Heads up, text wall! I'll make it bearable, I promise.
So a couple of nights ago I was playing Borderlands 2, got bored, started a new character and fired up a trainer. I played for a couple of hours, and closed borderlands 2. I decided to log on my Arisha account to do the goddess event thing that I've been neglecting the crap out of--no problem so far right? Well I forgot to turn off the trainer. So Black Cipher booted me, now I'm scrolling through task manager to see what I have open; the stupid trainer. I already had an (unfair) strike on that account 6 months earlier, but I submitted a ticket anyway pointing out my screw up (even attached the trainer lol), hoping they'd ease up a little maybe investigate the account to see if anything really is out of order, maybe even see that the anti-hack program is a little amazingly sensitive...nope!
GM Vesale Today at 12:31
Greetings Mercenary,
Thank you for contacting Nexon America Customer Support.
I truly am sorry for the delayed response. I understand that you really want to regain access to your account again. Please know that you were already given a chance by GM Jentemoon. Since your account got banned again after the previous ban was lifted, we cannot lift the restriction this time. Please understand that all players are required to play by the rules. For further review of the rules, please read through our Terms of Use.
I get the feeling no one even bothered reading the ticket here, who knows...they probably have a million tickets to sort through, benefit of the doubt.
Now for the Terms of use bit:
Unless otherwise specified, the Service is for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy (except for a single backup copy and transient copying required to operate the Service), distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Service.
Ok, yeah hacks do that sometimes, but ...nothing on that account or anything in the game folder sitting on my SSD was modified or altered, so that can't be it, otherwise my Fiona account--the main one would be banned too, seriously I'm on right now-- no cheat programs open so...yeah movin on.
3.1 No Unlawful Use.
As a condition of your use of the Service, you warrant to Nexon that you will not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not use the Service in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Service or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Service. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the Service.
I could see how this would mean hack programs and the like, but once again something like "infinite badass rank" wouldn't effect vindictus at all let alone any other players who were near me since it only works in borderlands 2, so this can't be the rule I broke either.
3.3 No Data Mining.
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No data was mined, I don't even know how. Gonna look at the Code of conduct, that'll have info on the rule I broke...right?
Cheating
You will not exploit errors in design or features which are not documented and/or bugs to gain access that would otherwise not be available or to obtain any competitive advantage.
Sometimes when I change outfits too quickly my character turns into a sticky bomb. Not it either.
You will not modify the software made available to you, either as part of a game or an interactive service, to change the service. This includes, without limitation, creating cheats and/or hacks or using third-party software to access files we make available to you.
This isn't it either, already stated earlier in this post that nothing was modified.
You will not reverse engineer, packet sniff, decompile or disassemble all or any portion of our games or interactive services.
The trainer was designed to cheat and probably does all the things here, but only to borderlands 2. It does not and cannot work in vindictus because it isn't a 1st person shooter where the main villain is named "Handsome Jack".
You will not engage in using macros (e.g., "macroing"), auto-looting or robot play (i.e., "botting") or any other behavior that allows you (or any character you are controlling) to automatically function or effect any action in a game with or without your presence.
Nothing here because once again the trainer I forgot to close doesn't even have any bot or commands, and there's also the whole thing about it being unable to work in vindictus because it isn't designed to work on it.
You will not use "packet sniffing," scripting and/or macroing software for any purpose whatsoever, or otherwise monitor the data streams generated by our games and interactive services.
Uh...see above I guess, As far as I can tell I actually didn't break any rules, at least not on purpose. Reading through the rest, I see the part where it says Nexon isnt obligated to warn you about punishment leads into a suggestion I want to make:
If your anti-hack is going to be monitoring things that doesn't even effect the game its protecting, instead of outright kicking you to the title screen and then a subsequent ban which will lead to a possible unfair strike and finally an unfair ban in my case, a word of warning would be awesome; Something along the lines of "unauthorized program detected, please close *insert program here* or be removed from the game" and start a reasonable count down timer.
TD;LR
My alt account is perma banned because Black Cipher doesn't like the fact that I have infinite ammo in Borderlands 2 and that there isn't anything in the ToS or CoC that says having a program open that doesn't effect the game in anyway is a bannable offense.
Comments
GM Luteola Yesterday at 21:26
Greetings Mercenary,
Thank you for contacting Nexon America Customer Support.
Unfortunately, after reviewing the account, it's come to my attention that it has been flagged for a permanent lock. As such, our account admins have deemed the violations found on this account to be severe to allow continued access to it. I'm afraid this decision is final and any access to the account will not be restored. Any future appeals will be denied as well.
If you have any new issues, please include this in a new ticket and we'll gladly assist you. Hope you have a good day!
Stay tuned to our News Feed for the latest information on upcoming events: vindictus.nexon.net/news
Sincerely,
GM Luteola
Nexon America, Inc.
Security Tip: Please do not give your password, PIN, or PIC number to anyone for any reason. Nexon America representatives will NEVER ask you for your password, PIN, or PIC.
Basically the reason I'm banned is because I'm banned Because a real investigation of my actual account activity is out of the question I guess.
As someone who returned to Vindi to find out that all of my Nexon characters have been wiped, I feel your pain. Just remember from now on to turn off any and all modification programs so that the anti-hack does not think you're using them in Vindi. And if you're playing an MMO with an updated anti-hack like XIGN, make sure you do not use any suspicious third-party programs within 48 hours before you play the game.
Customer service has to follow rules, too. They can't give you a pass just because they want to. Learn from this and be more careful next time. Have fun.
Well yeah, that's the thing, personally I haven't seen a (severe) punishment for just having a program open, i think the worst I've seen was a 7 day restriction back when I played rappelz I don't visit any forums often anymore so other game companies might very well be on the same level of BS as nexon is right now, after reading through the ToS and Amazing Spider-man my eyes are kinda to tired to see how other companies handle this.
I made what I'm pretty sure was an honest mistake, and I STILL don't know what caused black cipher to flag me the first time, which bugs the crap outta me because I could be running whatever that was and not know it and get flagged on my main account.
At any rate, yeah be careful, or you'll end up pondering if it'll be worth it to bombard them with sarcastic tickets.
Just make sure that you shut down your computer completely before playing Black Cipher games, since that should eliminate the program history that it reads. XIGN is different, as I said before, as it looks at what you've done for 48 hours, I believe regardless of whether or not you turn the PC off.