So many permabans!!

I've seen so many cases that pop up almost daily where players are permanantly banned on this server. I understand they didn't follow the rules and whatnot, but isn't a 0 tolerance rule too harsh? People make mistakes in real life all the time, but to get an absolute, IP permaban for one wrongdoing provides no opportunity for change, and rids the server of the opportunity to have so many more "good" players on this server. Don't get me wrong, a repetitive case of wrongdoing should obviously lead to a permaban, but a 1 time wrongdoing > IP permaban may be a little too harsh


I just want to shed light on this discussion to possibly improve on this system as we may have had few hundred (not sure of the actual number) more active, "good citizen" royallers if they were given the chance to change for the better, instead of being permanantly banned on the spot.



People are products of mistakes, and a harsh disciplinary action that encourages change may allow for:
1) the overall growth of this server (due to many possible "good" players playing rather than being banned)
2) Second chance to prove yourself, and change yourself for the better - how many times have we all wanted a second chance in life to do something better, and are willing to do so
3) Knowing that 1 more misdoing would lead to IP permaban after they faced a heavy month (+), more people would discontinue their practice than to continue their practice


This has been my thought since reading the daily updated ban appeal section of the forum. It's sad to watch so many permabans when who knows, some of them may have been my new best friend on royals, or an awesome leecher, or the guy who sold me a good Zakum helmet. I personally believe people should be given second chances, although with heavy punishments along the way, and with permabans if necessary. I hope this prompts discussion and ideas around this area for possibly an improved system

 

Most things that a person can get banned for already give them one or two extra chances to play again with no consequences other than a longer ban if they repeat the same offence. It's only what we've deemed major offenses that warrant permanent bans the first time.

Players have all agreed to the terms and conditions during account creation and should already know the risk in any action that they're taking:

 

I have no problems with permaban punishments, because it's written in the rules. We all acknowledged it when we registered for the game.

But this particular case caught my attention. If his story holds true, then IMO, it certainly doesn't deserve a permaban. His wrong doing certainly did not fall into any of the examples of major offense given in the appendices, so I question the staff's decision to give that man the permanent ban hammer.

 

Looking at 2 most perma-banned cases.
1. Hacking

Come on...with general knowledge you know you will get perma banned if you use any kind of Hack in a game; whether it's a private server or not. The moment you use it, you are stepping on a thin ice with clear intention of taking unfair advantage over others. This doesn't even require a T&C for any gamer to know. 0 Tolerance needed nor sympathy.

2. Account sharing
"It was my lil brother" "I got permission from my friend to use his/her account"


Maybe this is due to old maplestory and some private servers not restricting account sharing in T&C. Many seem to assume it's legal. Of course it's 100% player's fault for not reading the T&C upon registration since it's written next to [Register] button. However, increasing number of people proved their ignorance toward text reading. I personally think a lot of account sharers did it without bad intention but simply due to their ignorance.

I wanted to ask the Staff members. Have you ever considered or discussed adding a small quiz/test upon registration which can remind the new players concerning few critical rules of this server?

A rough example: Which of the following warrants a permanent ban on 1st offence?
A. Using profane language
B. Harassing other players
C. Account sharing
D. Kill stealing

series of questions in similar context and only 100% result allowing registration.

I think this alone can reduce a lot of account sharing.

From my own experience, I honestly didn't read the T&C when I first signed up. I assumed T&C would contain well known, boring wall of texts which I cannot even half understand. I was lucky enough to learn the rules through examples of other banned cases or friends before I unknowingly committed one myself (my hands are clean). Of course I should have read the T&C but I believe many others share the same tendency. If you can force/encourage the new players to learn the T&C, or at least the crucial parts of it, I think we can save many good, consistent players, without evil intentions, from getting perma banned.

 

I think we're all just too spoiled by classic Maple Story servers where we easily got away with hacking, botting, glitch abusing, and just being general dicks.

Tbh the nostalgia I miss the most is the wildly obnoxious guild ksing wars.

 

I got banned once in the early gms maplestory days because fraps was detected as malicious 3rd party software what you mean get away with hacking !

 

Noob hacker git gud LOL

 

Yesssss! #MakeKSWarsGreatAgain

 

No. Totally no. We have too many hackers, botters and “little brothers” already and they always keep popping up. It is a non stop work. I personally say no to these given the fact the amount of reports I have made and the time it took me to. I’m the kind of person that when someone smega: “gm I found a hacker/botter please come to me”, I stop what I am doing and record the abuser myself. Giving them second chances will only make the report section of the forum more and more fulfilled of reports.

 

I still think account sharing's punishment is stupidly high. A lot of the cases I see aren't even results of something bad or malicious, but must be perma-banned anyway. If you find yourself having to justify the punishment of someone breaking a rule simply because it is a rule, I think it's fair to question it's applicability. When it reaches and applies beyond the reasons why it was created in the first place, I'd think it's in need of revision.

Either that, or fix the severity of the punishment. I know the main reason why the rule is in place; the GM's here take hacked account cases seriously, and have got no chill for those who come with a case with the background of account sharing. I can respect that, but the way this is resolved is so nonsensical. It's like a banking company not wanting to deal with identity theft cases where the victim has openly shared their private information; that's fair. Except their resolution is to just kill everyone they find out are sharing their information. It's oddly drastic.
Why not just make a blacklist of those who you find out are sharing accounts, and exempt them from the right to make a hacked account case? That's far more understandable than permanently banning them.

 

It's also about fairness. Why should those who have friends to share the training load with have access to higher level characters than those who don't. Why should they have access to more buff mules than those who don't?

 

I do agree that minor account sharing cases are dealt with too severely at times. But if you read through the "account sharing" clause under the appendix of the T&C, almost every scenario of account sharing is considered major abuse and will result in a permanent ban. Also keep in mind that the Staff can only figure out that account sharing occurred, not always to what extent. So although it may seem like people are treated unfairly in their ban appeals, not all claims can be taken at face value.

Also your metaphor is way out of whack lmao

 

I don't personally see that as an issue. Maybe if this game was a race, but otherwise I am not sure how this would diminish other people's experiences. When I learned Tiger in GMS was multiple people playing on the same character, the idea was interesting but it never struck me as them cheating or being unfair.

Hey! I thought it lined up pretty accurately. :v

 

As someone who participated in the race to 200 and who has played competitively I think, I I believe anyone else who plays somewhat competitively would agree, that account sharing is super unfair to anyone who doesn't. There was actually a dude about 3 years ago who shot up to the top spot in the rankings out of nowhere, and it turns out it was essentially a Tiger situation, so he got banned.

 

I think it makes some sense... although all the people that seem to compare permanent ban with the death penalty is a worry. Not sure if that's what you were getting at with this, but it seems to be that way.

You really can't compare getting banned from an online game to having your whole life taken.

 

Worst hacker Dim :O

 

Well yeah, that'd be ridiculous. I'm in no way saying being permanently banned from a game is as bad or anywhere close to as bad as a death sentence. I was just giving a way more extreme example to better showcase that the logic behind it doesn't check out that well. :0

EDIT: I'm all for people playing competitively if that is what they want to do, but I'm not sure how I feel about enforcing rules against those who choose not to.

 

I think the main problem is that sharing encourages RWT and drama and stuff. Like someone could say they share their account with some friend but in reality gave it for money and nobody could detect it's RWT if the transaction happened in real life and not a website or something. Also you can have 2 friends sharing then 1 of them gets mad and delete the account or drop all items or something and create a lot of fighting and drama.

 

The potential of drama, fighting, and malicious acts on others accounts are personal issues between the one who willingly gave out their account information despite knowing it could be abused, and the abuser. This should be no concern of the GM's or others, it's their personal mistakes or problems. I don't feel preventing drama are grounds to make it a permanent ban offense. Banning one thing to prevent the possibility of something else happening I'm pretty sure falls under the Slippery Slope logical fallacy.

As for RWT, I've never been taught why this is inherently a bad thing, and would like someone to clarify to me if you've got the time.
Right now, the best I can come up with is that it somewhat encompasses pay-to-win, which this server is set against. Otherwise, I don't see it hurting anyone, or being an abuse of the system.
Is there something I am missing?

 

You said it yourself. RWT is pay2win and that’s exactly what Matt doesn’t want on the server. Even royals point only gives you aesthetics so that no one can win an unfair advantage with real world cash