User Bans

Overview

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 two 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.

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 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 bans management, see the IAM tab of the permissions reference.

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

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

How It Works

Account Ban

When a player that isn’t banned accesses your game, the SDK sends their login request to our IAM service. The IAM service grants the user login request and sends a Success response (status code: 200) and access token back to the SDK, and the player is logged in. Then when the player accesses a resource (such as Lobby) a request is sent from the SDK to the service containing that player’s access token. The backend checks this token, and if the token is not expired and contains the proper permission, the player is granted access to that resource.

If you ban that player from your game, that request will be sent to the IAM service. The IAM service will then revoke the player’s access token, banning them from your game.

If the player tries to access a particular resource after they’ve been banned, the service will respond to the SDK’s request with an invalid token error.

Feature Ban

When a player is banned from a specific feature, that ban request is sent to the IAM service, which will revoke the player’s access token. Then, if that player attempts to access the game again, the SDK will refresh the player’s access token automatically. This refresh will trigger the IAM service to check the player’s bans and remove any permissions related to accessing banned features from that access token. This will enable the player to access other resources in game while restricting their access to the banned feature.

Managing Bans in the Admin Portal

Ban a Player

1. In the Admin Portal, open the User menu and type the Email or Display Name of the player you want to ban. in the search bar. Then hit Enter to search for the player.

   

2. Click View next to the player you want to ban.

   

3. In the player’s dashboard, switch to the Bans tab.

   

4. To ban the player, click the Add Ban button.

   

5. The Add Ban form appears. 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 documentation.

   When you’re done, click the Bans 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.

   

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, open the User menu and type the Email or Display Name of the player you want to ban. in the search bar. Then hit Enter to search for the player.

   

2. Click View next to the player you want to ban.

   

3. In the player’s Bans list you can browse all of the bans that have ever been applied to the player.

   

4. Click Enable or Disable on the ban listing to enable or disable the ban. After you click, a confirmation message will appear. Click Enable or Disable again to ban or unban the player.

   

5. 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.

Implementing Bans Using the SDK

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 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.

Related Concepts

• To learn more about user accounts, see the User Accounts documentation.
• To read how to implement terms of service agreements, see the Legal Agreements documentation.