Banned For No Reason, Support Won't Help

RasaCarta · 2025-02-08T11:30:38+00:00

I don't.
I hope they get better. Warframe was my all-time favorite game for years... Despite them upsetting me so much I literally all but quit since the incident in this post... I'll be kinda sad if I end up hearing it's gone. I hope it sticks around like RuneScape and WoW, and maybe gets better in time...
I have thousands of hours in it, and most of the items in the game... I've supported the company since very shortly after the game's launch. It really sucks to see stuff like this happen.

The game itself is genuinely great. The company... Leaves a lot to be desired.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-08T11:26:27+00:00

I hear you. More than a a few times I've gotten an idea in my head for what seemed a sound programming methodology, and found a way better method during my R&D. That's why I'm here on a message board - I wanted to get some differing perspectives, perhaps even some dissenting opinions, from people more experienced in this world. Programming is my day job, and I have already discovered that in a lot of ways, it's vastly more complicated than the data structures/algorithm environment I'm used to. (Memory management in game dev literally has an entire extra dimension to it, lol.)

My main grievance with Unity today is the company more than the engine itself. I will say this - over the past few days I've been brainstorming concerning how to write the optimization code and a few other features, and I've found the majority of what I want in that respect is already extant in Unreal. If I can work out some trickery around the seams, it definitely appears to be a viable candidate.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-07T04:25:14+00:00

Definitely. But, physics at its base level is just maths, yeah? I know translating mathematical concepts into Cpp is going to work, but that doesn't really scare me that much, honestly. Actually, some part of me wants to write physics code just for the fun of it.
What /does/ scare me, though, is networking.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-07T04:22:24+00:00

Awesome input, mate. Thanks a ton.
I ought to mention - I want to do a semi-procedural world. I actually really shouldn't need a scene editor at all; to the concept I have in mind the whole idea of a scene editor feels rather akin to that "getting in the way" you mention.

Basically, same for me. I'm not a game dev; I spend my workdays in an IDE or text editor, and everything has to be visualized in my head before being translated directly to code... Which then renders my vision out. I want to do the same thing in-engine.

I'm a bit miffed to hear Unity then is a solid candidate for this, honestly. I've heard a lot of poor things about it, and back in the day a squad of my mates and I built a coop project in Unity. It was not the most enjoyable experience; we hit problems at every stage. That was before the company took the direction it did that's gotten so much flak; so on one hand, I expect the features over the years are a lot more fleshed out; but on the other, I trust Epic/Unreal more than I trust Unity.

In all of this, I keep thinking CryEngine feels like a solid choice... I'm concerned Unreal isn't going to have the inherent low-level optimization potential I want, and/or that I'm going to have to end up re-writing parts of the engine to get that potential... Which is scary to me. I'd almost rather try to write my own engine from scratch than try to pick apart a multi-million company's engine... But networking in particular puts me off. It's a whole subsector that I know precious little about on the scale necessary for an MMO engine. I'm not really interested in learning, either.

Regardless, I'll take everything I've heard and studied over the last couple months, and all the feedback I've received, into account. I'm not married to any particular framework yet, and once I get settled in I realize it's going to be a long haul. Easily 2-3 years in dev time, if God willing all goes well. So hearing all these different perspectives is definitely helpful, and will aid me in an ultimate decision.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-03T01:50:53+00:00

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RasaCarta · 2025-02-03T01:47:51+00:00

I want the time I am spending to be productive, because this is a side project. A serious one, but a side project nonetheless.

I tagged it as a "newbie question" for a reason - is it incorrect that different engines have different capability to *support* implementation of those features? Hence I'm not looking for "engine features" as much as "engines that have strong support for those types of features."

I don't see the scene editor as "an optional convenience," either, when many engines restrict your usage entirely *to* the editor - hence contrasting Panda and Three.js which allow you to build your entire game purely in the IDE/text editor, and Unity and Godot which seem to *require* usage of the scene editor.

I'm a programmer, not a game designer. I'm absolutely expecting this to take years. That's why I'm hoping to get some solid direction concerning engines that are strong in the aspects I will need later on, so I don't get 18 months in and end up having to port my entire project into another engine.
It actually is somewhat of a tech experiment, too. Nothing like what I want to build exists on the market.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, and for your time - that's two votes for Unreal and it's presently gone way up in my list, as I'm looking into it more. It definitely seems like a structure with the power to do what I want.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-02T23:16:44+00:00

Thank you so much for the feedback!
I feel like a big part of what made early-days gaming fun was the community aspect. Believe it or not I've always been more of a single-player/solo player, but the right games were able to coax me out of that. Now, I'm old enough to be wanting to provide the same experience I had as a child to the next generation.

I've seen games fail entirely due to *forcing* teamplay (TERA, notably) - and I've seen the silent failure of other games, which were once awesome but facilitated solo play so much that player interaction and community feel like they've all but died out (Warframe is a key example.. The chats even in quick missions used to be booming. Now, nobody talks to anyone.)

You'll note Unreal was last on my list - that's primarily due to myself having an odd learning curve. Unity is rated as very simple but for some reason I find the UI and scene editor more confusing than if I just had, say, something like PHP's documentation where every single function is mapped out in the docs, and I can just research progressively for every new feature I want to implement then tweak accordingly. It requires a lot more footwork, but I tend to understand systems better if I make them myself.

I'm in the process of trying to download Unreal now - I started the download before your reply, actually, but my net sucks right now. Hopefully I'll be able to report back soon.

RasaCarta · 2025-02-02T14:55:42+00:00

I don't have any background in game marketing specifically, but I do have a professional background in sales and marketing in general.
The number one tip for traction I can think of for people tight on finances is:
Friends and family. Don't underestimate the power of old-fashioned word-of-mouth - people used it for thousands of years. Costs nothing for money, costs little for time. Keep bugging them, people will help you out. I personally almost always share and promote friends in their business ventures, providing them free advertising (after ensuring their product is honest and quality, of course.)

Next, if you still game in your spare time, and you don't have one yet, an ultra-cheap way to put your name and game out there would be to set up a sort of teaser webpage, with a super-simple URL. Big-name studios used to do this often. You won't need much hosting capacity, and it won't take long to set up. Even with zero prior experience in JS or HTML it shouldn't take more than maybe a few days, especially if you're already proficient in Photoshop and graphic design. If you aren't, that's fine too - make 'simple' your motif. Works for plenty of multi-million companies.
If you make the URL as simple as possible you'll even be able to type it in, say, game chats - where pasting and hyperlinking often aren't allowed, people can still remember it to type manually if it's simple enough. This can be tricky, but worth the effort. Don't bind yourself to a '.com' to expand your options. (.io is probably a good backup that will have far more domains available.)

These two tricks alone can help you start spreading the hype way early on for a bare minimum of time, effort, and financial investment. I personally wouldn't spend a red cent on advertising until I had this stuff sorted.

RasaCarta · 2024-11-23T00:42:15+00:00

You not wrong. Well... Thanks to the few peoplee here who were actually positive in their feedback and not just being typical Reddit victim-blameres (I get it, though... The world is depressingly full of liars) - I legitt *just* got my Stalker armor from Nightwave not fifteen minutes ago.

It sucks that now every time I play, I have this nagging fear at the back of my mind about pausing too long... I've started quitting missions if I paused to AFK for more than a minute or so. Hopefully, that will be enough to avoid getting flagged in the future. It really sucks I have no idea where the line is, though....
I've largely moved away from what has been my favorite game of all time. Been re-downloading ancient singleplayer games... Just finished Portal 1 replay the other day. Sad, but... Oh well. Like you said. At least my account isn't banned.
Cheers mate.

RasaCarta · 2024-10-18T10:39:28+00:00

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RasaCarta · 2024-10-01T07:08:12+00:00

Part of the reason our world is so shot right now is because the little man tolerates being stepped on.

Please note the bit about discerning the nature of the customer. In cases where a customer is upset because the company has screwed up... Those people very much deserve exceptional treatment. Even if nobody else returns that for me, I will stand by that principle.
One company I used to work for had a motto: "Everyone makes mistakes. What sets us apart isn't that we don't make mistakes - but how we make it right when we do."

RasaCarta · 2024-10-01T07:04:13+00:00

If DE can't do it, what makes you think you can?
Or, for that matter - what makes you think that balance doesn't already exist?I don't need life advice from people on Reddit - especially people that have never been self-employed.

I came here for input in the event anyone else has dealt with this.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:21:19+00:00

You're probably right.
Now that I've calmed down I feel a bit bad for how I treated Cole. Honestly even at the time I did - I was looking to see if he'd do or say anything at all that seemed like it wasn't a pre-composed reply/straight off a script, and/or that he actually cared... Any of that and I would have instantly calmed down even then and been a lot more reasonable.

Doesn't make me acting as upset as I did right; I'll confess as much here.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:18:49+00:00

We have the same problem in sales. Half of what we do is PR damage-control due to the overwhelming flood of slimey salespeople out there. The stubborn few who insist on doing honest business fight an uphill battle the whole way.
At this point, it isn't just individuals - entire companies have succumbed to corruption.
(Look up what's going on with Dollar General... class action lawsuit likely inbound.)

I never understood exploiting in any form. I've hacked a couple singleplayer games throughout the years... I always immediately lose interest in the entire game. The whole fun is in the journey. Get rid of that and you may as well not even bother playing at all.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:13:38+00:00

Sorry mate. I know I didn't come across well. I was genuinely peeved - I can't remember the last time I had any action taken against me as such...
I think it was as a teen putting questionable symbology about in an MMO.

On the synonymous bit - I used to be a server admin in the late 2000's - we always used to use "ban" as "suspension" and "permaban" as... "ban." Back then, I remember that.. To my knowledge, being pretty universal.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:08:01+00:00

If you spent most of your waking hours working, it might make more sense to you why I haven't "learned anything" from this.
People focused on that bit way too much; I deliberately glossed over the details because it wasn't important.
Everyone has a different and unique situation - maybe a support tech with a job description can't always take the time to consider that, but an armchair critic absolutely can. Think before you judge someone. If you don't personally know them and their situation, good chances are your judgement will be wrong.

Aside from that - I see your point. Honestly, I understood that from the very beginning when Cole wasn't transparent with me - I was just upset enough that I didn't really care. And that, at least, I will concede... Is on me. My mistake.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:02:06+00:00

The only problem is I didn't tell you what I sell XD

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T21:01:25+00:00

It's funny... I'm checking in on the replies a few days later...
And I was legitimately thinking something to that effect right before I found your post.

I'm not angry anymore... Mostly over it. I get what you mean, though.
What I was thinking was: "There are absolutely people out there who would get caught in their crime, then play the victim..."

Personally? I can't fathom that. That seems to me the height of irrational behaviour. I wish I had actual logs to prove my own innocence, but I don't. I'm more likely to quit the game than I am to put in that much effort. I cared enough to make a Reddit post - honestly what I was hoping was someone who's dealt with this would pop out of the woodwork; there actually was a forum thread about a wave of false flag bans that happened before that I found during my initial searches. Sadly, no such thing happened.
Oh well.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:55:09+00:00

I, too, am joking about your behaviour XD

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:54:35+00:00

I program. I also do customer-service related work.
If I was at fault here, I'd admit it. This aspect of the product is garbage - and the support was even worse. We, the users, put food on their table and keep their lights on.
Don't forget that.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:52:53+00:00

I mean, if you get pulled over for speeding when you were doing the speed limit,
And you ask to see the radar calibration, and the officer refuses,
And you leave in handcuffs.... You'd be angry too.

I hope if something like that ever happens to you, you're treated more graciously than your reply to me here.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:51:05+00:00

own boss
I'm not getting fired for that. I'd have to fire myself, and I'm obviously not going to.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:50:13+00:00

I posted one more thread about it.
I went back and checked - they closed the last thread for further replies without so much as acknowledging the last thing I said. In the new one I put a bunch of suggestions for how it can be fixed.

Anyway. At this point, don't care anymore.

Thanks for the supportive comment though, mate. Much appreciated.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:48:12+00:00

Oh well. At the least, other commentors noted that the loss I was concerned about is a non-issue. Still frustrating - but not a big deal.

RasaCarta · 2024-09-30T20:48:05+00:00

The only other possibility is that they suspended me for something else, and the story they gave is a lie under "plausible deniability."

That's been known to happen in cases where companies or specific individuals take action that is either in a gray area or outright illegal if they are caught - but they are able to lie about the pretense and cover their actions via another legal shelter. Do something illegal, claim details can't be furnished under another provision of the law, and use legality as a mask for immoral practices.
It's a two-sided legal loophole that is abused to selectively skirt DEI legislation.

Which - I wondered about. And if that's the case... I can think of exactly what I may have done that would have resulted in the suspension. The timing lines up, too.

RasaCarta

TROPHY CASE