Valve Allows Developers to Wield the Banhammer Against Trolls

[Nosebleed]

This was introduced a few days ago, Valve now allows game developers to ban disruptive players as they see fit from their games.

 

It seems that lately a lot of developers have been taking a stand against trolls and people who just want to ruin other people's fun, and despite being met with some backlash from entitled users that think they should be free to act as they want when they buy a game, I believe this is quite a positive thing to make the experience better for 95% of people who just play a game to enjoy it and not to be trolls.

 

A somewhat earlier case of this type of ban practice involved the Terms of Service of Killing Floor 2 where the developers explicitly said they have the right to ban abusive players and revoke their CD key.

 

This ban on Steam doesn't affect a player's entire account and is merely restricted to the game's online multiplayer as well as Steam functions related to the game such as trading cards.

 

A really nice feature that Valve announced with this was that they also wield the right to revoke this banhammer from developers who actively abuse it, something that happens once in a while when a developer really hates a review and they abuse their rights to censor said review. An example of these abusive practices would be the Slaughtering Grounds fiasco between the developers and Jim Sterling which you can learn about here.

 

Do you feel like these practices will better online multiplayer games even a little bit or is this all in vain?

 

 

Source with the information on Developer Bans: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/9/620712364027233611/

 

Source on the Killing Floor 2 Terms of Service: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/killing-floor-2-will-ban-racist-sexist-and-other-a/1100-6426889/

[Flutterz]

Dunno, I've never been a fan of banning people for things other than hacking. Add a way for players to kick players from the server and you're mostly fine, really. Also if they can revoke CD keys, that means people can (and let's face it, will) lose access to single player because of what they did in multiplayer.

[sarayne]

Dunno, I've never been a fan of banning people for things other than hacking. Add a way for players to kick players from the server and you're mostly fine, really. Also if they can revoke CD keys, that means people can (and let's face it, will) lose access to single player because of what they did in multiplayer.

Just this! Look at what some devs do with their forums on steam just out right banning/deleting of any criticism. I just don't trust it to be used correctly but maybe I'm wrong.

[Nosebleed]

Dunno, I've never been a fan of banning people for things other than hacking. Add a way for players to kick players from the server and you're mostly fine, really. Also if they can revoke CD keys, that means people can (and let's face it, will) lose access to single player because of what they did in multiplayer.

The CD key thing was with Killing Floor only, I think this method is less intrusive since as it only applies to online multiplayer and you are also allowed to challenge a ban and talk things out if you really don't think you're in the wrong.

 

Just this! Look at what some devs do with their forums on steam just out right banning/deleting of any criticism. I just don't trust it to be used correctly but maybe I'm wrong.

Again why the right to ban can be revoked at any time if they're using it for the wrong reasons such as criticism censorship.

This is a measure against disruptive players, as in, those 12 year olds that go online only to boast about how they had sex with one of your family members last night, not critics.

 

 

Honestly, my personal feelings are simply: Just play the game and enjoy it, you'll never have to face any problems that way.

[Flutterz]

The CD key thing was with Killing Floor only, I think this method is less intrusive since as it only applies to online multiplayer and you are also allowed to challenge a ban and talk things out if you really don't think you're in the wrong.

 

Again why the right to ban can be revoked.

[Funyarinpa]

If Valve monitors it properly (hahahaha) then this will not turn out to be so bad. Maybe.

[Rose]

I feel like survival games such as H1Z1, Rust and Day Z (which I don't know if it's still alive) will have some issues with that. The whole fun of the game is around the mind-games and getting an edge over other players and keeping it like that, which can easily back-fire if the company can't properly handle the bands.

[Nosebleed]

Well if they can do it, other devs might be able to too. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

 

And if there's one thing I don't trust Steam to handle properly, it's customer service.

[TexasDice]

I have a feeling, that valve had like a giant pile of bad ideas lying around in the office. And by trying to enforce all of them at once, they hope atleast two or three will slip through the cracks of what I call the viral wall.

 

Paid mods, greenlight shenanigans, 5$ entry to each steam account - it's slowly too much for the forums, social networks and youtube to cover, so something is bound to pass unnoticed.

[Funyarinpa]

That $5 rule is not so bad, it will keep a lot of spammers away

[TexasDice]

That $5 rule is not so bad, it will keep a lot of spammers away

I actually agree. Slash the word "bad".

[ExtraMana]

If this means I can get the people banned who kick me from servers for no reason than I'm for it.

I fail to see how valve can enforce this short of me reporting a player.

[Narcosis]

Reminds of Arena Net and late incidents with cheaters, where their GM's simply logged into the accounts of said cheaters, publicly shamed their characters, undressed them, got them killed and then proceed to delete those characters and accounts. Everything was filmed and posted on game's community hub and cheaters obviously got banned. As brutal it may seem, this is actually a very effective and fair way to deal with any abusive players. There's nothing worse than people who ruin the gaming experience for everyone else.

[kyrt]

I have a feeling, that valve had like a giant pile of bad ideas lying around in the office. And by trying to enforce all of them at once, they hope atleast two or three will slip through the cracks of what I call the viral wall.

 

Paid mods, greenlight shenanigans, 5$ entry to each steam account - it's slowly too much for the forums, social networks and youtube to cover, so something is bound to pass unnoticed.

Wait what happened with greenlight? I think I missed something.

[sarayne]

Wait what happened with greenlight? I think I missed something.

OH MAN you should see the crap posted to greenlight as an example:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-p7mOl1xDE

[Sovereign1612]

oh man its probably a bad sign that i laughed my ass off

in my opinion the most trolls are highly entertaining 

but game devolopers shouldnt be able to screw around with the people who buy the game

[Narcosis]

but game devolopers shouldnt be able to screw around with the people who buy the game

That's why TOS exists and when people buy a product, they agree with it's terms of usage. It's like trying to blame weapon dealers just because someone can buy their gun and shot himself.

[Flutterz]

That's why TOS exists and when people buy a product, they agree with it's terms of usage. It's like trying to blame weapon dealers just because someone can buy their gun and shot himself.

Legally, sure, with the EULAs now you basically buy the right to download a bunch of bits, and if the developers want to they can take away even the right to run the bits you downloaded. But it's pretty stupid, it's more the weapons dealers coming to your home and confiscating your gun because you went to a range on Tuesday and you aren't allowed to use the gun on days that start with the letter "T".

[Mr Poltroon]

Legally, sure, with the EULAs now you basically buy the right to download a bunch of bits, and if the developers want to they can take away even the right to run the bits you downloaded. But it's pretty stupid, it's more the weapons dealers coming to your home and confiscating your gun because you went to a range on Tuesday and you aren't allowed to use the gun on days that start with the letter "T".

Which is why you'd choose different gun dealers if you like to go shoot squirrels on Thursdays.

[Flutterz]

Which is why you'd choose different gun dealers if you like to go shoot squirrels on Thursdays.

Only each dealer sells only his own guns and nobody else might have the specific one you want without the stupid condition that prevents you from using it on Tuesday and Thursday. Plus others might have even better offers like "you can't use this on days that end with "y"".

[Mr Poltroon]

Only each dealer sells only his own guns and nobody else might have the specific one you want without the stupid condition that prevents you from using it on Tuesday and Thursday. Plus others might have even better offers like "you can't use this on days that end with "y"".

Then they go out of business, no?

 

These dealers work for the consumer most of the time. By making outrageous terms and getting people to leave in mass they doom themselves. Unfortunately, getting people to leave in mass doesn't quite work. The damn mindless sheep couldn't care less.

[Flutterz]

Then they go out of business, no?

 

These dealers work for the consumer most of the time. By making outrageous terms and getting people to leave in mass they doom themselves. Unfortunately, getting people to leave in mass doesn't quite work. The damn mindless sheep couldn't care less.

Oh, when I said it's stupid it's only stupid from the consumer's point of view. Seems to works swimmingly for the publishers - Ubisoft still makes quite a lot of money. Most people who buy their games don't know or care that all they're buying is the divine right to download the bits.

[Narcosis]

The right keyword here is: balance.

[Vemocleus]

I don't act like a moron and I fully welcome the banhammer on those that do.  Ah, If only I were at the ban-button for Dota 2... *pushpushpushpushpushpushpushpushpushpushpushpushpush*

[Rabbit]

I think this is a good idea if they make use of it correctly and the ban duration aren't too great, if this works out well than I can imagine online gaming will be alot more enjoyable for quite a few people.