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Kill stealing is officially banned in The Finals, can you be punished?

The Finals character

The Finals is a popular free-to-play shooter with traditional first-person shooter gameplay but it breaks from the pack by having an explicit ban on kill-stealing in its terms of service, leaving fans worried about a ban.

Embark, the developer behind The Finals has gone through great pains to maintain a happy player base. The team has been explicit about its plans and constantly communicates with players to ensure the game is enjoyable. The game receives regular updates and, while free to play, it provides plenty of free cosmetics to regular players.

The latest patch is arriving soon and will address bugs and issues. However, a new “issue” has surfaced as the community discovered an intriguing line in the game’s TOS. 

Is kill-stealing allowed in The Finals?

Kill-stealing is against the terms of service in The Finals due to it being regarded as hostile to the community.

A keen-eyed Redditor discovered and shared it on The Finals subreddit, much to everyone’s amusement. The poster, LongBrainDelay, shared a screenshot of the terms of service and end-user license agreement, which highlighted a single term: “kill stealing.” Embark is known for taking swift action and some innocent users have said they paid for this.

The Finals costume

Many users wondered whether the developer or publisher was serious when including the line. Others suggested the developers simply copied the ToS from another game, which could have actual consequences for kill stealing. Nexon, the publisher of The Finals, owns Maplestory, an MMO where kill stealing can adversely impact gameplay. 

Will you get banned in The Finals for kill stealing?

No users have reported being banned from The Finals for kill stealing, even though it is against the terms of service.

While gamers of all sorts will get frustrated over kill stealing, it’s only a true problem in MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends. In MOBAs, players can earn substantial gold or experience bounties for killing an enemy. Teams in these games are best served by funneling gold and experience into specific team members.

However, in a shooter game like The Finals, apart from placing well on the scoreboard, there’s no tangible impact when one player gets a kill and another doesn’t.

The terms of service also mentions “looting,” further fueling the idea that the whole thing is copy pasted from another game. There is no looting in The Finals. Players are free to shoot any and every enemy to help their team win, just like Call of Duty or Battlefield. No other FPS bans “kill stealing.” While players avoid reading the lengthy legal jargon in TOS pages, Embark should at least read its own. 

Written by Bilawal Bashir

Bilawal is a software engineer who loves video games, comic books, and anime. But he will never love pineapple on pizza. In over two decades of gaming, he has only broken two controllers. His work has also been featured by TheGamer and WhatIfGaming.

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