ZaPHoN

Thanks R0adki11 for trying to keep it clean.

If you want to recover your loses then you're welcome to join the fight. Please also file a report with Ripoff Report. I know it may seem it will achieve nothing but that's the thinking these corporations want you to believe. What it does is helps bring the issue out into the light, leads to bad publicity and eventually becomes newsworthy for the press who I can assure you when they see this is big enough they will jump all over it. They look for stories like this but we need to help them by making it easy for them to compile the information. I've worked with journalists in the past and when they get flooded with information on an issue and it goes public it can have a profound impact. One story I blew open shut down CRA (when it was called CRA) to CAS public records in Canada for nearly a month when the connection to government was exposed. https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/battleeye-et-al/bellevue-wa-bohemia-steam-1510123 The game they are playing is a game designed to make people feel helpless and either simply give up or give in shelling out more money. This round robin circle jerk that they are playing is an ideology that's becoming the perverse norm in dealing with the public from all sectors and it has to stop. The only way to make it stop is to organize and push back. Eventually the pendulum swings back to the the side of accountability. In this case they stand their pointing the finger at each other while BattlEye is the black hole of no return or reply. This way the developers can claim no accountability. The law says otherwise and there's case law to prove it. Of the 73 emails I've received in just one week one in particular is a programmer who works for one of the cohorts willing to blow the whistle when a lawyer is in place who can protect them. Only then they will spill the beans. From what he/she tells me BattlEye and their cohorts have known about this issue for a long time and instead of fixing the problem they have moderators and trolls paid to try and silence and discredit because they've realized that it's a great way to pull extra money. We see the same games being pulled with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and others if they don't like your message or politics. Until the website is completed for automated application, I've started a Reddit for discussion because like Steam and all of BattlEye customers (game developers) I thoroughly expect Bohemia to both ban me from posting and remove this thread. What they don't realized is the has also become an evidence gathering effort to potentially seek further legal action depending on how litigation against Twitter, Facebook and YouTube plays out. Because Reddit is also prone to censorship for the right price I'll have a backup location for a forum on a decentralized platform where people can spread the news without risk of censorship. One email I received from a lawyer in the US pointed me to Barns Law. Barnes Law, LLP 700 S. Flower Street, Suite 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90017 I'll be reaching out to him this week to see if he's willing to take on class action for US. Canada is proving to be harder because many of the lawyers in Canada are too busy or parasites themselves that don't want a hard fight but I won't give up. I'm sure there's one that covers this area of law because I see some great lawyers that address constitutional issues that just will not give up and have had some very impactful wins. Maybe they know of someone capable for Canada. I'm hearing that a lot of lawyers are turning to fighting fines and defending rights around this pandemic because it's becoming so lucrative and often many of the fines are thrown out. If Bohemia thinks this is going away it isn't. I was completely surprised how many emails I've received in such a short period of time. At this point I don't really care if the ban is ever removed. This is a matter of principals. For anyone who's never been involved in a class action before the process is pretty much this. An issue is discovered that affects over 100 people but can be less depending on the case. In smaller groups they may be co-joined instead of class action which is different depending on country. Often times someone starts organizing the affected parties together to gather data as preliminary evidence to be presented to legal council. After review of that data leads to legal council accepting the case they then file for class action. In a recent payout I received from a class action against an auto manufacturer the case was for all of north America. I was given a registration site to go to where I had to submit proof of purchase and other personal information so they know you're a real human who's legally entitled to participate as a plaintiff in the action. I was then given a case ID number and then then the waiting began. A year later I was notified of a settlement and would be receiving payment via etransfer. About six months later I got my etransfer and deposited it. In that case legal council who was handling the matter for Canada Siskinds LLP. I'll also be reaching out to them this week. https://www.siskinds.com/ The scheme that was going on was price fixing. https://files.constantcontact.com/f0c19887701/9728741c-4314-4363-aff1-41179faeaa5a.pdf I won't be relying on Siskinds solely though because my goal is to make sure I have legal council known in the industry as being the sharks that don't play nice which is why I've used my legal membership to help find a capable law-firm for Canada. When there are a few good sourced I'll interview their record and capability to peruse this matter in Canada. If anyone knows of good legal counsel capable of a class action for the EU share your thoughts. Ideally it would be best for someone to take over organizing for the EU because I can see this is quickly going to become a very time consuming effort. However, it kinda feels good the dust off the old activist had and take on an issue. Maybe this will be a warmup to write other wrongs. "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Thomas Jefferson

Thanks GTrance Please have everyone you know that's been affected by this issue to email Vertias Media until a dedicated website is created. One way or another either Bohemia Interactive addresses this problem or we will continue until there's enough to seek certification of class action in Canada, EU and USA This isn't going away. It's a problem I've been seeing happen for years now it's become a convenient way of bleeding paying customers of more money while leaving them feeling helpless. Until now I wasn't affected but was certainly irritated in seeing this escalate but nobody has made any tangible effort to organized a push back so I guess I will not because it affects the little gaming that I do but because younger people need to start learning how to organize and push back.

Will your retract your position if in time it's revealed that these Global bans are designed to force people who have money to shell out more money again for the same game. Who's side are you on? The corporation or the people who've done nothing wrong? Tell me how many corporations have had their servers breached and customers suffered because of their inability to keep their customer data safe? Only someone with a vested interest in BattlEye et al would take the position that all customers are at fault and it's never the corporations like Steam who had a breach. And what would be your motivation to stop me? Could it be a financial interest in BattleEye or their cohorts? Are you a paid moderator or someone who tries to profit believing they are an influencer? Why does me rallying others in the same situation bother you or at the very least affect your in any way unless you have some measure of personal interest in dissuading me. If anyone has purchased a Bohemia game that uses BattlEye and lost multiplayer functionality because of a global ban, they can send information here temporarily until a devoted website is constructed. battleyecase (at) veritasmedia.org Nobody will be represented where there is clear evidence of using exploits of any kind or been disruptive to other players during multiplayer.

That evidence is for the lawyers and throw all the straw man and ad hominen attacks you like. I will not be going away. Either Bohemia or those they have contracted on their behalf to implement some recourse for their customers instead of robbing them by forcing them to have to pay again when they've never cheated in any way or this will continue. I'm no kid and If you think these attacks will make me go away think again. In all likelihood you have a vested interest in this problem so that only motivates me to expose this and correct it for thousands of people who've been robbed by a circle jerk between Steam, Bohemia and BattlEye et al. If you don't like what I'm doing then what's your motivation for trying to stop me? Could it be financial. As this goes public eventually leaks will start happening. It wouldn't be the first time. Hasbro just had a great leak and the list keeps growing. If anyone has purchase Arma 3 or any related dlc's and lost multiplayer functionality because of a global ban, they can send information here temporarily until a devoted website is constructed. battleyecase (at) veritasmedia.org Nobody will be represented where there is clear evidence of using exploits of any kind or been disruptive to other players during multiplayer.

Over 300 views so far in less than a week. Looks like people are starting to pay attention. I know the right people with influence are so lets see where this can go. I'll be creating a website devoted to persuing this on a class action level for Canada and the United States and Eventually the EU. If anyone else has been subject to an unjust ban by "BattlEye on behalf of the developer" then please post a message here. I'll be creating an account on every forum of BattlEye's cohorts with the same message and will provide a contact eventually to participate.

I appreciate you sharing your ordeal but what I don't appreciate is you're passing judgement knowing so many are affected. If you're one who's only willing to put up a resistance for yourself or capitulate then so be it but don't expect others to simply sit back and do nothing when there's something clearly wrong with this round robin "Gold Standard" BattlEye et al use to conveniently force innocent people who've done nothing wrong to have to pay again. If that's the type world you choose to live it then by all means sit back in your virtual world and do nothing in the real world. There are those of us willing to organize to correct what is wrong while you criticize them for putting a stop to a corruption so you won't have to fight again on your own. The problem with the world today is there are too many quick to criticize and do nothing while others are robbed. In what universe does the legal term "on behalf of" mean to you in Bohemia is not ultimately culpable to a degree? Another question is this. Who is ultimately responsible for a breach of an account if there was no breach on my end which can be proven with logs from routers and firewalls? Your passing judgement without evidence wouldn't hold up five min in any court and finally who has custody of a Steam account if I'm not hosting on my server with my own security in which no third party has access or control. It's a shared responsibility with several participating parties and only evidence can show who was not breached which was me. I see you've never done a day in your life in IT administration let alone work in a network environment. Look up the term preponderance of evidence.

I'm not the one with this signature "Making working streetside IEDs since 2011". linked to http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16345 It's Tankbuster's signature who also offered constructive advice that leads to an ideology of capitulation and servitude. It appears you once had fight in you but your advice clearly shows that fight is now relegated to a virtual world.

Do you think it's acceptable to just capitulate and accept your description of the "brown and sticky end of the stick". Should everyone capitulate and prostrate themselves who've been wronged? Maybe we should all just accept our fate and let any corporation or government run rough-shot over. Would that be your ideal definition of how the world should be? How about Bohemia decides to ban me from this forum for standing up for not only myself but others as well then one days goes after you one day? Let me ask you this about your contradictory position. In your post you point out you had to jump through hoops with Aliens VS Predator 2. If your advice not "standing on a pedestal and shouting about it is the way to go" then why did you jump those hoops. Maybe you're special and anyone else should be criticized for doing the same? Please enlighten me some more contradictory advice.

So I'm responsible for the lax security of Steam? Try this on for size https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3119273879021354341/ Or this https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/pc/steam-hacked-valve-customer-data-compromised/ How about from official source? https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/3d-vision/41/130653/steam-has-been-hacked-accounts-compromised/ Boy, you assume a lot without taking the time to know the facts and like a typical troll you avoid addressing the facts that I previously addressed for our network and security. It's skills I learned years ago when I was as certified CATIA administrator and still stay current on 0day threats. I can't control what's outside my control but they can be held accountable. Stick with your virtual battles and let the adults fight for you son. P.S. Looking at your casino page that's poorly built http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16345 you better deal with that web based virus before Godady shuts you down. You likely don't have any exploit scanning because that would cost money and it's clear from the quality of the website, barely a shoestring is budgeted to host it on a virtual hosting account and designed to do nothing but try and lure in fools with a hope of separating them from their money. I took the liberty of reporting it to Godaddy but knowing Godaddy the way I do they'll do nothing. https://www.whois.com/whois/armaholic.com

"grip on reality" This isn't reality? How about this? https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1289027672186720263 How about when Nvidia tried manipulating Steven Walton but walked it back because of the bad press they received. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/12/13/059223/nvidia-apologizes-walks-back-threat-to-withhold-gpus-from-reviewer If you don't think these tactics can be reality then you need to check your own grip on reality. Your comment reveals that your personality is to let others do the fighting for you because there's no fight in you to right a wrong for a clearly large amount of people so if it's a fight I must lead then so be it. It wouldn't be the first time I've damaged a company to the point of bankruptcy. Lets see where this dance leads. It's a simple solution. Either Bohemia et al and/or BattleEye provide real tangible recourse for people who can verify their purchase to recover what they paid for or I start gathering the masses. This isn't about a game. This is about principals. If I'm willing to throw $3000 worth of controllers from Virpil in the garbage do you think I care about a game. Halve my life was spent taking on injustice and I along with others did some real damage to the criminals dressed in benevolence. If anything this will become a way to teach our daughter how to fight back. Something more people should learn how to do instead of sitting on the side lines criticizing others because they lack the courage to ever fight for anything in their lives.

Is it justified to deliberately not have a mechanism to resolve the situation or provide a new ownership key based on verifiable purchase history? This is smelling more like a scam because when looking at the play history in steam, although the account was hijacked I don't see any play history and it was only taken over less than a couple days based on email history stopping when the jerk changed the email. I'm seeing many people complaining of unjustified bans after not being on their accounts for a long time. Their ban procedure is looking more and more like similar tactics that twitter has been playing if one doesn't go along certain bias. In this case of BattlEye and Bohemia et, it's all designed to punish those capable of shelling out money to have to repurchase the products under the disguise of combating cheating because those who cheat don't care. I'm betting discovery would reveal a disproportionate ratio of victims who've had to repurchase games to cheaters. I'm thinking it's time to dust off my activism boots from 20 years ago and start rallying the troops to test a class action. Maybe reaching out to journalists like Gamer's Nexus and Linus Tech Tips would get the ball rolling for publicity as well as sniffing out some lawyers to pursue this.

I have a feeling it was the email provider or Steam itself because as far as passwords are concerned I use 12 characters consisting of numbers letters capitals and special characters. The formula I use is changed every six months for passwords. One thing I will not do is allow the steam app to run on my phone so it can harvest lots of irrelevant information. It's ridiculous that Steam requires an app to run on one's phone for TPV while banks, exchanges and so many others don't. I also have two firewalls. One hardware firewall for the entire network and Comodo on every computer. I'm anal about security because of what I saw during my engineering days. My network hasn't been never seen a virus and the one and only hack attempt was way back in 1998 which was unsuccessful. Whoever took over the steam account changed my profile location to Germany so I suspect it was the gmx.com email host I was using that was compromised because they are in Germany which is why I run my own email server with my own domains for high priority emails. I've said it for fifteen years that the entire concept of emails and the protocol itself should be banned for better safer forms of communication. I'm in the process of moving any subscriptions and accounts through that gmx email to a new email just in case. Looking at BattlEye's twitter feed I see a ridiculously high number of complaints about false bans. I don't think it's no coincidence that one who's legitimately bought a game cannot get a new ID for the game through verification of their credit card. Once upon a time this was common practice. It's beginning to look more likely that BattlEye is issuing far to many global bans that are capturing many innocent people who've spent good money for products from BattlEye's clients that force them to have to go buy the game again. For all we know Bohemia is fully aware of what BattlEye is doing. Given the dirty tricks going on in the industry to try and create captured markets and force new sales, has it occurred to anyone that these bans with no ability to appeal could be a way to push more sales. I've seen far worse crap pulled by other software companies and realistically unless there's real push back those who have done nothing wrong will be an increasing list of victims. I spoke to a lawyer about this who expressed exactly what I'm suggesting and is in fact in the process of certifying a class action against another company for similar shenanigans.

I don't know why only Arma 3 is listed in the ban. It's all frustrating and honestly becoming pointless pursuing this especially after spending nearly $3000 on Virpil Equipment in 2019. This was the one and only thing I could do for down time just for me because my wife and daughter are a higher priority. I only have three games that I've purchased but it seems only Arma 3 is affected. Arma 3 Ultimate Edition DCS and finally Blackwake I bought to support what I thought was a decent indy project so my daughter and I to play together but she hasn't played for months. I still haven't even installed it on my computers because of distractions of life. After recovering my account with my credit card and changing passwords, I bought Prairie Fire and tried playing Arma and that's when I noticed the ban. All I do is fly chopper which is the closest I can come to flying real aircraft anymore since losing my pilots license due to medical. Shuttling players to and from destinations allows for a sense of purpose and responsibility for their safety which is why I don't really like DCS except flying the Bell UH-1 because of the realism which did purchase. The only other games I have in my steam account are Argo which lead me to buying Arma 3 and America's Army which I stopped playing years ago because it's just not the same anymore. I've had this steam account for nine years which is a replacement from another steam account that was lost ten years ago when an email host shut down on me. If this idiocy in the gaming industry is the norm and the ban isn't reversed I'm throwing all this Virpil Gear in the garbage and walking away from it all.

BattlEye et al "Develper Ban" class action These global bans by developer are never reversed and designed to force customers to have to shell out more money for what they've already paid for. If anyone has purchased any game that uses BattlEye and lost multiplayer functionality because of a global ban that has done nothing wrong, send an email here but do not send any personal information for the time being because right now we are building a list of victims of this abuse to evaluate justification of a class action claim. battleyecase (at) veritasmedia (dot)org What's needed is: Country of origin The games in question and date of purchase Date and type of ban and amount lost. Any other details about the ban. In time when lawyers are in place if this should get to that point, they will then and only then need your personal info then and proof of purchase. Yes there are legitimate "Global Bans" however, since 2018 the list of unjustified "Global Bans" has continued to increase and the growing consensus is that this is a deliberately ignored problem or designed to force paying customers to have to repay for what they've already bought. The cheaters are never punished because they find ways to get back on without cost to them. It's the customers who've done nothing wrong that continue to be extorted for more money while the cheaters continue to ruin online gaming according toan insider within the industry that will be coming forward in the future. It's an age old story. Let a percentage of criminals to continue while the honest people are fleeced in a justification for their security. The intent is to force BattlEye et al to provide tangible recourse for customers who've already paid for games that use BattlEye for anti-cheat measures. On BattlEye's website they claim over 150,000 bans in 15 months. Even if a conservative number of 10% is claimed to be unjustified bans and the average customer has had to repurchase a game of $40 BattlEye's cohorts have received $600,000 extra by fleecing 15,000 customers in 15 months. Scraping numerous web forums would suggest since 2018 there are thousands of unjustified bans every. It's clear that this 10% is considerably higher than BattlEye and their cohorts are willing to release? I'm not even factoring in the bans caused by glitches. Shortly, there will be a dedicated website and forum on a decentralized platform not subject to censorship for victims of this scam to gather necessary evidence to seek class action. Until this forum thread is banned at Bohemia you can enter the discussion here. https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/forum/153-arma-3-troubleshooting/ A temporary Reddit can be found here. https://www.reddit.com/r/BattlEye_bans/comments/on86s0/unjust_battleye_global_bans/ File a Ripoff Report here https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/battleeye-et-al/bellevue-wa-bohemia-steam-1510123 Those who would dissuade anyone from perusing this effort should have their motives questioned because often their interests lie with the corporations who pay them. Not you. "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Thomas Jefferson "After months of not playing anything on Steam because of family and work I thought I'd take some me time and try playing Arma 3 again because a year ago I bought the ultimate edition only to find out some jerk had hijacked my steam account somehow. I was able to use my credit card to recover my account and changed every password for every account I have. Once back in I see that my profile had been changed to the name Zendox and my location was changed from Canada to Germany. After changing everything back I bought S.O.G. Prairie Fire and tried to play to find out I've been permanently banned. It says: You've been permanently banned in Arma 3 by BattlEye on behalf of the game developer. You can view your Steam account's In-Game Ban status and see a list of games affected by a specific ban by visiting your ban history. Please see our In-Game Ban Article for more information about how In-Game Bans are applied."