PLZ hlp! VAC banned meee!
“Last night while I was sleeping my little brother was mad at me so he logged on to my steam and used cheats or sumthin and now when i logged on is say i was banned or something i’m so mad becuz i knew he’d do this and now he used hacks and i get banned i didn’t use chets he did so unban me plz VAC”.
I can’t even begin to count how many posts like this I’ve seen on the Steam forums. I’ve seen everything from little brothers installing hacks to parents downloading viruses with hacks. My favorite “unban plz” post began with its author denying having used cheats to saying “ill never hack again im sry and i’ve learned mylesson just please unban me VAC”.
Judging by these posts, a lot of people seem to think that VAC is a person or company (spoiler alert: it’s not). For those of you who don’t know, VAC is a program designed to detect cheats and dish out bans. Valve very rarely updates VAC, so one could be forgiven for thinking that there are lots of undetected cheats (you’d be wrong; never overestimate the skill of a bunch of twitchy aimbot programmers).
Lots of people don’t like the fact that VAC uses delayed bans, meaning that you could be banned weeks after you first cheated. Delayed bans are ultimately the best way to hand out bans because they keep hackers guessing as to what cheats are detected and which are not.
Now, you might be thinking “clubtheseals, you shining example of all that is good in this world, what about people whose accounts are hijacked and then get banned?”. It’s quite simple actually, had those people not made themselves vulnerable in the first place, their accounts would probably not have been hijacked. I estimate that 90% of people whose accounts are hijacked gave their information away in some form; a problem easily solved with a little common sense. In the EULA for Steam it says that Valve will never ask for usernames or passwords, yet I’ve read of so many cases where people have responded to emails that say things like “Valve will need your username and password to verify that you own this Stem account” or “To verify that your account was not hijacked, please respond to this email with your username and password”. As long as you’re careful with your information, nothing should happen to your account.
Plain and simple, if you’ve been VAC banned, YOU DESERVED IT. And no, I don’t care if “you accidentaly installed cheats” or if “your account was hacked”.
clubtheseals on July 28th 2008 in community, rants, team fortress 2, valve
Stumble it!
Jams responded on 28 Jul 2008 at 9:30 pm #
Here here!!! Stupidity and ignorance is no excuse!
madlep responded on 28 Jul 2008 at 9:37 pm #
BUT THAY SAYED IT WAS VAC PROVE AND I CUDNT GET BANT! I DEMANED REFUND FROM VAC!!!!1
ZheGoggles responded on 28 Jul 2008 at 9:47 pm #
Oh noes!
It are teh mighty banhammer!
HaciendaSquish responded on 28 Jul 2008 at 9:50 pm #
Y’know, in mid-June a ton of CP members had their accounts stolen at once. These were smart, honest guys who made one mistake and, had they not been lucky enough to know someone with some kind of connection to Valve, could have been banned and forced to create new accounts and buy new copies of all their games.
Oneperson responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 12:00 am #
I sense some Yahtzee in your post!
clubtheseals responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 12:58 am #
@HaciendaSquish: that’s exactly what I was talking about though, they made one mistake and it punched them in the face. So to speak.
b4dboyz- responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 2:41 am #
I am part of an Anti-Cheat community for the game “America’s Army” and I have to tell you, it’s amazing what people think up. One person blamed his/her pet…
@maplep
I was SO gonna do what you did in your comment but I decided against it when I saw you beat me too it.
theminipanda responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 2:57 am #
lolz
madlep responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 6:54 am #
In fairness though, there are ways that your username/password could get hacked without you doing anything silly.
From memory, the CP thing was due to an XSS vulnerability with the Steam web pages (or something similar)
clubtheseals responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 6:59 am #
Then in that case it’s Valve’s fault. I don’t see why stealing someone’s account is so great though. It’s like “oooh, I can play the games that I already own woohoo!”
RJ-Pilot responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 11:25 am #
Huh. Some friendly guys from a thing called “myg0t” want my Steam logon details… Can’t see any problem with that….
Tim responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 2:01 pm #
Maybe they don’t own those games…?
Though no one ever ‘deserves’ to get their account stolen.
Josh responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 3:05 pm #
Finally a clubtheseals post I can agree with. Nothing pisses me off like aimbotters.
Ireshine responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 4:05 pm #
If you are going to use hacks, use them on non - VAC servers or at lan parties (dont worry you wont be banned, they will physical kick your ass)
or
Every time a “free weekend” comes around you create a steam account as long as you have a nvidia card and a lot of e-mail accounts for each steam account you create.
sQUEAKYfOAMpEANUT responded on 29 Jul 2008 at 5:47 pm #
This reminds me of all those videos on YouTube where they say that there’s a way to get all of the games on Steam for free, and all you have to do is give your username and password (which has to contain at least one game, to make sure it looks like a REAL account) to “Valve’s” GMail account.
And they even give you blurry photographic evidence! Oh, what? You can see “Demo” next to each title?
lulz.
Zach responded on 30 Jul 2008 at 2:01 am #
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree on some of it. I have never cheated in my life, nor do I plan too, but for some reason I was VAC banned from TFC and CS without even playing them. I did not give out my info to anyone either, it might sound like a weak story, but it is true
Gehn responded on 30 Jul 2008 at 3:45 am #
I agree wif you. Stupid people are stupid. People that post their excuses on a forum are most certainly just that.
However, I know that because we’re dealing with computers strange things happen. It’s funny when you think about it, how a machine that is only able to work logically does things that seem to us as anything but. But that’s how it goes.
Also, I’ve been using console commands to lower TF2’s graphics settings to the point where it isn’t a slideshow on my old comp (or a complete slideshow anyway…). Some of them the console told me were cheats and I didn’t use them. But if I get VAC bann’d anyway there will be blood. Watch for me on the evening news for any future updates. >.>
Terin responded on 31 Jul 2008 at 4:20 am #
I was one of the people who lost their account in the middle of June. One of my friends posted a link to a phishing site. I wasn’t concerned with checking if it was legit, as it wasn’t from a stranger. Luckily, I was able to get my account back very fast, and he wasn’t concerned with getting the account VAC banned. However, if he was, I’d say that it wasn’t my fault.
Also, Gehn, cheats refers to the server’s sv_cheats setting. VAC bans for things that are outside the program, and that hack into it. Console commands can’t get you banned.
Anonymous responded on 10 Aug 2008 at 3:18 pm #
Yes, yes, hackers should be banned.
But.
Get off your high horse and realize that not everyone is as jaded as you to think the internet’s full of malicious jackasses. Invariably some people will fall for something, and it’s disgusting to say they got what’s coming to them because z0mg they didn’t read eula.
Pro-tip: Most people don’t bother reading the EULA.
Keep up the cool internet tough guy act, though. You’re so hip and awesome and edgy. Ohh, and that screen name, clubtheseals, that’s just further points for your badassery score.
Maybe one day you’ll actually get a personality and some sense of cleverness.
BurN responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 7:58 pm #
umm realy the is this thing going around it was on steam website and it was a link for an update and it said plz login first i logged in and my account got hacked so yes!
SirJanus responded on 17 Oct 2008 at 6:43 pm #
Looks like Mr. anonymous got banned for botting and seals’ post has got him all worked up about it.
Also, if the eula didn’t have that line in there, about Valve banning you whenever the hell they feel like it, there would be an assload more hackers.
Fear is the most effective deterrent, and it’s what all these people need to keep them away from cheating.
waZZAA responded on 19 Nov 2008 at 10:05 am #
i went a stupid non vac server and then said they were gonna report me to get vac banned, could they?