Hey, remember back in July Bashiok was all confident and stern about those Linux bans? Claiming that after thorough testing the bans were upheld because they were cheating? Remember how Bashiok adamantly claimed for the press that there were no false positives? Well, someone forgot to remind Blizzard's customer support that to keep up the appearance of being honest, you have to remember all your cohort's lies.
We've been covering Lenon K.'s continued persistence and perseverance with Blizzard's customer support and there appears to be a very, very interesting turn of events. In further developments of the Linux bans, it turns out that the reason the bans were sustained and upheld via an automated process was because Blizzard never investigated the matter to begin with. In a response to ticket #32355881, this is what customer support had to say...
Dear Lenon K.,The status of your Customer Support ticket #32355881 has changed to “Answered.”This is the latest response from Customer Support:Greetings Lenon,We cannot tell you specifically what is causing you what to get banned. I can give you an idea of why it is banned based on an educated guess. Since you are playing the game on an unsupported Operating system, the way it is communicating to the servers is throwing out "cues" similar to that of a hack program.If you bought another version of the game and played it on LINUX again, it would likely result in a ban again, since we do not test or support LINUX and would not be able to verify if you were using a bot or not.I hope that answers your question, but that is really all the information I can give you.If you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this ticket.Sincerely,Zalmanarr,Game MasterBlizzard Entertainmentwww.blizzard.com/support
Zalmanarr must be new. You're never supposed to be honest with customers lest you get your corporate Overlord in trouble for trying to maintain a lie.
Now before everyone jumps up and down exclaiming that this doesn't prove anything, remember what Bashiok said back on July 2nd, right there on the Diablo III forums...
We’ve extensively tested for false positive situations, including replicating system setups for those who have posted claiming they were banned unfairly. We’ve not found any situations that could produce a false positive, have found that the circumstances for which they were banned were clear and accurate, and we are extremely confident in our findings.Playing the game on Linux, although not officially supported, will not get you banned – cheating will.
If that was true Bashiok, why did support above just say that they didn't test for Linux exploits?
Also, if what Bashiok said was true then why weren't any other GMs notified that this was the actual turnout? This means one of two things: 1) Bashiok lied either on behalf of Blizzard or he was instructed to, and given that there would be no way for anyone to actually prove that they didn't test for false positives this was the lie they went with. 2) Support has no idea what's going on, never checked the records, was completely inept and entirely clueless about Blizzard's findings.
While Blizzard supporters would opt with number 2, let's be real here: The auto perma-bans are still occurring for Linux users. Support even states that given the lack of official support for Linux means that even with a second copy you would still get banned, it's why on the PlayOnLinux site people are still reporting auto-bans. Yes, some Linux users are playing without problems but others are hitting a brick wall called perma-banned.
Now let's get to the real issue here: If Linux users are being permanently banned and having their game license revoked with no option for a refund and Blizzard has not tested for actual false-positives but instead lied that these players are simply cheaters, this means that the company has committed fraud.
If Blizzard can show proof that the banned Linux players were actually cheating, something they weren't able to do when Marcus Meng and William Taylor came forward back in July, and customer support has already gone on record of saying that tests for false positives have not been conducted, then Blizzard could be looking at a serious lawsuit on their hands if anyone decides to follow through it.
Blizzard may not care but if you give an ounce of concern for your rights as a consumer this is definitely something you shouldn't let slide.
[Update: Zalmanarr had an update regarding Lenon's account saying the following...
I did have this checked on further and it looks like this account was not mistakenly banned due to using Linux, it was actually detected using specific Diablo 3 Bot programs. So if you were not the one responsible you may want to contact any other users of the account.We will not be able to offer a refund at this time for the product, but as stated, Linux alone should not be causing any bot dection issues, but since it Is unsupported we cannot guarantee that there won't be issues.
For the record, Lenon is not running bots and is the sole owner of the account. He's even offered to show Blizzard an image backup of his hard drive.]
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