Task Force devs are abusing Game Bans

[Revadike]

I am one among many other victims that have been falsely banned by the developers of Task Force. The only place were we can speak out are in Steam reviews:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/611300/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated
Or in these forums: See RELATED.
Several YouTubers have spoken out as well:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=task+force+steam+ban

The dev invited me for a playtest and gave me a key for their game. It was revoked immediately after activation and a false Game Ban was issued to my Steam account. I have zero playtime, impossible to have cheated (see STEAM'S POLICY below). They know they can get away with it, it has been happening for years.

Steam support refuses to help, and are ignoring my ticket now. I will be forever marked as a cheater. I feel powerless against this injustice. I'm just sharing this here to spread the word of their abuse, with the hope perhaps something knows a way to help.

STEAM'S POLICY:

Game bans are only designed to manage cheating. They should only be applied to players who gained an unfair competitive advantage when playing multiplayer versions of content and services.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/anticheat

A permanent ban should only be issued for your game if the user was caught cheating in your game.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/46DB-4CEC-F7E9-49E5

RequestPlayerGameBan is designed to be used after the incidents from ReportPlayerCheating have been reviewed and cheating has been confirmed.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/webapi/ICheatReportingService

RELATED:

Developer System Ban Abuse Tracer Interactive Task Force Avoid Future Purchases
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/6756004301624113526/

Task Force Game Developer Mass-Banning Abuse for Negative Review Players
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/9/6516193260175834936/

Developer System Ban Abuse For Multiplayer Games If Game Gets Bad Review?
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/5540052310303152345/

Steam Developer Game Ban Abusers
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/6733519464636665316/

Remove Game Bans on Profiles
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/3833171151459176019/

Reports of "game ban" abuse
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3801649759587108694/

Task Force devs are abusing Game Bans *
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6733519464642642134/
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1c5i4l4/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1c4kl6w/

Developer Ban Abuse scram
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/9/3145094199294507009/

False game ban issued from game developer after negative review
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/aegjf2/

Multi-platform ban abuse by certain companies.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/4365752664041185537/

Malicious devs falsely banning users on Steam*
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1cay95k/malicious_devs_falsely_banning_users_on_steam/

Game ban on account
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/4333105589462084950/

*My posts

Most of these are about the same dev, he remains actively abusing to this day

[Hennix]

no cheat no ban thats it

[Revadike]

Originally posted by Hennix:

no cheat no ban thats it

If only... that would've been great. Sadly, I have 0 playtime in this game, yet I still have a Game ban.

[Ki11s0n3]

Originally posted by Hennix:

no cheat no ban thats it

Devs can ban whether you cheat or not and say it's because you cheated. This specific Dev is handing out Beta keys and then revoking them when they are activated and handing out bans for it.

Only hope is Valve wakes up and removes them from the platform, but I doubt that'll happen.

Most we can do is spread the word on what the Dev is doing and warn people not to buy the game.

Which is sad because people really want a new Socom game.

[PhrostB]

Clearly this dev is abusing the playtest system.

[DG]

Valve do something about this, how do you even allow bans with 0 playtime?

[LuckyStrike1305]

That's very bad and unfair :/

They shouldn't be able to have such liberties. Let alone being allowed to affect so much.

I don't understand the devs for this but not everything in life makes sense..
Valve though isn't a small dev that plays tricks.. It's a real shame this was allowed to happen and that it keeps going.. Especially after having happened before.. Damn

[LuckyStrike1305]

Originally posted by DG:

Valve do something about this, how do you even allow bans with 0 playtime?

Seriously! How on earth does that even happen?.. Lol

[HikariLight]

Despite how scummy the EULA is about not being allowed to talk bad about the devs or the game, the EULA is STILL a legally binding agreement.
By talking bad about the game you broke the EULA and thus earned the game ban.

Simply report the game on it's store page.
Stop engaging the devs in a way that breaks the EULA.
Go over their heads and contact the people that control whether or not the game can can stay.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by DG:

Valve do something about this, how do you even allow bans with 0 playtime?

Some Game bans, like in the new CoD titles are retroactively applied to all new CoD titles from the moment the game is added to their account. Zero play time and not even downloaded.

[rawWwRrr]

Before I get accused of being a shill, I don't care for the dev, their game, or anything about them.

Anyone not personally involved should take this all with a grain of salt. We are only getting one side of a story.

[Zer0Shade]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Before I get accused of being a shill, I don't care for the dev, their game, or anything about them.

Anyone not personally involved should take this all with a grain of salt. We are only getting one side of a story.

It doesn't really matter whether or not OP is banned falsely or not. We know that the potential for game ban abuse is there since devs have the capability to hand out bans for any reason they want, even just for the sake of it. That's the real issue.

Yes, Valve says that they try to prevent abuse of the game ban system, but with these singular isolated incidents, it's really hard to prove that the devs are in the wrong since it's their word vs the individual.

[Ettanin]

BigFryTV is affected by it as well and SidAlpha did a video on Task Force Game Ban abuse as well.

As of now no intervention by Valve

[Revadike]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Despite how scummy the EULA is about not being allowed to talk bad about the devs or the game, the EULA is STILL a legally binding agreement.
By talking bad about the game you broke the EULA and thus earned the game ban.

Simply report the game on it's store page.
Stop engaging the devs in a way that breaks the EULA.
Go over their heads and contact the people that control whether or not the game can can stay.

I didn't talk about anything (before the ban), I only spoke briefly to the dev that handed me a key. I also never played the game.

[Revadike]

Originally posted by Zer0Shade:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Before I get accused of being a shill, I don't care for the dev, their game, or anything about them.

Anyone not personally involved should take this all with a grain of salt. We are only getting one side of a story.

It doesn't really matter whether or not OP is banned falsely or not. We know that the potential for game ban abuse is there since devs have the capability to hand out bans for any reason they want, even just for the sake of it. That's the real issue.

Yes, Valve says that they try to prevent abuse of the game ban system, but with these singular isolated incidents, it's really hard to prove that the devs are in the wrong since it's their word vs the individual.

How about the provable fact I never played this game? Or that most negative game reviewers weirdly have a Game Ban on their profiles?

[Ettanin]

I advise against accepting playtest invitations from dubious developers due to this incident. I recommend using unlinkable throwaway accounts instead to minimize the damage.