20220824-banned.txt
Another rant on what's wrong with the (digital) world. What else is
new?
It's one of the worst things that can happen to someone online: being
banned.
While technically not my situation regarding a certain MMORPG that
started in 2005 with the initials G.W., it's still awful. My account
was flagged presumably by some dog-shit AI. Why? I have no clue. I was
given the account by an acquaintance, which belonged to his friend who
just never really got into it. Thanks to stagnation and accomplishing
most of my goals, I'm not exactly all that active on it. It wasn't
locked in 2020. I think it was probably working in 2021, maybe even
2022. But when I tried to log in last time, I got a cryptic "network"
error (great programming calling an account lock a network error. Top
notch).
I looked up the error and found out it was due to a locked account.
Fine. But now I can't even log in to the support site because the
account is locked. What the fuck? OK, well, I can still email support.
They want all this specific information that, mind you, was used over
a decade ago: CD keys, meatspace address, original account holder
(OAH) name, OAH credit card number, OAH SSN*, OAH's full genetic
profile*, name of OAH's first pet*, and the answers to certain riddles
the G.W. team made up*.
* sardonic exaggerations
So I email them telling them that I don't even have close to all that
information, but after more than a decade of killing time on the
account, I know the names of almost every character (8 total) and
other specifics. It goes back and forth with them telling me that
they'll only talk to the OAH, someone I haven't ever talked to and
that hasn't touched the account or even tried in over a decade and a
half. I respond by pleading and begging them that I'm legitimate and
that the person they want to talk to may very well be dead and is no
more the AH than a bio-parent that gave up their baby for adoption
over a decade ago and never checked it is the actual parent of that
child. I've been trying for several days now to get a sympathetic ear,
including calling them.
That's not even half the story: when I was a bit unhinged and got
temporarily banned for a few days many years back, I purchased ANOTHER
account ($20 isn't much and I was angry and making dumb decisions).
Now that account is very unfortunately tied to an email address that
was hijacked in mid-2020. It has not been flagged but I can't help
thinking that if I get into a similar situation, even though it's
REALLY my account from creation, they'll deny me access. So that train
of thought led me to create ANOTHER online account with their services
linked to a non-G email address, but I stopped myself short of
actually purchasing the same game for a 3rd time. The major deterrent
is I feel like companies who do this, even in the name of security,
should not be financially rewarded for treating their players/users as
criminals. And this game is so old and so not-a-priority that they
originally tagged my request as pertaining to the massively inferior,
yet more popular sequel of the game with which I'm actually concerned.
The most frustrating is the cheap BS that the company has done via
removing real human interaction from the equation: emails are not
nearly as personal as something as a phone call. I understand that
under the rules I probably shouldn't be given access, but again,
especially considering how "dead" the game is (very little social
interaction and many outposts are basically single-player), it's just
frustrating seeing so much work and energy removed because an AI
thought I was fishy. And from what I understand, someone may have
logged into my account, but they haven't given me any answer as to
whether my characters survived a breach or if my account was breached
at all.
It's not the first and unfortunately very likely not the last time
I'll be denied access to my own account. I already touched on the G
mail hijacking. I've had my CC locked because I didn't tell my bank I
was traveling within my own country. I've had a support forum account
banned for downvoting someone (no joke: they just didn't like that I
downvoted some fucking asshole that treated me like shit; you know,
the kind of brainless sycophant that always thinks the product is
perfect and that any error is user error). I've had YuTb delete not my
account but virtually any comment that doesn't fall 100% in line with
their way of thinking. I don't even have to cuss. Sometimes it's for
something as stupid as the dog-shit AI parsing a link. My account has
been labeled a spambot despite never being breached. People are too
thin-skinned and falsely reported my unpopular comments as spam too
many times is the only thing I can figure. G is AWFUL about getting
actual human support. 99% of the "support" they offer is in support
fora "staffed" by unaffiliated, unpaid volunteers. These useless
lemmings were absolutely no help in getting my hijacked account back
and just blamed me for "not having a strong password" (this is not me
being bitter: they were just wrong. It was "recovered" through what I
suspect was a returned Android tablet.). It's happened in more
accounts than I care to remember and it absolutely sucks.
