If you believe Dark Souls 3 to be a psychopathic experience, wait until you hear about its terms of use.
Quite recently, a growing number of Dark Souls 3 players started receiving "Invalid Game Data" error message when trying to fire up the game. Bandai Namco's knowledge center has since been updated to clarify that this message acts as a warning for players who are about to be banned if they don't take steps to correct an automatically-detected misconduct.
"This message is intended to inform end users that some external file, modification of game save data, exploit or cheat/hack, or alterations to the game have been detected by the Dark Souls III server team and that the end users' account/profile has been flagged for further investigation," reads the knowledge center.
"The warning message will continue to be displayed until the Dark Souls III server team has determined whether or not a violation of the End User License Agreement (EULA) occurred. At that point the account/profile will either have restrictions placed on it (to limit the online interactions during multiplayer sessions and a further penalty message of 'You have been Penalized' issued) or the 'Invalid Game Data' warning message removed."
"During the time that the warning message is displayed the end user will have a chance to completely remove any such external files, mods, cheats/hacks or delete their game save (if alterations were performed to it or hacked items/equipment were obtained either as a direct cheat/hack or via unknown ‘gift’ from an online player)."
The whole process is pretty much typical, with one simple exception: that last paragraph explicitly states that you can get banned for receiving a gift even if you have no clue it was ill gotten. Even more, the system doesn't give you any clue about the infringing item. It is entirely possible for a player to get banned simply for picking up an innocent-looking item without knowing that it was dropped by a hacker. In fact, this opens the door to an entire new level of trolling where the troll gets his victim banned by the game itself.
But all of this was not enough to change Namco Bandai's mind. As it stands, the company advises players to be warry when (quote) receiving candy from strangers (unquote). The company also advises players to keep recent backups of their save games in order to revert back to them in case they inadvertently end up with an infectious item in their inventory. Interestingly enough, the company didn't give specific instructions on how to do so.
"Due to the apparent risk of ‘taking candy from strangers’, it is recommended that players should always back up their save data to an online service (such as cloud saves) or as a direct back-up of the save file to a separate folder/directory (for PC/Steam)," advises the knowledge center. This would allow any players who end up receiving a hacked item/equipment unknowingly from an online player, the ability to restore their original game data from the cloud or separate backed up game data."
In case you're wondering, Dark Souls 3 save games are typically stored in %appdata%\DarkSoulsIII . Be warned though that some players have warned that tampering with save data files is also punishable by ban.
On the bright side, this whole dilemma can be seen as just another one of the game's nightmarish challenges. Would you be able to dodge the ban hammer long enough to reach the finish line? Pretty exciting indeed.