Bungie sues Destiny 2 player for cheating and threatening staff

[Daniel Sims]

What just happened? Destiny 2 recently became the center of rising concerns about player toxicity against game developers. Bungie has sued a player for a particularly egregious string of trolling against the company and its staff.

Bungie filed a lawsuit against a Destiny 2 player last week after repeated instances of cheating, threatening Bungie staff, and selling stolen in-game content. This lawsuit is an extreme case, but the company admits that similar behavior from other players has affected how it interacts with its fanbase.

According to Bungie, Luca Leon publicly streamed himself using cheats in Destiny 2, eventually starting over a dozen accounts as Bungie banned each of them. Leone didn't hide his repeated breaches of Destiny 2's license agreement, bragging about his ongoing battle with Bungie.

The developer also accuses Leone of selling stolen accounts and fraudulent in-game items like emblems, some of which Bungie created for charity. The suit associates Leone with "OG Users" -- a marketplace for stolen account credentials and SIM-swapping.

Cases of harassment against our developers have actively made it harder for us to communicate with the broader community. It has impacted more studios than just ours.

I hope that more folks can stand against this behavior in any community, whether it be gaming related or other.

— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) July 17, 2022

Most serious are Leone's alleged threats against Bungie community managers. In May, Leone tweeted a picture of community manager Dylan Gafner's employee badge and later wrote, "he is not safe," after mentioning he was moving closer to where Gafner lives. Leone threatened other community managers and joked about committing arson at Bungie HQ.

After Bungie made the filing, Gafner admitted on Twitter that harassment against employees negatively impacts how Bungie communicates with players. He also wrote that player toxicity has affected other developers.

This isn't the only time Bungie has taken people to court recently. Earlier this month, a cheat developer agreed to pay $13.5 million. Also last month Bungie sued someone for issuing fraudulent copyright takedown notices against the developer's Destiny 2 YouTube videos.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/95344-bungie-sues-destiny-2-player-cheating-threatening-staff.html

 

[m4a4]

Do they not have psych wards for these kinds of people..?

Edit: For the people who go out of their way to go/move closer to the people they're harassing.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Do they not have psych wards for these kinds of people..?

The number of inpatient psychiatric beds in the US is down by over 90% in the last 50 years. The US decided that it was cheaper for the government not to fund mental health institutions and instead wait for these people to commit crimes and then incarcerate them in prisons.

Why pay for 2 institutions when you can pay for one? And if a few people get killed or "inconvenienced" by the crimes they commit on the way to prison, well that's apparently been deemed an acceptable loss.

 

[brucek]

Do they not have psych wards for these kinds of people..?

Serious threats of harming an individual or burning down a building are of course actionable by our legal system, and should insanity be used as the defense, being committed is a possibility.

The thing is, while I'm pretty sure I don't want to play any of the same games as this creep, or at least be on the same servers, I'm at least a little cautious about involving the legal system for many of these complaints.

For the most serious - the threats of violence - it comes down to differentiating what he did vs. the kind of trash talk you can find in any game or any playground since the beginning of time.

Stealing account credentials is probably a clear crime. I'm ok with him going down for that.

For the rest it comes down to are we sure we want to give corporations the right to criminalize using their products differently than they intended? I hate cheaters, but I'm not sure it should be a crime to hack a game and stream yourself doing it. Finding an exploit that turns some extra pixels on your monitor should probably not be a high priority crime. And if we let it become one, is that the same as agreeing razor makers should be able to sue you if you buy your blades from someone else?

 

[Nobina]

Do they not have psych wards for these kinds of people..?

Multiplayer games are infested with these kind of people. They can't possibly have enough psych wards for all of them. Maybe we can make a business out of making them?

 

[texasrattler]

Serious threats of harming an individual or burning down a building are of course actionable by our legal system, and should insanity be used as the defense, being committed is a possibility.

The thing is, while I'm pretty sure I don't want to play any of the same games as this creep, or at least be on the same servers, I'm at least a little cautious about involving the legal system for many of these complaints.

For the most serious - the threats of violence - it comes down to differentiating what he did vs. the kind of trash talk you can find in any game or any playground since the beginning of time.

Stealing account credentials is probably a clear crime. I'm ok with him going down for that.

For the rest it comes down to are we sure we want to give corporations the right to criminalize using their products differently than they intended? I hate cheaters, but I'm not sure it should be a crime to hack a game and stream yourself doing it. Finding an exploit that turns some extra pixels on your monitor should probably not be a high priority crime. And if we let it become one, is that the same as agreeing razor makers should be able to sue you if you buy your blades from someone else?

Well cheating is against any games ToS. Is it a crime, well it could be seen that way. If someone was selling items that impacts the publisher financially or ability to make money. Hacking/cheating to get items that are meant to be bought/paid for. Also cheating ruins the game experience for other players and can be seen as financially hurting the games ability to make money. So its not impossible to think its a crime. Now is it worth prison time or a fine. Id say a hefty fine but with a catch. 1000 hrs of community work and a donation to a charity.

 

[m4a4]

Serious threats of harming an individual or burning down a building are of course actionable by our legal system, and should insanity be used as the defense, being committed is a possibility.

The thing is, while I'm pretty sure I don't want to play any of the same games as this creep, or at least be on the same servers, I'm at least a little cautious about involving the legal system for many of these complaints.

For the most serious - the threats of violence - it comes down to differentiating what he did vs. the kind of trash talk you can find in any game or any playground since the beginning of time.

Stealing account credentials is probably a clear crime. I'm ok with him going down for that.

For the rest it comes down to are we sure we want to give corporations the right to criminalize using their products differently than they intended? I hate cheaters, but I'm not sure it should be a crime to hack a game and stream yourself doing it. Finding an exploit that turns some extra pixels on your monitor should probably not be a high priority crime. And if we let it become one, is that the same as agreeing razor makers should be able to sue you if you buy your blades from someone else?

I'm mainly talking about for the people who (apparently) go/move closer to the people they're threatening/harassing, as mentioned in the article.

Most serious are Leone's alleged threats against Bungie community managers. In May, Leone tweeted a picture of community manager Dylan Gafner's employee badge and later wrote, "he is not safe," after mentioning he was moving closer to where Gafner lives. Leone threatened other community managers and joked about committing arson at Bungie HQ.

Something is not right in the head if a person thinks it's ok to go out of their way to do such a thing.

And it's not just them. There have been maaaaany reports of female streamers who deal with such people (and not much gets done without something more serious happening)...

 

[Uncle Al]

There was a time with the FBI and local law enforcement took this very seriously but as the internet has grown law enforcement has abdicated their responsibility. The tools exist to easily track down these problem children and do something about it. Access to the internet is not a "right", it is very much a privilege. If the Congress doesn't get off it's seat and start doing it's job, none of this will get better.