‘Destiny 2’ 4x World’s First Raider Banned For A Controversial Reason

The Destiny 2 community is aflame with fresh drama as 4x World’s First raider, Team Elysium’s Cruz, has been banned from the game for allegedly breaking Bungie’s guidelines on cheating software. Cut and dry, right? No, not really.

The issues of “unjustified” bans in the Destiny 2 community has led to a wide range of outcomes. At one point, Bungie falsely banned a number of players, admitted to it, and even gave them Silver as compensation. Other times, we see players protesting their innocence only to be smacked with a load of receipts from Bungie showing their cheating or toxicity.

The case with Cruz here is…complicated, but it does look like we know what probably happened. It’s more a matter of the context of why he was banned, and whether or not that matters.

Cruz was apparently banned for using software called ArtMoney, a “legal” program but one that is still considered cheating software. The hitch here is that Cruz says he was using the software to simply boost his fortunes in an entirely different RTS game he was playing solo, and it had nothing to do with Destiny.

There has been some debate about whether or not the software has the capacity to actually affect Destiny 2 or not at all. Some say the way this program works cannot affect the files of any online game. Others say it can do that if modified, and this is not the first time someone has been banned for using ArtMoney.

So, this has caused a split in the community. Some are saying Cruz was rightly banned even if he simply had the software on his computer, either A) not believing him when he says he wasn’t cheating or B) saying it’s justified because it’s against TOS regardless. Others, including top content creators, are saying the ban needs to be re-examined with more context and wonder out loud if Bungie should be banning one of its top players like this without any warning, and for what seems like a pretty minor offense, leaving this tool open when running Destiny.

The counter-argument here would be that if an exception is made here, then exceptions would have to be made elsewhere, and no one is “above the law,” as it were, no matter how many World’s Firsts you have. But conversely, in the context of the current state of the game and the state of Bungie, which recently laid off many player support and player security team members, perhaps this is worth digging into more deeply than an initial ban and quick manual review appeal rejection. Perhaps yes, the context does matter, and it’s not worth wiping thousands of hours of playtime of one of the game’s top players for what may literally be trying to get more money in Rome: Total War.

I am not going to fully pass judgement here one way or the other as I think we need more facts (I tend to believe what he’s saying, but also get how it still technically violates TOS), but it’s getting the community boiling on both sides. I have reached out to Cruz and will update this with a statement when I hear back from him.

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