Lockouts

[Knytul]

I think these are fair questions that shouldnt be against the rules to ask in public.

In 1 post you said, "As announced some time ago, the devs have created a bot detection script. The use of bot tools is illegal and involved accounts will be locked for a certain amount of days."

Im not gonna argue that here as that would be in violation to your rules, my 2 questions are:

1) after speaking with many players, we have noticed that different people are banned for different amounts of days, why the different amounts, like some for 10, some for 15, 23, 33 and the counts go on...

2) is there any way to determine how many days one of our fellow guildmates has been banned for so we can plan for their return accordingly?

[Leander]

REPLY

There are rules how many days a player gets banned for vulgar private messages, multi-accounting or offensive character descriptions (profile text).

The accounts of bot users were locked by the devs and not by me. I do not know whom they locked and for how long. We (the gamestaff) were not told how the bot detector works.

I have no explanation for varying bans for bot users. Maybe the ban duration is affected by the time period a bot tool has been used...but I really don't know.


STATEMENT

Discussing the bot detection tool or the rules does not make sense. The rules are final and not open for discussion. A discussion would lead to nowhere:

o some players might find temporary bans not strict enough
o others might argue these bans are only temporary ones due to financial reasons (the players should be able to play again and buy mushrooms)
o some players might think shroomers are less likely to be banned than non-shroomers due to financial reasons...which is wrong but it can neither be proofed nor contradicted.
o the whole discussion will get emotional, some players will think they have been treated unfairly..."bans too harsh", "bans not strict enough", "some banned, others not", "finally something is done about bot users", "community manager = forum police, Playa = dictatorship"...

It would lead nowhere...and besides, rules are rules and they must be accepted.

If you have problems or questions concerning your account, send an in-game support ticket.

[Leander]

I have the confirmation that the length of the ban depends on how long the player has used a bot tool.

[Knytul]

Next question

So if clicking the support button sends you a mail, is it possible for us to mail up higher, ie the dev's? If so how?

[Leander]

No, it is not possible. They would tell you the same anyway. I do what I am told and enforce their rules. The bans and rules in general do not express my personal opinion, they are not my subjective point of view. The devs would tell you the same. All bans due to bot tools are not applied by me but the devs and their decision is final. Banned accounts will not be unlocked at once but the involved players must wait for the ban duration to be over (x days).

[Knytul]

your personal opinion or subjective point of view or however you want to put it was kinda irrelivent to the question. I just wanted to know if its possible to contact the developers directly. Which is kinda odd as with most games ive played, the developers rarely hide behind the curtains as they enjoy input to make their games better, input coming from the playerbase who actually plays and tests it out.

[sWiTcHeR]

yeah leander, that's a poor reply... "i am just a robot and do as i am told"

can we have contact for developers please

[Leander]

The official site is http://www.playagames.com/

What is your problem?

That accounts were locked? Yes because the breached our rules.

That other accounts are not locked but you know they breached the rules, too? In this case, send an email and report such accounts and they will be locked if they have done something illegal.

That we do not talk about bans and the bot detection tool in public? Yes because it is like that in all other forums, too.

[Kreuger]

nowhere in their posts they mention bans -_-

[Knytul]

ive went to that website before and tried contacting them through there and never get any replies. Got anything better? How do they get word down to you?

[Leander]

Internal email addresses are not public. I talked to them today and they told me the same I had told you before: the community manager is the link between the devs and users so talk to me and I can forward your feedback.

What do you want to know? What is your problem? Send me a private message.

[Knytul]

no offense but im not a fan of middle men. Theres an old theory about passing 1 message between people that im not gonna recite, but the point is the received message is never the same as the original sent message after it gets through everybody. I think the lot of us are in agreement wed like to contact the devs directly on our own agendas.

[Leander]

The communication between the users and the devs is the community manager's task. That's the way it is on all our servers. I follow my rules like all other community managers do as well.

Accept it and do not post new threads about it.