Question about GM warnings/ban

[Cerwin Vega]

I was trick or treating in Luna the other day and some wonderful person paged a GM on me for macroing. GM shows up and I told him I was trick or treating and have no macro programs on my computer. He said ok and let me go. About a hour later I get tired of trick or treating and stop to read these forums. When I look back at UO I'm logged out, so I log back in and I'm in a room with like 6 moongates. I check my emails and it says someone paged on me for macroing and the GM came and found me to be, so I get a written warning and after a few of those I'll get banned. I was in no way macroing and like I said... I have no macro programs on my computer. Does anyone know how many warning you get till your banned? I would be really pissed if my account got banned because some jerk off paged on me for something I wasn't even doing... who ever it was didn't even try to talk to me to see if I was there.

 

[GarthGrey]

1. Why were you ToTng in Luna ?
and
B..see 1.

 

[MalagAste]

If your character was in game... and can not answer a GM who tries to talk to you "ie if you were just standing there while you were reading Stratics or whatever online" and you didn't answer even if you logged yourself there at the bank that is not a safe log out place and you were in-game... so therefore they can assume you are afk macroing... as long as you don't answer... do NOT ever leave your character unattended especially at Luna Bank.

Also... used to be you got 3 such warnings... second time they give you a 3 day vacation from UO... so I'm told I've never had this happen.

Rule of thumb is if you can't be looking at your character playing them answering a GM should one get paged on you... go log out at home or in the Inn.

 

[OREOGL]

I was trick or treating in Luna the other day and some wonderful person paged a GM on me for macroing. GM shows up and I told him I was trick or treating and have no macro programs on my computer. He said ok and let me go. About a hour later I get tired of trick or treating and stop to read these forums. When I look back at UO I'm logged out, so I log back in and I'm in a room with like 6 moongates. I check my emails and it says someone paged on me for macroing and the GM came and found me to be, so I get a written warning and after a few of those I'll get banned. I was in no way macroing and like I said... I have no macro programs on my computer. Does anyone know how many warning you get till your banned? I would be really pissed if my account got banned because some jerk off paged on me for something I wasn't even doing... who ever it was didn't even try to talk to me to see if I was there.

Don't sweat it. Ive gotten warnings over the years and am still here.

Hell, I got "jailed" for training archery against a golem.

WTF, exactly, am I supposed to be actively doing at that point?

 

[MalagAste]

Don't sweat it. Ive gotten warnings over the years and am still here.

Hell, I got "jailed" for training archery against a golem.

WTF, exactly, am I supposed to be actively doing at that point?

Watching your character... All you have to do is be able to answer a GM should they be paged on you... If you can't.... You are AFK macroing the ONE AND ONLY thing they seem to care about anymore...

So go ahead and run 5 clients as one.... go ahead and use illegal 3rd party programs and dupe and whatever other illicit activity folk do... because AFK Macroing is the only thing you will eventually (after 3 or so times) get banned for.

Anyway you want to win you win. Just not AFK macroing.

 

[chester rockwell]

I wouldn't sweat it either. I've had some infractions for random dum crud in the past. It's all good tho. Just don't be a turdbag and you'll be fine.

However, I'm still waiting for gm's to monitor and do something about obvious cheaters and dopes that completely block routes of egress.

 

[OREOGL]

Watching your character... All you have to do is be able to answer a GM should they be paged on you... If you can't.... You are AFK macroing the ONE AND ONLY thing they seem to care about anymore...

So go ahead and run 5 clients as one.... go ahead and use illegal 3rd party programs and dupe and whatever other illicit activity folk do... because AFK Macroing is the only thing you will eventually (after 3 or so times) get banned for.

Anyway you want to win you win. Just not AFK macroing.

Nah you can't possibly run five clients on one computer and expect to answer within a couple minutes of a GM popping up.

Trust me, someone paged on me and a GM dragged me to jail while using a macro on uoassist, luckily I switched back just as he was "writing me up", and that was just two clients.

Lets face it, if they're going after people for something as petty as training archery and using a legal program, they've completely missed their mark.

 

[Merus]

Nah you can't possibly run five clients on one computer and expect to answer within a couple minutes of a GM popping up.

Trust me, someone paged on me and a GM dragged me to jail while using a macro on uoassist, luckily I switched back just as he was "writing me up", and that was just two clients.

Lets face it, if they're going after people for something as petty as training archery and using a legal program, they've completely missed their mark.

I disagree... how many clients you can successfully run without any 3rd party programs and be able to respond to a GM has a lot to do with your computer setup. I have 4 screens and could easily run 4 accounts without any 3rd party programs. I would know and be able to respond to a GM within seconds of being contacted because I can see all four screens at once. I see no reason why someone with more than 4 monitors would have any trouble with more than 4 accounts.

 

[OREOGL]

I disagree... how many clients you can successfully run without any 3rd party programs and be able to respond to a GM has a lot to do with your computer setup. I have 4 screens and could easily run 4 accounts without any 3rd party programs. I would know and be able to respond to a GM within seconds of being contacted because I can see all four screens at once. I see no reason why someone with more than 4 monitors would have any trouble with more than 4 accounts.

I have one screen, so its not feasible.

 

[Dot_Warner]

The GMs should have the ability to determine of your character is performing actions (we've been told that they can). Simply standing in the world AFK isn't macroing, nor should a player be punished for it. It's not as if there are a limited number of simultaneous connections anymore... If your character was doing something, anything (other than passively standing there), while you were gone, its fair game and lesson learned.

As for multi-clienting...
On occasion, I've run 5 EC's on one monitor with marginal lag. Granted, those were RP situations that didn't require much more than talking. Switching between clients can be annoying, however, as I run in windowed full screen and the EC is greedy.

I've can run quite a few CC's as well, if I tile the clients (47" monitor) but then it's incredibly distracting and unbearably tiny.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

Yes its lesson learned, I wont stand around afk. But I can clearly tell they have no idea if you have a program running or not because I wasn't. I even tried to fight the charges and they sent me another email saying they reviewed my claim and the GM was right... I was macroing. Didn't bother to show any proof or tell me what kind of macro I was supposedly using.

 

[Acid Rain]

Like Dot said, standing around in game isn't against TOS. Performing ANY action for ANYthing and not being able to respond to a GM is against TOS.
They 100% can tell what programs you have running or even loaded to run on your computer. You gave them
admin privs as soon as u log in. They can see whatever they want. They don't need to supply 'proof'.

 

[drcossack]

If your character was in game... and can not answer a GM who tries to talk to you "ie if you were just standing there while you were reading Stratics or whatever online" and you didn't answer even if you logged yourself there at the bank that is not a safe log out place and you were in-game... so therefore they can assume you are afk macroing... as long as you don't answer... do NOT ever leave your character unattended especially at Luna Bank.

Not true. I was at Luna some time ago, sitting in my usual spot by the moongate (went to eat dinner.) A GM was talking to me (I forget why I paged, but it's not relevant); I came back, saw that they were talking to me in journal. The GM didn't actually do anything other than have a one-sided conversation.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

Well I didn't get "written up" not being there to talk to the GM. I got wrote up for MACROING. In the email they made sure to point that out and give me there definition of macroing.

 

[Poo]

dont sweat it.
ive had many visits over the years.
just dont make a habit out of it and youll be fine.

here, just to give ya some flashbacks!

or if youve been REALLY BAD and are getting some real high end poop from them you go here

 

[Garen]

Like Dot said, standing around in game isn't against TOS. Performing ANY action for ANYthing and not being able to respond to a GM is against TOS.
They 100% can tell what programs you have running or even loaded to run on your computer. You gave them
admin privs as soon as u log in. They can see whatever they want. They don't need to supply 'proof'.

This is not true. If it's not in the ToS, it's safe to assume they are not scanning for anything. Years ago they wanted to utilize punkbuster and the uproar was enough to halt that project.

 

[cazador]

Just act like you don't speak English. Make up a language.. they'll get confused and send you back where u were...works like a charm!


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[Tyrath]

dont sweat it.
ive had many visits over the years.
just dont make a habit out of it and youll be fine.

here, just to give ya some flashbacks!

or if youve been REALLY BAD and are getting some real high end poop from them you go here

And in a time before tokens when you bought a advanced character over the phone and given the code. Sometimes the person on the phone would tell you to log in and they would pull you to the second place or tell you to page a GM in game they would pull you to the second place and then advance your character....... Sorry seeing that room brought back the memory.

 

[Acid Rain]

Well I didn't get "written up" not being there to talk to the GM. I got wrote up for MACROING. In the email they made sure to point that out and give me there definition of macroing.

You don't get in trouble for not responding to a GM. You get in trouble for, as u said, "MACROING". The fact that your performing some action & not at your computer proves it.

This is not true. If it's not in the ToS, it's safe to assume they are not scanning for anything. Years ago they wanted to utilize punkbuster and the uproar was enough to halt that project.

When anyone runs UO it must be done with Administrative Privilege's. You are giving the program Admin Privs. You have to click a box that tells you "this program may make changes to the hard drive of your computer", for whatever reasons. If they have the ability to change your hard drive do you really think they have no ability to look into the systems they can change?

The reason UO sought to utilize PunkBuster was so the GMs wouldn't have to be bothered doing this (looking into computers in cases of illegal activity). UO wanted to subcontract a job that GMs had already been doing on a case by case basis. This would free up GM time to handle legit player problems more efficiently. GMs do not actively look in player's computers unless they need to determine illegal activities. Mesanna recently told the group at a meet & greet how many "clean" players were present.

Don't fool yourself into believing that UO doesn't have the ability to do this whenever they deem it necessary. You gave them the right by playing their game.

On a side note, the uproar was a carefully planned and executed blitz on Stratics with negative comments by an extremely loud minority. Unfortunately, the plan worked.

 

[Garen]

You don't get in trouble for not responding to a GM. You get in trouble for, as u said, "MACROING". The fact that your performing some action & not at your computer proves it.



When anyone runs UO it must be done with Administrative Privilege's. You are giving the program Admin Privs. You have to click a box that tells you "this program may make changes to the hard drive of your computer", for whatever reasons. If they have the ability to change your hard drive do you really think they have no ability to look into the systems they can change?

The reason UO sought to utilize PunkBuster was so the GMs wouldn't have to be bothered doing this (looking into computers in cases of illegal activity). UO wanted to subcontract a job that GMs had already been doing on a case by case basis. This would free up GM time to handle legit player problems more efficiently. GMs do not actively look in player's computers unless they need to determine illegal activities. Mesanna recently told the group at a meet & greet how many "clean" players were present.

Don't fool yourself into believing that UO doesn't have the ability to do this whenever they deem it necessary. You gave them the right by playing their game.

On a side note, the uproar was a carefully planned and executed blitz on Stratics with negative comments by an extremely loud minority. Unfortunately, the plan worked.

This is foolish speculation. Companies do not open themselves to such liability without running it through legal and having such operations recorded in their fine print.

 

[Acid Rain]

Players have been pulled by GMs out of Yew and dungeons time & time again for running certain programs. The players have been jailed & told why action was taken due to said programs. These same players then relate the incident to every guild member in vent at the time. Granted, we have seen less of this in recent years but it has indeed happened.

Mesanna herself has made comments insinuating their ability to look into systems. This shouldn't surprise anyone. What's surprising is how some players don't understand this.

The foolish speculation is in the assumption it can't be or isn't done.

 

[Giggles]

A friend of mine got in trouble about 2 years ago. We had just finished something and he recalled to luna to go afk. He had his bard songs running, and was given a warning for unattended macroing. It was just bard songs running, and he was already max skills. Sometimes I think it really depends on the GM that responds.

 

[Garen]

Yea, it's all hearsay. Blizzard scans, it's in their ToS, and the entire thing has been analyzed and documented from security experts to hobbyists. Where's the analysis for UO? Did EA hire the NSA to code the most secret overt spyware that nobody can detect?

Really, we have accusations that dozens of people are "multi-boxing", and EA with their scanning software is doing... nothing.

Take off the tin foil hat.

 

[Acid Rain]

Open your eyes

 

[Dot_Warner]

They *might* be able to see what other processes are running alongside UO, but likely little/nothing more. However, something that interacts with the game's datastream could leave digital fingerprints they may be able to detect, especially if it actively uses the various hooks to request normally invisible information. Scanning a subscriber's HD without explicit consent would be a legal quagmire that EA is probably unwilling to defend for a 20yo IP they barely acknowledge ownership of.

When I read that M&G log, I found Mesanna's "only 3 legit" comment fairly preposterous, considering there was no reason to be running naughty programs just to chat. Possible yes, just...unlikely. It also smacked of Calvin's oft touted, much threatened, and ultimately vaporous Spreadsheet™.

Furthermore, since I seem to recall that Mesanna admitted to using Mr. Slicey, my faith in the dev's willingness/ability/what-have-you to combat such activities is less than zero. "Any way you want to win..." Indeed.

 

[petemage]

You don't get in trouble for not responding to a GM. You get in trouble for, as u said, "MACROING". The fact that your performing some action & not at your computer proves it.



When anyone runs UO it must be done with Administrative Privilege's. You are giving the program Admin Privs. You have to click a box that tells you "this program may make changes to the hard drive of your computer", for whatever reasons. If they have the ability to change your hard drive do you really think they have no ability to look into the systems they can change?

The reason UO sought to utilize PunkBuster was so the GMs wouldn't have to be bothered doing this (looking into computers in cases of illegal activity). UO wanted to subcontract a job that GMs had already been doing on a case by case basis. This would free up GM time to handle legit player problems more efficiently. GMs do not actively look in player's computers unless they need to determine illegal activities. Mesanna recently told the group at a meet & greet how many "clean" players were present.

Don't fool yourself into believing that UO doesn't have the ability to do this whenever they deem it necessary. You gave them the right by playing their game.

On a side note, the uproar was a carefully planned and executed blitz on Stratics with negative comments by an extremely loud minority. Unfortunately, the plan worked.

The client itself does not run under administrative privileges. It's only the patcher that does. Please get your facts straight

 

[CovenantX]

I was trick or treating in Luna the other day and some wonderful person paged a GM on me for macroing. GM shows up and I told him I was trick or treating and have no macro programs on my computer. He said ok and let me go. About a hour later I get tired of trick or treating and stop to read these forums. When I look back at UO I'm logged out, so I log back in and I'm in a room with like 6 moongates. I check my emails and it says someone paged on me for macroing and the GM came and found me to be, so I get a written warning and after a few of those I'll get banned. I was in no way macroing and like I said... I have no macro programs on my computer. Does anyone know how many warning you get till your banned? I would be really pissed if my account got banned because some jerk off paged on me for something I wasn't even doing... who ever it was didn't even try to talk to me to see if I was there.

was your character Trick-or-treating while you were reading for forum? If not that GM needs to be fired.

 

[OREOGL]

was your character Trick-or-treating while you were reading for forum? If not that GM needs to be fired.

Nah, some of these GMs are a little over willing to pull people in.

I need to start taking screenshots of ones like GM River pulling me in despite being attended.

His excuse was "you didn't answer."

Wrong, he never asked just instantly teleported me to "jail".

I should have taken the screenshot of me talking to him while in there for "macroing".

 

[Captn Norrington]

Does anyone know how many warning you get till your banned?

A lot. They give you like 2 warnings, then a 1 day suspension, then 3 more warnings, a 3 day suspension, 5 more warnings, a month long suspension, a few more warnings, then a perma ban.

That's the way it used to be anyways. Not counting instant bans for dupers and stuff like that.

 

[OREOGL]

A lot. They give you like 2 warnings, then a 1 day suspension, then 3 more warnings, a 3 day suspension, 5 more warnings, a month long suspension, a few more warnings, then a perma ban.

That's the way it used to be anyways. Not counting instant bans for dupers and stuff like that.

Used to be instant ban.

Now, it's not even policed.

 

[Winker]

I got a 3 day ban for just standing at Luna bank AFK, i got on the phone and complained and ended up getting 6 moths free game time.

 

[Nonel]

Simply by being pulled to jail your account is marked; no matter if the GM does anything or not. So that part sucks.




At least I got a free name change.....

 

[Dixie chessy/legends]

if they dont want people standing around in luna then they should make it so ur toon actually times out there. i dont see how they can accuse you of macroing when your toon was doing nothing......i mean if u werent casting spells, hitting something or saying trick or treat over and over while the gm was there talking to you "and you not responding" then how do they know what u was doing.......it is a flaw in their game that people wont time out in luna, if they dont like it then they need to fix it......

 

[OREOGL]

Simply by being pulled to jail your account is marked; no matter if the GM does anything or not. So that part sucks.

View attachment 54699


At least I got a free name change.....

Out of all your names, what on earth convinced you to choose a butt lobster?

 

[Cady]

The GMs are getting ridiculous these days. I got a One day recently for calling someone a 'b*tch' and a three day for telling someone to 'get off my d---'. Same account since 2003 with no suspensions, then two in about two months for the pettiest stuff i could imagine.

It's fine though, run programs that make you skip across people's screen so fast a dexer can interrupt all your minheals, but average ****talking, no, that's a no-go.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I was trick or treating in Luna the other day and some wonderful person paged a GM on me for macroing. GM shows up and I told him I was trick or treating and have no macro programs on my computer. He said ok and let me go. About a hour later I get tired of trick or treating and stop to read these forums. When I look back at UO I'm logged out, so I log back in and I'm in a room with like 6 moongates. I check my emails and it says someone paged on me for macroing and the GM came and found me to be, so I get a written warning and after a few of those I'll get banned. I was in no way macroing and like I said... I have no macro programs on my computer. Does anyone know how many warning you get till your banned? I would be really pissed if my account got banned because some jerk off paged on me for something I wasn't even doing... who ever it was didn't even try to talk to me to see if I was there.

Did you have a quick key set up to target next SAY Trick or Treat if so you were macroing, a macro is as simple as bandageself set up on a key. Now the question comes what was your toon doing while standing AFK (this is not illegal) in Luna. Did you have any masteries running or anything like that. Double check your toon and make sure you know exactly what is running while you are just standing there. You may have something active that you are unaware of. If being AFK were an infraction there would be tons of posts yelling WTF.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Sounds like we got some new sheriffs in town.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

dont sweat it.
ive had many visits over the years.
just dont make a habit out of it and youll be fine.

here, just to give ya some flashbacks!

or if youve been REALLY BAD and are getting some real high end poop from them you go here

If someone in authority drug me to a bedroom to punish me, I'd be super concerned.

 

[Nonel]

Out of all your names, what on earth convinced you to choose a butt lobster?

The character already existed on an account that was given to me. Thing is, the character had existed for years at that point. I still have his AoS sandals and numerous tagged items with the name, though. Hehe

 

[Capt. Lucky]

The character already existed on an account that was given to me. Thing is, the character had existed for years at that point. I still have his AoS sandals and numerous tagged items with the name, though. Hehe

While I don't see it as a particularly classy name, I hardly think it would require attention. I guess the Butt Lobster has a bit of a cult following lol

 

[Arcus]

If your character was in game... and can not answer a GM who tries to talk to you "ie if you were just standing there while you were reading Stratics or whatever online" and you didn't answer even if you logged yourself there at the bank that is not a safe log out place and you were in-game... so therefore they can assume you are afk macroing... as long as you don't answer... do NOT ever leave your character unattended especially at Luna Bank.

Also... used to be you got 3 such warnings... second time they give you a 3 day vacation from UO... so I'm told I've never had this happen.

Rule of thumb is if you can't be looking at your character playing them answering a GM should one get paged on you... go log out at home or in the Inn.

In all my years and all the time of leaving my character logged in to do wash, go shopping , go to work I have never been paged on for macroing. This is ludicrous. If you arent doing anything other than standing there then there is nothing for a GM to do.

In my experience most of the "OMG I was banned for doing nothing" posts lack important information and are full of holes. This goes with any and every MMO.

 

[PaithanTheElf]

then it's incredibly distracting and unbearably tiny.

That's what she said

 

[chester rockwell]

I had a char named boob back in the day. Some do-gooder nerd paged on me. I get yanked to jail, gm was an impatient ahole and said to pick a new name. I asked if I could have a min to think of one, he said no and changed my name to Yusef. The stupid NPC name. So, I start caps locking at him about hold on, hold on.....he said, 5 seconds gimme a name. So, I gave him a name I heard on a movie a little bit earlier...it wasn't funny or clever. blah.
Fast forward a few years, you have a guild running around named boob. GM's have a lot of indiscretion....which I like....but fire the tard ones.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

In all my years and all the time of leaving my character logged in to do wash, go shopping , go to work I have never been paged on for macroing. This is ludicrous. If you arent doing anything other than standing there then there is nothing for a GM to do.

In my experience most of the "OMG I was banned for doing nothing" posts lack important information and are full of holes. This goes with any and every MMO.

I have heard it stretched to say you were regaining mana unattended. If someone is busted for just standing there it's an entirely new policy or people haven't been trained properly. I don't have an issue with rules but I like to know what the rules are....

 

[PaithanTheElf]

Simply by being pulled to jail your account is marked; no matter if the GM does anything or not. So that part sucks.

View attachment 54699


At least I got a free name change.....

You are lucky. I was never pulled anywhere. I had two characters named "Sir Poops-a-Lot"- one on atlantic and one on Lake Austin. With no warning I log in one day and my one guy is named Orson and my other guy was named Ray.

THANKS EA

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Reminds me of Barrack's Old Beat Up Ring. Think I spelled that pretty close If you log out with that ring on you will pop back into the game for no reason I know of. I've logged out and back in with another character and had the guy with the ring pop back up usually out of hiding. So I guess I need to take my jewels off before logging out

 

[Capt. Lucky]

You are lucky. I was never pulled anywhere. I had two characters named "Sir Poops-a-Lot"- one on atlantic and one on Lake Austin. With no warning I log in one day and my one guy is named Orson and my other guy was named Ray.

THANKS EA

Better than "name change required" or whatever that was they use to do. Orson is odd enough that I kinda like it

 

[Aran]

I had a character named Jesus Christ for years (GM of LDS). One day I logged in and they took the Christ away without notice.

 

[Tyrath]

After 14 years some nugget paged on poor RumpledForeskin and the next time I logged in his name was Peter.

 

[cazador]

Note to self..don't afk in luna


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