Lineage 2 Legend - Stabby Mcstoo get banned! :(

[tayman]

This is what Rich had to say:

My backpack was a lot lighter today…
Over the past two years, I have taken quite a few things to work in my backpack to use as reference for the Mini-Lineage 2 comics. Items such as L2 art books, L2 comic compilations and a six-pocket binder full of in game screen shots weighed down my backpack. All of these items were needed to make sure my comics could be as accurate as possible. Today, I have left these items out of my backpack since I won’t need them anymore.
For the first time in my life, I was working on something that people from all over the globe appreciated. I would get emails from people in Asia, Europe, Australia and even the good ol’ US saying how much they enjoyed Stabby McStoo. I have done quite a few short stories that have been published through Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but none have brought attention to me like Stabby. I was having all sorts of fun with Stabby, both in game and in the strips. I even gave my baby the name Lionna for her middle name.
Having an actual character named “StabbyMcStoo” on Lionna was quite an adventure. I would get numerous shout outs from people telling me what their favorite strip was. On the occasion, I even got a few story ideas; the “Dance of Protection” idea about the spell being used to keep Stabby from getting pregnant was from an in game friend named “Hedwig” and the explosive idea about the Soul Shots was invented by a group of Australians that I played with one night.
There were even times that I would add people that I met in game into my strips. Thrayne is a real life friend here in the Seattle area. I got him hooked on L2 right before it came out. Other friends like: Teh-Rock (Ethok), Tooty (2tfm), Abrams, KillerKilRoy, Eirane, Madan, Kiroth, Hoondo, Appa and DJ KittyKat from L2 Radio made guest appearances as well.
For two years and 3 months, I was having a blast with the game and with the strips. That came to a grinding halt on September 1st, 2006. I was at work, checking my email on my cell phone when I saw that there was an email saying that my credit card had expired and I needed to update the info to keep playing. When I got home, I saw another email saying the following:

“The above listed account was recently suspended due to a violation of Lineage II's User Agreement and or Rules of Conduct (ROC). The reason for the account suspension is Use/Advertise Cheater Program. Please go to PlayNC Support for further information.”

I was shocked and appalled by that. Not once in game had I ever botted or ran a third party program! I went to lineage2.com to post in the forum to protest. No luck… I was banned from the forum but I could still access the private messages. I was lucky enough to have access to GMSpam and GMMistryl’s contacts so I dropped them a line in desperation. Since it was a Friday night when this happened, I figured it wouldn’t be till Monday before I got some help. I got a reply back pretty quick from GMSpam saying he would look into the matter and contact me the next day. Saturday came and went with no reply as well with Sunday. When Monday came, NC figured out I still had access to my private messages and they shut me off from that.
I tried going to their trouble-shooting line to submit a trouble ticket about the botting incident. I told them I have never botted and this must have been done in error. I got the following message back:

“Dear Richard,
This mail is to notify you that your account was found violating the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct by engaging in the use of an unauthorized third party program in conjunction with the Lineage II service. The usage of a 3rd party program was confirmed by multiple members of our support staff.
As a result of this violation of the User Agreement and/or Rules of Conduct, this and all related accounts have been permanently closed. The account(s) will no longer be accessible and can never be reactivated.
Our decision is made in the best interest of the Lineage II service and for the player base. The decision to terminate the account(s) is final and not up for review.”

Again, I am appalled! How can this be? I have never botted or ran any third party program! This has to be one colossal mistake! I have read many posts on the main forum from people saying that their account was banned for something they didn’t do and reading the responses from people saying they had to have done something to cause that. The main poster would rant that they hadn’t done anything only to be mocked by other calling him a liar. Now here I am in this same situation. I contacted what friends I had in game (the ones I had emails and phone numbers too) and told them what was happening. They told me to keep protesting because they knew people who protested about bannings that had their accounts actually reactivated (even people they knew that had actually had their account banned because of botting). They said to ask for proof and evidence of the ban. If I am guilty, they have to be able to prove it to me, right? So bloody WRONG! I sent a follow up to the trouble ticket asking for proof in the ban. They responded with:

“Dear Richard,
We do not provide the methods used to pinpoint the offense or the exact times/dates you were observed. This preserves our ability to track and monitor the offending activity used in the Lineage service. Any details that we feel are critical to locating the use of cheats within the Lineage service may not be relayed to you at our discretion.
We apologize that this has resulted in the termination of the account; unfortunately the decision here is final. NCsoft cannot allow use of third party software within the game for any reason at any time. Our goal has always been to provide a safe, clean game for players to experience, and this is not conduct which is permissible in any regards.
At this time we must also respectfully inform you that any further questions regarding the account termination may not be responded to, as we feel that this matter has been attended to and addressed appropriately to fully inform you of the situation.
Thank you for your time,”

How can I explain what I was doing when they banned me if they can’t even tell me when I was supposedly botting? This caused me to call them up and talk to someone at NCSoft. After three calls to their company, still nothing. No luck in getting anything done. My trouble tickets were shut down as fast as they were reopened. Nothing was getting done.
I talked with a couple people in the Lineage Radio IRC chat room for help. They told me to keep fighting it because they said they knew people that had actually botted had their accounts reactivated. Why wasn’t my account being reactivated since I had never botted? Maybe because I wasn’t begging or admitting to the error of my ways, they said. Funny thing about me… I don’t admit I did something wrong when I never did anything wrong.
Did you see that recent episode of the new Battlestar Galactica when they were ready to throw Gaeta out the airlock? They wanted him to beg for forgiveness before they “spaced” him and all he could say was “I am not going to beg.” That was me at that moment. I was not going to beg for forgiveness for something I didn’t do.
Some friends and fellow Stabby fans said that if I were to start up a new character on their server, they would power level me to level 68 (where Stabby had stopped after being banned). I have a couple new game keys that I could use to start up a new game/character. To me, starting a new character and game would be as bad as admitting to something I didn’t do. It would make me look guilty. It wouldn’t make me feel good. Besides, it took me 2 years and 3 months to get that far (yes, I had some delays in playing other characters as well as another MMORPG to cause this) only playing a couple hours a night and maybe more on the weekends. I couldn’t ask for someone to just take “X” amount of time out of their lives to get me back to 68. To these generous souls, I had to decline their offer. Besides, I want my StabbyMcStoo back! I don’t want to play another character.
After a month of getting nowhere with NCSoft, I decided to call it quits. That was a hurtful decision because that meant cutting off relations to people I knew in game from all over the world. One thing that really cheesed me off about having my account shut down is the fact that I had a lot of friends on my Friend List that I will probably never talk to again since I can’t access them. This really makes me mad. I had fun talking to these people. They were like friends to me. They were what made the game fun. Hell, I even met someone in game that did the sound production for the King Kong movie. And now I will probably never hear from them again. Thanks a lot!
During my time away from Lineage 2, I had plenty of time to look back and wonder what it is that I could’ve done to cause this. As I said, I have never botted or ran a third party program. Maybe one of the following events caused the ban:
1) On the weekend of August 25, PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) was held locally in Bellevue, WA. I met Seridove there and on Saturday night (August 16th), she and I met up with Sarge (remember her?) at a local bar to talk about L2. We all talked about the botting issue (kind of ironic that a week later, I get banned for that). During our discussion, Seridove and I gladly finished off their left over pitchers of beer and appetizers.  Was I banned because I was a glutton? It was offered to me…
2) Occasionally in game, when I would come across an obvious bot train (c’mon, they are everywhere!), I would shout out “Hey, nice bot train!” Could one of our friends overseas have got offended by me calling them out like this and reported me as “botting” to get even? If so, nice call NC… thanks for leaving the problem in game and banning a legit player.
3) I made it rich off of bots. No, I didn’t run bots, but when I ran across a field of adena left behind from broken bot trains (or bot trains that didn’t care about picking up money) I would stop what I was doing and pick up their money! Could NCSoft see this as a method of botting? If so, how lame is that?
4) A couple days before the big ban hit, I was resurrected by someone running two bot trains. How nice of him. Did NCSoft see that as botting? If so, they should’ve checked their records to see that I wasn’t in that group and I was talking to clan/guild mates before I died.
5) During that same resurrecting incident, a fellow clan member was making their way out to help revive me. In the process of them getting to me, they got disconnected from game. I was resurrected from the bot train guy and decided to log out since game time was over for me that day. When the clan member got back in and finished getting to where I was, they got irate that I wasn’t there and had spent lots of money to warp there with the gatekeepers (my bad, I should’ve stayed till they logged back in). This, amongst other clan issues this person was having, caused her to have a coronary and go ballistic on everyone in the clan. She said she was going to leave the clan and report everyone that didn’t join her as people running bots. I heard later from other players and friends that people like to do this as a method of getting even with others. Is this the reason that I was banned? If so, that’s pretty sad.
6) My comics.  Could my comics be a reason they decided to pull the plug on Stabby? I know my comics poked some fun at Lineage 2 (kind of like a political cartoon) but it was all meant in good fun. Did some higher up decide enough was enough? Who knows…

I hope everyone likes this last Mini-Lineage 2 comic strip. Yeah, it’s not really funny unless you know what Leroy Jenkins is about. This is a picture of Stabby going against a group of mobs. Swinging her sword with a smile on her face. Kind of like me when I was playing. Pushing my hot key attack button with a big smile on my face. Chatting with online friends and having a good ol’ time. I hate ending Stabby like this, especially with so many things left for Stabby to do. She never got to go off about how skimpy her Tallum armor is, never got to do a siege, never encountered a siege golem, and never got to fight any of the major bosses in the game. Heck, with the new chronicle title, I can have all sorts of fun with “The Chaotic Throne” (yes, the joke is in regards to a toilet). A Korean friend of mine and I were going to make a website that features the Mini-Lineage 2 comics in both English and Korean. I thought it would be great to share these comics with the country that gave us Lineage 2. Dream crushed…
So, to you my dear fans, I thank you for your support for Stabby and me over the past couple years. It’s because of you that I have endured to do these strips. At first, I was only planning on doing a couple, but after the following I received I kept going. I kept going till the carpet was pulled out from underneath my feet. Is there a future for Stabby McStoo? Maybe elsewhere, but no longer in the world of Aden. Thanks again for being there and reading Mini-Lineage 2. It’s time for it to end.
My backpack was a lot lighter today… but my heart was a lot heavier.

[parad0xic]

fuck ncsoft

[Maphusio]

wth? That is quite jank... I guess that means its time to come over to http://www.thronesofchaos.com/

Eh? Start KarasHur there? Toss the first lvl 34 Human Paladin to create and command a lvl 3 guild on Bartz a bone? eh? It was quite a challenge not using any SP on skills on my crappy paladin... God that was not a smart move. lol

At any rate, lame news indeed. I hope you find your way and perhaps I will see you there.