In that game, you know when you've been banhammered because a giant freaking rabbit shows up or a flaming squirrel materializes and then blasts you into a volcanic fissure. It's pretty dramatic.

My big question is why banhammer videos are always set to alternative rock or whiny club music. Why not do it like this one with the tasteful classical music?

Said Stephen Toulouse (Stepto) over Twitter earlier today:

While IW works on getting the MW2 glitch fixed, people we catch using it will recieve suspensions from LIVE. Play fair everyone. :>

Stepto clarified that bannings for this sort of terms of use violation typically are 24 hours, but can go up to two weeks if they're particularly egregious.

For those not familiar with the glitch, which can be used on PS3 and PC as well as the 360, it enables someone carrying a rocket launcher to turn into a sprinting human bomb. While the player dies in the process, it's still a cheap way to get kills, including triples and quads. And an easy way to get yourself reported, cussed out, etc. You can watch this for more information but, remember, trying it subjects you to a day without multiplayer. Which is like a day without sunshine. Or something.

Stephen Toulouse on Twitter [Twitter]

Well, not literally STFU, but one imagines that's heavily implied with this kind of boilerplate, uttered by a Microsofot spokesperson on Friday to Canada's Financial Post.

"Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live."

No suit's been filed, remember. I think the firm involved in this saw the claims that a million XBL users were caught in the blast and went beating the bushes figuring at least some lucrative percentage of those were innocent. While Microsoft hasn't specified the total number of pirates banz0red, it's cast doubt on rumors that it was, in fact, seven figures' worth.

Microsoft Stands Firm in Face of Possible Lawsuit Over Xbox Live Bans [Financial Post]

A poster in Valve's official forums complained that a key he bought through G2Play.net no longer lets him open and play the game. A Valve representative, BurtonJ, called such sales "illegitimate" and confirmed the ban. He recommends buying a full version of the game - maybe through Steam? Hint hint.

VE3D, which spotted the thread, points out that calling the key sales "illegitimate" is not entirely true. The keys are typically sold legally in Asia and other territories and while game makers try to ban it, their ability to do so is not absolute. Of course, the interest is clear: The keys being sold cost less than the full game, and both publisher and digital distributor stateside want to protect their bottom lines.

Valve's only advice to gray-market key buyers is ask for a refund and get a "legitimate" copy of the game.

Valve Banning Grey-Import Modern Warfare 2 CD Keys [VE3D]

Last week Microsoft launched a string of Xbox Live console bans on Xbox 360s that had been modified to play pirated software, which naturally cause an uproar among people who have modified their Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated software. Go figure. Major Nelson explains that it's all for the sake of the community members that actively spend money on games.

As you may have read online, we've been actively banning consoles from Xbox LIVE that have been modified to play pirated games. Our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them.

It's all common sense, really, but then the Major raises a very important point.

This would also be a good time to remind you that the warranty on an Xbox 360 console is not transferrable and if you purchase a used console that has been previously banned, you will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE.

Since most game retailers don't check to see if a 360 can connect to Xbox Live prior to taking it in used, you very well could wind up with a system that is unable to connect to Xbox Live at all. Luckily most retailers return used consoles without much hassle. Just make sure you check your Xbox Live connection within the return period and you should be fine.

Xbox 360 Console Bans [Major Nelson]

IGN noticed scuttlebutt about bannings in technical feedback forums and asked Microsoft about it. A spokesperson confirmed they banzored some modded consoles. Said the spokesperson to IGN:

"We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."

Microsoft wouldn't say exactly when the action was taken, although IGN speculates that, from the chatter, it's been happening over the past week.

Microsoft Performs Mass Xbox Console Banning [IGN via Hot Blooded Gaming] [Image from KnowYourMeme]

That's right: Totally not true, despite what EA's Command and Conquer manager told folks on Oct. 18. As EAAPOC himself said at 3 a.m. this morning in a new post on the forums it was "inaccurate and a mistake on my part."

EA spokeswoman Mariam Sughayer was kind enough to walk us through EA's banning rules for us as well:

“Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games.”

“Posting in EA Forums is enabled by an EA Nucleus account — but access to the forums and access to the games are separate.

“Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game or service. Each forum, game and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service.”

So, for a second time now, you can only lose access to a game if you break the game's terms of service or code of conduct. True that can happen through acting out in a forum, but it would be independent from any forum banning.

According to a post in the Red Alert 3 forum by 'eeapoc' (Apparently, C&C Community Manager Aaron Kaufman) EA is implementing a new policy that will tie your forum login to your Master EA Account. If you get hit with the ban hammer for misbehaving in a forum, you could find that you are locked out of your purchased games as well.

"Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature."

"All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but its what we have to do.

Those banned will stay banned, but like most other internet services, its not that hard to create a new fake e-mail account. However, its a lot harder to get a new serial key =)"

Neither the Forum Help or EA's Terms Of Use page list criteria for behavior that may get you banned.

EA have been contacted for comment and we will update as soon as we hear word on whether the company really plans to take away your ability to play a game you purchased for not playing nice in a forum.

Re: New C&C.com Website Q&A - What you need to know about the launch [Thanks to Pugnated for the tip]

My suggestion was that we create an opposite to that fancy star you get for being an exceptionally insightful commenter. Maybe a grey dunce hat or an exclamation point. Well, neither have come to fruition (yet). But I still have hopes.

Yesterday afternoon there was a knock at the front gate of Kotaku Tower. When I opened the doors I discovered a small box sitting on the splintering doorstep. Inside, a straight razor. And not just any straight razor, but a straight razor of disemvoweling. With a flick of the wrist troublesome commenters have all of the vowels of a post sliced free. Consider it a warning, because there aren't too many people who can survive more than one dance with the razor.

How Not To Get Banned: A Primer [Kotaku]

Authoring gets your account permanently banned from Matchmaking, permanently stripped of file share functionality, and a hardware ban that keeps you from playing Halo 3 for a month. Uploading just strips you of file share permanently.

Bungie advertised the penalties in an official blog post on Friday. The tone is pure Bungie:

Fair warning: Users who have modified content on their File Share — regardless of who created said content - will be subjected to the full power of the Banhammer’s thrust. This includes some never-before-unleashed technology that will effectively terminate your Halo multiplayer experience online in every imaginable facet. In fact, the ban is so thorough that simply calling it the Banhammer is a complete understatement. I just couldn’t come up with a more hyper-exaggerated term that had the same feel. Banplatform? Banpocalpyse? Banmageddnon? None of those did the trick.

The accompanying FAQ is hilarious. Bungie's not gonna start policing what's offensive and what isn't. So whether you have a picture of a walrus, two chicks making out, or "Hitler Pikachu" (lol) you're getting pounded. As for those who said they didn't get a warning, tough. "We realize that not everyone tunes in on Friday to read the Weekly Update and folks probably don’t read the entire Terms of Service for Xbox Live, but that ignorance isn’t met with sympathy."

"The issue of File Share abuse is a pretty serious one and we will continue to police it isncredibly aggressively," Bungie writes.

Many Birds, One Stone Hammer [Bungie.net via Destructoid]

It's disheartening to think that it has come to this, that unless we're talking about the relatively safe topics of consoles and their direct by-products there can't be intelligent discourse on Kotaku. And I don't understand how we've arrived here.

Commenting on this site has a short and interesting history. It wasn't allowed for more than a year and when it did come, after much pleading on my part, it came in the form of an invitation. You were invited to come into the site. This wasn't because we didn't want dissenters on the site, it was because we didn't want trolls here, inside with us. Because whether you believe me or not, commenters are as much a part of making Kotaku, what it is, as it's writers are, perhaps even more a part of that process.

Over time we opened the door more, allowing anyone to apply to be a commenter, something that I hoped would bring a wealth of new and interesting opinion into the site. But what it seems to have done is created not a chorus of thought and reason, but a mob mentality, a desire to post first, to speak loudest and to rarely read through the entire article or think about the topic at hand. It's created a cacophony of stupidity that drowns out our many well-reasoned readers and dilutes their intelligent discourse.

Race is a big issue. It's an issue that's right up there with religion and politics. People get angry, I get that, and of course you have the right to get angry. But what you don't have the right to do is to turn off your brain and turn up your mouth.

If you disagree with someone then disagree, but don't resort to calling names, don't use caps, don't generalize. Dissent with smart, thoughtful comments, create a dialog or go somewhere else, because frankly, you're embarrassing me.

Having long held the crown for the Gawker site with the most comments, we think it's about time we put someone in charge of keeping things moving along. Fact is, Ash and I are just plain overwhelmed with the effort required to read the comments on all of the posts, activate the deadly banhammer and welcome new commenters into the Kotaku fold. Yes, we still do that manually... one at a time.

So we're on the prowl for a comments moderator of sorts, a gatekeeper to Kotaku Tower, if you will. Someone who will prowl the posts and comments on a daily basis, weeding out the bad, helping out the conversation, anointing new readers and even, occasionally, writing a post or two.

We can only pay $200 a month for your help, but you do get to wield the mighty banhammer and will be given the keys to the commenting gates. If you remain interested, hit the jump for how to apply. Yes, there is a contest (of sorts) involved.

Sorry, I just can't help it. I need to make everything a contest these days. This is how it's going to work. On December 27, we're going to beg our tech geniuses to track down the five Kotaku commenters with the most followers. The top five who want to do this will all then have to explain, in comments, why they should be made the commenting czar. We'll use our own good judgment, and a pinch of public sentiment, to elect the new czar.

There's really no way to get a follower other than by getting other people decide to follow your comments. They do that by logging in and then clicking on the little plus sign symbol next to your comment in a post. Of course your followers will all have to be commenters, so make sure they sign up on the site.

If we catch you cheating we'll kick you out of the contest. So play nice. Don't even attempt to cheat.

We are not content to allow our posts to just fill up with white noise, people posting FIRST! or GAY! or Not NEWS! Despite our proficiency in posts about what I like to call gaming culture (cakes, costumes, pumpkins) we do take our jobs and the topic we cover quite seriously. (And we like to work in a douche-free zone.)

I like nothing more than to hear someone make a smart argument about what an idiot I am. I love to hear thoughtful discourse about what makes one of our opinions totally and completely wrong. Disagreement, when presented thoughtfully, is the best thing that can come from a story written on Kotaku.

And for the most part, our commenters, you men and women, are a thoughtful bunch. You daily pwn me in logic, proving the power of your arguments in amazing posts. Often, and I'm being quite serious, I'm humbled by the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of your comments. Many times the value of a post is far outweighed by the value of the comments made about it.

But those singing comments—that mostly intellectual, funny, zippy tone in our group discussions—doesn't come without some effort on our part. That, my friends, is what the banhammer is all about. Really I should call it a trowel, because we use it not to crush commenters but to weed out trolls and the people who'd like nothing more than to fill the halls of Kotaku Tower with echoes of fanboyism, flamewars and tripe.

So disagree with us, please. Just don't be banal, god forbid, uninteresting.

Kotaku Comments FAQ