User Bans

Overview

AccelByte Cloud’s User Bans allow you to restrict access to your game, or to particular in-game features, from players that break your game’s rules or otherwise act inappropriately. There are three ways to carry out a user ban:

• Account Bans restrict access to your game by revoking all of the banned player’s access tokens.
• Feature Bans restrict access to specific in-game features by invalidating all access tokens for that feature.
• Device Bans restrict access to your game from a specific device using the device’s unique ID, preventing banned players from reentering your game with a new account.

Managing user bans includes two main actions: banning a player from your game and lifting an existing ban from a player. Banning and unbanning players can be done directly from the Admin Portal.

Permissions

Permissions (opens new window) are used to grant access to specific resources within our services. Make sure your account has the following permissions before you attempt to manage bans in the Admin Portal. For a full list of permissions that impact ban management, see the IAM tab of the permissions reference (opens new window).

Usage	Permissions	Action
Ban a Player	ADMIN:NAMESPACE:{namespace}:USER:{userId}:BAN	CREATE
Enable or Disable Player’s Ban	ADMIN:NAMESPACE:{namespace}:USER:{userId}:BAN	UPDATE
Retrieve Ban Types and Reasons	ADMIN:BAN	READ

Permissions work slightly differently depending on whether they are assigned to IAM Clients (opens new window) or Roles (opens new window) assigned to users. For more information, read the Authentication and Authorization (opens new window) documentation.

Manage Bans in the Admin Portal

Ban a Player by Account

1. In the Admin Portal, expand the Users Management section and click Users.

   

2. Search for the player you have on hand using the credential for that player that you have on hand. For more information, see the Search for a User (opens new window) tutorial.

   

3. The results of your search will appear. Browse the list to find the account you’re looking for and click View in the Action column of the account listing to open it.

   

4. The User Overview will appear, giving you a quick look at the user’s account data. Click Ban to ban the selected user.

   

5. In the Bans tab, click the Add Ban button.

   

6. The Add Ban form will appear. Fill in the required information:

   

   • Choose the Ban Type. If you choose Feature Ban, you need to choose the feature you want to restrict. A list of the features that players can be banned from can be found in the table below.

     Ban Type

     Feature Restriction	Description
     CHAT_SEND	Player is banned from sending a message
     CHAT_ALL	Player is banned from both sending and receiving messages
     ORDER_AND_PAYMENT	Player is banned from making purchases in-game
     STATISTICS	Player will not have their statistics recorded
     LEADERBOARD	Player will not appear on any leaderboards
     MATCHMAKING	Player is banned from matchmaking.

     

   • Define when the ban will expire in the Ban Expiration field:

     • If you want the ban to expire after a certain amount of time, select Set by duration. Then enter the number of minutes, hours, or days you want the player to be banned for. After this amount of time passes, the ban will expire.
     • If you want the ban to expire on a certain day and time, select Set by expiration date. Then enter the date and time you want the ban to expire.
     • Choose Never if you want the ban to be permanent. Permanent bans can be disabled manually.

   • Select the reason for the ban from the Reason dropdown list. A list of the reasons players can be banned can be found in the table below.

     Ban Reasons

     Reason	Description
     VIOLENCE	Player is banned for posting violent content.
     HARASSMENT	Player is banned for harassing other players.
     HATEFUL_CONDUCT	Player is banned for acting hatefully towards other players.
     OFFENSIVE_USERNAME	Player is banned for having an offensive username.
     IMPERSONATION	Player is banned for impersonating other players.
     MALICIOUS_CONTENT	Player is banned for posting malicious content such as spam, scams, etc.
     SEXUALLY_SUGGESTIVE	Player is banned for posting sexually explicit or suggestive content.
     SEXUAL_VIOLENCE	Player is banned for acting sexually violent or exploiting other players.
     EXTREME_VIOLENCE	Player is banned for extremely violent content, such as gore.
     UNDERAGE_USER	Player is banned for being underage.
     CHEATING	Player is banned for cheating.
     TOS_VIOLATION	Player is banned for violating the Terms of Service.

   • Type a Comment that includes any relevant information about the ban.

   • Select the Notify user via email checkbox if you want to send a ban notification to the player via email.

   IMPORTANT

   Players that log into your game using 3rd-party credentials may only have a headless account in the Admin Portal, which means that their account will have no email address associated with it. Only players that have registered an account in your game or platform, or have upgraded their headless account by registering an email address in your game, will be able to receive an email notification if they’re banned. For more information about headless accounts, see the 3rd-Party Login Integration (opens new window) documentation.

When you’re done, click the Ban button. The new ban will appear in the Bans list.

If you select the Notify user via email option and the banned player’s email address is on record in the Admin Portal, they will receive an email saying that they have been banned, as well as the reason for the ban and how long the ban will be enforced.

Ban a Player by Device

1. In the Admin Portal, expand the Users Management section and click Users.

   

2. Search for the player. For more information on searching for players, see the Search for a User (opens new window) tutorial.

   

3. The results of your search will appear. Browse the list to find the account you’re looking for and click View in the Action column of the account listing to open it.

   

4. The User Overview will appear, giving you a quick look at the user’s account data. At the top, click on the Bans tab.

   

5. Click the + Add ban button.

   

6. The Add Ban form will appear. Fill in the required information:

   

   • Choose Device Ban from the Ban type dropdown menu.
   • Select the device you want to ban from the Device ID dropdown menu. This menu will only contain the devices this player has used to log in.
   • Define when the ban will expire in the Ban Expiration field:
     • If you want the ban to expire after a certain amount of time, select Set by duration. Then enter the number of minutes, hours, or days you want the player to be banned for. After this amount of time passes, the ban will expire.
     • If you want the ban to expire on a certain day and time, select Set by expiration date. Then enter the date and time you want the ban to expire.
     • Choose Never if you want the ban to be permanent. Permanent bans can be disabled manually.
   • Select the reason for the ban from the Reason dropdown list. A list of the reasons players can be banned can be found in the table in the previous section.
   • Type a Comment that includes any relevant information about the ban.

   IMPORTANT

   Players that log into your game using 3rd-party credentials may only have a headless account in the Admin Portal, which means that their account will have no email address associated with it. Only players that have registered an account in your game or platform, or have upgraded their headless account by registering an email address in your game, will be able to receive an email notification if they’re banned. For more information about headless accounts, see the 3rd-Party Login Integration (opens new window) documentation.

When you’re done, click the Ban button. The new ban will appear in the Bans list.

Enable and Disable a Player’s Ban

To re-enable an expired or disabled ban on a player, or lift an existing ban on a player, follow the steps below:

1. In the Admin Portal, expand the Users Management section and click Users.

   

2. Search the user account that you want to view its edit history to. Please refer to the Search a Player section to find out how to search for a user account.

   

3. The results of your search will appear. Browse the list to find the account you’re looking for and click View in the Action column of the account listing to open it.

   

4. The User Overview will appear, giving you a quick look at the user’s account data. Click Ban to ban the selected user.

   

5. In the Bans tab you can browse all of the bans that have ever been applied to the player. Click Disable under the Action column of the selected ban to disable the ban or click Enable under the Action column to enable the selected ban.

   

6. The Disable Ban confirmation message will appear. Click Enable or Disable again to ban or unban the player.

   

7. After you disable the ban, the player will be able to access the game or the feature they were banned from. If you enable a ban for a player, the player will now be banned from accessing the game or from the specific feature.

Manage Bans Using the Client SDKs

Ban a Player In-Game

Use the code below to implement in-game banning of players. This can be useful if you have moderators in your game who need to be able to ban players without being granted access to your Admin Portal.

NOTE

To enable in-game moderators to ban players, those moderators will need to be assigned a role that includes the Ban a Player permission, just like an admin who bans players from the Admin Portal. For more information about permissions, see the Permissions (opens new window) documentation.

Ban Notifications

Use the code below to implement ban notifications, so that players can be told that they have been banned and the reason why.