First, for the aspiring mentors here - I am painfully aware of the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Help/Article/11929]Destiny Account Restrictions and Banning Policies[/url], [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/View/bungie/conduct]Code of Conduct[/url], and [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/View/bungie/sla]Software License Agreement[/url]. I have submitted an [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Help/Troubleshoot?oid=48629]appeal form[/url] already, however I have not heard back for a week so far. They are either: 1. Still reviewing it, 2. Have reviewed it and are upholding the ban, 3. Haven't gotten to mine yet, 4. Or disregarded the appeal without reviewing it. I do appreciate that there must be a significant amount of appeals coming in, on the regular. Many of these will be in bad-faith, denying definite proof of egregious behavior. That's the kind of audience Bungie is contending with, so this whole process just [b]sucks[/b] to go through, as a result. I get that it's difficult to manage. As always, people want more from Bungie, not less. That's kind of a good sign, in a way. Yet, among the pile of appeals coming in, will be appeals like mine, claiming (or asserting) innocence and plausible explanations for whatever flagging or heuristics may have wrongfully incriminated me. There no presumed innocence or good-faith, which I have a problem with. Lastly, I know that the Help forum can't help with this directly - that's not expected here. I'd of course welcome any official update or note, but I don't expect it would happen. @BNGSecurity could chime in, but I'm still skeptical of whether they are merely reporting the state of the appeal (which may or may not have actually undergone due diligence/investigating), or if they re-reviewed the appeal in its entirety. -- My main intention is to express myself here and share my story. There is a larger cautionary tale, and hopefully I may encourage some discourse and eventual improvements for the entire process. Bungie states also using the appeals process to better the program, so I hope, at the very least, it does get better somehow. In the end, if my wrongful ban isn't overturned, or even reviewed, then at least I "went out" sharing my opinion with fellow guardians, and being heard. You don't have to agree or disagree with my opinion on things, just try to think in my shoes for a moment while reading all of this. -- I was banned a week ago. It was wrongful and I am trying to appeal it. Is my word on my ban being wrongful good enough? Not on its own, no, and it isn't going to be, in the appeal, either. You/they can review my play history and find it underwhelmingly average. There's lots of grinding and some farming, but otherwise nothing really all that interesting. My Steam profile shows no bans, aside from the one instituted by Bungie for Destiny 2, as of last weekend (thanks, Bungo). I have [b]years[/b] of progress up in the air. A grand or two in spending (and essentially funding Bungie). Practically buckets of sweat from all the effort toward drops, achievements, and progression. Just... spent time and effort. From our limited, precious lives. I chose to spend much of it with Destiny 2, because I enjoyed it. There have been ups and downs, but with all this investment, there's been [b]zero[/b] times that I would have been desiring, or compelled, to cheat/hack in Destiny 2. It just isn't worth the risk of a ban. So the news of being banned for cheating is especially surprising. It wouldn't have been attempted, nor accidentally realized. So, at best, it was [i]derived or interpreted[/i] from my activities. That is not true proof or evidence. This ban, factually speaking, is unjustified. Especially if you go line-by-line in all the linked policies, code of conduct, and license agreement. In fact, many of you go on the presumption that simply having an unrelated trainer or un-attached cheat engine open in the background is justification for a banning. It is not, if you review all stipulations closely. I'll get into details in a follow-up reply. For now, I have a call for empathy/imagination here: [quote]Imagine, for a moment, playing Destiny 2 on this fine Saturday morning, shooting up lots of Cabal on the Leviathan with a happy PC LFG team, with a common goal; you're all amped to get some content done/farmed before it's all sunset in a few weeks. You are then dropped to a black screen, with a sudden Weasel error. You are returned to the title screen. Upon trying to continue, you are told that your account has been banned. Confirming this, a steam popup reveals you have received a developer ban. It's confirmed to be for Destiny 2. What could you have done? Do you really have an immaculate/perfect record of zero questionable plays/efforts, after months or years of playing? You would think about the times you have cheesed an encounter or boss, farmed enemies/spawns, idled in a forge overnight for planetary/event materials, teabagged/emoted someone in PvP after killing them, trash-talked underperforming team mates or opponents, quit Gambit or Competitive matches (or got disconnected or crashed), or something else. Your mind will spin at the possibilities. You are not contacted or informed of any reasons for this account sanction by Bungie. So then you take to carefully reading about the account ban policy, you read the Code of Conduct, and scour the Software License Agreement. You then finally fill out the ban appeal form. You still can't be totally sure what the issue was, so you start to spitball. You submit, then wait for a response. ...a response that may never come for a week, two weeks, months. Or ever. After all, the appeals process states that you are not guaranteed an appeal, let alone even a response. It doesn't even suggest a soft expectation, when one could reasonably expect an appeal (days? weeks?). Well, it's been a week. You've sent updates and asked if you can share anything else. You've tried to supply more information, but there's no acknowledgment from a Human, and no indication of status. All you find on forums are users claiming that it would be "in a few business days, otherwise it was declined." But you're a hard-working person in Technical Support, right? Having over a decade of customer support/ticket experience, you know that it could [i]possibly[/i] still be pending review. Bungie is silent about the state of their account sanctions appeals program, let alone your own appeal, but you can take some guesses at how busy or backlogged it might be. Maybe the tickets are simply left in a bucket for days or weeks, uncommitted, due to backlog. Maybe a manager, trying to arbitrary goals/targets, decides to bulk-close all 21-day old untouched cases. Maybe a tired backlog reduction staff member or team doesn't have the time, energy, or empathy to thoroughly review every appeal. After all, all appeals are supposedly for bans following a rigorous "manual review," right? Well, whatever the reason is so far, you might never see a reply. Maybe your appeal had weight to it and was missed/ignored, maybe it didn't, and was upheld. You were not asked for more [convincing] [details]. You have to start deciding on what to do. A subsequent re-filing of an appeal may be immediately disregarded, according to the Restrictions and Bans info page. Do you send another update? Send another appeal? Maybe you eventually give up. Or maybe you're not that patient or didn't lose much, and instead start another account and start over. You hopefully do not easily associate yourself with your banned account, because you would now considered a "high-risk player." From the Ban policy (under vital information), "High-risk players are eligible for bans and restrictions at lower thresholds than players who have never been banned or restricted," so you may not want to invest as much time, money, or effort into the new account. Maybe you show an interest in Destiny 3 whenever that is announced, or launches. You must again take care to not be associated with your past "misdeeds" because you would be considered a "high-risk player." and be "eligible" to lower thresholds for bans and restrictions. Effectively, all personal investment (time, money, effort) in all Bungie properties is at risk from hereon. Maybe you can't reasonably be a Bungie fan or customer anymore, without undue risk.[/quote] [b]That[/b] is the solution currently being handed to myself, and any others subject to a wrongful or unjust ban that has still not been overturned. While it is [i]unlikely[/i] to be caught up in a wrongful/mistaken banning, but it [i]isn't impossible.[/i] After all, there is an appeals process for a reason now, and there have been bans and reversals in the past. That confirms that mistakes and misinterpretations can, and do, happen. It's good Bungie takes steps to resolve these, but the program is lacking and/or the ban process needs work. I can get into more personal liabilities/estimates in a follow-up - continued in another reply.