Elder Scrolls Online - Recent Account Bans

ZeniMax Online has issued a new statement about the recent account ban due to a bug that allows players to cheat in the games last update.

Here is the statement.

As part of our continuing effort to combat gold spammers, botters and exploiters, we recently banned a number of accounts. After several players appealed, we were able to investigate the matter further and discovered some legitimate accounts got caught up in the sweep. We unbanned accounts last night, and have email responses going out for those affected from our support group. It is never our intention for legitimate players to be harmed as we work to keep your game free of cheaters, and we sincerely apologize for the mistake.

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Unfortunately they banned a few players that had nothing to with the error. I have have another link from Reddit that has more infomation.

I am sure everyone on the subreddit is aware of the recent controversy over item duplication, which has enabled some players to duplicate hundreds of items for millions of gold.

ZOS has now patched this bug and has banned accounts that have taken advantage of the exploit.

During the suspension process some legitimate accounts have also been banned, if this has happen to you please submit a ticket to Zenimax Support

To stop the numerous new posts, please use this thread if you wish to discuss the action taken by ZOS. We will be moderating the thread to remove any insulting posts / accusations / call outs etc.

Please do not post your support requests / ticket IDs here as the subreddit will not be able to help.

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More information.

Lol. Lists instead if real GUI inventories and mass bannings of players who have done nothing (on Friday night. to boot) I guess they have been random banning a ton of people for a while from what I have been reading. Withdrawing gold from guild banks, giving money to a friend, etc, gets you banned without a response. My favorite is being trapped in a party instance with an ass who ninja loots all the chests and you can't kick them. Rock solid design and CS. Should we start making bets on how many months until its F2P/P2W?

This is funny from the link above (banned for reporting gold spammers)-

[–]ArkengateBreton Templar -3 points 2 days ago
I cant wait for the karma when i post the customer support apology.

[–]NariaFTW 5 points 2 days ago
I didn't get much when they banned me for reporting gold spammers. I wouldn't expect it. Most people just assumed I did something wrong and was lying and then stopped responding when I posted CSR apologies.


[–]napoleon85Aldmeri Dominion -3 points 2 days ago
You'll have that. This subreddit is chock full of fanboys and apologists.


[–]boredmuse 1 point 1 day ago
I like how they prove your point by downvoting you.

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On the flipside, at least they're trying to crack down on the bots. The first couple months of gw2 were laughable (and infuriating) with the bot armies just following each other around and ArenaNet seemingly doing nothing despite countless GM petitions by players.

Look at another positive side. Make a bot software, sell thousands of copies of it for some cheap cash. By the time they react, you'll have enough $ to retire and never work anything again.

People have real sad lives when you have to cheat in a video game. I don't understand it but then I also have never downloaded illegal movies or games. I figure they won't make the movies, games, or music I like anymore if no one pays for it.

I guess when your young and don't have cash things are different because when I was younger I used to steal some comic books I do feel bad to this day and if that comic book shop was still open I think I would buy some of his silver age comics

Oh I do remember likes of you, half of my comics were stolen or borrowed and never returned!

Not that I care much today, most were milk'em utter junk. Although I would want to know who lifted my Trial of Galactus that I've searched for years before I've finally bought it.
That person doesn't deserve to live and I'd be a happily convicted murderer. It's still not too late, maybe some day I find out who did it.

But cheating in the game and going illegal is not necessary the same thing.
Want an example? The only way to "fix" a certain bug before the patch came out in Icewind Dale 2 was to cheat at one point.

And for illegal downloads the problem is usually on the seller/owner's side.
Sometimes you just can't get the thing you want in any other possible way but by some illicit cloud storage or peer2peer network. Netflix or similar services are not available in many countries. And even then, you can't see everything by those services. Also imagine you can't watch a show everyone recommends because silly TV networks never bought rights on airing and there is no DVD version to buy. There are even worse examples where a show aired only once ever on only one TV station, it never went on tape or optic media and the only copy is gathering dust in some museum. And finally, why would you be forced to watch a remake just because some local TV station is airing it instead of the original series?
You want to pay for something, but you can't. There is noone to take the money!
The result? Illegal downloads all over the world.

And I'm not clean. I have this thing. Illegaly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Carol_for_Another_Christmas
Dunno how and who made it leak from Film and Television Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles, but honestly I don't care.
You tell me why I can't buy or watch it legally anywhere on the whole planet. Or sue me.

Which brings me to another example with games and not movies. Because of whatever microsoft's reason Batman: Arkham City was not possible to buy in my country. Asylum, yes, City, no. No physical copy and no possibility to buy it on Steam.
I admit I was thinking about pirating it but didn't since I didn't play Asylum yet. Luckily when it went on sale the first time, some corporate a-hole saw the error and "unlocked" it on Steam.

People will buy. But first make sure they *can* buy.

I've been tempted to try ESO even though I found the beta to be pretty weak (weak ES mixed elements with weak MMORPG elements) but so much of what I've read about it is a turn off, such as world dungeons swamped with players (and bots) and the bots and bugs in general.

Yeah, all games have bugs but enabling brutal exploiting is still a bit much. Yeah, all MMORPGs have some degree of cheaters but I still don't condone that, nor do I accept weak ass excuses for cheating or condoning cheating.

But really the biggest thing is that for me, the best part of Skyrim or ES is the content - the immersive world, the dungeons that just sit there for you to do, how your decisions completely alter how the game plays out. The combat and character development system in ES is definitely the weakest link for me. Aiming to do combat isn't a unique thing and the click or click and hold style combat is pretty freakin' basic, even with a few MMO style hotkeys to mash.

I still may try out ESO since I love MMORPGs or what weakly passes for them these days but I think I'll give it some more time to stabilize. Thing is, if you are going to play an MMORPG it's best to get in right at the start, because the first wave is the best time to play and things can feel mighty empty later, or you finally get to end game and many players were so far into it that it's even harder to get groups and stuff.

It seems they're having quite a bit of trouble with exploits and core functionality - which is very unfortunate.

Personally, I still really like the game and I continue to be impressed by the amount of launch content. The story and quests are almost universally interesting and engaging IF YOU ACTUALLY PAY ATTENTION - but the awkward nature of the combat is starting to get to me.

I still don't know if it's because of the EU server being located in the US, but I'm starting to doubt that's all of it. Since the combat is workable to fine roughly half the time - it can hardly be a latency problem. It just doesn't feel visceral or responsive enough for such an action based system.

Since you can only have 6 active skills pr. weapon - I feel quite limited in terms of my arsenal.

That said, it's still more than Skyrim has unless you multiclass heavily and count shouts.

I'm kinda holding back until the move to EU - and then I'll give it a proper shot. I hate being frustrated by core gameplay.

But beyond the combat system, I've been very fortunate to play ~50 hours or so with exactly 2 quest bugs. I haven't lost any loot or had any trouble with the bank issues that people are talking about.

To me, it really HAS been one of the most stable MMO launches in memory - and I've personally witnessed dozens of those.

But if you play this with the WoW/GW2/Rift/etc. mindset of clicking through quests without really reading - and just expect to enjoy the core gameplay as your primary entertainment from 1 to 50 - I'd say you're going to be very bored, very quickly.

It's NOT a game based around the rush to cap - that's for sure. It's ALL about the lore and the quests.

Sort of like a fully voiced LOTRO. That's probably the game it reminds me of the most.

I'm pretty attached to the game. That being said, after the 50 plus hours and now headed over to the PVP continent, I can say with all the stuff to do in PVP , I'm a bit overwhelmed.

DArtagnan said:

But if you play this with the WoW/GW2/Rift/etc. mindset of clicking through quests without really reading - and just expect to enjoy the core gameplay as your primary entertainment from 1 to 50 - I'd say you're going to be very bored, very quickly.

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Some semi-related rambling: I recently installed Everquest for the first time in maybe 5 years. One of the things I came to discover was that SoE actually implemented hyperlinks in NPC text (both old and new) so that the player can skip through actually reading and pondering over whether that NPC has a quest/backstory to give.

Horrible and plain irritating indicator of designing for an ADHD generation.

Drithius said:

Some semi-related rambling: I recently installed Everquest for the first time in maybe 5 years. One of the things I came to discover was that SoE actually implemented hyperlinks in NPC text (both old and new) so that the player can skip through actually reading and pondering over whether that NPC has a quest/backstory to give.

Horrible and plain irritating indicator of designing for an ADHD generation.

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I'm not getting into how much I despise the EQ design, just to spare your feelings

To me, UO was the perfect starting point - and then EQ came along with fancy graphics and changed it all into an eternally pointless grind. But that's just me.

In my world, there's nothing wrong with not wanting to read a story and experience the lore. It simply means you won't enjoy ESO - because it's made for people who DO enjoy that.

You'd be amazed at the sheer number of people who don't seem to give a damn about their money or reputation, and risk it all by cheating. I know it astounded me back in 1998 when I first started playing EQ, and if anything, it seems far worse now. I looked at ESO briefly, not my kind of game at all, and hearing stuff like this just cements it.

I cheat in SP games all the time. I am replaying Frayed Knights (great game) but I absolutely can’t stand the exhaustion mechanic, so I cheat to lessen it significantly. I made a good game better (in my opinion) by cheating.

I like MMOs because there isn’t cheating (though I get bored with them quick if there is no 2v2 bracket Arena type function such as in WoW or will be in Wildstar. Or if there isn’t interesting character development I.e. Wow since cataclysm). No cheating, or at least not for me, in MMOs (mainly because it is so hard usually).

Reading through the links above it seems these duplicating exploits where reported over six months ago in beta. It really doesn’t speak well to not fix a bug in beta, let it go into live, and then regulate with an extremely heavy hand. If they knew it was a big enough deal to perma-ban everyone who even looked suspicious, innocent people, for doing anything that looked like it or benefitting from it, they should have fixed it in beta when it was reported.

People define cheating in different ways. People are fine using the exploits they think are minor, or no big deal. When AO came out I had lvl 100 to 120 implants in my 60 monk by using buffing stacking exploits, and when I heard about the necklace beads duping bug I tried like the dickens to participate in engaging in it. Why? I wanted the beads without running all over east bumfuck doing boring crap to get them. The same mentality I have when I order pizza instead of cooking on my cooking nights. I want to eat, but I don’t want to do all the work involved in cooking something good. I wasn’t able to duplicate my beads, which involved putting them in a bag and trading it if I remember correctly, but I certainly tried and tried and tried.

As a min/maxer I am naturally geared to finding the exploits in character development. What mix did the developer not notice was overpowered? I probably got this mentality by rolling characters in Wizardry and other crpgs where I would roll over and over and over to get that super high roll. I’m I cheating compared to someone who rolls just until they get an acceptable roll? I’ll definitely have an easier time in the game.

I can’t honestly say I would use an exploit to duplicate in a MMO now. If I thought I could significantly benefit and get away with it, probably, as long as no one else was doing it. I would report it as soon as I benefited from it so others couldn’t and my cheating would be of more value. If other people knew about it and where doing it I would report it immediately. That is for crafting or anything involved in fake gold or make believe mats. If there was an Arena exploit I would report it and never even think about using it to win. The fun part about an arena is beating others fair and square, or learning from those who are better than you.

Does this mean I am dishonest in real life? No. I never steal. I work for what I have. And if my kid’s ever steal they will pay dearly for it. But, stealing in real life is taking something that belongs to someone else. Using an exploit in a game to make extra imaginary gold is, at best, fake stealing. Fake stealing doesn’t bother me all that much. I play games to have me-time and relax, not hate on fake stealers or drum up real anger for pixelated images of pretend items for a make believe character in an imaginary world.

So far I'm liking the game. Then again, i'm taking my time, reading all the books I come across, and generally playing it like a SP TES game.

Would using the TES construction set be considered cheating? Because I always use that when playing a TES game, and I find myself really wanting to tweak some stuff...

Liking the game myself, many of the books are fun to read and some of the quest are pretty fun. Not all is perfect but I like it so far

xSamhainx said:

So far I'm liking the game. Then again, i'm taking my time, reading all the books I come across, and generally playing it like a SP TES game.
...

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That's exactly how I play the game as well. To me the important thing in most RPGs and especially TES games, is the sense of being there. So, finishing those games takes a lot if time. And my backlog ... *sighs*

pibbur who is pibbur

i have some friends IRL that want me to join their guild and all that, and i like them and play tabletop D&D with them, but something about this game… maybe it's just an Elder Scrolls thing. I feel like TES games are just for me, by myself, to enjoy how I want. Dont get me wrong, I'm liking being part of a bigger MMO world of other players going round, it's nice to for once have the other entities in an Elder Scrolls game actually be something other than the signpost NPCs they usually are. Elder Scrolls games always felt like MMO games without the massive multiplayers, if anything, everyone else finally serves the purpose of being the closest thing to "Radiant AI" NPCs that we'll ever see.

Maybe one day i'll want to play with other people, or need to, for now i'm just seeing no real urge to play with others. I'm old school, OG (original geekster), i like my rpgs solo for the most part.

Well, I'm in two guilds (old gaming friends) currently but haven't really grouped at all yet. I just do quests here and there, explore stuff (treasure maps, a few quest puzzles, read books, skyshards exploration, alchemy, enchanting etc.)

The closest thing to grouping I did was when in a zone one of those Gate (Dark Anchor I think they're called) appear… There's some noise and calls over a large area, so sometimes I head there and fight the incoming wave of Molag Bal daedric minions with whoever is there as well .

The guilds I mostly use to talk a little with some friends and trade crafting material etc.

xSamhainx said:

i have some friends IRL that want me to join their guild and all that, and i like them and play tabletop D&D with them, but something about this game… maybe it's just an Elder Scrolls thing. I feel like TES games are just for me, by myself, to enjoy how I want. Dont get me wrong, I'm liking being part of a bigger MMO world of other players going round, it's nice to for once have the other entities in an Elder Scrolls game actually be something other than the signpost NPCs they usually are. Elder Scrolls games always felt like MMO games without the massive multiplayers, if anything, everyone else finally serves the purpose of being the closest thing to "Radiant AI" NPCs that we'll ever see.

Maybe one day i'll want to play with other people, or need to, for now i'm just seeing no real urge to play with others. I'm old school, OG (original geekster), i like my rpgs solo for the most part.

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I feel the same way when it comes to this game. I've also had a friend request that we play together - and I was stupid enough to say sure. So, I spend most of my time "offline" which you can, thankfully, set manually.

Kinda silly

But I don't enjoy games heavy on lore and immersion when I'm not playing alone. But when I'm in the mood, it's great to take on a dungeon with other people. I love that I have the option.

Once I'm at cap - I'll decide if the gameplay and endgame are interesting enough to sustain my interest. I doubt that, as I'm not really a big treadmill player. Been there, done that.

This all drama shows how weak gameplay usually is for those MMO.

They do not manage to provide a multiplayer gameplay so they substitute for it a hollow recipe for baseless competition.

Gaming is not about winning or losing. It is about playing. In this regard, cheaters are welcome because they enhance the game.
It is only when there is no game but a competition between players that cheating becomes an annoyance.

What's the point of reporting a cheater in this game? It could be envisioned when players buy things with real life money but otherwise.

Is grinding so bad in this game that when they see players cutting corners, other players feel stolen of their money because cheaters level up faster and then spend less of their money for more?

What is the deal in reporting cheaters?