So, what could it have been, in my case? If you can [i]entertain[/i] my word here - I have generally been an honest, good-faith player. We'll all have our heated moments and bad times, sure. And maybe we also take to light use of some questionable in-game mechanics/exploitation, but generally this is common and not liable to banning. Maybe an activity restriction, at best, but Bungie has been pretty forgiving and understanding about exploits, opting to just hotfix them, if they clearly undermine the game's intent/design. Even then, I really don't have much of them down. I don't have a handle on duplicating orbs, triggering some crazy emote-induced invulnerability, or even go out of bounds in PvP maps. Or whatever other fancy tricks some of you magical people come up with. -- But in my case, I have two simpler, yet exceptional behaviors that do come to mind, which I am fine being up-front about: 1. In the BNet days, I participated in some glory farming / kill trades. I do understand if some/many of you would frown upon this - I would argue that I did it for a few days and basically never again, and never to the detriment of other players. Not even for Trials, as they returned. I just don't care for the risks, even if it's not explicitly a bannable activity, as far as I can tell. I could achieve it on my own, as I did achieving Fabled on my own on a couple of occasions, in the past. That said, it's doubtful that a recent ban would result from something like this, let alone performed so long ago. 2. A bit more recently, at least until the forge idle stuff was hot-patched out, I did do some [b]under-level[/b] forge idling for planetary/event materials. To further clarify, this was done with a light level so low, only other idlers would conceivably matchmake with you. This way you don't harm people actually trying to complete forges). Yes, it's also pretty lame, and so can the pressure on players to drive them to do things like this - players are compelled to take easier paths, and Bungie understands this. Either way, this wasn't very frequent, and again I seriously doubt you can get banned for this. At worst, restricted, if Bungie even takes action on this behavior. Last I heard, being reported for idling takes you out of automatic matchmaking, which is pretty cool. Importantly, no anti-idle macros (or any macros in general) were ever used, or even needed. Lastly, this too was months ago, and [i]probably[/i] not related to my ban. Bungie would otherwise have amended their policies, stated it was a no-no, and banned a [i]lot[/i] more repeat offenders afterwards. 3. I guess opposing fireteams can maliciously report individuals for cheating, and get me flagged for a ban (following a very half-hearted effort at a review). But I don't know how successful these report-ops are, and if Bungie is really that susceptible to such manipulation. I guess it's possible, but since I'm not really that successful in PvP, it's all quite doubtful. -- So, if the first two are not likely bannable, and the third is somewhat irrelevant, it would have to have been from a more serious offence: (1) Network manipulation, (2) hacking/cheating software/applications, (3) game modification, or silly mickey mouse operation stuff like piracy/modding/resales you would more likely be taken to court over. Trying to entertain those possibilities (re: all I can do is spitball, remember?): [b]1. [/b]Network manipulation could have been accidental, and not justification of a ban. I could amend my configuration if there are conditions that amount to what looks like network manipulation. I run an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in at the router level to automatically halt attacks/exploits attempted on servers/services running out of my connection. It blocks attacks every hour or so, from all over the world. Conceivably, if a player attempts a scan/attack of some sort against my IP, that could get them blocked, and that could impact our connection/gameplay in some way (I guess disconnecting either one of us from the activity). This could be interpreted as network manipulation, but it's not very likely to have occurred. A bit more likely is that maybe I have matchmade with other players from GeoIP-filtered/blocked regions, and they were prevented connecting to me. Note, however, that I can connect out to these regions and handshake/exchange a network conversation from there, so this may or may not be relevant. [b]2. [/b]More likely, software/applications that are deemed cheats/hacks. This is where things get pretty fuzzy. I like to use trainers with some single player games - to cut it short, it saves me time, gets me past frustrating/repetitive/time-wasting elements of the game, and I can enjoy more titles in less time. Life's short, and like many of you, I have a huge backlog of games I want to play (this may be the only silver lining of losing my Destiny 2 account). I do my best to avoid having any such trainers being open at all, when playing an online title, but it's always possible to make a mistake and leave one open. I made that kind of mistake last weekend. Within an hour, I was banned. This in itself may be a coincidence, though. I'm not sure if it takes more time than that, for that aforementioned "manual review," and it's much too long for it to have been from automation. So I'm not totally sure it was even from this. But let's say it was, since it's the most likely cause or scenario. Maybe you're a programmer and had a debugger open in the background. Who knows. In my case, the trainer was for Factorio. I messed around with it on the previous night, enjoyed my time in it, went to bed. Next morning (last weekend), I launched Destiny 2, realized that the trainer was still open on my other monitor, and I closed it immediately. This was as the D2 splash screen opened up and before I clicked to proceed, and before selecting a character. I teamed up with some LFG folks, played for an hour in the Castellum, and then I was disconnected with a ban. You'd think, ah that's enough right there - a prohibited app was running while playing D2! Bad player! Bad! Well, hear me out a bit: Look closely at the Banning policy, Code of Conduct, and most importantly, the Software License Agreement. It isn't expressly a violation of either by simply having, a trainer, or even [i]Cheat Engine[/i] open, [i]unless[/i] it attached itself to Destiny 2's game process or resources, and/or made attempts at even scanning its memory. That part is stipulated in several places to be a no-no and liable to a ban. It makes sense - you are potentially inspecting portions of the game/program that you have no business inspecting, and more than likely are not acting in good faith. And of course, if you manipulate a single byte of memory for the game you should be flagged [i]and banned[/i], sure. But the issue here is that the software (Factorio trainer) in question doesn't have the ability to connect to the D2 game process. It's super simple and hard-coded for Factorio's process name and specific version. Even if it did [i]somehow[/i] connect with Destiny 2's process, it doesn't have functions to do anything intelligible with Destiny 2. You'd maybe crash the game, I guess? Manipulate a region not meaningfully used by Destiny 2's quantities/logic? It isn't really an intelligible thing to entertain. Practically speaking, it's harmless to Destiny 2, and of zero benefit [i]or detraction[/i] for myself or anyone else. So by that account, it shouldn't have violated the policy, or either agreement by the letter, nor by the spirit of the stipulations/rules, in the first place. I think a lot of people, Bungie's security folks included, are forgetting the spirit and point of these agreements and guidelines, if they are instituting a ban for this reason. If it's a cheat program with intended hooks or features for Destiny 2, or you can actually derive some benefit from the tool which is attached to, or aware of, the Destiny 2 game process, sure. But that was 100% not the case in my situation. [b]3. [/b]In the end, it could have been *some other* reason that I just haven't considered or thought-out yet. I'm still in the dark on the entire ban and appeal. But I would probably argue at this point that it's even less founded or justified than the aforementioned reasons. -- Overall, I'm of low faith and pretty depressed, after a week of waiting, and missing out on content (that's about to be sunset!). It's just a game, I know. It's also one of my all-time favorites and I've dedicated a lot of time time and energy into it. It's where I socialize with many friends that I've made through the game. Bungie was successful in this part of their mission. The parts that hurt most are that ban is not justified, and I am also at risk of further bans if I started again, or resumed my interests in future instalments (Destiny 3), or even other properties from Bungie. As they called out, you are marked as a high-risk player and "eligible" for lower-threshold bans/restrictions. While I understand the rationale, I think this is a gross overstepping on their part. Especially since while doing so, they won't distinguish between players that associated with cheaters, were themselves cheaters, those that unintentionally "warranted" a ban (ISP issues?), or some other error with debatable justifications. Even if I want to go all-in on Destiny 3 or one of their other properties, I am always going to have it hanging over my head that I should limit my personal investment, because I could be banned without sufficient justification. I'm hugely disappointed. [i]Of course[/i] I really hope that Bungie will reinstate my account. But I have doubts. I at least spoke out, explained my case here for others to ponder, and will simply have to own up and move on. What other choice would I have? It was at least a fun time while it lasted.