Numerous fans of The Elder Scrolls Online report strange bans that apparently were issued without the involvement of a fellow player or an employee of Zenimax.
Update from September 24, 2024: The officials have addressed the accusations regarding the unusual bans in the official forum of Elder Scrolls Online (via forums.elderscrollsonline.com).
Community Manager ZOS_Kevin explains that the team, which monitors for violations of the terms of service, does use tools to detect these violations more effectively, but actions would only be taken after a human assessment.
The Zenimax employee acknowledges that they have recently revised some processes, and as a result, there were issues until everyone had internalized the best ways to handle the tools and processes.
If a player disagrees with a measure taken, they are advised to go through the appeal process, ZOS_Kevin further states. However, the bans of the most recently affected players are said to have already been reversed.
What are these reports about? Both in the official forum of Elder Scrolls Online and in various Reddit posts, the MMO community speculates whether Zenimax has recently implemented an automated moderation tool that relies on artificial intelligence (AI).
The reason for this suspicion: Numerous players report that they received bans for allegedly violating ESO’s terms of service with their messages in chat. The strange thing is:
- According to those affected, sentences written in private contexts were marked as violations – for example, as direct messages to another player, within the instantiated home, or in a solo instance.
- None of the involved players are said to have reported the affected account since there was no victim in the respective situation. Sometimes a slightly rough comparison was made, sometimes it was about “roleplay”, and sometimes a player simply vented about a boss in the Endless Archive.
You can visit the Endless Archive of Elder Scrolls Online solo or in duo; here’s the trailer:
Developers’ Statement is Awaited
How is the community reacting to these reports? ESO players share their concern that the suspicion that Zenimax is now using an automated AI tool for moderation could be confirmed.
- Jorgesarrada writes (via Reddit): “I write to say that I also think that bans enforced by AI regarding NO REPORTS are extremely dangerous for the health of the game and the community. I don’t like it at all.”
- EveryWonderous2289 explains in his post on Reddit: “Many have pointed out how bad this is for the RP community, but it is genuinely bad for all sides of the game. Playful jabs between PvPers are banned just like messages about strategy if they accidentally contain any keywords. The same goes for PVE […].”
- megacts is fed up with AI (via Reddit): “Ugh. I’m really getting tired of this AI nonsense. It’s suddenly everywhere, and I don’t know a single person who wants it.”
- Tandor admits in the ESO forum (via forums.elderscrollsonline.com): “There are some unacceptable words and expressions that are not allowed according to the TOS, and while I respect roleplay and roleplayers, I would be very much against players being able to evade effective moderation with the claim ‘but I was just roleplaying.'”
How is Zenimax responding to the accusations? While the thread in the official ESO forum (via forums.elderscrollsonline.com) has already reached eight pages and more than 350 comments, only one official statement has been made so far. Community Manager ZOS_Kevin writes:
“We are looking at some of the questions in this thread and asking the team for feedback. As it is quite late on a Friday, we will probably not have feedback until early next week. However, we wanted to confirm that we have seen the issue and are investigating it.”
MeinMMO will continue to monitor the thread for you and provide an update as soon as Zenimax addresses the accusations. There is a bad mood in Tamriel. This looked different a few days ago: “This is the best day of my life” – Players celebrate innovation for the MMORPG to Elder Scrolls
