I meant "ethically". My bad. Question still wants an answer.
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Free games on Xbox Live if you go Oman
- Thread starter Lima
- Start date
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Copyright infringement is not stealing, true. But that's why it's an analogy about what is ethical, and not a direct accusation.
Claiming that exploiting a glitch to obtain content that wasn't meant to be offered for free isn't unethical is an obvious rationalization. It's also very likely to be against the ToS so I have zero sympathy for anyone who gets banned for that.
I might have done that before, though I can't recall any specific instance. But if I did, I'd certainly admit it's crooked and unethical, even if it's not illegal. I don't care if people do take advantage of the exploit, but claiming it's totally legit and nothing crooked or unethical going on is just wilfully blind denial here.
This is more defensible, it could be argued that you didn't know it was a mistake and thought it was just a temporary promotion (since there's precedent of legit promotions, such as Wild ARMs). If you do know it's a mistake and still take advantage of it, well, I wouldn't say it's "okay", but I don't think they could ban you since you have plausible deniability. But signing up an account in a different country to grab a bunch of games? Clearly, whoever does that isn't innocent and knows full well they're exploiting a weakness, so it's a different situation.
Caayn
Member
Dunno about how Sony handles those things. Never had such a sitaution with Sony.
MS simply takes back the content, like they did with the Crimson Pack for Halo 4. Which was released for free due to an error, MS/343i later gave it a spin by saying it was a promotion. In the end everyone who got it free, got their acces to the map pack revoked till they purchased it.
So outside of the other thread a general question about this glitch / exploit and the potential for action by Microsoft on it - some of this was discussed and talked about before but it all ended up being lost in the maelstrom.
From my understanding here there is no way the system can tell automatically if :
Someone falsely entered details on the website to create an account in a country that they were not a resident of and downloaded the games to their system
Someone who was on holiday in another region , created the account legitimately (*) , signed in and saw the game was free and hit download.
(*) There were a number of comments about how this was against the TOS , or that people had to supply an address which for this is *not* correct - when you create a new account it simply asks you for your country of residence (not where you currently are) and if for example I was a resident of Oman and happened to be visiting you then I could legitimately enter that into the system and it would 'allow' me to download these games for free.
From my understanding here there is no way the system can tell automatically if :
Someone falsely entered details on the website to create an account in a country that they were not a resident of and downloaded the games to their system
Someone who was on holiday in another region , created the account legitimately (*) , signed in and saw the game was free and hit download.
(*) There were a number of comments about how this was against the TOS , or that people had to supply an address which for this is *not* correct - when you create a new account it simply asks you for your country of residence (not where you currently are) and if for example I was a resident of Oman and happened to be visiting you then I could legitimately enter that into the system and it would 'allow' me to download these games for free.
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
may be it is real people will got ban.
Me and my friend just got banned few hours ago. And I just asking xbox helpdsk for help.
Me and my friend just got banned few hours ago. And I just asking xbox helpdsk for help.
no one has been banned in almost eight years. there is always a risk but i would not be worried about it.
Anticitizen One
Banned
You won't get banned lol
CouldBeWorse
Member
Just wahad and mr blackmagik's "friend"
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
I got a email from Microsoft. It said I am "marketplace theft". the only thing I can think of is free "injustice" I download last week.
AzureSkies
Member
I got a email from Microsoft. It said I am "marketplace theft". the only thing I can think of is free "injustice" I download last week.
Holy shit, I'm now really scared that I downloaded Rayman Legends. Did you transfer your account away from Oman or not?
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
no...I just create some dummy Oman/ Costa/ eastern europe accounts to download. but in the end I only download and play "Injustice". My main account are always stay in my own country for last 7 years. but Microsoft just ban all accounts link to my console.
AzureSkies
Member
What I meant to ask was did you perform a region transfer to download the games on a main marketplace or did you keep it in Oman?
This is so shitty. Seriously fuck Microsoft for this, if these are really the reasons for bannings. Had no idea XBL was this anal about these sorts of things. They're pretty par for course with Steam, PSN etc. Trust it to be Microsoft who's exceptionally strict about it all.
EDIT: Revoking the content as mentioned above seems like a far more sensible solution than banning the console, account or all accounts linked. Hopefully other people chime in and shed light on this. Would be awful if people really were getting banned for such a minor little trick.
EDIT: Revoking the content as mentioned above seems like a far more sensible solution than banning the console, account or all accounts linked. Hopefully other people chime in and shed light on this. Would be awful if people really were getting banned for such a minor little trick.
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
I don't do the region transfer. I just create a new Oman account to download free game. And remove the dummy Oman account from my xbox after I finish the download.
but now, both accounts was banned.
goldenpp72
Member
More like O-ban amirite
AzureSkies
Member
This means that it's very possible that only people who didn't transfer their account to their own region were banned.
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
I don't know. I call MS this morning. They just ask me to create an dummy US account (I live in HK) and leave a message at xbox Forums. They told me someone will follow my case within 24 hours.
I have a hard copy of "injustice" and some achievement record since April. And I have a Rayman email receipt last week ( I miss the free Raymond so I just bought it on Game on demond. It only cost USD$23 in HK). Hopefully it can give me more chance to retrieve my account.
Miles Quaritch
Member
I got a email from Microsoft. It said I am "marketplace theft". the only thing I can think of is free "injustice" I download last week.
Seems unlikely you were banned for downloading free games. It's probably related to something else you're not willing to share with us.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Hehehe. Calm down. There's always more to these stories. Always,
Did you post in this thread that you were DLing those games? I notice you have your gamertag in your GAF profile.
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
I don't know what are you trying to say. The most wild thing I did is trying to use other countries account to download free game. And then I got banned. I just check on other forums see any similar case as me.
If this circumstance is actually the cause of being banned, it is completely justified.
Unless you live in Oman of course.
People make the argument, if MS screwed up, why am I being punished? Well yeah if you live in Oman, yeah you shouldn't be. It was there, available on that marketplace for free.
If you falsified your region and lied about who you are in order to get free games, there is no sympathy for that. You essentially stole not only from MS but the developers and publishers of these games, while violating the TOS. The only people you can legitimately bitch at are the people in this thread who said it would be fine, MS will not do anything about it.
But you had to know it was wrong. Even if it was an MS mistake you had to falsify information to take advantage of it.
Unless you live in Oman of course.
People make the argument, if MS screwed up, why am I being punished? Well yeah if you live in Oman, yeah you shouldn't be. It was there, available on that marketplace for free.
If you falsified your region and lied about who you are in order to get free games, there is no sympathy for that. You essentially stole not only from MS but the developers and publishers of these games, while violating the TOS. The only people you can legitimately bitch at are the people in this thread who said it would be fine, MS will not do anything about it.
But you had to know it was wrong. Even if it was an MS mistake you had to falsify information to take advantage of it.
Miles Quaritch
Member
I'd like to believe it's just for that, but there's never been a case (to my knowledge) of someone being banned for downloading free content from the marketplace. Even if it was incorrectly priced.
Looking at the email, they mention points fraud and illegal acquisition of redemption codes...are you sure it was just for downloading Inustice?
Roland Deschain
Member
The mail states that they only banned you because other Live users pointed them to your account. So it's not some sort of autoban.
Edit - It also says during some process of theirs too, so who knows...
Edit - It also says during some process of theirs too, so who knows...
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
may be MS right. they charge me HKD$171 instead of HKD$179. it is USD$1 cheaper then showing price. It is the reason I got banned. (USD$1 = HKD$7.79)
here is my transaction record in last few month.
MasterLeePhD
Member
I wish Major Nelson would post on this thread and just tell us if we're going to get the ban hammer for this or not.
These threads are getting tedious and people will just start blaming the Oman trick instead of telling the truth.
I know it's very unlikely we will get banned for this, but if we do I can see a lot of people switching sides. And that's the last thing Microsoft needs right now.
These threads are getting tedious and people will just start blaming the Oman trick instead of telling the truth.
I know it's very unlikely we will get banned for this, but if we do I can see a lot of people switching sides. And that's the last thing Microsoft needs right now.
Here's how you should look at it: if you've done it you're fine. Seriously. Just enjoy your games already.
Exactly. Not sure why it's so hard for people to understand this.
may be MS right. they charge me HKD$171 instead of HKD$179. it is USD$1 cheaper then showing price. It is the reason I got banned. (USD$1 = HKD$7.79)
here is my transaction record in last few month.
Why did this even happen?
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
Since MS don't follow my case yet. I don't know the real reason why I got banned. Using other countries account may not be the reason anyway. Even the Helpdesk people ask me to create an US account to access xbox forum to contact enforcement team.
After I check the bill I post. May be It was an MS mistake I had to falsify information to take advantage of it...for USD$1...
Okay , and can you explain the process for the system to know that someone from Oman was not at your house and created the account ?
Again , how can the system know that this was falsified - all it knows is that someone from your IP (which can easily show which country you are in) signed up for an account and gave their country of residence as Oman (if you are a resident of Oman thats correct and not against the TOC / TOS)
I agree that if you chose to download these games then you are taking your chances but I cant see a way for Microsoft to tell the difference here in any reliable way.
I'm pretty sure these are stock emails and they would say the same regardless of what prompted the action
Thomasnoki
Neo Member
update: after I keep asking the Enforcement team. Their final answer:
Got the official answer from Xbox Enforcement team :
I told them I can prove some proof document like receipt of injustice at April and MS billing record of Rayman Legend to begging them to unban my account. But the chance is slightly I guess.
Got the official answer from Xbox Enforcement team :
I told them I can prove some proof document like receipt of injustice at April and MS billing record of Rayman Legend to begging them to unban my account. But the chance is slightly I guess.
Miles Quaritch
Member
Do you have a link to the thread in question?
That's a pretty big shift in policy. If it's legit, I foresee a tidal wave of shit over the next few days. Pretty shocking to be honest, didn't think MS would be so stupid and they haven't exactly policed the region thing in the past.
That's a pretty big shift in policy. If it's legit, I foresee a tidal wave of shit over the next few days. Pretty shocking to be honest, didn't think MS would be so stupid and they haven't exactly policed the region thing in the past.
I've seen people suggest revoking individual pieces of content, but I don't think that's possible.
A couple of months ago, on the day Bioshock Infinite's Clash In The Clouds DLC was announced, I called Xbox Support and I complained about the disgusting value proposition of the season pass. I bought the season pass on DAY ONE and it took months for them to even announce any details on the content. And when they finally announced something (end of July?) it turns out they're releasing nothing but a boring horde mode. And the real meaty content, the incredible-looking two-part detective story set in Rapture, is probably not coming out until December.
Soooo.... I demanded a refund, and they gave it to me. However, there were certain caveats. They told me in very specific terms that they have absolutely no capability to revoke the license for a single piece of software or DLC. I currently own the season pass, and I'm going to own it forever. They cannot reverse that ownership. They went ahead and gave me a 1600-MSP refund. But they said that I can't be caught using the season pass to download season pass content - otherwise my account would get permanently banned. That seems both fair and ridiculous. Fair because I can't be taking a 1600-point refund and then using the season pass anyway - that'd be straight up theft. Ridiculous because, come on, what if I forget about the season pass restriction in a couple of months, or some friend visits and starts downloading season pass content? No worries anyway, because I made sure to delete the season pass off my console.
Just throwing that out there. I really don't think revoking the license for any games is an option.
Welp, I had a good run. Injustice GOTY might come out soon and I already bought a ton of DLC for the copy I downloaded.
I deserve it, I guess.
I only downloaded it because my disc copy was "unreadable" the day I got it and the store wouldn't refund me because I had already opened it too, so it's like a double slap in the face :/
I deserve it, I guess.
I only downloaded it because my disc copy was "unreadable" the day I got it and the store wouldn't refund me because I had already opened it too, so it's like a double slap in the face :/
If you're not like that infamous GAFer who lied to the community and ended up being a pirate... then NO, you don't deserve ANY punishment.
Why should anyone be punished for marketplace glitches like this?
They're fucking nuts doing this at the end of the generation. People will swear off buying MS consoles long before they admit that maybe they shouldn't have gamed the system.
I took advantage of something not meant to be. I didnt have to take advantage of it, but I did. I see the ethic wrongs with it, I downloaded it because I thought I deserved it after the disc thing. I'd really rather not lose my whole Xbox for it, but I get why.