Many players are frustrated when their accounts in video games get banned. When they file a complaint, they encounter deaf ears from gaming companies like Activision Blizzard: The ban remains in place. The details are kept secret for security reasons. There is no way to appeal. Case closed. However, a Steam user did not want to accept such a ban in Call of Duty and fought back.
This was the ban: The Steam user b00lin had played an early beta version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the CoD from 2022, for 36.2 hours.
He then received the message in his Steam profile that he was banned. Activision rejected his appeal against the ban: The security team confirmed that his account would remain permanently banned. He had used unauthorized software to manipulate game data. The ban remains in place.
The Steam user attempted to reach Activision through the ticket system, also called support, and contacted employees via LinkedIn. But all of that was in vain.
Banned user faces a wall of silence for security reasons
This was so frustrating: It was frustrating for the Steam user to encounter a wall of silence. No one presented any evidence to him that he had used cheat software.
Because such evidence would pose a security risk and must remain confidential, so that cheat developers do not find out how exactly Activision Blizzard operates, he heard over and over again.
Steam user gets his money back, but the ban remains
This was the next step: The user ultimately signed a non-disclosure agreement and sought mediation through an independent third party. However, Activision rejected the mediation.
Then b00lin used a service to get his money back. He wanted to recover the costs for the game. Since Activision did not respond here, b00lin won and got his money back, but the ban still remained in place.
According to PC Gamer, the user says:
Although Activision paid me out, they still refused to lift the ban on my account. They justified this by saying they were not ordered to do so by the courts and therefore would not do it. I’m sure they wish they had because it cost them a lot in the long run.
Next, he tried to reach an out-of-court settlement with Activision Blizzard and sought a settlement with a law firm that had been hired by the company. The Steam user was even willing to sign an NDA to keep silent about the settlement, but Activision did not want that either.
Ultimately, b00lin found himself in front of a judge and was able to prove that he had played Counter-Strike 2 for 1,000 hours without any incidents and just wanted to get rid of the ban. He did not care about playing a game by Activision Blizzard again – he just wanted the ban removed.
Activision’s defense could not present evidence in court that justified the ban; evidently, the strict viewing lines of the CoD security team did not even allow their own lawyers to learn the precise details about the reason for the ban.
Ban lifted after 763 days and deleted from Steam profile
This is how it turned out: Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, b00lin. Activision had breached their side of the contract here and failed to present evidence that the ban was justified. The player’s ban was lifted by the court. Additionally, Activision had to reimburse the plaintiff 711 pounds, approximately 850 €, in fixed costs.
This is what the player says: The player says he has been playing CoD on PC since 2003 and has invested a lot of time in the game.
He felt that the ban had ruined his Steam profile and his reputation as a gamer. That drove him to fight for 2 years and not give up:
A ban for something I did not do, on a profile that I highly value and into which I have invested thousands of hours, is not okay.
Whenever he was doing well in a game, people would check his profile on Steam, see the “cheater” entry, and then say to him: No wonder he won, he is a cheater. That went against b00lin’s honor, and he did not want to accept it. He was also motivated by the fact that he was not alone; on Discord, he met many others who had also received an unjust ban. In CoD, there are often discussions about bans: What is a shadow ban in CoD Warzone and what can be done about it?
