191 people found this review helpful
13 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 3,109.0 hrs on record (445.5 hrs at review time)
Posted: 29 Sep, 2017 @ 7:45am
Updated: 16 Jan, 2020 @ 5:43pm

********EDIT 2********
2000 more hours into the game and the ban system is still faulty. No appeal system, and game bans rather than chat bans. Great game but such a shame about certain features.
********EDIT 1********
The main purpose of this thread is to show my views on the new ban system, as well as alternatives for instant bans / permanent bans. Since there is no appeal system, there are some cases that haven't been taken into account, and I discuss them in my edit below the main thread.
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New ban system is ridiculous.
1. The "Language Ban" list isn't public, so how can you expect anyone to know what is acceptable to say? Understandably there are obvious words, but some "racial slurs" have other meanings at a school playground, or in different countries.
2. 24 Hour Ban to introduce to the ban system?? Most people play weekends which means that the very first ban accounts for half your weekly gaming! That's equivalent to an 84 hour ban (more than your "second ban" duration).
3. Permanent ban after 4 convictions?!?!? Players invest quite often upwards of 100's of pounds or dollars or euros, and the best answer to bad language used by your community is a permanent ban? I am going to list some alternatives below, that also happen to be more relevant to the offence committed, and it took me 5 minutes to come up with...
4. What is your plan to combat troll parties of 3 that will get players instant banned if they all report at the same time? I have witnessed these troll parties bully people viciously in the past, then when that person gets upset and eventually retaliates they get banned for it. How is a system that allows 3 bullies to overpower 1 innocent player a "fair system"???

Anyway, here is my list of alternative methods;
>A warning report that allows innocent players a chance to correct their mistakes, by suggesting that they don't lash out in anger OR it will result in a 24 hour ban
>Following the previous option, an hour ban instead of a 24 hour ban for the first ban, same reason as prior
>Restricting voice and text chat for players that have abuse *voice and text chat* rather than banning them from the game completely (seen as they still should have the right to access the servers they have paid for, just not the features they have abused)
>Ban count reductions for good behaviour. This means that if you have a certain number of months of not having a ban, then your total ban count gets reduced so that the previous ban doesn't count towards you ultimately getting permanently banned (Everyone deserves the chance to correct their mistakes, and no-one should have to play with the fear of slipping up or even getting a typo)
>An option for you to compete against the ban allegation and tell your side of the story. As I am sure administrators have access to the full chat history and gameplay footage, players could appeal their innocence (for issues such as typo's, bullying and other such issues)

To be honest, with the ban system as it is, Rocket League and thus Psyonix gives the impression that they support bullying and that they do not appreciate the continual support of their community. This and this alone is the reason for my negative review of the game, and I will be happy to change it once this issue gets fixed.

********EDIT********
Below I am going to list a couple of examples of bans that would need a more sophisticated ban system for justice to be done.
>Replying to a question with 'You cant' but accidentally mistyping the 'a'. The suggestion here is that someone is reporting you before you can correct yourself in chat, so the admin in charge of banning you has no idea that it was a typo.
>Forgetting that your discord push to talk and rocket league push to talk are the same button, so whilst someone ingame thinks you are hurling abuse at them you are actually just sharing a back and forth with your mates in a different app. Now I don't know how the verbal harrasment system works, because Psyonix won't tell us, but if it is a stacking up of reports that gets you banned then this innocent mistake would contribute to that.
>A younger player asking the meaning of a word they have just read / heard. I have personally seen this happen ingame a lot. The context for this one is that the original offender can choose when to report the young player meaning their comment won't be in the report. (This is a double problem since whilst the innocent / curious young player gets banned, the original offender can continue playing rocket league happily).
Now I know that there are other variants of these examples, and probably some examples that I haven't covered, but I think these cover the main ones. I am also happy that there is a system to ban the cruel / toxic players on the game to improve the community, but I believe there needs to be a way to distinguish between the cruel and the innocent. The ban system needs to be less abusable by those with malintent.

Thanks for all of the support so far! (Please be respectful to those stating their views in the comments as I am sure you would expect respect in return)
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50 Comments
Timmy Squibbles 12 Sep, 2018 @ 8:09pm 
Banning people automatically over 4-letter words and acronyms is utter hogwash. You can filter bad names with asterisks, why not just blur out the same words in chat? Many other online games do this flawlessly.

The toxicity surrounding the player base is more their actions than their speech anyway.
Steinaar 9 Mar, 2018 @ 9:21am 
Rocket has a lot of issues
Blackdog 31 Oct, 2017 @ 11:55am 
I got banned at well, while the other player(s) normally would have "earned" a ban. So this is indeed rediculous. The ban system for other games works way better.
A Successful White Man 26 Oct, 2017 @ 3:47pm 
Your edited examples are irrelevant. A single instance of a prohibited word won't trigger the system unless you've had multiple reports over several matches (per Psyonix). If you're nub enough to have voice chat turned on AND mapped to your discord button, that's your stupidity at work. You should probably think about the lack of careers that will be available to you in your future instead of playing games.

Its simple. Don't be a jerk, you won't get banned. Someone bothering you? Report and mute.
A Successful White Man 26 Oct, 2017 @ 3:47pm 
To answer your three points above:
1. They aren't going to release the list of prohibited words. That makes it easy to get around those words.
2. The first ban should be 72hrs. They chose 24hrs. The only person to blame for getting banned is yourself.
3. You should think about how much money you spent on RL before you begin treating people like garbage in RL matches. The only person to blame for getting banned is yourself.
4. The entire lobby could coax you into saying something on the prohibited list, if you let them. The correct response to that is to report them and mute them. Reports that don't hit the automated system get manually reviewed. They'll get theirs in due time. If you resort to their level, you're no better than them and deserve to sit out and think about your actions.

Frodo Yappin 26 Oct, 2017 @ 8:39am 
By the way I am not toxic just incase anyone didn't get the sarcasm at the start :) Was a bit toxic of me to make a sarcastic joke for sure, but what is toxicity, where does it start and end????
Frodo Yappin 26 Oct, 2017 @ 8:37am 
Yes, everything I have put is because I am toxic. Let's say for example a non-toxic person wanted to make changes to the ban system for some reason, how would they go about it? Would they be called toxic for having a different opinion? Or could calling everyone who wants change 'toxic' be toxic in itself?

Another point, even if I was / am toxic, does that mean that what I have put cannot reduce toxicity in rocket league?

If you accuse everyone who wants change of being toxic, how can good change come about? Your argument is that rocket league is toxic, but that's the way you like it...

Just some food for thought
A Successful White Man 25 Oct, 2017 @ 4:29pm 
It's pretty simple. Don't be a jerk - you won't get banned. If you can't keep your CSGO cesspool mouth shut, maybe RL isn't the game for you.
TAMNA MUSIC 25 Oct, 2017 @ 4:15pm 
I got a 172 hour ban wow!!!

"4. How is a system that allows 3 bullies to overpower 1 innocent player a "fair system"?
ban system as it is, Rocket League and thus Psyonix gives the impression that they support bullying"

glad I came across this, these were my EXACT thoughts sh!et!!
SORRY PSY IM NOT A LITTLE B!TCH
TO PUT MYSELF AT RISK AND
GO OUT MY WAY TO
PUT PUNKS IN THEIR PLACE
CUZ THEY OPEN'D THEIR MOUTH TO THE WRONG FACE.
WHICH WAS THEIR FIRST MISTAKE
OR MAYBE WHEN MY teamHATE
WANTS TO BE A PIECE OF SH*T
LAYIN ON HIS BACK BECUZ HE WIFFED AND
SUCKS SOCCER BALLS. IM JUST SAYIN.
YOUR BANS SYSTEMS WACK, YOUR WACK. YOUR ABBREVIATION PROCEEDS YOU P_S_Y. NOW I HAVE TO KEEP ALL CHAT MUTED. COOL. FUN. THANKS. THE GAMES DOPE BUT STILL EAT A D!CK.
-B
Link On 24 Oct, 2017 @ 9:06pm 
Very good points. Psyonix did a horrendous job with the creation and implementation of thir ban system. It would have been infinitely more palatable if they used some of your suggestions.

Specifically, the best option would have been to give bans from in game chat. If someone uses one of their mystery words (which should be provided if they don't want people saying them, duh) and is reported... then it really does make WAY more sense to merely temporarily disable their text and voice chat.

No way someone who bought an online game should ever have to be banned from online play for any reason outside of hacking/cheating. Not this day and age when I'm certain it would be very easy for Psyonix to instead restrict chat.

People have been muting players in Counter Strike for many years. Just mute people, limit them to emotes. The ban stuff is anti-consumer garbage and they deserve to lose business for it - to say the least.