Halo 1 & 2 for PC
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  • Subject: 10,000 bans
Subject: 10,000 bans
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Okay, here's a topic that's fun for the whole family...

Many moons ago, RP, or Red Phoenix Clan, branched into Halo. For a while we just played in public servers until we finally had enough members to justify renting our own dedicated server, which is now listed as "Red Phoenix Clan HaloPC - Clean - Be Nice!" online. Our server first went online in mid-June 2005, and for several months we switched regularly between Halo PC and Halo CE. Now we have left our server in Halo PC mode for almost the past year. Interestingly enough, it wasn't until we started to really crack down on the troublemakers that our server became popular.

For reference, our definition of a troublemaker includes the following, among other things:

* anyone who teamkills frequently or intentionally
* anyone who does not respect the other players
* anyone who does not respect our "no pottymouthage" rules
* anyone who disturbs the peace

Now for the tasty tidbits: we keep backups of all of our old banlists, and we've had more than 8000 unique CD key hashes banned from our server since the RP server first went online. A naive estimate puts that number at 10,000 by March or April 2007. More than 1400 of those have been permanent bans (either issued via RCON or too many autobans).

The reason I'm posting this information is that I want to run some more in-depth studies of the statistics (although the most interesting studies can only be done on the past 6 months or so of data). I think it might help put everyone's mind at ease (or horrify everyone) to know for certain whether or not the number of Halo players is dwindling. Does anyone have any interesting ideas? Does anyone else maintain regular backups of their banlists which might help me validate these studies by including other popular servers?

Any suggestions, numbers, data, or ideas will be much appreciated!
Rob/RP-Raptor



Fun fact: Somewhere around 1000 or 2000 bans, we had to develop an alternate means of displaying the banlist, because displaying it in-game to unban players via RCON always lagged out our connections and disconnected us from the server!

  • 12.18.2006 11:01 PM PDT
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well this is certainly new. Interesting test.

  • 12.18.2006 11:45 PM PDT

Join the MAW Clan
X-fire username:Iggwilv
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So you have 8000 players in your banlist?

What I'm interested in is how do you display the banlist so you can unban someone not in the last thirty entries. SV_banlist shoots by all the names to fast, is there a page break function. Also editing the banlist.txt has never worked for me, it always goes back to what it was.

  • 12.19.2006 5:33 AM PDT

Trailer Park Boys ~ One of the best Canadian made comedies ever.

You banned more people than Xbox Live ever will

  • 12.19.2006 7:53 AM PDT
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Posted by: ReZeNeR
You banned more people than Xbox Live ever will

Somehow I doubt that.

  • 12.19.2006 9:56 AM PDT
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Last time I checked the TUI server we had a couple hundred people on the banlist. We clear it from time to time. We try not to permaban people as often. We'd rather have them learn their lesson and come back and follow the rules.

  • 12.19.2006 10:01 AM PDT
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Yes, I am a hypocrite, and I'm sorry. I really do mean well, but I'm not running on all cylinders.

Everytime someone buys a copy of Halo 2 Vista, a puppy dies.

Igg, it's "banned.txt" and should come into effect with a server restart.

  • 12.19.2006 1:43 PM PDT
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There are more eight year old, team killing retards on halo PC than almost any other PC game I've played...

  • 12.19.2006 1:44 PM PDT

Posted by: Ryukage
What? Play a game? FOR FUN???
This concept of fun confuses and infuriates me!

Honestly, banning for swearing is really dumb. Its an M rated game. Why not ban for killing as well?
I can understand if there are insults getting slung around, but someone saying damn or hell shouldn't be a big deal. And please don't try to use a "family orientated" excuse. If a parent is letting a 12 year old play an M rated game, I doubt that they really care about swearing in the game. If you can't take the swearing, go to some E rated game. But even then, I've heard swearing in them.
And if you couldn't tell, this is a topic that annoys me, that people think swearing is worse than the game they play.

  • 12.19.2006 2:03 PM PDT
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Posted by: ConMan577
Honestly, banning for swearing is really dumb.
Whereas I posit that swearing is really dumb and shows a lack of respect and often times a lack of intellectual maturity. The rules of the server are the rules. Either abide by them or don't play there.

  • 12.19.2006 2:26 PM PDT

good to hear RP. Love your servers, good gametypes and no -blams-. Although that plasma pistol spawn weapon with no spawn grenades on damnation was a mistake. Still, theres the all needler one which rocks. you gotta tell me how to set that up.

  • 12.19.2006 3:38 PM PDT

Posted by: Ryukage
What? Play a game? FOR FUN???
This concept of fun confuses and infuriates me!

Posted by: UXB
Posted by: ConMan577
Honestly, banning for swearing is really dumb.
Whereas I posit that swearing is really dumb and shows a lack of respect and often times a lack of intellectual maturity. The rules of the server are the rules. Either abide by them or don't play there.

It depends on the context its used it. Often times, idiots will throw swears around for kicks. Pointless, whatever.
And by intellectual maturity, I think you've probably banned most of the idiots, if not all of them. I couldn't give two -blam!-s about what people are saying, to be honest. I play for the enjoyment of the game.
I think that this is a good reason that people shouldn't be able to host their own servers, but have them provided all by bungie, and such. I don't particuarly enjoy having my freedom of speech stripped from me when I go to play a game online. Which is why I tend to play on servers that don't care. Because most people are mature enough to either handle swearing, or just not do it.

  • 12.19.2006 7:03 PM PDT
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that's understandable, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it still offends people. I mean seriously, there are still enough servers that don't care about swearing, why care about the ones that do? If you get banned from one, you're just as easily going to find another one that you'll like that doesn't have a "no swearing" rule.

It's a public game but a private server. The people that made the server were allowed to set it up and make their own rules. They pretty much say, "Abide by them or get the heck out."

  • 12.19.2006 8:04 PM PDT
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Posted by: Iggwilv
So you have 8000 players in your banlist?


Yes, but most of those are autobans. Well, we did clear it out occasionally in the early days, so right now we have around 7900 that are currently in the live banlist.


What I'm interested in is how do you display the banlist so you can unban someone not in the last thirty entries. SV_banlist shoots by all the names to fast, is there a page break function. Also editing the banlist.txt has never worked for me, it always goes back to what it was.


We can't display it in-game at all; attempting to view it using RCON immediately lags us out and disconnects us from the server. To view the list, we have to use a custom CGI app that I wrote back in July. Once we look up the player number, we unban as usual, in-game with RCON.

As someone else pointed out, you have to shutdown your server, edit the banned.txt, and restart the server if you plan to modify the banfile manually.

Raptor


[Edited on 12/20/2006]

  • 12.20.2006 1:37 AM PDT
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Posted by: ConMan577
Honestly, banning for swearing is really dumb. Its an M rated game. Why not ban for killing as well?


Because the whole point of the game is to kill...not swear. ;)


I can understand if there are insults getting slung around, but someone saying damn or hell shouldn't be a big deal.
...
And if you couldn't tell, this is a topic that annoys me, that people think swearing is worse than the game they play.


The swearing you'll see in most servers is far worse than the words you have mentioned. The kinds of people who fling more obscenities than bullets just cause a lot of unnecessary drama and ruin everyone else's enjoyment of the game. Allowing that kind of behavior simply breeds malice and ill will between people who could otherwise turn out to be very good friends if they were to meet in person.

Our server patrons seem to enjoy not having to put up with flamewars and insults. The fact of the matter is, you or anyone else can scream obscenities all you want at the top of your lungs. We certainly won't stop you. But there's really no need to type it out.

Raptor

  • 12.20.2006 2:01 AM PDT
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Posted by: thePheonix9
good to hear RP. Love your servers, good gametypes and no -blams-.


Thanks! (And thanks to everyone else who has posted kind comments, as well.)

Although that plasma pistol spawn weapon with no spawn grenades on damnation was a mistake.

Yeah, about that...we also recognized the problem and removed Damnation from the rotation quite some time ago. Just yesterday we re-added the map but we're now using a custom gametype called Team Slayer Pro-human. I haven't actually had a chance to play it yet, but it's supposed to spawn you with the Pro weapon set (pistol, AR, 2 grenades), and only human weapons are available (we're hoping that will cut down on the lag on that map).

Still, theres the all needler one which rocks. you gotta tell me how to set that up.

That was Team King on Wizard. That's also been out of the rotation for several months. I think you need to stop by again and take a spin in our shiny new mapcycle. ;)

Raptor

  • 12.20.2006 2:12 AM PDT
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Soooooooooo back to the original topic...can anyone else share some interesting ideas for analyzing the banlists?

We can do things as simple as the number of bans per month, but that wouldn't be particularly interesting. Trying to estimate how many players still play regularly would be very interesting, but what would be the best way to approach this problem?

Raptor

  • 12.20.2006 2:21 AM PDT
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I was an unlucky fellow that got banned for an accidental TK with a flamethrower during a team slayer deathmatch. I play on your server with regularity. I obide and respect the rules. Please unban me. The TK was in no way intentional. Thank you in advance.
Forget what I asked I'm no longer banned. Since the map changed.

[Edited on 12/20/2006]

  • 12.20.2006 8:18 AM PDT
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Wow, Postacular.

I agree with RP that swearing is a degenerate form of self expression. I can tolerate a single swear if it's appropriate "-blam!-, I died!" but if someones just swearing for the hell of it, then it kills the game. Racial slurs especially grind my beans. So we've had a lot of people moaning and crying that they got banned "for no reason".

  • 12.20.2006 9:28 AM PDT
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Posted by: ConMan577
Honestly, banning for swearing is really dumb. Its an M rated game. Why not ban for killing as well?
I can understand if there are insults getting slung around, but someone saying damn or hell shouldn't be a big deal. And please don't try to use a "family orientated" excuse. If a parent is letting a 12 year old play an M rated game, I doubt that they really care about swearing in the game. If you can't take the swearing, go to some E rated game. But even then, I've heard swearing in them.
And if you couldn't tell, this is a topic that annoys me, that people think swearing is worse than the game they play.


Nobody wants to play a game with some jackass who curses every time he dies. I also don't see what position you have to judge the use of their server.

  • 12.20.2006 11:20 AM PDT
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Banning for swearing usualy is because of religios BS, all of which I hate dearly. Religion isn't a problem until it starts to become a life, and now I quote a famus doctor.

"It's alright digging your holes until you start living in them. COME OUT OF YOUR HOLES PEOPLE!"
-House

  • 12.20.2006 11:32 AM PDT
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We ban for swearing is does any part of our clan look religious? Stop making ASSumptions.

  • 12.20.2006 11:43 AM PDT
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First of all, HA! I told you you could edit the banlist Igg. Of course nobody ever believes me when I say there's always a way.

Second, Demi our clan bans for a nonstop string of obscenities. The occasional swear is fine with me and i think with most of the other people in our clan. The problem comes when someone is filling up the text area with nonstop swears. The RP clan on the other hand, I go there when I'm not on our clan server, they jump on you for even one swear. within half a second of someone swearing, everybody in the clan says "No Swearing". I do kind of find that a little too much.

  • 12.20.2006 12:04 PM PDT

Posted by: Ryukage
What? Play a game? FOR FUN???
This concept of fun confuses and infuriates me!

Posted by: RP_Raptor
Because the whole point of the game is to kill...not swear. ;)

Indeed. I can agree on that.

The swearing you'll see in most servers is far worse than the words you have mentioned. The kinds of people who fling more obscenities than bullets just cause a lot of unnecessary drama and ruin everyone else's enjoyment of the game. Allowing that kind of behavior simply breeds malice and ill will between people who could otherwise turn out to be very good friends if they were to meet in person.

I do understand that there is far greater worse than what I said. But than again, I hear some nasty stuff on a daily basis(I'm in high school, so I've heard a lot of the stuff out there).
What I was saying, or trying to state, was that removal from the game for swearing every now and then seems a bit silly. I can understand, if they are trying to start a problem, or putting down the other player, thats just poor sportsmanship, and I honestly would boot a player if he/she was harassing others. And I have zero tolerance for racism. Its horrid, some things that people say to others.


Our server patrons seem to enjoy not having to put up with flamewars and insults. The fact of the matter is, you or anyone else can scream obscenities all you want at the top of your lungs. We certainly won't stop you. But there's really no need to type it out.

And yes, I also enjoy being able to play a game without getting into an argument with some big headed player, about the most kills, or the weapon I'm using, ect(totally not talking about anybody specific there[sarcasm]). Most of the time, when I insult someone, its one of my friends, and its just in a joking matter. There are the few times where I forget that its a game, and I get a little goofy. But nonetheless. Swearing every now and then, should be ok, as long as its not like an F-Bomb, or something like that.

  • 12.20.2006 3:34 PM PDT
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Posted by: Demigod333
We ban for swearing is does any part of our clan look religious? Stop making ASSumptions.

Banning for swearing usualy comes from some kind of moral belief (Like I don't believe in moral beliefs), which usualy come from religion. And there's a difference between saying:

"Damn it! I died! Basterd shot me"

and

"You -blam!- -blam!- face I'll eat your -blam!- because you -blam!- -blam!- me up -blam!- face. You -blam!-. -blam!- -blam!- whore, go to -blam!- hell and -blam!- rot."

  • 12.20.2006 4:38 PM PDT