Mattzby

@handlas said:

@Fockinator said:

@handlas said:

Im in the same boat now... Suspended or banned from PSN. Not a single clue why. PSN name is cats-go-meyow. I rarely play online... havent touched anytthing online in probably a month. I pay for PSN Plus and rent movies off the PS store all the time. So now I have no access to those things nor the ability to get to my credit card info thru my PS3... hopefully I can thru the website.

Very sh*tty... they give you no reason why either. Ive contacted them for more info. I assumed you probably did something really bad... now I can see it from your position... good motivation to go back to playing everything on the 360

Edit: Got a response to my email in regards to why I was suspended or banned (don't even know which). "Call us at this number Monday-Friday." So my account is taken down on Sunday with no way of contacting them. You are even banned from logging into the playstation website to view any of your account info. So they have my credit card info, PSN games, movies, etc. with no way for me to log in to access or remove them. And I'm sure they have auto-renew on PSN Plus which they will gladly do to the CC I can't get to which is new so I guess I need to cancel it. Welp, No more PSN for me... too ridiculous. I can say I never had an issue like this with Live and I've used it longer.

TC, you ever find out any info?

I had to wait for information on why I was banned too. It really is frustrating to be denied access to content you've paid for and to have to wait multiple days for any explanation. I would think it would save their customer service department a ton of phone calls if an email was sent out with all the information at the moment an account was deemed banned from PSN.

Also, yes, I did get more information, as it turns out a moderator on Twisted Metal found my name offensive (seemingly nothing to do with what I said to that one player, unless the moderator was talking trash over the mic) and reported it to PSN which resulted in the instant ban. There's no way to argue with this since apparently the community moderators that make these decisions can only be reached through the PSN forums, which you are locked out of upon the banning of your PSN account. No one I spoke with or emailed at Sony seemed on-board or supportive of the current method (unintended punishment) of which they take away friends, trophies, stats, for a name change, but apparently the company doesn't want to invest in creating a more efficient way to change names either. On top of that, my suggestion to make the account name creation filter more strict (to avoid my situation in the future for others) was criticized with the attitude of "We'll never be able to stop creation of all names we will deem offensive enough to ban, so why make the effort?".

All in all, it's not the type of service I wanted to continue supporting... so I sold my PS3 and games and bought a 360.

welp luckily I already have a 360. So were you ever unbanned tho? I mean... I have a damn Vita which I bought all my games from the PSN store and since I'm essentially barred from going on to PSN if I were to ever delete these game there is no way I can redownload them. That's basically taking away something I purchased. I'm going to assume I'm merely suspended for whatever reason because if I can't even think of what I've done wrong I can't imagine it warranted a ban. It's been a day now and no response still; I was told I'd recieve an email with 48 hours. If you go on the PSN website it's rather easy to report a user for any offense. I guess Sony is suspension happy unlike 360... cuz I report a-holes all the time on Live and nothing happens. Never reported someone on PSN tho because there was never a need. I'm gonna have to assume this is the cause until I get word back.

Maybe this is punishment for buying a Vita.

No worries about ur name... people are far too uptight. I got banned from a couple of places for the username "bassturd." I'm so bad.

In my case, I could have been unbanned if I called them up and gave them a new name. I had no problem with this until I found out all the information lost in Sony's databases as a result of a name change. They had planned out their database relationships very poorly and thus a name change results in a disassociation between your account and store purchases, friends, trophies and online statistics. Now, a Sony employee will manually associate past store transactions with your new account name, but they can't be bothered to go through in every database (friends/messages/trophies) and associate everything back to your new account name. It's time consuming and ultimately, they shouldn't need someone manually doing this in the first place. As a 360 owner, you may be aware that Microsoft suffers none of these issues when changing a name because they have a better account database infrastructure.

As long as your name isn't offensive and you haven't cheated/modded your PS3, I don't see how they'd ban you.

@handlas said:

Im in the same boat now... Suspended or banned from PSN. Not a single clue why. PSN name is cats-go-meyow. I rarely play online... havent touched anytthing online in probably a month. I pay for PSN Plus and rent movies off the PS store all the time. So now I have no access to those things nor the ability to get to my credit card info thru my PS3... hopefully I can thru the website.

Very sh*tty... they give you no reason why either. Ive contacted them for more info. I assumed you probably did something really bad... now I can see it from your position... good motivation to go back to playing everything on the 360

Edit: Got a response to my email in regards to why I was suspended or banned (don't even know which). "Call us at this number Monday-Friday." So my account is taken down on Sunday with no way of contacting them. You are even banned from logging into the playstation website to view any of your account info. So they have my credit card info, PSN games, movies, etc. with no way for me to log in to access or remove them. And I'm sure they have auto-renew on PSN Plus which they will gladly do to the CC I can't get to which is new so I guess I need to cancel it. Welp, No more PSN for me... too ridiculous. I can say I never had an issue like this with Live and I've used it longer.

TC, you ever find out any info?

I had to wait for information on why I was banned too. It really is frustrating to be denied access to content you've paid for and to have to wait multiple days for any explanation. I would think it would save their customer service department a ton of phone calls if an email was sent out with all the information at the moment an account was deemed banned from PSN.

Also, yes, I did get more information, as it turns out a moderator on Twisted Metal found my name offensive (seemingly nothing to do with what I said to that one player, unless the moderator was talking trash over the mic) and reported it to PSN which resulted in the instant ban. There's no way to argue with this since apparently the community moderators that make these decisions can only be reached through the PSN forums, which you are locked out of upon the banning of your PSN account. No one I spoke with or emailed at Sony seemed on-board or supportive of the current method (unintended punishment) of which they take away friends, trophies, stats, for a name change, but apparently the company doesn't want to invest in creating a more efficient way to change names either. On top of that, my suggestion to make the account name creation filter more strict (to avoid my situation in the future for others) was criticized with the attitude of "We'll never be able to stop creation of all names we will deem offensive enough to ban, so why make the effort?".

All in all, it's not the type of service I wanted to continue supporting... so I sold my PS3 and games and bought a 360.

@Katkillad said:

I would report this thread if i could. I find it hilarious this guy has been defending his injustice to the grave for 5 days. Plain and simple...it's called a word filter and "Fock" isn't in it. You pissed someone off and your inappropriate name caught up with you. Deal with it. If you don't like your trophies gone, get a 360. They would have just made you change it and you keep your achievements.

Defending yourself when you feel you've been unfairly treated is pretty hilarious. I've been defending it mainly because it's bigger than me just being banned. It's a giant company with a rule in place that has an overblown punishment because they screwed up somewhere along the line and can't respond to the offense appropriately. The person I spoke with at Sony admitted this, but when I brought up, well if this can happen, why not make the filter more strict? He thought it was ridiculous. "We can't catch em all, so why try?" So a fairly lenient filter, with an exaggerated punishment that no other online gaming service (I can think of) enforces, is a pretty unacceptable combination.

I didn't piss someone off as much as I let someone piss me off. They engaged me, and where I guess I should have ran to the report button, I ran to the reply button. I suppose it's a pretty clever move to harass someone with a microphone then report them if they reply in text. I learned my lesson there. But it's done and over with, the 360 is already on its way in and the PS3 is packed up and about to be on its way out.

@mandude said:

@Fockinator said:

@mandude said:

'Offensive' has no factual basis. Different kinds of people will find different things offensive.

There's a difference between being offended by something and knowing something is offensive. I can easily recognize Jizz_Bubble is an offensive name even though I'm not personally offended by it.

@Fockinator said:

@Enigma777 said:

It's not an argument, it's a fact.

But offensiveness is all subjective and not based on some objective fact.

Ok, the point is that Sony should have all terms it finds objectively offense in the account creation filter. But judging from my discussion with them, that list never changes.

@huntad said:

@Fockinator said:

@huntad said:

Demanding the suspension/banning of others is not helping your case.

Asking everyone with some variation of profanity in their PSN ID to be banned would result in a few thousand if not tens of thousands of bans. I think that'd really help my case. If a company were to fire someone named John and then give the reason his name was inappropriate... He wouldn't have a case if he pointed out that thousands of other John's still work for the company and that his reason for being fired was actually not valid?

No, I mean the case that I bring up that is about your maturity and whether you deserve to be banned or not. Personally, I don't see your name as offensive, but you brought attention to yourself and got yourself banned out of immaturity/pettiness. Your demands coincide precisely with the very reason that got you banned in the first place. Unless of course you really choose to ignore the fact that you 'threw out some terms' and instead blame it all on Sony's reasons. They probably did that because they lack the means to prove that you were acting in an offensive manner.

Regardless, demanding bans for people that choose similar names is immature (as you admit). If you really want others to take the fall for your actions, complaints and demands such as these will be the downfall of the community. Just because people have similar names does not mean they behave the same way. Some people may have matured and grown out of the state that they were in when they chose the name. Life isn't fair, so just change your name and start over ... hopefully for the better.

I don't judge you beyond what you've already pointed out. I hope everything works out in the end, but please don't try to bring everyone down with you. This only involves you, your actions, and Sony. Contact Sony for clarification on their reasoning.

Who knows if I got banned out of immaturity/pettiness? Who knows if that guy actually reported me? It certainly wouldn't require immaturity/pettiness on my part to have caused this. Maybe I kill someone 50 times in a row and they report me for "cheating" when its clear I'm not. Sony would look at the case and ban me for my name. The terms I threw out were significantly less offensive than the terms found in the the very game I was playing. This guy if he did report me for offensive language, wasn't actually offended, or else he wouldn't have been playing the game.

I don't see how me contesting a treatment that I consider unfair, and a punishment enforced only because of technical failures on Sony's part, is immature. It's been almost everyone vs. me in this thread, and I'm happy to hear people's arguments, and try to respond to everyone with how I'm honestly thinking. I'm a bit worried about the complacency I've seen towards Sony's inexcusable technical shortcomings, but I haven't just thrown insults around at people. I think the majority of posts have been thoughtful and have made me think about my reasoning.

I just think, in my case, of being banned from an inappropriate sequence of letters, that it should be almost a systematic approach of punishment. People with "Fock" shouldn't be flying under the radar, earning trophies, building up online statistics for 5 years before getting caught. I was one person's complaint away from being banned for 5 years. That blows my mind.

@BasketSnake said:

This is what happens when you're HACKING! oO

Hacking or having one person find your name offensive... Seems like they are both on the same level.

@RobotHamster said:

Well if you need a new name...

Why not zoidberg?

Well, I don't need a new PSN name since I'm taking my business elsewhere. Maybe I'll try some name with Zoidberg there. :)

@Enigma777 said:

@Fockinator said:

@Enigma777 said:

You deserve to be banned.

Thanks for your riveting argument, Hitler Pikachu.

It's not an argument, it's a fact.

If I got banned for hacking, its a fact I deserved it. But offensiveness is all subjective and not based on some objective fact. That's probably why they don't hand out first time offense bans for saying something extremely offensive to another player. You get several suspensions before you ever reach a ban.

@Enigma777 said:

You deserve to be banned.

Thanks for your riveting argument, Hitler Pikachu.

@fox01313 said:

Either make a new name or change it, it seems too immature or someone who's a fan of those films which nobody with enough common sense should be using.

I'm fine with your opinion, but my impression was it was safe since it had a massive presence in media and really I thought the FCC would be more strict than Sony. But the fact is, anything could be construed as offensive. Is mine closer to the offensive line than others? Sure, but how far can we make a leap? Fock and Focker are last names and the reference to a popular movie (no matter how much you hate it, you knew of it, didn't you?) as I said before. I could interpret "fox" as a plural of "fock"... I'm now offended by your name. Maybe a fox brutally mauled my little sister and scarred our family for life.... Now I'm offended by your name. Fox rhymes with Cox (which although it is a last name), its also a way to circumvent profanity filters. Now I'm really offended. There's so much stuff people can come up with to turn anything offensive in their minds. I had a discussion about this with the Sony rep and he agreed that even if I just made a user name Mr(MyLastName), there's grounds it could be banned.

So, say what you want, but Sony really should put more effort into the filtering of terms they find offensive enough to ban, during account creation. The person I talked to sounded completely defeated by the idea of filtering out anything more than what they currently are. They can't catch everything, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. It doesn't mean they shouldn't try to prevent this situation of an account being ok for 5 years then 1 person having an issue with it and that being the end of the account. I could come up with a list in less than an hour that's miles ahead of what Sony has in place now.

@huntad said:

Demanding the suspension/banning of others is not helping your case.

Asking everyone with some variation of profanity in their PSN ID to be banned would result in a few thousand if not tens of thousands of bans. I think that'd really help my case. If a company were to fire someone named John and then give the reason his name was inappropriate... He wouldn't have a case if he pointed out that thousands of other John's still work for the company and that his reason for being fired was actually not valid?

@mfpantst said:

So I like to operate under a pretense that I like to be aware of and avoid situations like yours by being aware of the ramifications of my choices, and adjusting for the consequences I care about, and not crying about the ones which I don't. TLDR; He takes his lumps and doesn't complain.

Trophies (of which I'm honestly most frustrated about losing), weren't introduced til about 2 years after I had been using this name on PSN. I'm sorry I wasn't aware of this consequence. I've used this name on many other services with no complaints, and its just bad luck I get called out for it on a service that was created with such poor database design.

So in order to dispute any of this with the people who make the decisions to ban based on the appropriateness of the account, you can contact them on the forums, of which, you are locked out of upon any account being banned (So my master account (not Fockinator) which can sign in to PSN, cannot use the forums). So like some of you have stated, there is absolutely no way to argue any ban/suspension. I don't think it's an organizations obligation to have to deal with arguments over these type of issues necessarily, but paired with the unfair punishment Sony imposes upon requiring a name change, it'd be nice.

But, as the Sony Customer Service rep I spoke with put it, it's not intended to be a punishment that you friends/stats/trophies get lost upon a name change, its just a technical failing and lack of foresight in Sony's data infrastructure design. Somewhere in their data relationships, they are using that name to connect data, which is a database design failure I've learned to avoid in one of my very first database courses, but a big company like Sony didn't understand. Well, they understood it on the Japanese side of PSN, with users freely able alter their names because they are used strictly for display purposes (as they should be), but for some reason decided against that in other regions databases and decided it to be for both display and record identification. They missed a huge revenue stream (people petitioning to pay for name changes) by diverting to this setup.