Petition: Falcomist's ban

[Fura]

In Outspark's defense, here is a section from the beginning of the TOS, which everyone must agree to in order to play, read or unread:

Outspark may take any action and impose any penalty we deem necessary to discourage and punish any violation of these Terms or any other illegal or inappropriate conduct, all without prior notice or warning. The determinations as to whether a violation has occurred and who is responsible for such act are solely within Outspark's discretion, and are based on what we deem best for the community. By using the Outspark Service, you agree that you will be bound by Outspark's determination as to whether a violation has occurred and any penalty we choose to implement.

As for banning Falcomist, those screenshots don't show proof of any racist comments but I'm sure there could be more to the story. Either way, helping a friend does not justify crude behavior. =/

And no I didnt vote, because I wasn't there when it all happened so I have no right to say anything lol. I wish him good luck ^^

[Loveless]

I wasn't at the scene and I've no idea what the rest of the conversation was like. If they had nothing to hide, it would've been better to stretch the whole chat box to see all the 'arguments'. That is solely my opinion. On top of that Outspark does have all the rights to perma ban anyone without warning...

As I see it, Uchiha did throw out racist comments but Falco had only thrown in a few vulgarities. All of which 99% of the players has done anyway. If Outspark is going to perma ban Falco and Uchi for this they should do the same to the other side. An argument takes two people/groups and I am pretty sure that the other side said a couple things too.

I go by "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" line. Usually keeps you out of trouble.

[bolsz1]

Well, racism is a sensitive issue, and Outspark has every right to ban a player for it. Not only do they have the right, they have the responsibility to keep racism out of this game. I don't think anyone disagrees with Uchi's ban for his racist comments. I do, however, think every one of us should reserve judgement either for or against this decision until all the evidence is available. Outspark obviously has screenshots of Falco saying SOMETHING racist. Certainly the screenies in this thread don't prove anything. Hopefully the person who filed the formal complaint will share the entire chat log with the community.

As for people saying he was justified because he was defending his friends...what planet do you live on? The opposing members didn't break any rules in the battleground, and even if they had, that doesn't give the wronged players and their friends the right to break even more rules. War them, 100% OK. Yell at them, fine. Swear at them, EULA violation which is selectively enforced. Make racist insults...PERMABAN. It's as simple as that. People "defending their friends honor" is how 10 year old kids get murdered in gang crossfire. I live in Chicago, and I see it on the news every day.

[Ivramire]

Thing is, it's a game, it's not the real world. All consequences and 'punishments' can be re-worked and even ignored. When someone dies in he real world. they don't conveniently 're-spawn' in the nearest town. Every rule and judgment is tinged by human flaws and error, not the hard-bound rules of reality. So you must question.

Comparing something in a game to something in real-life isn't even relevant and should'nt be. It's a virtual world, and the only rules and forces of nature are GMs and the people the GMs work for. Players are leaned on by GMs, GMs are leaned on by Outspark, and Outspark is leaned on by its profit-margin which leads back to the players.

I know I wouldn't just stand-by and do nothing if I felt someone I knew was screwed over/insulted. I hope you wouldn't either. In the end, there isn't any evidence that Falco actually said something racist (that I've seen so far) and the assumption that Outspark does have something concrete is not a leap-of-faith that I'm willing to make. There's been problems with that before.


In the end, it all comes down to your opinion and the opinions of those few who actually have/had any impact in the matter. Falco/the GMs/Mighty_Army and everyone else there that day, only they truly know what was said and done, and all that we few can know, we who weren't actually there, are a few screen-shots from one side of the matter that doesn't even incriminate him.

Sorry if it's a little hard to read, but that's my two cents~

[+Tequila+]

Well, racism is a sensitive issue, and Outspark has every right to ban a player for it. Not only do they have the right, they have the responsibility to keep racism out of this game. I don't think anyone disagrees with Uchi's ban for his racist comments. I do, however, think every one of us should reserve judgement either for or against this decision until all the evidence is available. Outspark obviously has screenshots of Falco saying SOMETHING racist. Certainly the screenies in this thread don't prove anything. Hopefully the person who filed the formal complaint will share the entire chat log with the community.

As for people saying he was justified because he was defending his friends...what planet do you live on? The opposing members didn't break any rules in the battleground, and even if they had, that doesn't give the wronged players and their friends the right to break even more rules. War them, 100% OK. Yell at them, fine. Swear at them, EULA violation which is selectively enforced. Make racist insults...PERMABAN. It's as simple as that. People "defending their friends honor" is how 10 year old kids get murdered in gang crossfire. I live in Chicago, and I see it on the news every day.

I think those screenshots are the screenshots the complainer turned in. So based on those screenshots Falcos banned is'nt justified. Racism has been going on in Fiesta since CB and on more then occasion Outspark has been made aware of it. They acted on these screenshots without doing a proper investigation which is why most people are bothered about this. If people dont say something about this what will Outspark not handle correctly next time? I'm sure if you were in Falcos situation you'd want a proper investigation done not some half-arsed ban by the GM's.

[Ivramire]

I hope you come back to post and not only in this thread bolsz1.


You're one of the few who's going against the general response and had a plausible point.

[bolsz1]

SerodinSilver: That's such a well thought out and masterfully articulated argument, I can't believe you don't have the entire community agreeing with your every word.

Aerythia: Yes, Falco was an "example". No, he was not any kind of scapegoat. He was banned because he allegedly broke a big rule in a very public way, and Outspark was, presumably, forced to act. Obviously Outspark can't "ban half the server" because they'd have no client base. What they can do is exactly what they have done - make a public example of someone so as to discourage others.

Walnut: While you do have a point that a permaban may have been harsh, that's not your decision to make. We all agreed to the EULA, and that says Outspark, not the community, decides all punishment for rules violations.

+Tequila+: Even if those are the screenshots that were turned in, Outspark does log all chat that happens on their servers. I know this for a fact, as I had a very long discussion with Dakkon trying to get back an item belonging to a guild member of mine that was scammed away from her by a fake enhancer. Because of these chat logs, and player trade logs, Dakkon took the item away from the scammer and gave it to me, then permabanned the scammer's account.
My point is, the evidence that was delivered to and, presumably, gathered by Outspark may never be presented to the community. Outspark is in no way obligated to do so. This issue is between Falcomist and Outspark. I think the only way we will see such evidence is if Falcomist chooses to disclose it.

Ivramire: Thanks for the encouragement. I've always enjoyed playing devil's advocate in heated situations. That said, I don't think you understood my comparison. I wasn't comparing killing people in real life to killing people in a computer game. There, as you pointed out, is no comparison. I was comparing rule breaking and how it escalates out of control and needs to be ended with swift justice before there is unreparable damage.
If Outspark only concerned about their bottom line, the outcome of this incident would have been much different. Uchi and Falco were both cash shop users, and as such would have been given a slap on the wrist. The decision to ban them actually HURT the profit margin.

Again, I am in no way, shape, or form saying that Falcomist's ban was justified. I'm saying that we don't know the circumstances of what happened. We've heard only a very limited portion of one side of the issue. The screenshots in this thread have Falco saying some insulting, but not overly racist things. Perhaps Uchi's stigma of blatant racism enveloped Falco as well, or perhaps Falco said things equally as racist that weren't captured in a picture. In either event, we don't know.

Just for the record, I voted yes to the ban, but not because I believe he should have been banned. I did it to express my divergent viewpoint.

[Kaidela]

I voted no. I didn't know him, but I've seen the screenshots; I can almost see why Uchiha_Itachi was banned, but nothing Falcomist did was really bannable. Like everyone else, I think that jailtime would have been enough for both of them. :P Besides, I've seen much worse happen with no punishment whatsoever.

[Ringetsu]

Voted no as well, I do not see any comments by Falcomist (don't know him) that should result in a permanent ban. I've been in many conflicts myself and every single time there will be insults flying around. If we apply the same rules to all of these cases then EVERYONE (close to anyways) should be banned. Also, it takes more than one hand to make a clap you know...if the enemy doesn't say anything then they would probably just fight him and go on their merry way during a guild war and nothing else would happen.

[Centrix]

I have nothing against him. I even liked him =/ but rules are rules and snakeeyes said he wont unban anyone, including falcomist. This "petition" wont do anything.

Btw its not the screenshots posted on the forums that got him banned. Someone else PMed the GM's other screens where you could see him make racial comments

I will miss him