerFirst reasoning behind it. Ofcourse I agree that they should take action against people who use hack or cheats in MMO-Type games, but this should not mean that honest players are beeing hindered by it.

They don't even take the courtesy that reply to my in person. Instead, I get something, what strongly looks like an automated response... I find it really strange that you are not able to contest it...

[Rikku]

from the responce they gave you, you didnt actually get THE reason you were banned just a list of possiable reasons. steam should remove this game if this is the quality of the customer service you get. sounds kinda like "pay me money then F*** OFF"

[Athens]

Quite simply,if you cheat or have tools used to cheat ,be they active or not, on your PC then you are always at risk for a ban.
It could be something as simple as a hex editor for altering values in a flash game having nothing to do with APB, for instance.

Messaggio originale di Rikku:

from the responce they gave you, you didnt actually get THE reason you were banned just a list of possiable reasons. steam should remove this game if this is the quality of the customer service you get. sounds kinda like "pay me money then F*** OFF"

There was a very specific reason given. What they did not do was name the specific file, .dll, or program that caused the trigger.

[Pitviper]

First off this game is gay, i mean super ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gay, graphics are low rate at best, cars handle for absolute ♥♥♥♥, controls of your player are for ♥♥♥♥ and its just another one of those oh imma spend 200 hours on this stupidity for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gun. it instantly throws you into a group and the only thing to do is go on stupid ass quests that are lame as hell. For me this game is getting a very quick uninstall and im going back to gta 5 from rockstar, obviously the only ones who know how to do a free roam game right. so trust me, your missing out on nothing.

[Tova]

Sorry, the only reason your going to be able to get the attention of these people is with a class action lawsuit, G1 is a cheap ass company with some seriously fradulent buisness practices, and they do it brazenly.

[Novuhz]

Messaggio originale di Yemmer:

Sorry, the only reason your going to be able to get the attention of these people is with a class action lawsuit, G1 is a cheap ass company with some seriously fradulent buisness practices, and they do it brazenly.

First of all it wasn't G1 that banned his account it was a PunkBuster ban.

Second it's a free account.

Third don't use cheats in other games, just because your not using on them for this game Punkbuster can still detect them.

[CommAce]

Guy's,

Lets, for argument sake, assume that I have used cheats in other games (Just to be clear, I have NOT, but just assuming), that means that the game is detecting files on my computer and sending them to their own server.... Hmmm... Smells like a little breach of privacy to me...

Anyway as I hadn't played a lot yet and hadn't made a lot of progress, I decided to create a new account under a different email address. I've also made sure that I close all programs that are normally running in the background are closed before playing.

Till now, I've been able to play without issue, without beeing banned...

[Galleoth]

To me this whole thing looks strange. First of all the quotes does not look like the standard G1 replys. Second: G1 does not actually (auto) bann people. They have the right to manually bann someone, but the usual 99.9% of the banns are made by PB, and their systems. Third: If you have any cheat tool on your computer it can get you banned. Even if it is an 500kB cheat for a single player offlin game. This is not invading of privacy, this is how anti-cheat tools work, which you'd agreed to when you've installed the game.
The other possibilities might be: A hacker account was associated with yours, or with your IP/local network, or your account was associated at a hacker's IP.
If you do not used any cheats, and do want your account back you need to get the GUID from G1. and then talk with the PB support about the violation. G1 can't life any banns, and except for the 0.01% (which you are not in) they aren't banning either.

[Athens]

Messaggio originale di CommAce:

Guy's,

Lets, for argument sake, assume that I have used cheats in other games (Just to be clear, I have NOT, but just assuming), that means that the game is detecting files on my computer and sending them to their own server.... Hmmm... Smells like a little breach of privacy to me...

Have you even read the Punkbuster terms?
Obviously not.

"Our software inspects the displayed screen, processes and files associated with each computer system on which it is running for the purpose of authenticating those systems for play in a "cheat free" environment. The primary purpose of the scanning procedures is to inspect for the purpose of authenticating honest users who wish to compete fairly together. Our inspection procedures consist of three types: 1) validating that only non-hacked original software is being used during multiplayer competition, 2) examining files that match the profile (or signature) of known cheating programs, and 3) sending screen captures during gameplay. Our software does not, nor will it ever, without the explicit consent of users, make changes to any non-PunkBuster files on users' systems (such consent would be received through a confirmation action within the PunkBuster software and not as part of our Software Terms). Furthermore, our software will not perform "hard disk scans" looking through large portions of users' directories and/or file systems. Private data is not transmitted by PunkBuster from a user's system to a PunkBuster server - all transmissions from users' systems will be encrypted using randomized keys that are meaningful within the context of providing a mutually agreeable "cheat free" online environment. Screenshots of gameplay are not considered private data by PunkBuster. The PunkBuster anti-cheat system will not attempt to permanently retain information about users' systems other than standard logging of connection and authentication / inspection activities."



In short they will look at everything your PC is doing. The screen, the processes running, the processes installed, when and how you use it, etc.