Hi everyone,
This is Supervisor GM Cheezpuff again. I last made an announcement in March addressing misbans that happened in January, with a promise to strive for more transparency and for better information when it comes to bans and appealing a ban. I would like to provide you guys with an update to this.
First, I would like to go over some of the things that have happened since the announcement. Internally, we've changed banning processes on the Investigations and Game Master side, and the ban appeals policies and procedures on our Player Support side. On the Investigations side, we have started auditing our game security system's logic so that detections for hacking behavior are as accurate as possible. Leads have been reviewing GM procedures for patrolling and identification of hacking behavior. Additionally we've increased our verification checks for gold and meso farmer account bans. We believe that these actions have been preventing as much as possible false positive detections on all recent bans.
On the player support side, ban appeal responses now include more transparency in each response, providing when possible, detailed descriptions and observations of the bans and why they were placed. As a reminder, while we try and provide as much information as possible, we cannot provide to a player exact evidence/criteria for certain bans for security purposes. We have uploaded a knowledge base article (drafted by yours truly) that details what happens in the instance that a player may find themselves needing to submit an appeal. The article can be found in each game's support page under the title "Game and Account Ban FAQ." Here is a quick link to the article:
https://support.nexon.net/hc/en-us/articles/360001113023-Game-and-Account-Ban-FAQ
It comes with no surprise that after the announcement, ban appeals have been coming in ranging from the earliest days of Nexon to the present. There has been an increase in both the quantity and length of investigations necessary for these appeals because of this. This in turn has increased wait times for tickets since we have been taking a deeper look into each appeal. I understand that it can be frustrating to wait for long periods of time for a ban appeal resolution, but my team and I ask for your patience if you have an appeal on hold. We're honestly trying to give each ticket it's due process like I promised, and we are very appreciative of the patience that is being given. To those of you who have already submitted a ban appeal request since my last post but have been denied, I ask that that you consider your fellow players currently awaiting a decision and do not resubmit your appeal.
Unfortunately, with an increase in appeals we have also seen more false testimony and fraudulent appeals. We deal with those cases according to procedure, but the more time spent on appeals that are outright false, the less time spent for people that may be affected by real issues as stated above. This has also affected the time to look into ban appeals. Therefore, falsifying appeals will come with consequences, including restriction of access to the support system for repeated abuse.
Please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying that all submitted appeals have been fraudulent. In the time I have been reinvestigating cases, I've noticed a lot of bans where a clear reason or clear evidence did not exist, and the player was not given any form of leniency or the benefit of the doubt for their ban. I have also seen instances of extremely inaccurate misbans that weren't properly investigated or investigated thoroughly enough. This has been unacceptable in my eyes. I have already dealt with many of those cases, and my team and I are not without fault for many of them, so I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for the mishandling of those bans. These are the kinds of instances where players lose their trust in our company, and I am working hard to make sure that these issues never happen again.
In closing, I would like to reaffirm my pledge for better transparency and due process when it comes to ban appeals. I hope that you have noticed some of the changes being made and that we are able to regain your trust in us when it comes to bans and ban appeals. Thank you.
- GM Cheezpuff
