This is simply incorrect. You wrote a very long and detailed post here, so it's pretty sad that I have to tell people to disregard everything you just said.Therumancer said:I have mixed opinions.
On one hand this is good, on the other hand this is done entirely by an automated system apparently. The justification for these guys getting banned is based on the percentage of complaints/reports filed rather than specific incidents and things they did.
The problem with automated systems is that they are easily abused, we've already had plenty of horror stories about people being locked out of their accounts due to automated systems, after having done very little. I myself had a problem (albiet one that never went that far) when I noticed my Gamer Rep on XBL dropping playing online fighting games because half the time I'd beat someone they would report me for unsportsmanlike conduct or something else, a routine behavior with a lot of that community. I wound up stopping playing fighting games over XBL as a result.
See, in a case like this when it comes to dominant players you have to ask, how many people were complaining because they actually did something, or because they just didn't like the player or losing to them.
To me, I'd rather hear that someone working for the company descended with the mighty banhammer after personally catching them saying "X, X, and Y" to other players, than hearing "oh well, the guy had complaints in 29% of his matches" which from my own experience could just be people throwing tantrums similar to what I've run into (and I'm not even good at fighting games, god forbid what it's like for some of the pros in MOBA games and such).
The way this sounds, unless they present some actual proof, I'd actually be considering a lawsuit if it was costing me money via tournament participation, and accuse the company of trying to load the tourney.
In a more general sense, when I briefly returned to WoW to try "Pandas" (which was meh) I had to go through an act of congress to re-activate my account due to Blizzard's automated system having shut it down for cheating... when it was an inactive account (and was intact as far as I could tell when I actually got in). I've also been threatened by automated systems detecting improper behavior with other online games I wasn't even playing or didn't even have installed (and even re-installed them to check it out and found nada).
In short, I put absolutly no faith in any kind of automated "recognition" software, and even less faith in any kind of impersonal system by which one player can "report" another for any reason and have it go into some kind of meaningful record without human involvement. IMO these companies need to actually hire some bloody people, and stop trying to cut corners by automating everything. Especially Blizzard... really, there is no excuse for some of the crap I've gotten from them (always bureaucratic stuff, not user complaints). "Your account has been locked out due to improper behavior" Rly? My account that hasn't been on for 2 years was trying to sell gold? The one that has all of it's gold and items intact? I've been detected trying to sell my Diablo 3 account, the one with my mighty Level 17 Wizard (since I wound up not caring much for the game)... I'm sure people were lining up by the thousands for that one.
Since these were publicised, high-profile cases and since it was about banning the PLAYERS not just their accounts (as most pro players have several accounts anyway) Riot obviously assessed the cases personally before making their rulings. That's really all there is to it- you say their banning was the result of a completely automated system, but it wasn't. The end.
