There have been some reports since the weekend about allegedly false permanent bans in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. A user says he paid $100 just for his account to now be marked as a cheater on Steam.
This is the situation:
- Since Friday, October 28, US media have been reporting that buyers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are complaining about being banned “without cause.”
- The basis for these reports is a tweet from online journalist Jake Lucky, who has built a large following on Twitter.
- Lucky says he has received “hundreds” of messages, including from people he trusts not to cheat. They all tell the same story: they have been banned unjustly. An appeal was rejected by Activision Blizzard within hours with a standard rejection.
First permanent ban, then quick rejection of the appeal
What people are saying: Users say they were banned from CoD Modern Warfare 2 because they used “unauthorized software” and “game files were manipulated.” They learned this after filing an appeal against the permanent ban.
To maintain the integrity of the game, the decision was made to permanently ban the account, the support from Activision Blizzard informed them.
There is no way to further contest after the appeal and its rejection.
What is the problem? The problem is that people say they were banned unjustly. They claim they did nothing wrong.
Players are also upset that their “appeals” were rejected so quickly. It is hard to believe that the cases were properly examined in such a short time, says a Twitter user.
Another player says he only played one and a half games, then CoD Modern Warfare 2 crashed and upon logging back in, the ban appeared with a quick response from Activision Blizzard after the objection.
A user says frustrated: He received the rejection just 6 hours after his appeal. He spent $100, only for his account to now be marked as a cheater on Steam.
How is this being discussed? It is always difficult to shed light on such bans and the complaints about them from the outside. We at MeinMMO also regularly receive complaints from users that their accounts have been banned unjustly in an MMO or MMORPG, and we should now focus on this “injustice”.
But without the data from the publishers, it cannot be verified. Therefore, many are now also skeptical about the reports and complaints of the banned players:
- Some users who are not personally affected believe: There must be some “unlock tool” that many use, which suddenly got exposed and people were rightfully banned.
- Others recommend two-factor authentication to prevent outsiders from hacking the account and causing trouble.
- Others say: Ultimately, it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of their account and see what programs are installed.
From the outside, it cannot be verified whether the players were really banned “unjustly” as they say or if something actually happened.
However, apparently many are affected – we will keep an eye on this at MeinMMO:
