Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
Issue: 62   Editor: AnotherAldarion


COLUMN: Hey, why am I still unbanned? AnotherAldarion
Another week full of people posting complaints about their bans on the game forum, all of them claiming to be banned even though they were innocent. These ‘random’ bans keep me wonder. Why have I never been banned? Or my friends? Surely, if it is that random I have to be banned one day, right?

What is interesting about this is that we are currently all seeing one sided, often distorted from the context, stories. The rule, which forbids players to discuss bans, is not always tolerated by the players, but it is by the Elite Guard. Therefore, all we are seeing are stories from a single side, pretending to know what the other side thinks. Whether the rule should be less strict, so that the Elite Guard can discuss in bans as well, or not, the forum would be totally different if the Elite Guard was free to post their side of the story.

Also interesting is that several players did not get through the appeal and that is remarkable, even more since all Elite Guard members can see the appeal. This would imply the whole system does not work, yet we strangely see only posts directed to either Zeb or Riserva, or both. If you did not make it through the appeal, something is probably very wrong. Then we have another category of people who do not want to make an appeal simply because they believe it will never be accepted, whatever happens. Anyone with the tiniest bit of common sense can understand they in fact did not appeal because they knew they did not stand a chance. Why would they be around in a system that is totally corrupt anyway?

I read another odd thing on the forum where someone tried using a screenshot against Zeb for clearing a profile. The player claimed the text (against Zeb) had been on there for weeks, but had been removed after he was killed, and this made him all mad. Someone else event went on to call it abuse of a feature. Quite an interesting thought that one, if harassment is spotted not right away, but after three weeks, it is all of a sudden abuse of a feature. According to his standards, someone posting porn on his profile cannot have his profile cleared after three weeks, because that would be abuse, right? Amazes me to see how few people actually understand the concept of harassment.

Some of the people also seem to claim that all bans are unfair and only affect innocent people that never did anything wrong. As you would expect, this is pure bullshit. Why is it that none of my friends have ever been banned while they are completely innocent? Why have I not been banned yet? I am guessing some people will stand up and shout that I am not part of any of the crews affected, but truth be told, even if I was, I’d still be unbanned. Bans without reason do not exist.

Perhaps the thing that annoys me most of all is the players pretending to be as holy as the pope whereas the moderators are often regarded to as the devil himself. But if you’re nine and you have just been banned because you are a silly cheater, I can see where the frustration is coming from. A forum post summarized my feelings exactly. Ironically, it came from one of the members from the crews involved. It said that it could hardly be coincidence that all the banned people were from the same crews. He probably meant that a bit different, but I totally agree. It can hardly be coincidence.

Meanwhile, I am still waiting to be banned.