Player reports, our Terms of Use, and you: A note from Wonder Bread

There has been some discussion in the forums recently concerning players who violate our Terms of Use, and how we deal with those players. I wanted to quickly touch on a few of the prevalent sentiments, and provide some insight into what happens on the Support end of things.

There have been quite a few players in the forums recently who have stated that they feel we aren't dealing with players who violate our Terms of Use. There have also been players who suggest that the numbers we report each week in TGIF posts are made up, and that in actuality no accounts are banned, ever.

As someone who has done player support previously and works closely with our current support person, it is rather disheartening that players so readily dismiss our efforts. We do look into every player report that is sent in, and because of the sheer volume of these reports, and incredible portion of Melanie's time (and even some of mine) is spent every week looking in to these. Because of the limited nature of player interactions in the games, a large percentage of reports are inaccurate, incomplete, or simply misinformed. All of this, of course, needs to be taken into account before we take action on accounts, so as not to freeze players who have not violated our Terms of Use.

When we do ban accounts (I use the terms ban and freeze interchangeably, just so everyone is aware), it is because we are quite certain a violation has occurred after an exhaustive investigation process, and we consequently rarely unfreeze accounts.

Because of all this, the numbers we report every week represent hours upon hours of work and account investigation. We work hard to keep the games fair and competitive, and saying otherwise simply isn't true.

We do recognize that processes and systems can always be improved, and we keep a close watch on the games to ensure that what we have in place is effective and useful. When we see or are notified of exploits or abuses, we do what we can to fix these as effectively as possible. An example of this is the recent Throttle in the arena, which has remedied some abuse we were seeing with regards to exploits and automation.

We do realize that it's frustrating not receiving any information about reported accounts, however we have recently changed how permanently-frozen accounts are displayed. Attempting to go to the profile page of a banned account will now redirect you to a page that says "Account unavailable." We made this change to be more transparent about account freezes, and to show that we do take action on accounts.

I appreciate that players are frustrated by what they see as a lack of caring on our part. We absolutely care, and the fact that you're frustrated and upset is important. We will continue working towards keeping the games fair and competitive, and we want you to keep hounding us about it (although preferably in a pleasant way, with the occasional pun and/or poem.)

Keep sending reports in to Support, although also please understand that not liking a player doesn't mean that they're a cheater, and playing suspiciously doesn't automatically translate to a violation of our Terms of Use. Together, we can keep these games that we all like fun, competitive, and most importantly, awesome.

This has been a lot of text, so here's a funny internet picture:

 

Thanks , nice post and I for one appreciate all you , Melanie and the Kano Dev's do .

 

Thank you.. really appreciate all that is done.

 

I too appreciate Kanos efforts and also feel I have a decent grasp on how difficult and time consuming it must be to sift through what must be mountains of pure garbage that gets reported. I also appreciate the great lengths Kano goes to, to be as sure as possible before they ban someone.

With that said....Thats why I proposed banning or least warning those players who are continuously filing false reports and by doing so wasting Kano resources that could be used in a better way. Yes , I realize you dont want to scare anyone off from reporting something legit and that many players actually think they are reporting something legit when its actually just coincidence or something, but you know the types Im talking about. The players that keep reporting the same player although you have found that player to have done nothing wrong, or the player that cries abuse every time they get their ass handed to them. If you have explained something to a player once or twice already you shouldnt have to waste your time repeating yourself, it takes away from the legitimate beefs and slows the whole process

 

Well, I can see how accounts get frozen on fb MW. I have encountered many frozen accounts within and out of my Mob. Considering the thousands of players in the game, I think that it's rather unfair by some to assume that no accounts are frozen. Unsuspicious minis that aren't used regularly by a player are still minis. I think some people fail to realize that most frozen accounts are between Level 1 and 1000.

 

Ive seen my fair share of frozen accounts as well. As u said most are of the lower level variety, which "therein lies the issue". whats really the point of banning the minis? Obviously most of these accounts have been tied to another account or they wouldnt have banned in the first place. Its the higher level accounts these accounts are linked to that need to be banned or the behavior will just continue. These players have already shown a blatant disregard for the rules time and time again, Kano just bans one and they simply create another. You know as well as i do thousands of levels can be reached in just a few weeks. Until the main accounts are penalized on a regular basis its all just fluff.

 

Polish, I fully agree, yet Kano will have a harder time banning big names. Most of the big names spend big bucks on the game. So, if the player with the minis is a big spender Kano has 2 equally undesirable choices. Cut off the money flow from the big spender or monitoring that person to curb their alts and hope that they will continue to spend on the big account, leaving a known cheater in the game.

Either choice can and will impact Kano negatively. Cutting off the Cash Flow or tolerating a known cheater. Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place in my opinion.

 

Very good point Polish, there should be a way that Kano can restrict these mini accounts coming from the same IP address that way those higher levels as you mentioned couldn't start a new account again, but even trying to restrict an account from an IP address is not always feasible as like at my home i have 2 of my kids playing the Kano games as well as myself, but there should be a way that Kano can restrict the mini accounts, but if not then just as you said freeze the higher level accounts even for a set period of time as an example a 3 day freeze for the 1st offence, then 1 week for the 2nd & then if they get to a 3rd strike ban them unless these people follow the terms & conditions of the game.

As for Kano themselves you guys are doing a great job and your work is very much appreciated to keep your games running as fairly as possible, i cannot imagine the work load you go through on a weekly basis and the effort you all put in to keep the games running well, keep up the great work you are doing and I wish you all a great Christmas and fantastic new year