MS Ban Hammer - 10.30.09

Alright its Nov 17 and facebook/twitter update is live? Is it safe to update, I mean will you get INSTANTLY detected and/or banned?

 

Why not try it and let us know.

 

i like the way you think.

 

If I do, I'll try later today and I'll make sure to let u guys know. =[

 

What are fishticks?

 

I just hope they dont block 3rd party HDD's with all these updates because i have a dodgy 120gig elite one and just bought a 250gig third party one for $75!

 

I got good news! I did go online thinking that there would be a dashboard update or just any update, but I was wrong. The facebook/twitter was just a download that you can optionally choose to download from the market place. That means we just have to worry about the ban hammer not MS detecting our disk with updates =]

 

Following up,

With regards to the Live! subscription stuff I mentioned earlier
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Nov 07, 2009 Purchase Messenger Live bundle (12 month card + headset and keypad) -- $100 CAD after taxes
Nov 15, 2009 Authorization To MICROSOFT *BILLING 800 386 5550 WA Completed Details -$73.90 USD
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Finally got a hold of someone at Microsoft who claims they can deal with this. Basically, first level tech, and first supervisor said they could refund "63.90" of that transaction, and cancel my account, but I would lose the 12 Month time card I entered. Second level supervisor said they may be able to credit back "63.90" to my card, and becuase it would cancel my account and the 12 month card would be lost, they are looking into my suggestion of simply re-activating it with another 12 month card. This will allegedly take 5-10 business days for someone to call me back.

Second issue -- which is the main one. I have had my Xbox Premium which I purchased brand new sealed at WalMart for approximately 8-10 months. This Xbox has NEVER been opened, moded, or whatever. There isn't so much as a sticker on it. It is 100% original. I believe the ban occurred on my Xbox 360 due to all these funky billing things as it occured on mine shortly after entering the 12 Month time card which seemed to automatically switch my plan from monthly to annualy, which I didn't think much of at the time as this seemed logical. I still have not recieved a call back on my ticket with regards to the ban, however, I have been told that because they are aware that some were banned that shouldn't have been, they are working towards setting up something to help fix those peoples problems, but there is no estimated date as to when the program will start.

As for the fact that if my problem is not resolved, I will switch from Microsoft -- I never claimed I would go specifically to Linux, however that is one of many options and only for the Operating system. For hardware, there are many solid options available. For example, Logitech also makes nice keyboards / mice / remotes / etc.

I am trying to be patient with this issue and fair. I understand that Microsoft has banned a lot of Xbox 360's for modding, etc, however, I know that in my particular case, mine was banned for none of those reasons. Perhaps my CPUID was similar to someone elses, or a glitch in the system, I am not sure as I don't know nor do I care to know how the process was done. What does concern me is the fact that this CAN and DOES happen to legitimate Xbox 360's and being their is no recourse or immediatly available resolution for these cases, this is a problem. You would think that prior to the ban, they would have setup in place something for those who were banned by mistake. I understand that as with anything, mistakes do occur, however it is when mistakes occur and no action is possible for an indefinite period to remediate, is when I have a problem.

Yes, Microsoft does make good product, but this ban is very unscroupulous -- even for those who have one which is modded, I just can't fathom how many may/will end up in a trash can -- that is a lot of electronic components, and plastics which aren't exactly recyclable. One might say this is not a very GREEN move. Forcing consumers to buy another one in order to play on live? What about all the ones for sale on craigslist etc, the buyers of those devices can't go on Live either. Should there not be a method (maybe send in to be "unmodded" or whatever), to unban those consoles for the re-buyers ?

Just some food for thought.

 

PS.

Games are friggen cheap now, so why anyone would MOD their Xbox is beyond me. It used to be if you modded your gaming platform it would allow you to do a lot of different things outside of simply playing burnt discs. Now, from what I understand, all the mod does is allow you to play "backup" copies of your games -- which isn't such a big deal when you look at the game prices now. You are paying for mostly hardware!!

Examples of brand new prices below (not used or re-sealed)

DDR3 Universe With Pad - $25 - Rogers Video Store
Lips w 2 wireless mics - $15 - Rogers Video Store
Guitar Hero World Tour - $20 - Rogers Video Store
Kingdom Under Fire - $10 - Rogers Video Store
Rock Band 2 SE Kit - $60 - Staples / Business Depot

Now if you want to mod a system to get more features out of it, look at the mod for the Wii!!

 

People coming to Afterdawn and promoting going legit are like Jehovah's Witnesses coming to an atheist's door.

 

lol!!

 

Well Get the hell off my porch!!!

 

Exxxactly!

 

I wouldn't wasted a verb on these games.

OK, back to topic, I just swap my banned xbox with a friend's unbanned one. Anybody knows if M$ ban silver membership or they only ban people with gold members?

 

Another M$ employee.....

 

Yes, silver memberships can be banned as well.

 

Thanks qwert, guess I just have to play offline for now to keep the HD install functionality.

 

Your choice of games says a lot about which type of gamer you are. Personally, I would never want to play any of those games. Dancing, singing or games where you are pretending to play a plastic instrument are of no interest to me at all.

 

My free version off my torrent site. If you dont pirate or dont want to pay for it use crappy linux instead zzz[/quote]

linux is not crappy.

 

I got the Ban Hammer yesterday trying to play multiplayer on MW2.

Funny thing is that I have been playing on a modded console for over a year while subscriibed to the monthly live subscription for $10.95 /pm

I cancleled my subscription for 1 month then came back onto a 3 month plan $29.95


Within the week I was banned. Whether that was because of the crackdown or my subscriptions that raised alert I dont know.


To bad for microsoft, your loosing over $130 worth of subscriptions from myself alone. And being banned certinally doesnt stop anyone copying games so i dont quite see the logic.

Microsoft would probarly make alot more money allowing people to play on live, also if people are burning games they have more of them, which intern means they want to spend more time online which again means more monet for MS. Buying a console is a one off but live subscriptions are not. BAD MOVE MICROSOFT.