In-game name: cash
steamID64: 76561198075677544

Why am I banned?

I'm banned by Infistar because I duped in an Arma 3 Exile server. This server I duped in was a Cartel themed, you can “harvest” different drugs, and then, consume or sell them. Usually, you harvest these drugs from AI missions around the map, when you are harvesting you have a progress bar that until it reaches 100% you can't move or touch any key or your progress will be lost, and you have to start the animation again. There is a radiated area in the map, those areas that you need to use a gas mask to enter, this area is a meth lab and there are barrels which can be collected as crystal as long as you have a knife. The problem was that while you are harvesting those barrels there is no progression bar and you can do things while harvesting, what I did was start spamming as soon as the animation to harvest starts, if you don't start soon enough you will get stuck until the animation ends. Doing this I could get X number of crystals, X being the total of times I spammed if I'm not wrong, instead of 1 crystal. I also have to say that while I was doing this some barrels that weren't even close to me dissapear. Hopefully this will help the admin of that server to fix the bug.

Why I think I should be unbanned?

I should be unbanned because, in my opinion, what I did wasn't that harmful to the server I was playing, due to the number of players in it. Also, everything in that server was super cheap so it could attract more people to play and for newer players to have an easier start in the server. And I knew while duping, that it was useless. I was just duping because the server was almost empty and I was bored, also, I never used the money I earned from duping I didn't need it. I already had enough and even more than I needed before duping, I was just stupid. I was able to make lots of money due to the amount of players in the server almost all the map was available just for me at certain hours.
Also, I need to play a game of this kind like Dayz mod, or Dayz. And DayZ Standalone isn't in its best moment and I don't think that one year from here will be fixed yet. And I think Infistar will be available for DayZ Standalone and I am not sure but, this ban I have, may ruin my DayZ Standalone too. Maybe I can't play Arma 2 anymore and I didn't realize yet.

I'm one of those persons who think everyone deserves a second chance, obviously, it depends on what that person has done, and seeing what I did, is not that significant. And trust me I've learned a lot from this ban. I've been playing since Arma 2 Dayz mod and I remember people being banned permanently from that server for hacking or whatever, but I've never seen such a huge ban like this one I have right now, I thought that after being banned, I just needed to find another server. I was unaware of this kind of global bans this being the first time I got banned from any Arma 3 server because of cheating. Actually, this was the first time I took advantage by “breaking the game” and I didn't know how Infistar worked. Basically, for sure that I'm not going to do it again, now I know the consequences. Also, I have 1 year of punishment and I accept it.

Harmful affects duping does to a server.

One harmful effect duping does to a server is that certain items could be devalued, as long as that server has a flea market between players. This makes the game easier for everyone and we don't want that, because there would not be an objective to reach. Another harmful effect is that the player duping has an advantage over other players that aren't, making the game unfair. And, if someone in the server realizes or suspects that some other players are duping, they could be encouraged to dupe, because they see that the other players, who are supposedly duping, are not being banned. Also, by duping and hacking you ruin your own experience, there are exceptions where people have fun while hacking for example, but an average player wants the game to be challenging and not easy, we need an objective in the server. And if we dupe or hack there isn't any objective to make, because you have a lot of items already or you can kill everyone without a problem.

I've never owned an Arma server but I guess that duping also lags and desyncs the server, making a bad experience for other players that don't know what is happening, and probably those players would blame the server.

Cheating vs being a Good Community supporter

I was searching cheats for Arma 3 to inform myself and I saw a lot of ESP, I've heard of this but I didn't know what it exactly meant until now. I see a lot of people making their own scripts and trying to bypass Infistar by hiding into PBO files. They are every day trying to find new vulnerabilities and Infistar trying to fix them. Unfortunately, the cheaters are always ahead. And the other kind of cheaters are those who take advantage of broken mechanics of games like Arma, to dupe for example.

Counter-Strike always had cheaters everywhere, I remember playing 1.6 when I was younger, and honestly, I do not remember if it had its own anti-cheat, but I remember that you needed to download an anti-cheat called sXe Injected made by the community. There are always good people trying to counteract cheaters. Nowadays, VAC only works against pretty simple or obvious hacks for CS GO. If you play normal Match-making you are going to play against a cheater for sure. But you can play in Faceit or ESEA. I've seen tests that compared Faceit anti-cheat and VAC, and the anti-cheat made by the community always works better. I've never played in ESEA but people say that it is the safest place to play CS GO, but their anti-cheat is very intrusive, that is the only way the can be really sure you aren't hacking. Also, there is a really good tool that CS GO has, it is Overwatch. Overwatch lets you download a demo from a match where you see the camera of a suspicious player who got several reports, then after watching all the footage, you are asked 4 questions that you need to be completely sure before submitting, those questions are if the suspect has aim assistance, vision assistance, external assistance or if he is griefing. Valve did a great job making this system of reporting players, the community can help directly by filtering these reports, speeding up the banning process.

Good Community supporters are people like you from Infistar or these people from CS I talked about, who dedicated a lot of time to create an anti-cheat and keep dedicating time to update it every time you discover a new vulnerability in it. Players are good supporters too when they report suspicious people or tell the admin about a new bug or exploit the server has. Players helping newbies and teaching them what to do and what not to do as well.


To finish I would like to say that I'm sorry for duping, and I will never do anything like that again now that I know the consequences. Thank you.