Ubisoft and Massive deserve a whole lot of criticism for this game and the final product vs the marketing hype with which they have misled large amounts of games. Their answer to the increasing amount of critical posts and questions in regards to their companies policy towards people being locked out, game breaking glitches such as character resets, exploits and downright shifty and dodgy replies of community representatives is to ban users for "toxicity".
Toxicity has become synonymous with criticism and censorship has become its cure....instead of actually taking adequate action to prevent people from being thoroughly dissatisfied with the content you create, the lack of action and accountability...and with the obvious lies you have told.
You created the issues. We call you out on them. This is not toxicity.
This is holding a mirror up for you. You don't like the news or the things we have to say...then change.
Instead you crack down in order to try and stifle the negative comments with bans that you do not even hand out for people who actively hack your game, cheat, and cause a large part of negativity about your in-actions and poor performance. Even when users being critical in no way violated your rules.
This has always been a very poor choice that rarely worked out well for companies...you can not stop criticism unless you take away the root causes that cause it in the first place....which means you need to change.
I've been watching these forums while at work. I've SEEN these threads. In all honesty, the admins did right by locking/closing most of these, and banning the accounts that continued to pop up and saying the things they did. ANY game forum would have done the same thing Ubi did in these thread cases because it just turned into, or was just outright started as threads to do no more then cause flame wars, vulgarity, and verbal threats.
People need to start reading the ToS/Eula/CoC. It's clearly spelled out the types of things you CAN'T do in the forums. These are usually the same for any game companies forums, as they own it, and don't want the threads to be nothing but hate mongering. It's not 'censorship'. If that were the case, 70% of the threads being posted up would have been deleted.
People need to stop coming in here, start a verbal assault, then get surprised when the thread full of threats, language, and verbal violence get deleted or closed.
If you HAVE an issue with a game, make a respectable post about it like a normal person, and try not to spark a war when posting in them. I guarantee you'll see that the 'censorship' isn't there.
Look at how we're not banning you, and not even closing your thread because it's not toxic, while it is full of criticism.
We're only banning people who are behaving toxic, i.e. namecalling, flaming, insulting other users, staff and the development team, etc...
I said it before, we have no issue with people voicing their criticisms, positive or negative. We only ask they do it in a polite, respectful way so polite and respectful discussion can take place.
We're well aware the game has issues, I'm in the process of updating the entire Known Issues thread.
Calling censorship because we ban people who are not contributing to meaningful discussion is not censorship, that's moderation, and it's our job.
What I'm guessing though, is that you were banned on a different account, which is against forum rules. So I advise you not to circumvent our forum rules by posting on a ban evasion account.
There is a HUGE difference between criticism and toxicity.
Constructive criticism is welcome, by all, even "fanboys" because it helps to point out things that others may not see, and at the same time, alert the game company to issues and concerns by the user base.
Flaming, trolling, profanity, temper tantrums, etc., are not constructive.
If someone's only reason to create or reply to a thread is to rant about how bad the company is, how bad the game is, how bad the cheating is, etc., then think hard about what you are saying when you rant.
Coming into a games forums and doing nothing but complaining about the company, the game, and the users, is akin to being invited to Easter Dinner, showing up, not liking the food, and taking a HUGE dump on the dining room table to show your displeasure.
It is rude, inappropriate, and will get your tossed out on your ear.
There's a difference between being negative, and being toxic.Originally Posted by subpeo Go to original post
Do what you need to do boss. Gamers take our games too seriously and it's difficult not to take things 'personally', even though everyone knows that getting into a virtual fighting match on the internet is pointless and ultimately frustrating. Be well and keep up the good job.Originally Posted by Natchai_Ubisoft Go to original post
For all US citizens, the 1st Amendment is not an excuse to vent your spleen. It, like all of our Amendments, come with the associated responsibilities of respecting the rights and beliefs of others. May be they don't teach that in school anymore, but look it up if you don't believe me.
No actually you are not "only banning people who are behaving toxic" since a lot of users you banned have not in fact resorted to name calling or insulting the users staff or development team. However insulting staff, and the development team is an arbitrary and very subjective wording. When calling game design lazy, calling a company out on having lied, and staff on ignoring repeated and legitimate questions from large sections of the community is reason for being banned under toxic then yes...you could indeed word that as "insulting the staff and dev team". However...that does not make it any less valid criticism nor does it mean that is not a valid contribution to a respectful discussion.Originally Posted by Natchai_Ubisoft Go to original post
What is a less than valid response is not motivating a ban with a link to the offending post you interpreted as being against these arbitrary interpretative rules. This is not moderation, about which you do not need to educate me being both a mod and admin on several forums, it is subjective application of rules and that is indeed censorship.
But this banning is not the only issue. It is merely the most obnoxious one. Censorship is a wider problem on this forum....as you have closed and deleted threads which did have value, did contain valid discussions and did indeed address important issues for no other reason than ending the discussion itself or because you didn't want that discussion to proceed.
We all know this game has severe issues. All of these issues however are caused by one of several reasons for which the company, staff and devs are directly responsible. And among those reasons is the attitude of the company and its representatives in both their marketing and handling of consumer interactions or their communication about it both inside and outside of this specific forum. Your arbitrary rules here place them above reproach.
That said. Of course you won't close this thread or ban me because that would immediately validate everything I have just said.
The 1st Amendment has no bearing on a private company's forums.Originally Posted by calimwulf Go to original post
The 1st Amendment applies to the US Government, not private companies.
Exactly. Not to mention threads that warned about backpack issues and the possible causes in the early days. Threads about exploits. Threads about misinformation.Originally Posted by Force58 Go to original post
Several of my friends got banned here without so much as ever coming close to being toxic. Not flaming or trolling or insulting anybody not even using foul language. No reason given outside of "banned for toxicity" which is of course a great way to dismiss any user's comments or protest about being banned.
When no links are given to the offending post then it is poor moderation and administration and very unprofessional. It becomes a mere subjective application of personal likes and dislikes...and for some reason is absolutely prevalent applied to people being critical and voicing dissent. People defending the game and flaming or insulting everybody else rarely seem to suffer the same fate.