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[Jackpot]

So a few things have happened since the game was pulled from Steam. ThHammerpoint Interactive has lost the WarZ trademark due to it being too similar to World War Z and have now switched domains to playwarz.com (I assume the two events are connected).

As you'd expect for a game with so much effort put into it the game is laughably hackable, to the extent that this seems to be the basis for current gameplay. In response the devs have implemented some very wide-ranging ban waves, with bans being permanent. This seems to have been done as slapdash as everything else about the game as a huge number of people on the forums claim they are getting randomly banned.

Then it turned out that the "appeals process" was an automated email saying you had been caught hacking even if you did not own the game.

http://forums.playwarz.com/showthre...eal-system-If-you-are-banned-you-are-done-for

The thread was locked with the admin claiming no such emails existed, though other members claimed they got the same response. Can any ex-WarZ players who know where the appeal form is try it out? As you can imagine, getting randomly banned from a game you just spent money on for no reason would be rather infuriating.

Sergey was his usual subtle self on the subject:

Bans - yes we will continue to ban cheaters !

As you may know for a last few days we've been actively banning users based on data that was provided by both our own internal system as well as system that Gameblocks LLC developed for us.

You also may saw numerous posts on forums from players claiming the never have used cheats or hacks.

We've checked several reports and in all cases evidence of using cheats was very solid.

We have separate team in place that goes thru all ban appeal complaints and checks data. Yes in very small number of cases ( like maybe few dozens out of few thousands bans ) we find that evidence is not strong enough so we're going to unban those accounts.

We will contrinue to be very aggressive and active banning cheaters. You're ones who ruin game for other players, and no matter how loud you will try to talk your way out of the ban, it's not going to happen.

This is not a battle that can be won easily. But we have to continue on our path.

http://forums.playwarz.com/showthread.php?91249-Bans-yes-we-will-continue-to-ban-cheaters-!

Though Gameblocks have this on their website:

GameBlocks believes that "cheaters" are customers too, and that banning players is detrimental to your game.

Now I'm guessing that any hacker caught would claim they're innocent but the sheer number of threads and posts from users all telling the same story is rather overwhelming. Literally every thread I've clicked on has a post by an irate user saying they never even got to play the game and such like. Can someone with MMO shooter experience say if it's normal in most games to have communities flooded with wrongful ban claims?

Another thing that's happened is that due to the bans and all around bad publicity WarZ has people have taken to DDOSing the servers of the game and the websites of various companies involved (such as the one that processes online payments for the game).

I'm not going to comment on whole DDOS thing, but since my name was mentioned here, I'll probably will say a few words - to our players, not to this guy.

1) Unfortunately it's not just up to me to decide when and how things will be done. Until recently I've been public face of the project, so I can understand why some people are associate project with me personally, and not people who's making game and operating/publishing it. Okay I'll say that - yes I deserve some of the shit that I'm getting personally for being bad communicator.

2) I agree that few features that have been promised in 2012 are still not yet delivered - and in my personal list Server Rentals goes under number one. I'm trying to push dev guys hard as I can for them to complete this feature ASAP. Saying that - unfortunately I do not posses as much power as players want to believe. Still here's my list of features that are important for a game that are still not available to public :
- Gameworld server rentals
- Stronghold servers and maps
- Leaderboards
As for this guy in a interview - unfortunately I personally CAN'T produce "proof" of the features being developed, I can only as a shareholder of Hammerpoint can say I know they're being worked on. But it's up to development leads/team is to decide if they want to show anything until it's done or not.

3) Unfortunately DDOS attacks are not helping anyone. Here's why - instead of spending time developing game, resources including MONEY will be spent on making sure that we'll have infrastructure in place to withstand them. This will delay release of the features. More importantly - people who actually vote what to do with a game in a future ( and that's not just me unfortunately ) will take this under consideration.

http://forums.playwarz.com/showthre...-Attacker-to-stop/page2&p=1443568#post1443568

Now is it me, or does point no. 3 sound like they're already planning to delay features even further and blame it on the players?

In this thread here

http://forums.playwarz.com/showthre...-Hammerpoint&p=1456339&viewfull=1#post1456339

someone who ardently claims he has been unfairly banned is allowing a WarZ moderator to remotely connect to his laptop to check to check for hacks. Hopefully will get some results soon.

 

[FHIZ]

I feel like getting banned from playing the game would probably be a good thing at this point.

 

[BlackJace]

How can anyone be a "great lover of this game"? It's baffling. The game's unfinished FFS.

 

[NoLootBoxDev]

War Ban Z

 

[Sapphire Dreams]

The developers should walk with bags on their heads for all the shame they gathered because of all of this debacle.

 

[Keasar]

Woah, woah, woah, stop the presses here!

People love the game?

Out of all things in there, the weird automated ban messages, its the "I am in fact a great lover of this game"-part that sticks with me.

 

[AzureSkies]

someone who ardently claims he has been unfairly banned is allowing a WarZ moderator to remotely connect to his laptop to check to check for hacks. Hopefully will get some results soon.

Is that even legal?

 

[Effect]

I don't understand how, even if you somehow enjoyed the game, you would want your financial information anywhere near this company after all the shady things that have done have come to light. They clearly aren't to be trusted.

 

[Celegus]

Just keeps getting better and better. Right when you thought the 10 car pile up that is this game was bad enough, another comes crashing in to join the fun.

 

[Manp]

at this point i'm not even sure why people still bother with this game.

common opinion is that it's terrible and the company behind it seems to have a, for lack of a better word, questionable approach to their paying costumers.

 

[Bedlam]

Funny how this fits exactly into those internal plans that this angry forum moderator leaked (and which he later retracted).

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Disgusting.

 

[Alucrid]

why are people still playing this piece of shit?

 

[Sojgat]

People are actually playing this junk, Why?

 

[daviyoung]

Is it only a matter of time before the dev closes its doors?

 

[Mupod]

Can someone with MMO shooter experience say if it's normal in most games to have communities flooded with wrongful ban claims?

I dunno about 'mmo shooters' but yes that is actually pretty common after ban waves in any game from my experience. I remember Bungie's forums being a great source of amusement since the mods would occasionally shoot down the cheaters claiming innocence by posting their impossible stats etc.

Not saying that's what is happening here, of course.

 

[Jac_Solar]

How can that not violate a bunch of trade laws? They are selling a game that requires a subscription/investment, and then proceed to (Seemingly) randomly ban people.

If it's true, that sounds like something that would seriously violate several trade laws/laws, and result in hefty fines or even jailtime.

Selling a product then denying access is surely very, very illegal. Right? Ie; Imagine that they're doing it because they already have the money from the players, and want to save as much money as possible on server costs.

That's comparable to an owner of a store going to peoples houses and taking back whatever they bought, and reselling it.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I think this game is gonna get the the title of biggest clusterfuck ever. I had never read news this bad for a single game.

Jesus, this better teach people to choose who to trust in game development. And I don't want to sound douchey, but why would people go to a copy of DayZ (specially with a stand-alone version coming soon)?

 

[universalmind]

Yes. We ban you for hacking, yes? Is good, yes?

 

[Salaadin]

I really hoped this game would turn it around after the apology and admission of screwups from a few weeks back. Seemed like a small step in the right direction.
Then this happens. More lies. More excuses. I feel bad for the people who bought this.

 

[JambiBum]

All you really have to do is look at any official forum for a multiplayer game and you will see people crying of unfair bans. Hell even the official xbox live forums have people saying that they were unfairly banned and then once the investigation is done they still cry about it. I imagine that sometimes people do get unfairly banned (look at the Halo 4 thread here on GAF for example) but most of the time the people complaining are just upset that they got caught.

I could run a check using a fake email for this situation though and see what happens. They explained how their banning process works in the forums and supposedly once someone is reported their account gets checked by a human and as long as everything looks fine they won't get banned, no matter how many times they get reported.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

So it's like Arenanet and GW2.

 

[| Praxis |]

This game is a joke, but I do love reading all of this bad press in a "slow down to see a car crash" kind of way.

 

[Diablohead]

Is it only a matter of time before the dev closes its doors?

This company seems to be doing a hit and run, grab what they can before bailing.

 

[phosphor112]

You know, I think it's embarrassing that people will support these thieves by buying "their" game.

Including OP, you should be ashamed of supporting such people. There are other companies that legitimately try and make much better quality (AND original) content, yet shit like this gets support.

The fucking god-awful state of this industry...

 

[hteng]

blame more on the players, dont hate the game, hate the playa yooo

 

[Portugeezer]

She is a "great lover of the game"? Even after all the crap.

 

[CorrisD]

I haven't followed the whole WarZ thing much, but wasn't this part of that supposed leak by an ex dev or mod or whoever?
That they were just going to outright ban random people for no reason so they bought new accounts or something?

 

[legacyzero]

Lol keep digging that hole.

 

[Isaccard]

The real shocker is people are still playing it.

 

[gutabo]

Funny how this fits exactly into those internal plans that this angry forum moderator leaked (and which he later retracted).

I haven't followed the whole WarZ thing much, but wasn't this part of that supposed leak by an ex dev or mod or whoever?
That they were just going to outright ban random people for no reason so they bought new accounts or something?

Yup. Seems like everything is going according to план(translator note: план means plan).

 

[subversus]

badass

 

[RaptorGTA]

So we bury our love ones and ban the rest?

 

[| Praxis |]

The real shocker is people are still playing it.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18424629&page=135

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Didn't one of the WarZ forum mods who was fired (and later rehired) say this was going on awhile ago?

 

[shaowebb]

At this point I think a class action lawsuit may be in order.

Didn't one of the WarZ forum mods who was fired (and later rehired) say this was going on awhile ago?

Yes. They claimed it was being done to folks who played a lot to get them to buy the game twice so they could play again.

 

[opticalmace]

She is a "great lover of the game"? Even after all the crap.

Maybe she meant game[play].

 

[BeEatNU]

I'll step out of the shadows here...


I like playing the game, despite some of their...mishaps.
The game is fun when played with the right people, until DayZ comes out with their standalone, lord knows how long. I'll play this.

 

[OrangeYouGlad]

Didn't one of the WarZ forum mods who was fired (and later rehired) say this was going on awhile ago?

Yup and he recanted everything he said. How odd that some of it is coming true...

Start counting the days until the ~6 month grab and run happens.

I'll step out of the shadows here...


I like playing the game, despite some of their...mishaps.
The game is fun when played with the right people, until DayZ comes out with their standalone, lord knows how long. I'll play this.

That's if they let you, you filthy hacker.

 

[kliklik]

People who are still playing the game at this point despite all the warnings they've received deserve everything they get.

Spoiler

Like smokers.

I feel no sympathy.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

We found no proof of your hacking so you must be really good at it. BAN.

 

[phosphor112]

People who are still playing the game at this point despite all the warnings they've received deserve everything they get.

Spoiler

Like smokers.

I feel no sympathy.

Same. The devs are thieves.

 

[shaowebb]

I seriously believe this studio will end up facing class action lawsuits over this game if they aren't already. This is just too much.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

They don't even have a proper anticheat system and they don't have a ban appeal system to unban the poor players that got caught in their random bans?

Holy shit this game and they have the low class of asking money for it....

I seriously believe this studio will end up facing class action lawsuits over this game if they aren't already. This is just too much.

Someone should read the League of Legends War Z TOS to see if they allow for random bans lol

 

[BigDes]

What I find amazing is that despite this game being more of a scam than evony people are still willing to pay for it.

 

[Shrennin]

Is that even legal?

If that player gave permission, then yes. Although that doesn't seem like the smartest of choices given the history of these "developers."