Changes in policy enforcement.
Well, now that the strikes are going to be imported from Pokemon to ingress; what do you think will happen? Do you agree with this decision? Personally i think some violations like spoofing should not apply to a strike system, local Poke community known for being spoofers are celebrating cuz they are experienced evading bans, also, will this get support system even worse?
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"If you receive any of the above punishments on your account, your access to Scanner [REDACTED] will be disabled and you’ll be unable to play until your punishment has ended. You must use Ingress Prime to read and acknowledge any punishments on your account. "
So basically Prime is a punishment
Or the system is dependent on a server backend that Prime uses
It is good to have a second chance for those who are banned by mistake. I just hope people who get wrongly banned in the last couple years can have the same chance to get back.
Thats one good thing about this change
Thanks Niantic. As you continue to create "fair play" experience, I just got suspended for no reason, you don't even care to explain why. Your system is broken. While you suspend fair players, spoofers are playing without problems.
One question.
I can't find the "Ingress Community Guidelines" on ingress help anymore. Does it mean Niantic Player Guidelines?
There has never been anything to prevent players who were terminated for cheating or abuse from creating a new account. Several players in my area have gotten banned and restarted more than once.
Given that a few players have gotten from zero to level 8 in under an hour, and many have done it in under a day, spinning up a new Ingress account isn't that much of a punishment. Is there any way to prevent this?
Permanent bans should apply to devices and not account names. This will stop banned players from starting new accounts.
Iirc, bans are per account and not per person. I think there has been a small number of instances where Niantic has sent letters to a specific few stating they can't make new accounts, but I don't believe that is the norm.
@NianticScot @RedSoloCup
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Why won’t NIA Ops tell me exactly what I did wrong?
It’s our policy not to publicly discuss the specifics of any individual incident. For obvious reasons, we also do not comment on the specific internal mechanisms which indicate cheating.
Common reasons for suspension include, but are not limited to, falsifying your location and/or accessing Ingress clients or backends in an unauthorized manner including through the use of third party software.
"
With this new 3 strike policy, the above statement (from the feedback page) needs to change, to provide the player an idea what they may have done.
And further clarification on where players stand with IITC
Niantic sent the letters. People who got them made new accounts. Niantic is aware of this and just ignores it.
As a fairly new player (just over 2 months) I was banned without just cause last night. A friend of mine was also banned yesterday. We have never violated TOS in any way, yet we have players from the other faction mass reporting us because intimidation tactics didn't work. Neither of us received a warning prior to the ban, nor have we been acknowledged by a human at Niantic, only getting an opportunity to appeal via Remy, who auto closes the ticket after an automated (or copy paste) response despite numerous submissions of video evidence among other evidence sources, such as Geo tagged and time stamped photospheres. As a newer player, I've heard horror stories about these agents harassing, following, and photographing others. Some of this has happened to myself and my friend.
As an avid Pokemon Go player and content creator, I am aware of Niantic TOS and would always assume those who were banned were in the wrong. Now, I'm not so sure. None of our verified community can figure the cause of these bans other than mass reporting.
Despite the encouragement to make a new account, I will not. What's the point when I don't know what caused the ban in the first place? I litterally hit level 12 minutes before being banned. I'm not gonna put all that work in just to be banned again without just cause because someone doesn't like the fact that others are playing in the same city.
Tomawhat-do you have proof you were mass reported? It would be interesting to see the names of folks you are claiming mass reported you and anyone else. I personally think you are giving too much credence to "mass reporting". If this were the case I am sure a lot of other folks would have been banned. Maybe you got an insider that can share the names of the mass reporters?
As far as pokemon content creator let's be realistic for a second. The content you happen to be talking about is mass portals creation in ingress so they can be converted as pokestops. With every 2 by 4 beam of wood that has recently shown up in Ingress as a portal (courtesy of another pogo player) I think it's safe to say these are great points of interest.
Please note I am not accusing you of submitting useless portals in Ingress. Just pointing out the common theme that is there in multiple groups about how pogo players have brought down the quality of submissions in the name of submitting everything in the hope of getting it as a pokestop.
AsianWarrior- I'm not referring to submissions as content. I'm referring to streaming content from Niantic Games, including primarily Pokemon Go. As for proof, one of said reporters claimed he was reporting "cheaters" in comms daily. I didn't think much of it at the time as I have never violated TOS in any of the three Nantic games I play. I still have yet to receive any word of what exactly I am being accused of doing to break TOS, other than a generic blanket statement email that lists the things Niantic bans for.
Hey Tomawhat...Arrogator here. Just for your info, the only person I have ever reported was a player before your time that was dangerously tailgating me with my kids in the car. He was also an egregious multi-accounter who shared multiple accounts with people in different states. Despite numerous reports by many agents with verified proof of cheating, that player was never banned by Niantic until he used an account the same time as someone in Dallas that he shared it with. Niantic doesn’t often ban players and I’ve never seen them do it without verified proof. That said, I was surprised when you were banned. I have not seen you cheat, as far as I can tell, and enjoyed the hard play. I will dispute that your friend was playing completely fair. I have seen screenshots and documents that, while not proof, make me suspect him. I have also heard he has threatened to disrupt the game using “the 100 iPhones” he has. Which would be really dumb on his part if he enjoys other Niantic games. So my empathy only goes so far. I’m not sure why you were banned but I can tell you there was no mass reporting done against you. I can also tell you that I didn’t report either of you (or anyone other than ****). My guess is you trusted the wrong person, who thought he could outsmart Niantic, and found out the hard way that was a mistake.
Arragator-Thanks for your insight from a different perspective. This still doesn't answer why I was banned, and only Niantic can give that answer. I've never shared my Google login info with anyone, so there should be 0% chance that my account was registering actions in different locations. My suspicions of mass reporting are based mainly on things one of your teammates has boasted about in comms as well as continuously masking broad accusations against other players in this area. I realize that they are a small minority in this game, but it has been an extremely toxic atmosphere to persevere through.
There are very few that I would lump in that group, but this situation has left me disheartened about not only this game, but this company as a whole. As someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on in app purchases with this company, to be banned with no apparent cause makes me wonder if I would ever want to continue any Niantic games, especially if they won't be transparent about this decision. I realize Ingress isn't Pokemon Go, but up until Sunday, I saw this as a game I was going to enjoy for years to come. Now I have to wonder if spending my time and effort to not only play this game, but to try improving the atmosphere in this area has been worth it.
I will stand by my decision to not make a new account, no matter the outcome of this. I find it a waste of my time and effort to do such a thing when I don't even know why I've been banned, and asking for clarification on 4 different platforms yields no results. Although I've met some amazing people, and this game has taken me to new places and back to places I haven't visited in years for the sake of claiming portals and creating fields, it's not worth the frustration to be stonewalled by Niantic.
Question I have is whether these warnings will be given after a manual decision by a human being or based on some automated algorithm?
In the past we have seen "soft bans" where players would not be able to do some actions for a few hours until performing a successful glyph hack after some waiting period. I have been affected by these automatic soft bans twice in the past (although not recently) as I believe only because of GPS drift happening naturally when for example leaving a building that blocks GPS with the game running.
So, will the new warning 3 strike system replace these soft bans and can strikes be dealt by an algorithm just for bad GPS drifts or will strikes only be issued after serious infractions manually by operators?
Is good to have second chance when you dont know what the hell happened and think (or know?) its unjustified, too bad its too late for some
Tomawhat. I agree that with the amount of time invested (and money) the least Niantic could do is give you a reason for the ban or whether it is a permanent ban etc. You are/were a worthy opponent.
and Nineberry I share your concerns about whether or not this is going to be looked at by real human staff or are they relying on some algorithm.
@Tomawhat I know you are referring to me. I was going to let everything slide. But your exaggerating is ridiculous. First you say mass reporting. Wrong. Then you said referring to cheaters daily. Wrong. It was twice in what did you say a couple months? Then it was "constant harassment" I believe you are the only one to ever say anything to anyone. You once tagged me and said "thanks for the ap" at which point I ignored you. And we have never spoken in real life, I've never spoken to you in chats until now. So why don't you just quit while you are ahead. Lastly, as for the cheating aspect. I have no clue why you were banned, just that you were. And if Niantic think it was valid then they have proof beyond what I can provide. So apparently you and/or those you are friends with should look inward. I was giving YOU THE benefit of the doubt until I see how many likes you like to spread here. J/s and respond if you want.. but I'm not going to get into a pissing match over something that I didn't do and draw out the story. No point in arguing.
Well, for what it's worth, I really do think that NIA should at least report the general category of violation to the person being warned/banned. This doesn't disclose anything that is going to damage their ability to combat cheating, and has the advantage that if someone is incorrectly accused, they have some basis for mounting an appeal. How is anyone supposed to appeal something when they don't know what they're being accused of? As someone who has to deal with related issues in a different context, I have some empathy for NIA's position - cheaters will argue endlessly, if you let them, even when you catch them red-handed - but I think that letting the accused spin out all sorts of tales unconstrained by an actual accusation is not really helping. Community confidence in the system would probably be strengthened by including at least a violation category with the notification.
(Of course, that costs time, and time is money, so perhaps it's simply not feasible. But someone somewhere (or some bot, somewhere) is making a determination of guilt that leads to sending these notices out, so it's probably not a lot more costly to include categorical information about the offense.)
I'd say this new system could work nicely but I agree when you say there are missing details.
Also, I take this new system will come with a new ticketing system and a different way of treating each ticket. If it is not correctly performed, nothing will be achieved.
What I think we need:
·New ticketing system, with more forms to select and more specific details required for each. For example, instead of having one form for inapropiate gameplay, there could be several sub-forms for each different common inapropiate gameplay, such as COMM harassement, Spoofing, Multi-accounting, etc.
·Strike-back upon those who open too many tickets: it is my understanding that the main problem of the malfunctioning is the extremely large amount of tickets opened. Perhaps it would be easier if the amount was reduced by striking those who repeatedly report the same players over and over again?
·Review the flagging system: it is important to get auto-detection scritps to reduce the need of the player-base to report everything. Investing time in making sure scripts are effectively catching potential cheaters will make things easier for everyone.
I also agree in banning devices instead of agents. Why not bringing back the "Verified" check? Obviously, it would require some info from the player itself to make it unique, but it would increase the costs for those who cheat just because it's free.
I think the system sounds good in theory, but I'm concerned about a lack of human involvement and the lack of telling the accused why their are receiving the penalty. Proper due process involves giving the accused the right to know what they are accused of, so that they might defend themselves. I have never done anything to violate the TOS, but I am constantly afraid of getting hit wrongfully. If I were on the receiving end of a warning, I would want to know why and be able to defend myself appropriately. I agree that a category at least, should be given.
IMHO, the 3-strike policy is just to offer each spoofer 2 more chances to improve their cheating skills. Especially when NIA is incapable to identify GPS spoofing in most of the reports.
The 3-strike policy shall not be applied to spoofing cases.
Just wanted to chime in and say that this three strikes system is AWESOME for spoofers. We got a durable mountain peak restored AND the spoofer remains unbanned. I'm sure that'll greatly improve the gameplay experience, giving spoof accounts up to three times to burn those accounts before they are toast. And hey, nothing like one freebie for everyone!
Does anyone at NIA even listen to players or play the game anymore? Because you guys are really REALLY bad at this.
@RedSoloCup , this does seem to give spoofers the edge. Really disappointing.
First of all Andrew is the community manager (messenger) and not the developer. Don't **** the messenger.
2nd despite the strike system there are some offenses that are immediately bannable. If they were to say what those are, then you would have people committing the smaller offenses left and right.
3rd this might also be in place ameliorate the effects of the Android Q bans.
In the end, there are some agents who actually don't know better and most agents haven't truly disected the TOS and know what constitutes a voilation in every case. I don't think this is a bad thing. In the case of repeat violators they won't have a leg to stand on.
I think one way to combat those who spoof down fields is to let the spoofed down field count for the rest of the entire cycle. So if you put up a hard to **** field and Niantic seems that it is spoofed down, then the score should reflect that the field is up until the septicycle is over. That will help stop some of the spoofing to **** fields.
On the flip side if people spoof a field up, the team gets 0 for the field and the other team gets an automatic addition to their cycle score. Or just subtract the same amount scored from the team’s score. So if you put up a million field by spoofing it up, you get zero for the field and your team takes a one million MU hit on the cycle.
And for the love of God...can we try to make the cycles means something? Even a passcode redeemable only by the winning team...something.
@Arrogator That could easily be gamed.
Create a big Field and spoof it down yourself -> easy cycle win
Spoofers have no faction, and thus it shouldn't influence interfaction scores.
My account was just plain terminated, no warning. Only have one acct and phone. Not a spoofer. And myself and another agent were sent our notices last night with no real explanation. So I don't think I'll make any more attempts to appeal with a "bot" system and form letters making all the decisions. It was a good run! Almost 30 million m.u. a recursion plus 10 more levels and a lotta black badges I never really cared about. But now what?....