Ban policy

Levianna

Hi, i would like to know the punishment policy of ZoS.
I.e. how banning method works? 1 day ban, 2 day ban, first warning, second warning, no warning... stuff like that.

Tried to find it at your site, but unsuccessfully.
Surely i have missed something, so could you please put me link to it here?

Thanks in advance,

Taleof2Cities

Talking about specific bans is frowned upon per the Forum Rules, @Levianna.

As you might expect, though, bans are on a case by case basis ... depending on the severity of the infraction.

Which is why there's no "published" list.

The lightest penalties are for players getting social bans.

The heaviest penalty is an account perma-ban for a major exploit, selling one's account, or something similar.

Levianna

Tbh if that is the case, they should be more specific about it, just as they are specific enough about rules of behavior policy.
We have our obligations and i agree with these, but also we have rights.
My right, as a costumer who is paying for their services, is to know how would i be treated for different types of misbehavior.
When i say "my", i am speaking generaly.

But i doubt that they have no specific and concrete rules about this, because every law system has it, and they are using some law system here too, so it would be logical...

Sorry for bad english, not my native, tried my best.

Elsonso

In the past, people like @ZOS_JessicaFolsom have revealed a little on how they do things. You can do searches to see what they have done in the past.

From what I gather, from all of those comments, they were doing warnings, 72 hour suspensions, and permanent bans, in that order of increasing severity. Not all ToS actions start with a warning. Some people may start with a suspension, or a ban, depending on the situation. It also depends on whether the person is a repeat offender.

Permanent sounds a lot more dire than it really is, as it is possible to come back from a "permanent" ban. It is merely permanent until reversed.

They may be using "permanent" bans for things like "Social bans", which remain in effect until the player appeals, and CS reviews.

idk

Zos reviews and treats each situation on a case by case basis. That is the answer and the best way to handle it.

You will not get a clearer answer than that. Some things are over the top and clearly obvious where other things are smaller infractions and might not be so obvious. Degree and frequency are also contributing factors.

VaranisArano

If you have concerns, you can talk to Support. If this is a thinly veiled "I got banned and I wanna complain about how unfairly I've been treated", you doubly need to talk to Support because they are the only people who can help you. ZOS doesn't discuss disciplinary actions on the forums due to player privacy.

In general, ZOS isn't going to tell us stuff like "three strikes and you're out" because we all know there are players who will skate right up to the line once they know where the line is. Or players who will decide "hey, that's worth a measly two-day suspension" or whatever. People. We're why we can't have nice things.

Levianna

VaranisArano wrote: »

If you have concerns, you can talk to Support. If this is a thinly veiled "I got banned and I wanna complain about how unfairly I've been treated", you doubly need to talk to Support because they are the only people who can help you. ZOS doesn't discuss disciplinary actions on the forums due to player privacy.

In general, ZOS isn't going to tell us stuff like "three strikes and you're out" because we all know there are players who will skate right up to the line once they know where the line is. Or players who will decide "hey, that's worth a measly two-day suspension" or whatever. People. We're why we can't have nice things.

About first part of your post: discussion i have opened has nothing with a complain to ZoS of that kind, and because ZoS staff have wrote that because of corona crisis the costumers would prefer to ask their questions at Official forums rather then tickets not to wait too long for an answer, i listened to them and asked my question here.

About second part: i am sure because every law system works like that, that an individual has to be faced with some general ways of the punishment in order to possibly protect their rights.
Law system of not informing people about the punishment methods, basically looks like Wild west one, where the man in law could pick preferred way of punishing some crime only according to their will and judgement (which wasn't always a fair one).
Of course that such system fell apart because people weren't be able to protect their rights.

And of course, for those who misread this, with all this mentioned above, i didn't want to tell that people should have only rights without any responsibility, and push the limits when they wish, of course people should be aware of responsibilities (and ZoS have made that part of the policy completely ok!), the point is there must be transparency in the whole thing, complete transparency, so that both player's responsibilities and rights are known and could be balanced in order to - keep an Order.

redgreensunset

From Terms of Service:

In response to a violation of these Terms of Service, ZeniMax may issue You a warning, suspend or restrict certain features of Your Account (including, but not limited to, user names), selectively modify or remove or revoke Downloadable Content at an Account and/or device level, immediately terminate any and all Accounts that You have established and/or temporarily or permanently ban Your Account, device, and/or machine from accessing, receiving, playing or using all or certain Services. 


ZeniMax may terminate Your access to and/or receipt, play or use of the Services (i) for violating these Terms of Service; (ii) if ZeniMax, in its sole discretion, deems that Your information is untrue, inaccurate, not complete or incomplete; (iii) if Your access to or receipt, play or use of such Services infringes on or is suspected of infringing on another’s rights or any intellectual property; or (iv) if You or Your Account reflects inappropriate Content and/or violates these Terms of Service.  Any and all Content (including, but not limited to, Software, Content, and Downloadable Content) will be considered forfeit immediately in the event of any cancellation, closure, or termination of Your Account by ZeniMax.

Levianna

redgreensunset wrote: »

From Terms of Service:

In response to a violation of these Terms of Service, ZeniMax may issue You a warning, suspend or restrict certain features of Your Account (including, but not limited to, user names), selectively modify or remove or revoke Downloadable Content at an Account and/or device level, immediately terminate any and all Accounts that You have established and/or temporarily or permanently ban Your Account, device, and/or machine from accessing, receiving, playing or using all or certain Services. 


ZeniMax may terminate Your access to and/or receipt, play or use of the Services (i) for violating these Terms of Service; (ii) if ZeniMax, in its sole discretion, deems that Your information is untrue, inaccurate, not complete or incomplete; (iii) if Your access to or receipt, play or use of such Services infringes on or is suspected of infringing on another’s rights or any intellectual property; or (iv) if You or Your Account reflects inappropriate Content and/or violates these Terms of Service.  Any and all Content (including, but not limited to, Software, Content, and Downloadable Content) will be considered forfeit immediately in the event of any cancellation, closure, or termination of Your Account by ZeniMax.

Thank you!

Reverb

Levianna wrote: »

Tbh if that is the case, they should be more specific about it, just as they are specific enough about rules of behavior policy.
We have our obligations and i agree with these, but also we have rights.
My right, as a costumer who is paying for their services, is to know how would i be treated for different types of misbehavior.
When i say "my", i am speaking generaly.

But i doubt that they have no specific and concrete rules about this, because every law system has it, and they are using some law system here too, so it would be logical...

Sorry for bad english, not my native, tried my best.

This post makes it sound like you would like to choose wether or not to adhere to the TOS based on your tolerance for punishment for breaking it. That’s part of the reason they don’t publicize their process. You can’t just decide “I think I’ll speed hack this weekend. It sounds fun enough to be totally worth a 3-day ban!”

The expectation is that you adhere to the defined terms or be prepared to deal with whatever corrective action Zeni feels is warranted based on both the infraction and intent. Your consumer rights don’t include a breakdown of punishments for violating the terms.

yodased

Unfortunately the concept of rights vs responsibilities is not valid in a private agreement with a company.

They hold all the cards and make the rules of the game as they go.

x48rph

They occasionally tell us when they ban a bunch of people for using exploits but they are never usually too specific on most things. This is done in my opinion to save them from the endless complaints about this person did 'x' and you only gave them punishment 'y' while someone else did something similar and you gave them punishment 'z'. And it also saves them from dealing with cases of what appears to be at times discretionary disciple based on say whether the offender might be a streamer. Not claiming that actually happens but appearances are everything.

Best thing to do as others mention is to just adhere to the terms, it's not really hard and there's nothing in them that's really different from most MMOs.

Elsonso

x48rph wrote: »

They occasionally tell us when they ban a bunch of people for using exploits but they are never usually too specific on most things. This is done in my opinion to save them from the endless complaints about this person did 'x' and you only gave them punishment 'y' while someone else did something similar and you gave them punishment 'z'. And it also saves them from dealing with cases of what appears to be at times discretionary disciple based on say whether the offender might be a streamer. Not claiming that actually happens but appearances are everything.

On the other hand, by doing it only "occasionally", they allow the idea to germinate and grow that nothing is done. In the end, I have to think that it costs them more to sit back quietly than it would to upgrade from "occasionally" to "frequently".