[DisAB.ed]

@jo-ha

What makes you feel so sure, that you won’t get banned by Rovio any moment … for something you did already long ago?! There are no rules in this respect and Rovio don’t loose a word about this. Apart from merely technical aspects (which I am not able to judge), there is nothing that could keep Rovio from extending their search for potential ‘cheaters’ to earlier periods … and ban customers, who have been so unwise (or wise) to stop making further payments to Rovio (this, at least, seems to be a very plausible explanation for what happened at the recent ban-wave: Some players that ended up in top ranks of the MEBC season were banned, others escaped the ban).

[DisAB.ed]

@ryan-kochie,

I definitely prefer the policeman situation: There is a full set of explicit (and well-known) rules behind his actions …. and the meaning of terms such as ‘speeding’ (in contrast to terms like ‘exploit’ in the context of a gaming app) is absolutely clear to me. In addition, I have the opportunity to speak to the policeman before the ticket gets issued, and/or to complain about him and/or his ticket afterwards.

This all does not apply for Rovio resp. their game. It rather feels like living in a tyrant state: You wake up one morning and find yourself banned and exiled. No more word about it!

[DisAB.ed]

Ryan-kochie,

I respect your different view on this topic, but It is neither you nor me, who decide what is to be considered as an exploit of this game. It is up to Rovio  – but unfortunately they remain absolutely silent (Finnish style?) and don‘t offer any guidance (before-hand) or support/explanation (after having banned a customer) in this respect.

As long as Rovio refrain from giving  such guidance, there will always remain a risk for both sides, a risk for Rovio’, that their customers take a different view on what is allowed and not allowed in this game, and a risk for Rovio‘s customers, that they get punished/banned for reasons, that have never been and never will get explained to them.

In my view, it is Rovio‘s responsability to establish a customer relation that is not dominated by uncertainty and distrust!

[DisAB.ed]

RIP Piggies, you seem to be well informed about Rovio‘s terms of use and their banning policy:

(1) Was Rovio‘s recent ban actually only intended to take out  ‚maxed out‘ players? ( I was far away from being ‚maxed out‘, when I got banned)

(2) Can you be a bit more explicit as regards the ‚terms of use‘: What exactly is to be considered as a ‚cheat‘ under Rovio‘s terms of use?

 

[DisAB.ed]

From what I saw and heard since I started this thread one week ago, it seems that many players, that were banned by Rovio at the very end of first MEBC season had (only) applied the so-called ‚backup/restore‘ technique in the past (this technique was eliminated with the update early February 2018).

It is highly questionable, whether using this technique can be qualified as a ‚cheat‘ or ‚exploit‘ of the game, because that would conceptually require taking advantage of either an error or unintended malfunction of the program (cheat) or taking advantage of an unintended weakness of the programming (exploit), which obviously does not apply in this case, since Rovio had decided to program this app in way that it also makes use of the storage of the end user’s device (probably to save capacity on their own servers) and therefore must have always been aware and have deliberately taken into account, that any game content being stored on the end user’s device would/could be subject to a restoring (to an earlier state) of that device. You can hardly call this an ‚unintended‘ weakness (or malfunction) of the programming, but rather need to call this a ‚calculated or (at least) consciously accepted‘ weakness of the programming of this app.

Whatever one may think of this technique in legal terms, one thing is very obvious (and should also have been obvious to Rovio): Anyone who took the effort to (repeatedly) run through a backup  and restore process of his device just in order to speed up his progress in this game, must be (or have been) a dedicated/addicted player of AB 2. So, one should think that Rovio – with the backup/restore technique finally eliminated – would be happy to see all (or at least many of) these dedicated/addicted players become (sooner or later) ‚normal‘ – paying – costumers of Rovio (again).

But NO: Rovio decided to ban these players (or at least those, who may have been to slow in resuming to make payments to Rovio again) at a moment, when they could do no more ‚harm‘, and thereby missed a good chance of (re)increasing their base of paying customers.

Maybe Rovio follow the principle ‚Once a cheater, always a cheater‘, BUT: There is quite a difference between applying a technique in gameplay, which cannot be clearly qualified as a cheat (or exploit), and using a hack or any other method, that is clearly illegal.

Another possible explanation for that – I believe unwise – decision by Rovio may have been their urgent need to give some sign/prove of determined dealing with cheaters to their (other) customers (Look here: We are actually catching and banning cheaters!), BUT: It is quite obvious to everyone that the (true) cheating and hacking merrily goes one (just look at MEBC!) – with Rovio seemingly helpless in defending the integrity of this game.

The chances that anyone who has been banned and remains banned on such questionable grounds will simply open a new account and start to play this game all over again, seem to be pretty low.

To sum this up: Rovio’s recent banning campaign against players, that have applied the (now gone) backup/restore-technique in the past, but have evidently been playing this game with great dedication and would therefore very likely go on playing this game as ‚normal‘ (paying) customers, appears not only questionable from a legal point of view, but also counter-productive to Rovio’s naturally given desire to increase their customer base.

Maybe it’s not to late yet for Rovio to review their decision!

[DisAB.ed]

Hi Jeremy Wilson (who posted in this thread about 5 days ago): You’re not alone in your anger!

Like you, I have made substantial payments to Rovio in the past (and spent hundreds of hours in playing this game) and, like you, I have been ‚permanently banned‘ by Rovio (at the very end of the first MEBC season) on the grounds of having used a ‚cheat‘, although I never did or applied anything in my gameplay, which – also in the opinion of a befriended legal specialist, who took a close look at the way this app is programmed  – could be clearly qualified as a cheat (or exploit, or hack, or mod, …  or whatever else is listed as a breach in Rovio’s EULA) in legal terms.

It’s not only this (unfounded) ban of my account on it’s own, that makes me angry, but also other – highly irritating – consequences and implications of the ban:

(1) Rovio does not offer/provide any useful customer support in this respect (because they on principle refuse to „reveal details of specific cases“).

(2) With the ban resp. it’s programming Rovio prevent their customers from accessing online playmodes (Clan + MEBC) any longer, but do not prevent them from spending their (real) money for further online purchases (of gems). In other words: With the ban the end user’s licence is not terminated‚ but is simply being replaced by another licence: Instead of ‚PAY + PLAY‘ online it’s now ‚PAY, but  NOT PLAY‘ online!

(3) I founded an open clan some time ago and appointed only a co-leader (instead of a second – fully fledged – clan leader). With Rovio‘s blocking of my account all other (49) clan members got compromised and the whole clan is doomed, since Rovio seems not to be able and/or willing to offer any solution for them to get rid of their banned leader. Thus, with this ‚out of the blue‘ banning of my account (whether justified or not on it’s own) Rovio not only ‚punishes‘ me personally, but also all their other (49) customers who happen to be in the same clan (‚clan liability‘!).

There is no denying that Rovio is under heavy pressure caused by ongoing hacks of their software, which may explain ‚overreactions‘ by Rovio in the case of a supposedly detected cheat. BUT: If Rovio want to keep (at least some of) their credibility in terms of customer-friendliness, they need to be willing and prepared to review their own countermeasures and appropriated remedies (at least when required by an affected customer) in terms of both substance and equitability and to (immediately) take back such measures and remedies if these do not turn out to be indisputably justified and/or equitable in the case at hand.

I have not yet given up the hope that Rovio will either lift the ban of my account (this seemed to have happened frequently in the past) or at least resort to dealing seriously with my respective complaint within the next days. Otherwise I consider handing my ‚case‘ over to a friend working with a consumer protection association, and let those guys figure out whether this is something worth of being further pursued (under my home country’s jurisdiction, consumer protection standards are generally very high; EULA terms are only deemed to be valid and binding for a customer, if they have been brought to the customer’s attention prior to his purchase, which in practice never is the case).

[DisAB.ed]

I have a question in this context:

What‘s the effect of rainbow feathers, apart from what Rovio (totally uselessly) say on their homepage: ‚Rainbow feathers are a type of reward that lets you choose which bird you want to give feathers to.‘

Do they only serve as a decoration? Or do they have/provide any further benefit?