I got a Game Ban so you don't have to - How and why Steam need better support when it comes to Steam game bans

[Mellow_Online1]

Hi all,

I recently fell victim to developer blackmail and revenge tactics after their game got removed from Steam for employing scam marketplace items.

Here's the story as to what happened, how I got the ban overturned, and why Steam needs better support when it comes to these.

Overall, Steam Support should really allow a more personalised and direct appeal system when it comes to this kind of stuff. I admit I'm in a priviliged position when it comes to others, but it shouldn't take someone having a direct line to Steam to get a game ban overturned.

Everyone needs the ability to appeal, end of.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/813567935677203784

[Sasori Kigaru]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von William Shakesman:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sasori Kigaru:

I wouldn't say they're hidden away. You can find them here right on their own website.

Now not everyone has a contact, but there are quite a few that do including Jared Christen as shown here.

When you click on his name it even says this.

There's a big red "contact" button that shows up along with that bit of information after clicking on his name which is what my second link goes to.

Its annoying, and it definitely should not have to happen hence the suggestion/OP, but its not a monumental task.

Anyway! I'm not sure what thread you're talking about, if you can link me to it I'd appreciate it but what I was asking from you was a reply from Valve themselves and not Steam Support in regards to whether or not a game ban applied due to a negative review. Only reason I even asked is because you said specifically that Valve will say that its a valid ban.


Truth be told, you could probably use that contact link I've given in my reply here to actually ask Jared. His focus is to refine and expand the support operation and is clearly looking for feedback.

Ah, I see what you're asking. Fair point and no I don't have such an email. Steam support is executing Valve's policy so while I think it is fair to say them washing their hands of oversight suggests tacit approval of any and all actions (Or at least an impossibility of there ever existing an identifiable ban that was improperly applied as without police, your laws are mere suggestions), you are correct to say there is no such approval document. I apologize for not following. I do reserve the right to be extremely petty though, as if game bans need to be public, abuses of the game ban system, should any be definable, should be punished just as publicly.

The incident occurred about midway through this atrocious thread: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/6733519464636665316/

I did not keep links; as if the person who actually received the ban was not interested in pushing the issue, I sure am not going to waste Valve's time going back and forth with them on behalf of someone else. I will surely email the Valve employee, and on that matter of reaching Valve by the way I do stand corrected, thank you, should I have personal experience on the matter or be in a situation where I have a case I feel is worth the time of a Valve employee where I can offer more than "some dude you've never heard of playing a game you've never heard of received a spurious ban despite 0 playtime."

Okay this took me awhile but after digging into that thread which eventually lead me to another..
Found this interesting in part of a post by the one who mentioned being banned because of a negative review.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

I originally had a good review as I did like the game, but I changed it to a negative review after you applied a game ban on my profile. I will gladly switch the review back to positive.

The full quote can be found here Its post #572 and in the post he even says this.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

It has been 370+ days since I have been game banned. I tried to contact you the first time and you never responded, you never told me why I was banned and you just posted a blank reason on Steam. When I asked in the discussion boards you banned me from there for asking.

So it sounds like he didn't know the reason behind the ban and changed their review to negative only after it was applied. Also sounded like they were willing to change it to positive again if unbanned but I might be reading that part of the quote wrong but either way it didn't sound like he was being coerced into changing it either especially if essentially offering to do so of their own volition .

That aside, I appreciate the link to the thread. I couldn't find anything definitive about a ban being applied because of a negative review though and I used the search feature in that thread you linked looking for the words Negative Review specifically..

Anyway, imma give my eyes a bit of a rest from all the text/searching by gaming for awhile instead.

[William Shakesman]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sasori Kigaru:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von William Shakesman:

Ah, I see what you're asking. Fair point and no I don't have such an email. Steam support is executing Valve's policy so while I think it is fair to say them washing their hands of oversight suggests tacit approval of any and all actions (Or at least an impossibility of there ever existing an identifiable ban that was improperly applied as without police, your laws are mere suggestions), you are correct to say there is no such approval document. I apologize for not following. I do reserve the right to be extremely petty though, as if game bans need to be public, abuses of the game ban system, should any be definable, should be punished just as publicly.

The incident occurred about midway through this atrocious thread: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/6733519464636665316/

I did not keep links; as if the person who actually received the ban was not interested in pushing the issue, I sure am not going to waste Valve's time going back and forth with them on behalf of someone else. I will surely email the Valve employee, and on that matter of reaching Valve by the way I do stand corrected, thank you, should I have personal experience on the matter or be in a situation where I have a case I feel is worth the time of a Valve employee where I can offer more than "some dude you've never heard of playing a game you've never heard of received a spurious ban despite 0 playtime."

Okay this took me awhile but after digging into that thread which eventually lead me to another..
Found this interesting in part of a post by the one who mentioned being banned because of a negative review.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

I originally had a good review as I did like the game, but I changed it to a negative review after you applied a game ban on my profile. I will gladly switch the review back to positive.

The full quote can be found here Its post #572 and in the post he even says this.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

It has been 370+ days since I have been game banned. I tried to contact you the first time and you never responded, you never told me why I was banned and you just posted a blank reason on Steam. When I asked in the discussion boards you banned me from there for asking.

So it sounds like he didn't know the reason behind the ban and changed their review to negative only after it was applied. Also sounded like they were willing to change it to positive again if unbanned but I might be reading that part of the quote wrong but either way it didn't sound like he was being coerced into changing it either especially if essentially offering to do so of their own volition .

That aside, I appreciate the link to the thread. I couldn't find anything definitive about a ban being applied because of a negative review though and I used the search feature in that thread you linked looking for the words Negative Review specifically..

Anyway, imma give my eyes a bit of a rest from all the text/searching by gaming for awhile instead.

I don't think the guy was Stealthy as Stealthy has been ringing the bell of his game ban for ages and the guy who actually had this got his game ban removed by changing his review and stopped talking about it (He had said Valve removed it, but the actual dev showed up and said that he, the dev himself, had had it removed, and an unrelated guy who tested the game ban system extensively and was offering knowledge in that thread confirmed that the message you get would make you think Valve removed it. Plus the review banned guy in question was... not the sort of gentleman you could expect would give you precise error messages when you had to troubleshoot his issues, but the game dev hounding him in the review comments and in this thread made the case all the more convincing.).

That having been said, I apologize for making you go through that horrible thread, but you can understand why I wasn't particularly interested in searching through that mess either.

[Sasori Kigaru]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von William Shakesman:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sasori Kigaru:

Okay this took me awhile but after digging into that thread which eventually lead me to another..
Found this interesting in part of a post by the one who mentioned being banned because of a negative review.



The full quote can be found here Its post #572 and in the post he even says this.

So it sounds like he didn't know the reason behind the ban and changed their review to negative only after it was applied. Also sounded like they were willing to change it to positive again if unbanned but I might be reading that part of the quote wrong but either way it didn't sound like he was being coerced into changing it either especially if essentially offering to do so of their own volition .

That aside, I appreciate the link to the thread. I couldn't find anything definitive about a ban being applied because of a negative review though and I used the search feature in that thread you linked looking for the words Negative Review specifically..

Anyway, imma give my eyes a bit of a rest from all the text/searching by gaming for awhile instead.

I don't think the guy was Stealthy as Stealthy has been ringing the bell of his game ban for ages and the guy who actually had this got his game ban removed by changing his review and stopped talking about it (He had said Valve removed it, but the actual dev showed up and said that he, the dev himself, had had it removed, and an unrelated guy who tested the game ban system extensively and was offering knowledge in that thread confirmed that the message you get would make you think Valve removed it. Plus the review banned guy in question was... not the sort of gentleman you could expect would give you precise error messages when you had to troubleshoot his issues, but the game dev hounding him in the review comments and in this thread made the case all the more convincing.).

That having been said, I apologize for making you go through that horrible thread, but you can understand why I wasn't particularly interested in searching through that mess either.

No problem, I don't generally mind searching around. A lot of the time I'll do so or look things up on google when relevant. Some threads are very difficult to search through though- Can't really blame anyone for not wanting to go through 80 pages of a thread anyway especially when its an old one. I'm just a bit weird since I like to try to get to the bottom of things I'm curious of.

[Stealthy]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Sasori Kigaru:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von William Shakesman:

I don't think the guy was Stealthy as Stealthy has been ringing the bell of his game ban for ages and the guy who actually had this got his game ban removed by changing his review and stopped talking about it (He had said Valve removed it, but the actual dev showed up and said that he, the dev himself, had had it removed, and an unrelated guy who tested the game ban system extensively and was offering knowledge in that thread confirmed that the message you get would make you think Valve removed it. Plus the review banned guy in question was... not the sort of gentleman you could expect would give you precise error messages when you had to troubleshoot his issues, but the game dev hounding him in the review comments and in this thread made the case all the more convincing.).

That having been said, I apologize for making you go through that horrible thread, but you can understand why I wasn't particularly interested in searching through that mess either.

No problem, I don't generally mind searching around. A lot of the time I'll do so or look things up on google when relevant. Some threads are very difficult to search through though- Can't really blame anyone for not wanting to go through 80 pages of a thread anyway especially when its an old one. I'm just a bit weird since I like to try to get to the bottom of things I'm curious of.

Read some negative reviews and you will see. Currently the developer is talking through another mod to cover up and unban people who reviewed his game badly but they must bow down and praise him, and apologize even if they did no wrong. Give some time the video is coming, not to spoil the persons upcoming work.

[Stealthy]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

idk the process myself but that is one of the programs. It is several programs used to rip it and rebuild the maps, and then make them in HD. It was on source engine at first. It used to be called Socom Source.

GCFScape still doesn't cause VAC or game bans.

There's a person that called him out for ripping maps from the ps2 disc and redline gave him a game ban for mentioning this.

[Ben Lubar]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

GCFScape still doesn't cause VAC or game bans.

There's a person that called him out for ripping maps from the ps2 disc and redline gave him a game ban

Were those two events related?

[MonkehMaster]

reading some of those comments in that thread link, they didn't age well...

not surprising to see certain users denying any wrong doing of devs/mods lol.

[Stealthy]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ben Lubar:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

There's a person that called him out for ripping maps from the ps2 disc and redline gave him a game ban

Were those two events related?

Yes, I think so, Redline did deny it and his claim was the specific youtuber was attacking him first but really it is to save face that he initiated the ban first. Redline wants those videos taken down from the specific users channel. This is new info we just got. Few people in a discord got together and we're building a case from all angles, everyone he wronged that we can find, including past Task Force moderators.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

GCFScape still doesn't cause VAC or game bans.

There's a person that called him out for ripping maps from the ps2 disc and redline gave him a game ban for mentioning this.

And ?

The program still does not cause a game ban. It's used to change and edit textures on 3D models. Before throwing random excuses out there, you might want to consider that a lot of people have used that program before. It has nothing to do with the game and you don't even have to have the game running to use the program.


It wasn't only used on the Source engine, It was also used with the Goldsource engine, both of those engines, predate game bans.

You also can't use the program on PS2 files, as earlier stated it is for the Source engine and the Goldsource engine.

You also don't use it to steal textures. LOL

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ben Lubar:

Were those two events related?

Yes, I think so, Redline did deny it and his claim was the specific youtuber was attacking him first but really it is to save face that he initiated the ban first. Redline wants those videos taken down from the specific users channel. This is new info we just got. Few people in a discord got together and we're building a case from all angles, everyone he wronged that we can find, including past Task Force moderators.

Why weren't they taken down then?

Building a case from all angles? You do know that the developer has to remove that ban, right? Meaning you can't petition Valve or anyone else to remove it. So if that's your angle, well ....being that the game is not even on Steam anymore, the developer does not even have access to the tools any longer.

[MAXE]

Kinda hard to reach through to a human support ! when the inhuman and impersonal answering machine that Valve has put up infront of them are blocking us from reaching them !

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von M-A-X-E ™:

Kinda hard to reach through to a human support ! when the inhuman and impersonal answering machine that Valve has put up infront of them are blocking us from reaching them !

You can reach Steam Support very easily, that doesn't mean they can remove the ban, though. Steam Support is for billing and account questions. They cannot remove game bans or VAC bans.

[Sasori Kigaru]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von M-A-X-E ™:

Kinda hard to reach through to a human support ! when the inhuman and impersonal answering machine that Valve has put up infront of them are blocking us from reaching them !

Steam support are humans its just that they handle billing/account related issues, and as I stated in post #44 in this thread...

You can still contact valve directly. They have a website, and a page of employees a lot of whom have either a big red "contact" button after clicking their name, or a link to their steam profile or in some cases both.

[Stealthy]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Stealthy:

Yes, I think so, Redline did deny it and his claim was the specific youtuber was attacking him first but really it is to save face that he initiated the ban first. Redline wants those videos taken down from the specific users channel. This is new info we just got. Few people in a discord got together and we're building a case from all angles, everyone he wronged that we can find, including past Task Force moderators.

Why weren't they taken down then?

Building a case from all angles? You do know that the developer has to remove that ban, right? Meaning you can't petition Valve or anyone else to remove it. So if that's your angle, well ....being that the game is not even on Steam anymore, the developer does not even have access to the tools any longer.

Why should he take down videos? Why should anyone have to also change their negative review to positive. Game devs shouldn't have the power to game ban because of criticism. Silencing someone is never the answer.

[Stealthy]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von C²C^Guyver |NZB|:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von M-A-X-E ™:

Kinda hard to reach through to a human support ! when the inhuman and impersonal answering machine that Valve has put up infront of them are blocking us from reaching them !

You can reach Steam Support very easily, that doesn't mean they can remove the ban, though. Steam Support is for billing and account questions. They cannot remove game bans or VAC bans.

Have you not been paying attention to this thread? A Valve employee DID in FACT remove a game ban from someone's profile. So there's hope again.