Gamers' Integrity and Microsoft's Public Image and Relations

I believe Microsoft is leaving itself open to an unnecessary risk of alienating and losing business due to the behaviour of unscrupulous people. This thread aims to raise the big-questions that need reflection, consideration and solutions.

There are two important principles at stake here:

1. Gamers’ integrity



This forum has numerous complaints from gamers about the Enforcement Team. There is a recurring theme: they all claim to be victims of a honey-trap by cheats/modders/generally unplesant people. They are not the instigators, but the victims. No court in the
land would punish a victim, even if they reacted in an unintentional and/or inappropriate way. What gives a company the right to do so?

In consequence, gamers’ integrity is destroyed – and that in itself is a bitter pill to swallow – and they become double victims of both the cheats/modders/unplesant people and Microsoft through the Enforcement Team.



2. Microsoft’s Pubic Image and Relations



Again, this forum has examples of certain “Ambassadors”- a few, certainly not all - repeatedly doing nothing to enhance or promote Microsoft’s public image and relations. They make throwaway, banal and sometimes even wise guy remarks, then the thread is
locked. This means that the gamer can no longer comment or report the Amassador's comment to the Ambassador's Moderator.

The aforementioned "Ambassadors" do not even bother to give the impression of listening, sympathising, trying to help or giving the gamer a more fuller picture. Is this really the role of an Ambassador? Is this really in line with Microsoft's public relations
policy? Is this really the image that Microsoft wants to portray?

- - -

Having said all of that, I sympathise with Ambassadors here. You have to take the brunt of the Enforcement Team’s actions and decisions. This is clearly a recurring problem as you have produced a standard reply on the lines of, “The Enforcement team does
not use these forums...“ Well, perhaps the Enforcement Team should use these forums or at least be made aware of them. In business we call it, "listening to customer feedback". The fact that they don’t, just promotes their image as an autocratic, untouchable,
unaccountable and unjust organisation. Again, is this what Microsoft really wants?

Somebody in Microsoft must do something, or say something, or escalate something, for pity's sake! Is this current situation really tenable? Are these issues just going to disappear overnight? I think not.

Enforcement policy and procedure needs to be overhauled as a matter of urgency. Fact. Surely everyone using or moderating this forum has had that thought at least once. If no one inside Microsoft has the will or the courage to take this on, then the job
has to be done by the paying customers… or we could just go to Sony, which would be a lot easier, but a shame.

:)

 

Why I am losing faith in MS and have none for the Xbox One

Obviously you have an agenda against Microsoft. I simply stated that Microsoft was not at fault concerning your personal predicament and your applying that to every category. I admit Microsoft has made many mistakes with the Xbox One especially when concerning
public relations and communications but every little problem you encounter with an app due to your DSL internet is NOT Microsoft's fault.

 

Product reviewing request

Hey Jinx2K16 -

Thanks for posting. If you are a gaming journalist or represent a gaming news/media site, you will want to start with the

Microsoft Public Relations Contacts Page.

 

Keeping this thread open, or locking it, will reveal your true attitude to customer feedback.

I stress the point that this post has been made in good faith, for the intended good of both Xbox gamers and Microsoft alike. I could have just said, "to hell with it" and moved on to Sony. But I haven't. I have been a loyal Microsoft
Xbox user for many years, and this loyalty - although seriously tested at the moment - is still present.

 

Progress!





Useful Information

If you have, or have had, issues with the Xbox Live Enforcement Team, you can vote to have its policies and procedures reviewed here:

Xbox Ideas, powered by UserVoice

You also have the opportunity to share your experience, and read many, many others; some horrendous.

If you wish to make a formal, official complaint against The Enforcement Team, you can do so from here:

US gamers

Microsoft Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

European gamers

EU Online Dispute Resolution | Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

This is exactly what I intend to do. @administrators: Perhaps this information should be added to your sticky:

Have any enforcement or suspension related questions? Check out our guide here!

The Bad News

Firstly, Lord Quixote", a beta-tester, has written a very-informative, insightful and interesting article entitled, "Explanation of How the Xbox Live Enforcement System Operates". In it, he states:

"players who have previously been subject to enforcement are effectively blackballed by an automated process which determines whether a new complaint warrants enforcement. Again, in simpler terms: once you've been banned,
the likelihood of your being targeted for a ban in the future is much greater."

The full article can be found here:

http://forum-console.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/136374-explanation-of-how-the-xbox-live-enfor...

Secondly, go here:

Join Microsoft's Xbox Live Enforcement Team and help protect the community while earning rewards

Inside you will discover an ironic article, dated now, but "funny" nonetheless, which includes this gem:

"Within the campus at Redmond an Xbox team known as the Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement Team exists... The group of “agents”, as they are called, monitor and process thousands of complaints received every single day; they then judge the complaints against
the Xbox Live Code of Conduct and make a decision. These agents are Microsoft’s Xbox Live judges, jury members, and executioners for Xbox Live baddies."

Conclusion

As in my case, and literally hundreds of others, if you're an honest gamer with a spotless record, wouldn't even know where to begin to cheat, and unintentionally/unknowingly come into contact with a cheat/modder/generally-unpleasant-person who instigates
trouble, you're at risk of getting well and truly screwed, several times, and not in a good way, either:

You receive a ban (1st), your gamerscore is set to zero (2nd), you're now officially one of the baddies (3rd), no one at Microsoft listens to you (4th), you're treated like dirt on the forums (5th) you're sent to many sites that lead nowhere (6th), the chance
of you getting banned again is even higher now (7th) and there's nothing you can do about it (8th).

That's one hell of a night!

But there is something that you can do about it, and have to do something about it, because it not acceptable and sickening. Use links above and anything else you can find.

Then, go and buy a Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. You will see that it's number 1, by the way...

Best Gaming Console 2018 - Top Video Game Systems to Buy

 

You violated the terms of use and or the code of conduct and received a suspension because of your own actions.

You spent all this time grasping at straws and tidbits of info that won't have any impact and what you, yourself have done.

At the end of the day you appear to want to blame everyone else and promote a competitor and you continue to fail to learn from your own actions and demonstrate disrespect and contempt for the process and the company.

 

Hahaha!!! Did you really write this? Is this really your reply xHAMZAT RADIOx?

If so, you clearly don't have the intellectual capacity to understand anything. You are ignorantly unaware of a literally hundreds of negative comments, poor experiences, testimonies and even law suits by paying customers against the injustices committed
by the Enforcement Team, right across the web, right across the world. These are no "straws and tidbits". I am not alone; not by a long shot.

It's people like you, xHAMZAT RADIOx, who just make matters worse. You are of no use to neither gamers nor Microsoft. Hang up your boots.

 

Your comments speak for themselves. You've done nothing but admonish and berate the people here on the forums and of Xbox. You've done nothing to help anyone here and you're again unwilling or unable to accept the terms of use and the code of conduct witch
you even violate here on the forums.

Payment for a service does not allow or excuse your behavior, it never will. All you're able to do here is reaffirm the reason why there's an enforcement team. And why the moderators keep locking your threads. You're not here for support, you just demonstrate
time and again your hate.

There are plenty of other forums that you can continue your behavior. It does nothing for anyone here.

 

... but unfortunately you do not have the capacity to hear them.

xHAZMAT RADIOx's comments just prove my point about the problem with certain "Ambassadors" on this forum. There are those, like xHAZMAT RADIOx, like ngocphi, who ignorantly and naively behave as if Microsoft is always right, and the gamer is always wrong; and
there are others who are more open-minded and know that in life, in the real world, things are rarely so black and white.

I am persuing this matter tenaciously, here and all the way up to Microsoft's legal department, because I know what really happened. I was there. I got screwed by an unscrupulous cheat/modder/generally-unpleasant-person, and
then to make matters worse, I got screwed again by Microsoft's Enforcement Team. Fact, absolute fact.

I know that truth hurts, xHAZMAT RADIOx, but I can assure you that lies and injustice hurt just as bad.

As I have clearly stated in this thread, my purpose is to make honest gamers feel protected when something like this happens; and I have informatively given them the means to bring this to the attention of Microsoft when things go wrong.

That is more than you have ever done, xHAZMAT RADIOx. All I'm hearing from you is incomprehensible, bigoted nonsense. You don't know what you are talking about, you don't know me, you weren't there when the incident happened, you don't work for the Enforcement
Team, you've been rude, patronising and condescending right from the start; in short, I repeat, you are of no use to neither gamers nor Microsoft.

It's time to turn off the xHAZMAT RADIOx and tune into something more reasonable.

 

More degrading and defaming remarks. Just more of the same terms of use violations on the forums to go along with your continuous and consistent history here.

The "truth" is in the text here and I'm not hurt one bit.

Just reporting your responses that reflect your behavior.

 

... as I am doing with you. I shall not forget to mention your name as this escalates and becomes more serious - and be assured, it will. This thread, and others, are saved in pdf format, to be used at a later date. I imagine that you will have the opportunity to
explain your comments, attitude and behaviour on this and other threads to more senior people, and I wish you luck. I have nothing more to say to you.

To return to the point and clarify exactly the problem, for the benefit of those who are not yet lost causes:

If an honest gamer - a loyal, longstanding Xbox customer with an impeccable record - falls victim to an unscrupulous and fully-intentional cheat/modder/generally-unpleasant-person, and through some resulting act breaches a part of the code of conduct and
receives a sanction, then that part of the code of conduct which allows such an outcome must be reconsidered, revised or even deleted altogether.

It is morally indefensible to further victimize a victim.

It is perfectly acceptable to hunt down and sanction unscrupulous, and fully-intentional cheats/modders/generally-unpleasant-people. It is not acceptable to put their victims in the same basket. That is wrong on so many levels.

That is precisiely what has happened to me, that is what has happened to others, and no doubt that is what is still happening to people even as I write this.

It is as simple as that.

A code of conduct that was established, no doubt, for positive reasons, is producing negative side affects. Something is not right. Something is not working correctly. Something is broken. Something needs to be fixed.

My message to Microsoft is this: Stop. Listen. Acknowledge. Act. This journey should be started by the Microsoft Ambassadors. The role of an Ambassador is not simply to enforce the Company's line, but also to escalate feedback and issues raised on these
forums to the Company that they represent.

 

The enforcement team does not use the forums. The do not read the forums or take any action on these forums. If you have suggestions on how enforcement works, feedback.xbox.com is where it should go. Again, continuing to spam the forums will only lead to
action on your forums account.