Star Citizen Backers Can Be Perma-Banned For Off-Site Activity

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Those of you in need of a little Star Citizen soap opera action should check out this article over at One Angry Gamer.

Agreeing to an end-user license agreement or a terms of service to participate in specific activity for a product or service you paid for usually comes with stipulations about proper conduct and behavior when using said services. But what happens when what you do outside of that company’s domain potentially results in getting you permanently banned from utilizing some of the company’s services?
 
Banned from the games forums, not the game. At least according to that linked article. Kinda takes most of the bite out of it.
 
He was definitely asking for it. Any normal person wouldn't get banned I expect. He seemed to go beyond any normal customer complaints in my mind. He seemed to be trolling them on purpose.
 
Continuous forum troll gets banned permanently then screams what did I do as usual? They would have been better off just sending his emails to the trash bin and not respond at all.
 
Given how much of a cluster fuck that game is, I can't disagree with his feelings. However, if i'm going to go start some shit elsewhere and not expect repercussions, i'm being stupid.


I want star citizen to actually reach their lofty goals but I have SERIOUS doubts it's possible.
 
That's true, Chris and his wife should have just offered to send him to a re education camp since this is getting all rather weird and kinda shady.

Vaporware.
 
Forum handle: Fearfactor
Yeah, I remember him.
Most of his posts were antagonistic and always trying to get a rise out of people. Basically testing what he could get away with but always pushing the limits of forum rules and exceeding the normal limits of what is considered decent behavior vs acting like an asshat or troll.
Honestly, I think Kyle would have banned him if he were in charge there for the reasons I listed above.
Not sorry to see him gone. The SC forums are better for it.
 
Forum handle: Fearfactor
Yeah, I remember him.
Most of his posts were antagonistic and always trying to get a rise out of people. Basically testing what he could get away with but always pushing the limits of forum rules and exceeding the normal limits of what is considered decent behavior vs acting like an asshat or troll.
Honestly, I think Kyle would have banned him if he were in charge there for the reasons I listed above.
Not sorry to see him gone. The SC forums are better for it.
If they banned him for on-forum actions, that's totally understandable. If they banned him for what he was saying away from the forum (even in combination with forum actions that may skirt the rules), that's a problem, especially if his primary sin was determined to be that he was antagonistic towards the development team.

I have to say, though,that being banned from the forum of a game that is intended to be wildly social is a pretty harsh punishment.
 
Forum handle: Fearfactor
Yeah, I remember him.
Most of his posts were antagonistic and always trying to get a rise out of people. Basically testing what he could get away with but always pushing the limits of forum rules and exceeding the normal limits of what is considered decent behavior vs acting like an asshat or troll.
Honestly, I think Kyle would have banned him if he were in charge there for the reasons I listed above.
Not sorry to see him gone. The SC forums are better for it.

Fearfactor is someone different, not the subject of the article to which [H]ard|ocp linked:

"It’s almost equivalent to user No_Forum_Jokes_Allowed, who ended up with a 10 year probation on his account for “misconduct”, which stretches all the way to 2025, as evidenced in the screenshot below."

MktbilA.png
 
“[Dave] seemed to become disillusioned with the project and as is his right stopped being a fan. However he seemed to fall into a certain crowd that tends to associate itself with the Something Awful forums. For whatever reason they do it the group including certain antagonists such as Derek Smart who continue to disparage the Star Citizen."

Man, invoking the name of Derek Smart brings up Usenet flame wars of 1999 that were thousands of posts deep and sprawled their way into completely unrelated newsgroups like cooking and sewing groups. Derek Smart brought out the best in people! His Battlecruiser debacle obviously fell well short of his ambitious vision, but it did at least inspire the likes of Star Citizen as well as Eve Online and Elite: Dangerous, all projects that are more capable of achieving his lofty goal.
 
Derek Smart brought out the best in people! His Battlecruiser debacle obviously fell well short of his ambitious vision, but it did at least inspire the likes of Star Citizen as well as Eve Online and Elite: Dangerous, all projects that are more capable of achieving his lofty goal.

Aw say what you will about Derek Smart, but he certainly has always made things interesting.

That being said. I would not want to get trapped with him in an elevator for 5 hours.
 
Aw say what you will about Derek Smart, but he certainly has always made things interesting.

That being said. I would not want to get trapped with him in an elevator for 5 hours.

He was quite entertaining. It's hilarious to see how powerful his legend remains, causing community admins to piss their pants and ban any members who are even remotely associated with his name.
 
It's sad that people are still paying money towards this scam. Star Citizen funded 3 Porsches for Chris Roberts and of course whatever Italian car Sandi Roberts drives.
 
And remember Bill Huffman, Derek Smart's antagonist who seemed to devote his entire existence to refuting and debunking every single word Derek ever uttered? Those were some good times indeed!
 
If they banned him for on-forum actions, that's totally understandable. If they banned him for what he was saying away from the forum (even in combination with forum actions that may skirt the rules), that's a problem, especially if his primary sin was determined to be that he was antagonistic towards the development team.

I have to say, though,that being banned from the forum of a game that is intended to be wildly social is a pretty harsh punishment.

You seem to have some type of notion of entitlement there. You or nobody else has any right to use a site / forum beyond that which the creator wants to allow.

If I was to go on Facebook or some other site and start posting shit against Kyle and Steve and started posting horrible things about their families or did worse Are you saying that if they removed my account that would be wrong and against some law?

If they want to keep their forum clean of people they feel are against the company, are trolls or are just going to cause issues they have every right to. Just like how Steve, Kyle and the rest of the admins here can remove all of our accounts here at will.

You aren't being blocked from playing the game, you are just refused access to their forums.
 
Sure didn't take long for the cultist brigade to chime in with their nuggets of wisdom.


Oh, it's his fault, obviously. He shouldn't say, or hint, bad things about our lord and saviour Chris Roberts on third party websites. He deserves everything baaaaaad!!!
 
Star Citizen certainly seems to attract a lot of overly-invested weirdos. And I'm not talking about the guy who got banned.

After some of the stuff I have read about Chris Roberts and his wife using backer money to buy expensive crap and try to be movie stars I'm glad to just sit back and watch.
 
When you were banned from the EA forums, they used to ban and delete your origin account as well. Not kidding.

Yeah but that is different, No ones been banned from actually playing start citizen, except Derek Smart, and even then he got a refund.

If all EA did was ban people from the forums, no one would bat an eye, Why does it draw attention when SC does it? The Forums are not essential for playing SC now or in the future. You should be able to still view the forums so not being able to post is really not that big of a deal, you can still see if there are any community events going on ect. like Operation Pitch Fork, you just might have to communicate with people in charge of those events with other means like teamspeak or go some other means thats publicly available.

Star Citizen certainly seems to attract a lot of overly-invested weirdos. And I'm not talking about the guy who got banned.

After some of the stuff I have read about Chris Roberts and his wife using backer money to buy expensive crap and try to be movie stars I'm glad to just sit back and watch.

I think you get your information from a less than reputable source. Especially if you actually think they needed the money to buy anything expensive in the first place, by normal standards Chris and Sandy were already Rich well before SC was even a thing.
 
This is over-reaching. If he's saying untruths, sue him for defamation. I wonder how many disappear from their forums for honest dissent?

If experience holds true, the game will end up taking too long, costing too much and be released a half-assed cheater infested turd.
 
I actually support this sort of ban policy as long as it's a bit more thorough than say VAC is.

From a business perspective, why would you want someone associated with your product when Google pulls up their forum posts along with all the off forums behavior they want to ban them for anyway.
 
The Rules of Star Citizen

1st RULE: You do not talk about Star Citizen.
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about STAR CITIZEN.
 
You seem to have some type of notion of entitlement there. You or nobody else has any right to use a site / forum beyond that which the creator wants to allow.
Well, I'm sure that you'll prove this without building a strawman, right?
If I was to go on Facebook or some other site and start posting shit against Kyle and Steve and started posting horrible things about their families or did worse Are you saying that if they removed my account that would be wrong and against some law?
I was wrong!
If they want to keep their forum clean of people they feel are against the company, are trolls or are just going to cause issues they have every right to. Just like how Steve, Kyle and the rest of the admins here can remove all of our accounts here at will.
Yes, yes, I know that HardOCP Forum, where people can and do browse most of it for free, and which has no product to sell directly to the average reader, is a direct analogy to every other forum on the Internet.
You aren't being blocked from playing the game, you are just refused access to their forums.
Yeah, thanks for the update. I said that it was a harsh punishment, and I was saying that in response to the idea that "well, it's just the forum." The official forum for a videogame that is by its nature social is going to be more important to a player of that game than a relatively general-interest forum elsewhere. Besides, it would make more sense to ban such a "toxic person" from the game itself (or shunt them into a specific instance for trolls and other malcontents) since that is where someone could ruin the game for other customers.

And, just to be clear, I didn't say they didn't have the right to ban whomever they wish from their forum. Obviously, they do. I, however, don't think that forum owners should monitor my activities elsewhere in an effort to determine if I'm fit to remain a member in good standing of their community. It's how I act within that community that should determine my standing.

Extending from that, I'm not even saying that the person in this case shouldn't have been banned. If they were consistently breaking the rules of the forum, especially if they're a "rule lawyer" (e.g., "I didn't directly call him an asshole, I just said that most people like him are assholes" and the like), should be a candidate for banning. However, what they do outside the forum should be their own business unless there's an actual threat to the business of the forum owner, a threat more substantive than "s/he is criticizing us."
 
Been a while since I've seen this level of obsessive trolling and drama associated with a game.
 
Continuous forum troll gets banned permanently then screams what did I do as usual? They would have been better off just sending his emails to the trash bin and not respond at all.

Continuous forum troll who also happened to be a backer and had donated money for their start up...

The reason this is an issue is he has asked for his money back
 
I think you get your information from a less than reputable source. Especially if you actually think they needed the money to buy anything expensive in the first place, by normal standards Chris and Sandy were already Rich well before SC was even a thing.
https://twitter.com/discolando/status/677222716408131584 So you're telling me that Chris Roberts bought a 911 50th Anniversary Limited Edition which there were about 1900 of them made prior to Star Citizen being a thing? And yes, that's Roberts' Porsche which is one of three of them. All of which he has gotten in the last 3 years.

That's the car in the twitter link above.
t8XUXRgh.jpg
 
Sure, he was loaded before Star Citizen.

If he wanted something he could of bought it regardless if SC was around or not.
 
Sure, he was loaded before Star Citizen.

If he wanted something he could of bought it regardless if SC was around or not.

You know that how? Why were all the cars purchased during Star Citizen and not before? Especially when he got upgraded to a mansion type home during as well.

I see this guy going to prison for fraud.
 
Yeah that is not going to happen.

Maybe to you it looks like all his purchases happened during the SC campaign but that is only because he is in the spotlight because of it.

Hes been producing movies, sold a company to microsoft ect. he has money it is pretty easy to see that.

There are far better ways to commit fraud then to raise $105million and then spend it all on 300 employees over the course of 4 years lol.
 
Well, I'm sure that you'll prove this without building a strawman, right?

I was wrong!

Yes, yes, I know that HardOCP Forum, where people can and do browse most of it for free, and which has no product to sell directly to the average reader, is a direct analogy to every other forum on the Internet.

Yeah, thanks for the update. I said that it was a harsh punishment, and I was saying that in response to the idea that "well, it's just the forum." The official forum for a videogame that is by its nature social is going to be more important to a player of that game than a relatively general-interest forum elsewhere. Besides, it would make more sense to ban such a "toxic person" from the game itself (or shunt them into a specific instance for trolls and other malcontents) since that is where someone could ruin the game for other customers.

And, just to be clear, I didn't say they didn't have the right to ban whomever they wish from their forum. Obviously, they do. I, however, don't think that forum owners should monitor my activities elsewhere in an effort to determine if I'm fit to remain a member in good standing of their community. It's how I act within that community that should determine my standing.

Extending from that, I'm not even saying that the person in this case shouldn't have been banned. If they were consistently breaking the rules of the forum, especially if they're a "rule lawyer" (e.g., "I didn't directly call him an asshole, I just said that most people like him are assholes" and the like), should be a candidate for banning. However, what they do outside the forum should be their own business unless there's an actual threat to the business of the forum owner, a threat more substantive than "s/he is criticizing us."

I still have yet to understand where this term strawman comes from or what exactly it is supposed to mean. I am showing an example of something that would get you removed from Hardocp for doing it to explain how doing things outside of a site can impact your ability to use a different site. Something that if done everyone would say yeah no shit you got banned. Last time somebody claimed I was doing something with a straw man it was showing that somebody said exactly what I stated. This time I am using a fake example. So now idea what the strawman is exactly but whatever. So fine, I will use something real.

A local facebook group for stuff in my town has removed members and blocked them for coming back for them saying things that were negative in regards to businesses. One such example, somebody asked how a local dentist was as they has a 2 year old and wanted to take them in for their first checkup. Somebody replied back how they are fine for adults but they would suggest a pediatric dentist as they haven't been too impressed by how they deal with small children. The owner of the group deleted the post, removed the person from the group and posted how there is to be ZERO comments that say anything non positive about a company or any other person. So somebody posted in a different group about how that person that runs the other group is power hungry and shouldn't prevent people from saying negative or average things about a business. Well the person who runs the group saw that somebody didn't agree with how they were running things so removed that person and everyone who liked the comment. So doing something in one group resulted in people getting banned from another. Now that is a poor example of trying to show the level of what happen here, but it is the best that I can think of off the top of my head as having really happen so that I am not using some example. Hope that is better for you.

As for monitoring off site. There is a slight difference between monitoring you offsite and you doing things in a public way that make you noticed. I hate to use a made up example but please just bare with me for a moment as it makes it easier to explain this. If I directly attack Steve or Kyle on facebook I am doing something to draw attention to myself and directly to them. This goes for if I attack a company on twitter or any other site using my same name or something that ties easily to my other account. It wasn't so much that they go through and track what ever single forum user is doing on every other site. These people did things on places that they would be looking at feedback. Just like how hardware companies watch Amazon, newegg and other online stores for negative reviews and then post back trying to make the person happy. It isn't that they are hunting down a certain person, they are watching for negative reviews so if somebody was to post the same negative review about all their products using the same name on different sites it becomes very obvious that somebody is just out to bash them. Same here, game studios are going to be watching for reviews / comments about their games on various sites. If there is an article about them they are going to read it. They are going to want to stay on top of their content. Just like how movies studios watch out for pirated videos online, that is somebody's job to search for that. So if you post in places that they look they will see your post. If you do so using a way that makes it simple to know who you are there is a chance of punishment elsewhere. A few people being banned for being overly spoken about the game in very public ways is a little different than people being banned because they posted on a random game review page that "eh the game isn't that great right now" Little different if you go around to any well viewed article or site and make sure to bash them in a way that you hope they see and get how much you hate their product and them. One way you are making a general statement the other you are trying to start shit with them on purpose.
 
someone wake me up when D. Smart spends less time fragging SC in his twitter and working on his own games.

Which according to Steam usage charts have less players in a months time than I do fingers on one hand.

And not just one of his games.


Mayhap if he took all that time on twitter bitching and moaning he too could be a game developer.
 
Has anyone actually THOUGHT that maybe Chris dumped a LOT of his own money into development, and now that he has funding he can take his own money back out of the development and do, you know whatever the hell he wants with his own money?


Thus far no one has provided one shred of evidence that the funding for SC has been used for his home or cars. Its just a bunch of loud mouthed SA folks being riled up by D. Smart as usual.
 
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