Game Effectively Deleted, for Playing House Rules
On Saturday, October 29th, 2022, I received my third and most serious ban on my account, as I was accused of cheating, and I was banned from online play in all Madden NFL titles.
When I was banned, I was playing Field of Fear House Rules vs CPU, attempting to get rewards to complete a player. This game mode was unlimited, so banning me for playing it is completely inappropriate; with a penalty that far exceeds any potential infraction. I had played this game mode to completion 11 times, attempting to pull an 87 to help complete 90 OVR players. (I was unsuccessful in getting my rewards, pulling 42 78 OVR players and 2 84s, from 22 78-84 OVR packs and 22 78-87 OVR packs.) If this mode had a limit, I obviously would have not pursued it as an avenue to get in-game rewards and complete my player. If developers did not foresee people playing it multiple times, they could have simply imposed a limit after the fact, not banned me permanently from all online game modes. This has effectively deleted the game that I bought, less than halfway through the NFL season, and a quarter of the way through the year that the game will be current.
Unfortunately, I am left to guess as to the cause of the accusation of cheating, so I must also address my second guess for this accusation. During Server Maintenance on October 27th, I completed my House Rules H2H, since I could not work on completing my Solo Battles. (I had already completed about 85% of the objective, though tracking it was difficult with the Rewards screen broken and then removed.) As you will see from the photos of my Recent Opponents on Xbox, of the 14 opponents that I played that day, 4 showed a pattern of being a real screen name, and 10 were 2-3 letters and 3-4 numbers, and each of those opponents quit before the first play of the game. (I recognized the pattern as bot accounts from a coin selling farm, attempting to match up together, and getting me instead.)
(I believe that my Field of Fear House Rules H2H opponents from that day extend from the first opponent, until the next to last opponent in the second photo, as indicated. Screennames of real opponents removed for privacy.)
I did not foresee getting banned for accidentally and unavoidably running into bot accounts, or I guess I would have given up playing the mode and completing my rewards. I had looked forward to playing and winning my Field of Fear House Rules H2H, and was frustrated when I was largely unable to find real opponents.
This accusation of cheating is untrue, and I hope to get it resolved as soon as possible. Separately, I am continuing to dispute my existing ban for Coin Distribution, a charge for which I maintain my innocence. But the cheating accusation is the most serious, as it has effectively deleted the game, and my account, potentially for any future Madden title.
While I realize that Community Managers cannot be of assistance on this issue, it needs to be addressed, so that other players do not experience similar penalties.
