Hi. My name is Nicolas and I’m from Argentina. My in-game name is donstroke. I’ve been playing QL since less than a year and, in my best days, I poorly suck at every mod. The TL;DR version of this thread is: I was banned for no reason, no proof, no nothing and I want, at least, answers. But mainly, I want to open a discuss about the questionable “aggressive banning period” policy of id.

So I heard you like gossips, read this:

Approximately 48 hours ago, I was banned without any explanation while playing a CA in one of the servers in my country. Leaving everyone stunned [ id] SyncError became a spectator of our party and without a word said, he kick me out two seconds after his incorporation. Then, according to this screenshot that another player took, [ id] SyncError said, "someone fill in, a spot opened up" and then he disconnected. This procedure didn’t last more than 30 seconds, so I understand that he came to the server to kick me out directly. When I refreshed my browser after the kick, I found that my account had been banned. After rolling on my floor laughing and thinking: “WTF. I played so badly, that they ban me.”, I unsuccessfully tried to enter several times, hoping it was an error. Later, I wrote the following mail to id tech support and abuse support mailing adresses:

Hi,
>> 30 minutes ago my account was suddenly banned when SyncError joined a match that I was playing. I can't be more amused of this because I fucking suck at this game and I never have cheated on this one or any other. (Mmm. Except in MK, when I extended the maximum time to make the fatality or in AOEII when I was crazy about the idea of a modern car in the Middle Age. Sorry about that) Anyway, because I paid 50 dollars for my pro account and I'm a contributor of this game in so many ways (recently co-streaming and co-commenting the JeeSports Latam Kick off, giving information of games, tourneys, etc., helping in cfg building to more novice players, spreading the game on my site, tumblr and facebook, reported real cheaters, real harrassment, etc.), I would like to receive an explanation of this ban and maybe a resolution of it before even think in taking legal actions on you.
>> Donstroke
>> PS: I have demos of near everything that I played in the last weeks, so if you need it, ask me.
>> PS2: Excuse my awful english you must :D
>> Hope we can fix this confusion because I love this game

At this time, still no answer about it.

About me, I must say that i’m a mediocre player but tenacious at least. Very irregular both in Duel, as in TDM and CA, but with a considerable participation and contact with consolidate players and the rest of the argentinian quakelive community as well. Needless to say that I've ever done anything even similar to cheat and I have all the demos of my last games available for anyone who wants to see, including id as i said in the mail. The main motivation for making public this case isn’t the recovery of my account (beyond that there is money involved [my account expires on 11/12], because I’m sure that I will recover it because this is a mistake that someone will resolve in the immediacy), but to bring out a policy of banning at least questionable:

Not long ago, 2 weeks or so, another community member of QuakeLive Argentina was banned for no apparent reason. When contacting id, they replied it was due to complaints received. A few days later, after sending a request for restoration that has the signatures of at least 50 members of the community and other several more emails requesting information, his account was returned with a formal apology of id, where they said the following:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting QUAKE LIVE Support. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced. It seems that you may have been banned accidentally during a period of aggressive banning. After reviewing your case and investigating the matter, we have decided to lift the bans on both of your accounts, "xxxxx” and "xxxxx”.

Our policies are in place to ensure that players are able to enjoy QUAKE LIVE to its fullest. We thank you for getting in touch with us about this matter, as well as your patience and understanding. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The QUAKE LIVE Abuse Support Team
Sasparillo

That being said, and linking it with my and other players situation, who have experienced something similar, I wonder:

What criteria id use to ban? What should someone wrote in a complaint or in a abuse report to be taken into account? How many people should report an innocent player for you to begin doubt of him? What is a malicious behavior? What does it mean and what is the procedure that entails an aggressive banning period? I don’t know the answers of those questions, but I know that something is bad about the answers that lead to the actual procedure of id, and as a player and as a client, I do not like it. This is a concern that is associated with the lack of a safe and proved anticheat system while id insists in frivolous updates to catch noobs. Returning to the subject, as players and customers, we don't have a clearly and reliable reference in terms of procedure, and this -and here I speak for a lot of people in Latam QL community- it is affecting the game experience and the image of id as a company that cares about the game and what it generates in his players.

Thanks for your attention and I hope that we can discuss this while I get back my unfairly canceled account.

donstroke

UPDATE: 29/05/2012

Fresh, unique, handcrafted and very original first answer from [id]:

Name Tag: Donstroke
Account Action: Permanent Account Closure

This account has recently been involved in actions deemed inappropriate for QUAKE LIVE by the In-Game Support staff. This decision was made after a thorough investigation of the situation as a whole.

Offense: Use of third party software to obtain an unfair advantage within the game.

For further information, please review the QUAKE LIVE policies and Terms of Use Agreement. We understand that these policies may seem harsh, but they are in place to ensure that every player is able to fully enjoy their time in QUAKE LIVE. Thank you in advance for respecting our position.

The QUAKE LIVE Abuse Support Team
Sasparillo


I reply asking for the "proofs" and the elements of that investigation. I have nothing to hide because i'm clean.

UPDATE: added the demo where he kicked me out.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kymlkzbp6xzkdzv