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308

I've got banned from Apex Legends (social.ggbox.fr)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

100 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Got greeted with this message today. I've been playing Apex on linux for more than a year. Not sure if this could be related? Is this just me?

I've contested the ban and I'm currently waiting for a response from ea support.

UPDATE : Got an email response from EA today. It's basically a generic message saying that my account was associated with "cheating practices" and so they will not remove the ban.

This is absolutely fucking ridiculous! I've been playing this game since 2020 and have 3K+ hours on record, now this shit happens and there's no recourse ? Fuck this company.

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[–] [email protected] 159 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If I remember right, about a year ago they were banning a lot of Linux players. It might be happening again.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Found some links:

Bans in March 2023

More bans Aug. 2023

Some bans reversed

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Interesting, thanks.

[–] [email protected] 111 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

EDIT: A Respawn employee on reddit is now asking for the user ID/gamertag of those banned on linux: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/1fi77vs/comment/lnh13kj/?context=8

Original comment

Looks like you're not the only one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1f5kyd1/psa_using_proton_experimental_or_at_least/

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1ffxfjb/apex_legends_proton_epic_bug_that_do_that/

They've falsely banned linux players before, once in March 2023 and again in August 2023.

I got hit in the Aug 2023 ban, and had my permaban overturned after 1-2 weeks. Expect to have your appeal rejected, we had to make enough of a fuss about it to get a community manager to reach out to the development team to get people unbanned:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/15uqt7w/linux_users_getting_falsely_banned_again/

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Linux-players-getting-banned/td-p/12338557/page/50

I haven't played in 9-10 months since the false positive put a really bad taste in my mouth, so I don't have any datapoints to add for the current state of things, but I wish you the best of luck getting unbanned.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I see. Thanks. I'll just wait and see then.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There a free cheats for apex on Linux that are undetected by their shitty anti cheat. These Linux still eventually get caught manually so the anti cheat team just sees a lot of Linux users cheat and innocent players get caught in the crossfire b/c of their incompetence.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

free cheats for apex on Linux

You gotta br kidding me. These people have no idea what kind of disservice they do to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago

I think it's more like they don't care.

[+] [email protected] 47 points 7 months ago (4 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 94 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Yes, it's invasive kernel-level anti-cheat common in competitive multiplayer games now, because cheaters will mod their system that much for the sake of getting around the anti-cheat. Annoying from all sides.

That, and despite many devs being Linux fans, there does seem to be a (false) perception that Linux is the OS of choice for cheaters.

EDIT: Just remember, can't play a game on Linux? It's ALWAYS either the DRM or anti-cheat. Either way, corporate BS that hinders honest paying customers more than the people it's trying to stop.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

This comment is full of win.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Exactly. It’s insane how moronic EA or other publishers are that think “oh they’re on Linux they must be hacking/cheating our game.”

I would wager they have never touched Linux in their life.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not sure on ApeLegs but they have increasingly been disabling linux "support" for the Battlefields because of their anti-cheat.

I don't know how popular ApeLegs actually is. But for a lot of live games? Those are making MASSIVE bank and anything that can hurt the economy can kill the game. So a lot of studios actively just disable/block linux support because the added effort of making sure everything works in Proton is too big of a risk. Because nothing would increase Linux marketshare quite like free vdollars in Fortnite.

It really fucking sucks. But I find that many studios (like Digital Extremes) are really good about making it clear that even though they don't officially support Linux, they are very much fans of Proton (and Warframe has had a lot of bugfixes specifically FOR Proton support). Whereas EA has spent the past few months systematically disabling Linux "support" for every game they develop.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't know how popular ApeLegs actually is

~~13th~~ 7th most played game on Steam in the past 24 hours, and 13th at the moment https://steamdb.info/charts/

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They don't. I've been playing Apex on Linux for years now. Apex is doing ban waves for cheaters. OP likely did something that looked like or was cheating.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)

What he did was play on linux. You can have kernel level support for anti cheat on Linux so they look at that and see it as "suspicious" then ban.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Like I said in my previous comment. I also play on Linux and have been for years since season 12. I have not been banned. I also know people who have been banned on Windows who supposedly didn't cheat. Maybe they did something toxic in game. We can't really know what actually happened.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Apex does not use kernel level anti cheat. It just uses normal easy anti cheat.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In the past I don't think it was possible to even play on Linux because of the anti-cheat, but I think Proton worked out a way to emulate it. Maybe something to do with that if it's not technically "official" support? It's extra stupid if the emulated anti-cheat is working fine.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Fuck this company.

You're damn right.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

A year and a half back I was sent an email from Apex saying I was banned for hacking. I hadn't played apex for a year and my account hadn't been logged into during that whole time, so if they're false flagging players that don't even have the game installed then who knows that the fuck they're doing in their anti cheat. They actually reversed the ban when I contested it though.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I really love how various services nowadays will just ban you without providing any context why you were banned.

Probably half of the time I am banned I have no idea which rule I violated, which makes me more likely to violate it again, when I wait till I am unbanned or create another account.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I did try to create a new account, but it's really annoying because my original EA account is linked to my steam account, and cannot be unlinked. So I would need another steam account as well. Unless I can figure out a way to play without steam, which I'm not sure how to do because of... you guessed it, fucking anti-cheat.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Tbh I know this isn't helpful, but I recommend take the L and find better games to play. Errantly perma banning users shows a lack of consumer consideration and does not deserve further energy to fix. They fucked up, take your business elsewhere.

Again, I know it's not helpful but I think worth considering. Companies some decades ago used to be user experience as the top goal, but that has gone to the sidelines for many companies, and I don't think it's good to normalize. Hence, boycott when it happens.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

I'm sorry to say it is extremely popular (for some good reasons imo) and my friends are playing it. Besides, not a lot of competitive games even support linux to begin with. I was grateful that Apex did until now.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I got banned last year. It was for the best tbh

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

You filthy fuckin Linux casual!!!!

.../s

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Same thing happened to me, unfortunate for us...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nah, they are doing you a favor.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

<< If this Linux guy is so smart to use that OS...it shouldn't play this shitty game. >> -EA staff, actually doing something good for the planet

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

Classic EA

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Did you pay for this game?

(Edit: just asking, not making a point)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

No it is free to play. Besides, since I don't care much about skins and whatnot, I've never spent a dime on the game.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

They probably just flagged you for not being in the normal environment. For all their bravado their detection is dogshit. I've had issues with them just flagging something over a VM and... flagging a batch file closing their launcher. I wish I was joking.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

@[email protected] @[email protected], a Respawn employee responded on reddit and wants a list of user IDs/gamertags for those banned on linux:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/1fi77vs/comment/lnh13kj/?context=8

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Now you'll say fuck this company. When they new game you like, you'll be first in line to pre order the game. If you really want to fuck this company never ever buy from them only raise your sail in high seas.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

I never spend money on in-game items, so technically I was already not buying from them. I just enjoyed playing this game with my friends is all.

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