For COD’s sake: One player’s 763-day legal quest to make Activision unban their account ends in total success: ‘Worth the effort’
I've never been banned from a videogame or even got a single warning before. But sometimes, simply playing by the book isn't enough to avoid a ban. Maybe you've run into a few too many salty players who've reported you out of spite, or maybe you got a message in-game telling you that third-party software has been found on your PC, even though that's not true. I can't imagine what I would do in this situation, but one player known as b00lin decided that he wasn't going to stand for it.
One day, after 36.2 hours of playing the early beta version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, b00lin opened his Steam profile to find a ban message. At first, he thought that it could've been a result of encountering a couple of bugs in the beta. But after appealing the decision, Activision held fast: «We've confirmed with our security team that your account has been permanently banned for using unauthorised software and manipulation of game data. As you were the account holder at the time of the infraction, your ban will not be overturned.»
This short message from Activision Support was the start of a long and arduous process of using the legal system to get his account unbanned and receive a refund for his initial purchase of Modern Warfare 2—all of this would take two years.
Before taking the matter to court, b00lin tried going through Activision one last time. He used Activision's ticket system, attempted to phone Activision support, and even tried contacting someone who works at Activision through Linkedin, but nothing seemed to work.
«When appealing these bans, I would often ask if there was any proof of the 'unauthorised software' used,» b00lin says. «The answer I always received was that they are unable to [provide examples] due to it being a security risk and could expose how the anti-cheat works.»
To date, I still don't know what caused the false ban.
Protecting anticheat software is a must, especially when it comes to competitive games where players stand to gain the most
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