Pilot emergency! Need help!

[Snakenator1]

Guys I have a uber serious problem now and its bad :(

Recently someone on PSN made a complaint and accused my account of being a hacker! Because of this my main account has been suspended temporarily until a final decision is made whether I get to keep it or not.

But because the accuser hasn't provided enough evidence to get me booted I have a short window of time to appeal against this problem and I really need help! I'm sure you all know I am no hacker of any kind but my account is threatened now. I need advice on what I can do, I have evidence to disprove the claim but I like advice. From a loyal friend PLEASE HELP :(

[ND-2-SPD]

But you're not a hacker, you're just MLG. 8)
But seriously I was super scared when my account was banned, my advice would be to just stick with it, call PlayStation and get it over with, if they can't prove anything there's no reason to ban you. DON'T PUT IT OFF IT WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE. I hope this is helpful :)

[Snakenator1]

I'm waiting for a reply off SCEE to see what evidence they have against me then I'm gonna argue against said claim. I'm more pi**ed off right now than anything else.
My guess is this may of also occurred because from the recent ddos attack on PSN, someone might think I'm one of them -_-

[TheConzio]

It was probably some kid who can't stand losing against someone online. I wouldn't worry too much if they can't provide evidence, especially if you can prove that you're not hacking.

My advice would be to film some of your awesome WipEout skills, with your controller in view.

[Jonny]

Taking effort is proabaly the best way to show them that you are serious. :)

[Snakenator1]

Well I got a email off SCEE just now with what the accuser used as their claim, oh its real rich you wanna see??

"The following anomalous behaviour was observed a few days ago on the game *WipEout HD Fury*, the claimer observed the following anomlies:

Erratic path behaviour of the craft
Travelling at speeds outside of the limits of the game
Random bursts of increased speeds
An impossible race time for *flash speed class*
Craft randomly gaining air and rolling"


So basically this guy thought that NETWORK LATENACY WAS ME HACKING!! do you realise how pi**ed I am guys about this. A saw loser cannot stand me beating him and did not take into consideration that WOHD servers are going two years on without maintenance.

I am so f**king angry >.<

[Knux_Chaotix]

Sounds like an amazingly sore looser. Did you get your account back up and running?

[Snakenator1]

Not yet, I have to write an email back arguing against the claim with evidence to prove I was playing the game normally -_-
This whole ordeal is the last thing I needed right now >.< really annoyed

[Knux_Chaotix]

I hope this works out for you. Its a bit bloody ridiculous. If you want a rage race or an elim to let off some steam, hit me up

[Jonny]

Oh, this just reminds me some online reviews of the WipEout games. "Game get's impossible to handle" and so on.

Seriously, is this game hackable?

[Snakenator1]

You literally just said what I said when I first got the email. But I can't see hacks for this game and what good would they do anyway other than wrecking havoc on the leaderboards which are already broken anyway.

This entire thing is pointless and has wasted my time, I'm going to get it sorted.

[Hellfire_WZ]

Wait wait wait... "evidence to prove you were playing the game properly"!? Mail them back and ask them how the flaming hell you're supposed to do that! I thought the burden of proof was on the accuser, not the victim!

But basically, you can easily address any of those points.

Erratic path behaviour of the craft - As you have correctly explained, that is due to network latency. It's commonplace if your connection is experiencing issues or indeed if the other person's connection is not up to scratch.
Travelling at speeds outside of the limits of the game - Direct them to some videos of Flash TTs and SLs on YouTube to show them exactly what is possible. That's subjective. Or better yet, do your own!
Random bursts of increased speeds - Turbos? Barrel rolls? It's a f*cking game mechanic! If they mean jumping back and forth randomly, then again, it's network latency.
An impossible race time for *flash speed class* - Video evidence of a race time better than your record. Plenty available.
Craft randomly gaining air and rolling - It's a game mechanic, it's even explained in the sodding game.

Sadly, sh*t like this is a problem now we no longer have anyone at SCEE who even understands the game, but the fact they've done this without any proof against you is quite frankly disgusting. I wish I still had some sway in the matter otherwise I'd just say give them my contact details.

[Snakenator1]

As I said before they probably suspended me for the recent hacking attack from last Sunday and not wanting to take any chances, but clearly the accuser doesn't understand how Wipeout works.
Its stupid all this, I'm having to give up my time to sort this out and its pathetic *long sigh*
I'll get my account back if its the last thing I do and if not well SCEE can screw themselves. Although this should not happen because its all so stupid.

I'll do what Conzio said, make a video showing I have the controller in my hands and how I race. Best bet for now but still annoyed about this.

[Ace3000]

Random bursts of increased speeds

Well that's just a Turbo. What gives?!

[XxSuperRyugaxX]

What the hell? This is completely ridiculous. So a random player can report who he wants, and what Sony do!? They accept the reports? This is so ridiculous, they even don't make sure to known the game before accepting reports. Those issues happens everyday, from years, and they accept reports based on them. Woah...
Hacks for this game don't exist..
I don't know, you should contact them again, and maybe link them this forum, this thread. This is just unbelievable. So for now is that a permanent ban?
Sony, you disappoint me more and more, everyday. This is not the right way to treat us.. I know what you feel because I got a permaban time ago without reason..
tsk

[Snakenator1]

The ban is not permanent but the account has been suspended so basically the account still exists and is active but it won't connect to PSN servers. The ban can become permanent however if I don't give a persuasive argument, so I'm now collecting evidence in my favour when I should be doing more important things right now.

Of all things I've wasted time on this has to be the most pathetic thing ever :|

[Light Buster]

Wow, this is dumb. Well, all I can do is try this:

Erratic path behavior of the craft: Lag, it's everywhere. Can't do much about it, unless you have a very good internet connection. If you get this many times, someone with horrid connection might be making this complaint.

Travelling at speeds outside of the limits of the game: Show them some runs where you can achieve a very good lap time/time trial time. There are a LOT out in Youtube.

Random bursts of increased speeds - Turbos/Barrel Rolls. Game mechanic. Direct them to Hellfire's Wipeout Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxzYkTralIA&list=PL291994E3331211F5

An impossible race time for *flash speed class* - Videos of even better race times can be found on Youtube. Not a whole lot, but there are some and can even be achieved/bettered.

Craft randomly gaining air and rolling - These are game mechanics. Again, Hellfire's tutorial on the game covers it, direct them there.

If you have the name of the person/player who sent this complaint, get it, write it down, and appeal against it because only a bad sport would make these complaints.

[Snakenator1]

Well after spending the entirety of Friday recording my Wipeout sessions, collecting suitable images, using some videos on Youtube and constructing a persuasive argument with said evidence. I have sent the defending document to SCEE, all I can do now is wait for a response but my account is still down at the moment.

Has anyone ever had that feeling when they just want to punch someone in the face so hard it might make their skull disintegrate and go flying for miles (think its referred to as a falcon punch), because I have that feeling right now.

Evil sense of humour still intact, check ;)

Also SCEE have not given me the ID of the accuser as they wanted to remain anomalous so I cannot use the name in my appeal.

[Oryx Crake]

You could possibly use this forum as a reference. that is to say, explain that this is a forum full of people who will not tolerate cheating (if you want examples of what has happened when people have been caught in the act just ask any one of the old guys), many of whom are or have been entirely dedicated to finding every trick the game has to offer within the bounds of what is "legal". Also this forum is trusted by, and indeed has members from, the wipeout dev teams.

also there is plenty of filmed evidence on youtube both of "impossible" race times (PAH!) and of latency issues and lag, for reference: "impossible race times" (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLILznbT5tU-vysITO8aSmA) Small but noticable latency issues of exactly the kind they mentioned (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVzK7wY-iu8)

[mannjon]

This is utterly F*in ridiculous. I think you should report this sh*tty racer and bad sport to Sony. Is it possible this 8 year old violated the minimum age requirements for online play or something? As already mentioned, just show them your record times. In fact, if you tell me what race it was, I will show them MINE. I think most of the even average pilots would have a time that would be "impossible to achieve" according to this snarky (probably little kid) pilot.

If you need to, maybe have a petition of sorts from pilots with good race times. I'm sure a list of 200 top times would strongly support your claim. Do you recall the track or time by chance?

I get messages all the time from people that claim I'm cheating. Not because I cheat rather because I practice. I usually just block and ignore these comments. It is sad to see that there are some pilots like this. It just isn't the WO way. Better yet, have them monitor the upcoming Avalon.

[Snakenator1]

This is actually good guys because I referenced this thread in my dispute so all these replies are proving the point that I wasn't hacking the game, so all your words will hopefully be taken into consideration and thus help my cause :)

@mannjon: Well it was a Flash lobby where this person accused me but I can't remember any of my contenders but I know that I ended up in a lobby with a few inexperienced players so it could of been any of them, but we did a lot of races and covered tracks like Anulpha, Vineta, Moa and a lot more.
So what I've done is I took all of my Flash records and borrowed some off the wipeout leaderboards to prove that my time was within normal game limits.

However....
I will say one good thing that has come from this, I've proven to myself how far I have matured over the past few years about things like this. Honestly if you saw me when I was a lv1 inexperienced snake I may of complained about a similar thing but I didn't. Unlike other people I researched what I was doing wrong, found Hellfire's tutorial and one day made myself known here and did the best thing I could do:

Never stop practicing, persistence is key. Everyone here on this forum aren't friends to me in my eyes. You're all family :D

I've come a long way and soon will be celebrating my 1st anniversary as being a dedicated Wipeout pilot, I have a nice thing to celebrate it to :)
Also I got the beat zico trophy on my 5th lap and beat my old time of 30.72 to a new record of 30.62! I've gotten good :D

[mannjon]

You know, it is a good measure of how far you've come.

My first online race was with a bunch of top tier pilots. I had just finished the solo campaign, and just got my silver skin. So I got a message from Kleidoskopic asking me to help with a bling brigade run. I didn't even know what that was at that time. I recall losing by something like 14 seconds that race, and I think it was Scar that actually won. But unlike a lot of these new pilots now, I didn't think to myself: "That dude had to have been cheating." I instead thought, "WTF was that? Am I missing something here?" And I certainly was. Turns out I was missing about 4 barrel rolls per lap and 2 bad-ass shortcuts. In general, I learned that racing online wasn't even close to Elite difficulty, and I learned not to rely on computer AI exploits.

Now when I play online and I see a bunch of level 1 pilots, I think to myself: "Let's see who can get to my level without giving up in frustration." Then later I see the true pilots rise up on become worthy adversaries. Pilots that are courteous and ask questions like: "How do you do that? Why are your times so quick?" I always try to give some helpful advice. Pilots that respond with negativity and accuse me of cheating simply get blocked.

Chances are better than likely Snake, that the pilot causing all this ruckus won't ever be able to truly compete -ever. They were probably some trophy chaser, which is simply impossible in this game given that mindset. It has taken 2 years or less, to get to the point where I am now. I'm certainly not the best pilot out there, but I would definitely say that I am among the top 10% easily, and probably even among the top 2-5% (at least according to wipeoutrankings!). Anyone that is willing to graciously accept defeat, and learn from other better pilots eventually becomes a top competitor.

[terra-wrists]

freaking well said mannjon, freaking well said !!!

[blackwiggle]

Snakenator1.
You have a PM

[Snakenator1]

Thanks for the pm, task was completed in no time.

[mannjon]

I would just like to say as a general sentiment here, that this particular way of helping each other over issues like this is something that I feel personally separates this particular gaming community from others out there.

I am glad to see the willingness of others to help over this type of issue, and I am proud of all the forum members for readily providing such support to those in need.

Well done everyone. Well done indeed.

[Snakenator1]

I wish to add to that also.

I have never before considered a gaming community as a second family, it takes a lot for me to consider who or what is family in my eyes. This forum has seen me make new friends in seconds and develop as a person. All the support and help you've guys have given me during this issue means a world to me.

I will always say that this is by far the best gaming community I have ever been a member of, I'm so proud to call myself a pilot for this game series but only I could of discovered the game sooner and been a part of it for longer than I have. But that will never change the fact I am here now.

I can't do much else to show my appreciation for the support other than say this:
Thank you for changing my life forever ^_^

[Jonny]

^Just can agree :)

[Ragsus Maxima]

(In the background, you can hear some people saying "Daaaaaaawww...")

Considering you have pretty solid material to counter the complaint, you should be fine unless the current SCEE staff are a bunch of A-holes.

Nevertheless, that little POS has not any evidence of you cheating (because you were legit, damn!), so the most likely scenario is that jerk being suspended and you being safe.

You definitely have the upper hand, so cheer up! :hyper

[Snakenator1]

(In the background, you can hear some people saying "Daaaaaaawww...")

Dammit am I being all cute and softie again? Its a bad habit from spending time with my girlfriend :D
Also SCEE are now only just starting the investigation from what they said to me just now, it could be either days or weeks before I get a final verdict. Hopefully won't be to long *fingers crossed*

[mannjon]

I declare this the "National Absorb Your Weapon Day." The softer side of WOHD! ;)

If I had an Icaras pillow, I would cuddle with it tonight, only to get a good night's sleep before quaking everyone to destruction tomorrow morning.

But seriously though, props to the community. I doubt you'll find more dedicated and close knit fans anywhere else.

[terra-wrists]

there goes the Fury :D

[Cipher]

Hope you get your account back! But SCEE should be embarrassed for this, suspending an account without even checking the claims, ridiculous o_O

And yes, this community is the best! <3

Cipher

[TheConzio]

This community is definitely one of a kind, I agree with every word Snake :)

[ND-2-SPD]

Yeah, the community is awesome. I've been here since April and it's already my favourite community of gamers (probably because we're not constantly yelling obscenities at each other)

[Snakenator1]

Well coming up to the 2 weeks mark now since the accusation, still no word from SCEE about the investigation and my account is still suspended.

Could it really take them this long to come up with a "Yes you can have your account back" lol :P
But in all seriousness I still don't see how the accuser could find evidence that supports them as its non-existent far as I'm aware.

*sigh* -_-

[traksta1]

Unfortunately my experience with SCEE concerning a ban was all too similar to yours in as much as one lying troll report got me what looked like an automated 1 month instaban with little recourse to justice or anyone to contact with the will or ability to exact it. Sat it out rather than bang head against brick wall. Hope your experience will be better. Good luck.

[mannjon]

I think in the event that something like this is overturned, whoever accused someone of cheating should be banned for 1 year, and the person innocent should get a free 1 year subscription to PS+

[terra-wrists]

Seriously, is this game hackable?

no, but you can become good enough to get called a cheat - happens to the best of us. So "hack ya hands" :D

[Snakenator1]

Dear Mr Jake Nadin

We have concluded our investigations and have reached a final conclusion. Due to substantial evidence provided in your e-mail for your defence we have decided to reverse the claim, the account "Snakenator1" has now been restored and may access PSN servers once again. No further action will be taken and this case is now closed.

We would like to show you our sincere apologies, due to the recent attack against PlayStation on the 24th August we couldn't take any chances to protect the security of members accounts thus suspending your account till further notice. In order to show our apology we have added £5 free of charge to your PSN store wallet. We would also like to apologise to the website "WipeoutZone", by sharing the link you gave us we could see how much anger this issue we may have caused for your friends.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Sincerely
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.


That was an E-mail I just received, so that means:
SNAKENATOR IS BACK!!!!! :D

Huzzah that makes me really happy now ^_^ plus the fact they actually apologised to this forum as well makes it a satisfying apology for me. They're forgiven in my eyes now.
So I have £7.39 to spend now :)

Guys a big thanks for the support on this matter, all your replies had boosted my cause and saved my account from a perma-ban, I owe you all big time.
You can never remove this pilot from his WipEout :D

[Hellfire_WZ]

Glad to hear it, good to see common sense prevailed in the end :D

[Mikahail]

Good news to hear, Snake. They took their time (to fully investigate) but it's a good thing that you got back your account.

[stin]

Snake is alive!!!! aw nooo but very good news for you mate! :)

Still not got ps3 and still waiting for my mate for a job so I can buy a new ps3 :(

stevie:)

[Light Buster]

Good to see that SCEE finally realized that you weren't cheating. It would seem that the hack on the 24th of August put them on edge.

[Knux_Chaotix]

Aww, glad you got your account back Snake ^_^

[Snakenator1]

Just once again thank you for the support :) :3

[Ragsus Maxima]

Great to hear this! I told you had the upper hand! :)

[Snakenator1]

Okay just received this email from the person who accused me of hacking. Thought I share it:

"Dear Snakenator.

So obviously my effort to get you banned was a in-vain attempt, at first hearing that SCEE denied my request was infuriating because I thought I was reporting you for the safety of all PSN members. But recently looking on YouTube and watching videos of you guys playing the game to a really high level and getting similar issues of the ships bouncing and what else there is. Realising my mistake I wish to say sorry for all the trouble caused and perhaps we could forget this ever happened. Thanks."

So I replied (keeping him anomalous)

"Dear .............

Thank you for the apology and I'm glad you see the error of your way trying to ban me. While inconvenience was most definitely caused for me regarding my ability to play with friends, I am more than happy to not hold any grudges against you for taking the time to say sorry. In regards to your action taken its not to worry because I would of reported to SCEE as well, the fact you're concerned about other PSN users safety shows to me that you really are a good person. You're most certainly forgiven.

Yours truly
Snakenator1"

I think that's the definite end to this whole thing now, but it goes to show that I did originally have a wrong impression of this person. While I cannot say he was lying about other peoples interest on PSN, goes to show people will go out of their way to put things right when they've done wrong :)

[Jonny]

Invite him, Invite him to WOZ :P

[Snakenator1]

I rather not actually.

Looking over the email I noticed he sent from a disposable email address. This just says to me spammer/ trolls. Albeit he was kind enough to apologise.
Honestly with the best in my mind for this community we maybe better off without him. I don't want to introduce someone who'll potentially cause trouble for members, the mods and Charlie.

With that said I think I'm ready to move on and forget this happened, the case is now closed :)

[terra-wrists]

when they banned you, all I could imagine was MGS when snake dies... otacon pining down the comms with "snake... snaaake?... SNAAAAAAAKKKKEEEE"

I was pissing myself with laughter, but felt bad for you at the same time.

Welcome back bud :)

[Snakenator1]

^ I was thinking Otacon to actually xD

"Snakenator has been banned"
snake... snaaake?... SNAAAAAKKKKKEEEE!!

[blackwiggle]

I'm glad to see common sense was shown and the ban lifted.

It's really not in Sony's interest to ban people, they lose a customer, and as mentioned in their email response, realize that banning one person, can suddenly, due to the internet, have a whole group of other Sony customers offside with them.

They have to write a report on each complaint, somewhere down the line somebody at Sony might read that there is a active specialized Wipeout forum, and that people are still passionate about the franchise.