Hundreds Banned From Destiny 2 PC

rgMekanic

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Hundreds of players of Destiny 2 for PC are reportedly getting banned for no reason, some just after launching the game and before they could create a character. Most reports are assuming that the bans are coming from the use of applications that use a hook / overlay feature, such as Twitch, Discord, MSI Afterburner, CAM, OBS, XSplit, Skype, TeamSpeak, HWMon, AIDA, as well as some hardware vendor overlays such as ASUS Tweak and Corsair Link software, GeForce Experience's FPS counter.

The use of such programs are blocked by Bungie, but should not be triggering any kind of a ban, as was stated on their official post about the use of 3rd party applications. Bungie is denying that the bans have anything to do with the use of 3rd party applications, with Bungie PC Project Lead David Shaw saying "We do block programs from pushing their code into our game. Most overlays work like that. We don't ban for that tho. That's internet BS" on his twitter.

To add insult to injury, players who have been banned from Destiny 2 are referred to their "Destiny Account Restrictions And Banning Policies" page, which states "There are NO options to dispute or overturn account restrictions or bans. Permanent account bans are only implemented with rigorous checking to ensure that the innocent are not punished alongside the guilty. Bungie does not comment on or discuss individual account restriction or bans."

After the news of the bans started breaking, Bungie released a statement in a blog article stating -

Destiny 2 cannot automatically ban you, only Bungie can ban a player after a manual investigation

Yesterday, we banned approximately 400 players on PC

Bans were applied to players who were using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game

We did not (and will not) issue any bans for the use of overlays or performance tools, including Discord, Xsplit, OBS, RTSS, etc.


I am sure this will be an ongoing story, as I don't know how Bungie could have completed a manual investigation of a player who has just launched the game and has not made it to the character creation screen, and yet determined that they "posed a threat." In case the theory that the use of 3rd party applications are causing the bans are true, if you have any doubt I would suggest avoid playing Destiny 2 while this story unfolds. Thanks to [H]ardForum user Seventyfive for the story.
 
In case the theory that the use of 3rd party applications are causing the bans are true, if you have any doubt I would suggest avoid playing Destiny 2 while this story unfolds.
or not use the 3rd party programs until it's resolved?
 
or not use the 3rd party programs until it's resolved?

A bit easier said than done, CAM controls all my fans, not turning that off, the new versions of RTSS don't have a tray icon anymore, and closing afterburner does not close RTSS, you have to kill it in task manager (2 programs), and playing a co-op multiplayer game without a voice program is just plain dumb
 
Some of my friends and i were thinking of buying once it goes on sale just to screw around in PVE but given the decline in the console population, I'm wondering what kind of longevity it has...

About a week every time a new dlc is released.. games way to easy now compared to the first one..
 
I posted about this awhile back and most here seemed to not think this was a big deal.

Interesting to see the switch.
 
So, 400 people out of how many hundreds of thousands? That isn't so bad and if they actually reviewed these cases individually, I'd say honestly they just need to tell the people what the offense was and if that person fixes it, great, play. Otherwise I'm good with them being overly cautious if it means there is any less of a chance of having cheating.
 
Never played any of the Destiny games nor had any plans to do so.

"To add insult to injury, players who have been banned from Destiny 2 are referred to their "Destiny Account Restrictions And Banning Policies" page, which states "There are NO options to dispute or overturn account restrictions or bans. Permanent account bans are only implemented with rigorous checking to ensure that the innocent are not punished alongside the guilty. Bungie does not comment on or discuss individual account restriction or bans."

If the no appeal part is true, seems very arrogant for the company to assume they are incapable of error. Guess you can appeal to your CC or other payment company.
 
Honestly I'd rather more people on the fringes be banned then allowing exploits to run rampant.
 
You would think that with all the accidental bans for WoW that Blizzard has done over the years, that they would at least do some anti-cheat coaching to their FIRST EVER BIG BUSINESS PARTNER ON BATTLE.NET.

This is going to explode in their face in the most GLORIOUS of ways. Especially when I read the part about "NO options to dispute or overturn account restrictions or bans". This may actually lead to suits in court over first sale doctrine shit.
 
You would think that with all the accidental bans for WoW that Blizzard has done over the years, that they would at least do some anti-cheat coaching to their FIRST EVER BIG BUSINESS PARTNER ON BATTLE.NET.

This is going to explode in their face in the most GLORIOUS of ways. Especially when I read the part about "NO options to dispute or overturn account restrictions or bans". This may actually lead to suits in court over first sale doctrine shit.

These big companies don't care about that kind of stuff, all they care about is selling product.
 
As per Bungies David Shaw "We don't ban for that tho. That's internet BS" sounds about right to me.

A small handful got banned. So there is no way everyone using vent/team speak/or FPS overlays are getting banned. If that was the case damn near every PC user would have got the boot.

This is the typical cheating bastards that fire up every game day one looking for ways to exploit shit.

Windows isn't some secure sandboxed app OS... bungie knows what you are running on your machine. They are not banning people running non-cheat programs.

About the only semi legit thing I could possibly understand here is someone claiming they got banned for running autohotkey or something which they are using to power media keys, or some other non game related scripting... of course its hard to prove your not using a program like that to bot. ;) Companies will boot people in such cases even if you argue really strongly that you aren't writing game scripts.... anyone stupid enough to be firing up a game during its initial launch that has made a rather large point of wanting to crack down on cheats early with something like autohotkey running... is a moron and deserves to be out the 70-100 bucks they spent on the game.

My suspicion is the majority if not all of these banns where deserved. Perhaps a couple are due to the odd PC "power users" that doesn't realise what some of their "non-cheat" software like autohotkey is capable of and may honestly not understand why they got the boot. That is where I think Bungie may have Fd up... instead of having a hard instant ban, they could have a Red Flag, yellow flag type setup. If there software sees memory space for objects ect that are clearly cheats in progress instant ban... for having a cheat level software loaded in your ram, perhaps a yellow card before the ejection from the game.
 
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Exploits aren't cheating.

Tomayto Tomahto. If these people got banned that fast... 99% chance they where running macro/scripting programs. There is a far to many gamers that believe macroing up things like rapid fire / skill combo keys is ok... despite damn near every Online game developer in the world clearly stating its a no no. Some online games provide rudimentary in game scripting which imo is the best way to combat that. For instance games from Cryptic, and Rift have a basic scripting language that will execute commands, where the developer can control what can fire off simultaneously and which can't main skills can be grouped but won't fire multiples with one press, but one per press. Its a nice in between imo... basic scripting which isn't a real advantage but can help disabled people ect compete.... but nothing that grants a major advantage that has players complaining about playing against bots. Still it means in such games serious PvPers need to take a bit of time to understand the in game scripting cause every little advantage right... things like external AHK that is capable of watching screen pixels and such to allow full botting are a no no. (not many people are aware of how powerful something like AHK can be in games... auto activating key presses when a specific pixel lights up a specific colour ect. AHK can be used not to worry about health / buff / target locks ect it doesn't take a crack programmer to make that happen its pretty simple scripting)

Not to mention full on scripting with things like AHK... ya find the "exploit" area where there is 2-3 easy bosses or a waves of trash to farm ect... then script a simple route and walk away for a few hours to watch some netflix. Its an issue in every MMO. Yes the developers added those areas... but that doesn't mean you can bot it over night while your out with the wife. :)

I know a few people have mentioned MS new anti cheating announcements... as good as that is(or not) it still won't cover things like AHK so I would expect stories like this aren't going away any time soon.
 
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Connecting a XIM or similar device to your PC and then the mouse and keyboard to that, to activate the built in auto aim for multiplayer is indeed using a known exploit for the purpose of cheating.

Oh I was just talking about things in the game that the devs didn't code right ect. Using something from an outside source to give the player an advantage would be considered cheating yes.
 
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LOL Destiny 2 cannot handle the PC Master Race!

Also, screw Bungie, PC users STILL remember the Halo Xbox BS from 15 years ago, WE REMEMBER.
If you mean by PC users not receiving cooperative campaign mode, even if just in LAN, then I totally agree. Otherwise, the PC game was supported and patched for nearly 11 years. I think it had a good run.
 
LOL Destiny 2 cannot handle the PC Master Race!

Also, screw Bungie, PC users STILL remember the Halo Xbox BS from 15 years ago, WE REMEMBER.
Hell, I think they remember Destiny 1 not making to PC while we're at it.
 
Probably the same people that got sucked into buying the first shitty game, whined incessantly about it, then ran out to buy the sequel.

I bought the first one... IMO, *it* was crap...

but at least the added more microtransactions to this one..
 
A bit easier said than done, CAM controls all my fans, not turning that off, the new versions of RTSS don't have a tray icon anymore, and closing afterburner does not close RTSS, you have to kill it in task manager (2 programs), and playing a co-op multiplayer game without a voice program is just plain dumb
Hm, I play co-op with just text talking but then again I can't really hear....

I haev been vote-kicked on multiplayer games before because I didn't have voice chat, hence why I play single player only.
 
This seems like a case of a handful of vocal internet nerds who were cheating getting banned and now whining about it. The corporation is always the badguy says 400 cheating pricks. #fsociety
 
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If you mean by PC users not receiving cooperative campaign mode, even if just in LAN, then I totally agree. Otherwise, the PC game was supported and patched for nearly 11 years. I think it had a good run.

Im talking about Halo being advertised as a PC game when it was first announced. Later when the Xbox was slated to launch, Bungie scrapped the launch of Halo on the PC and put it on Xbox instead. Probably because the Xbox did not have a Flagship title for their console at the time of launch. $$$:oldman:
 
This seems like a case of a handful of vocal internet nerds who were cheating getting banned and now whining about it. The corporation is always the badguy says 400 cheating peicks. #fsociety

This is probably the case. Screw Bungie anyways :p
 
Probably the same people that got sucked into buying the first shitty game, whined incessantly about it, then ran out to buy the sequel.

I resisted. Their PVP was atrocious (actually worse then the 1st one) And it gave me zero incentive to continue to play.
 
Exploits aren't cheating.
I agree. If the devs know about exploits and don't patch them that's the devs problem. I think exploiting is annoying as hell but do not consider it cheating unless it gives you unlimited health/ammo.
 
Nope. It's a bug.

But it exists in the game with or without the developers knowing about it, so its part of the game, intended or not. Like the Matrix, Neo wasn't cheating, he just knew how to exploit the program & its laws that already existed.
 
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