Some MLB The Show 16 Bans Are Being Lifted, Details Here

[Steve_OS]

For those of you following the story on MLB The Show 16 bans, SCEA has posted an update on the situation.

Quote:

Our goal for MLB The Show 16 is to maintain a fair and competitive game community. It is absolutely paramount for us that the integrity of our online play, particularly modes like Diamond Dynasty where so many of our fans invest so much of their time and passion, remain intact. As such, we are constantly monitoring the server for unusual or potentially exploitive behaviors. We recently discovered a glitch in the Community Market was being taken advantage of to double user Stubs and cards. In many cases, this was apparently done hundreds of times. In addition to violating the terms of service, this conduct gives abusing players an unfair advantage over others, negatively impacting gameplay and the shared marketplace. In order to restore balance as quickly as possible, we suspended approximately 200 user accounts that were exhibiting unusual behavior as we worked to diagnose and fix the exploit. Again, our top priority is to protect the broader community and the integrity of their experience with The Show. With the vulnerability now addressed, we’ve gone deeper into the telemetry and are reactivating select accounts. As always, we will strive to improve our ability to communicate these types of situations as they arise and develop. We‘re grateful for the understanding and patience of the entire MLB The Show community, and for helping us make this the best place to play baseball. If you have any questions or concerns, please email [email protected].

If you were one of the "approximately 200 user accounts" that were banned, let us know if your ban was lifted or not. No official word has been given on whether lifted users will receive any sort of compensation.

[Ghost Of The Year]

I'm glad to see things squared away..... however, I already avoided DD, card collecting & the such like the plague. This episode didn't do anything to draw me closer to playing. Like Knight says, except for the vault, I generally tend to shy away from online play, esp. vs strangers. And online is overpopulated with strange people. All in all, good job by Sony in the end, after a shaky start.

r

[WaitTilNextYear]

Now the unbanned will start agitating for free stuff/compensation. If they were banned unfairly, I actually don't blame them. What's disappointing to me is (1) what mysterious thing did people do to become a false positive? Hopefully these people finally get an explanation so they can avoid this happening again and (2) why would SDS come out so assuredly with Ramone roasting people publicly on Twitter (you did this 47 times for 3 million stubs) if there were possible holes in their telemetry data?

Hopefully there are lessons learned on all sides from this. Lessons for the banned that they cause a lot of collateral crap to happen for others (both the devs and the unbanned) just by their cheating existence; lessons for the unbanned in that they just need a little patience and perspective and things get settled as they should; lessons for the accusers who fell victim to a mob mentality with absolutely no data to go on.

Also good on SDS for not letting this drag into the holiday weekend for everybody involved, especially those banned in error.

[Steven78]

Wow. SDS looks like a joke organization after this.

Not even an apology.

And when since do they care about competitive balance? Oh yeah, when potential income may have been affected.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steven78

Wow. SDS looks like a joke organization after this.

I think that depends. They were trying to do the right thing for the vast majority of users (200 people is just a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket of MLB The Show users) and made a mistake. Should they have looked harder at their data before coming out with these bans---YES, of course they should have.

But, look at it this way, there were ~200 bans made, but we really don't know what portion of those bans are now being rescinded. If they made 100 errors out of 200 bans, then yeah the optics aren't good and they should rightly be criticized. If a dozen or so people out of 200 got reinstated then SDS doesn't look quite as goofy, imo.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by WaitTilNextYear

What's disappointing to me is (1) what mysterious thing did people do to become a false positive? Hopefully these people finally get an explanation so they can avoid this happening again and (2) why would SDS come out so assuredly with Ramone roasting people publicly on Twitter (you did this 47 times for 3 million stubs) if there were possible holes in their telemetry data?

So much this.

So basically it was an "oh crap some are exploiting this" and then somehow normal behavior looks a lot like exploit behavior (I don't understand how this is the case, but I don't play DD or use the market) so people get caught up in the net.

And NOW they are going to look close at it (what?) and then have to go back on the bans...that never should have been placed. Okay.

Sounds like they need a better system for catching true exploits so they don't have to go the "ban first, then investigate" route.

And I agree with the Twitter. That's unprofessional anyway (even if true, why even put it out there...if you know he did that, just leave him banned and move on. Why respond?) and, like you said, if the data really is flawed or otherwise potentially muddied - why be so "certain"?

[Ghost Of The Year]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steven78

Wow. SDS looks like a joke organization after this. Not even an apology. And when since do they care about competitive balance? Oh yeah, when potential income may have been affected.

Maybe Sony decided their message to the banned was heard & understood.
Maybe Sony decided a few of the banned didn't require a permanent ban, & those few whose ban was lifted had served enough sentence, & there wasn't anything to apologise for.
I disagree entirely with the joke organisation part, though. I guess this means you won't be buying next years game?

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year

Maybe Sony decided a few of the banned didn't require a permanent ban, & those few whose ban was lifted had served enough sentence, & there wasn't anything to apologise for.

This is probably the approach they will go with in any case, except for perhaps the truly innocent ban victims.

It will be interesting to see what (if anything) they compensate the truly innocent that got caught up mistakenly. Or will they be too worried about "picking and choosing" so everyone (or no one) gets any compensation?