Activision Bans More than 60,000 Accounts For Cheating

[SADS]

Summary

 Activision today banned over 60,000 accounts from Call of Duty: Warzone for cheating. This appears to have come as a response to some high profile players quitting the game due the volume of players cheating.

 

Quotes

Quote

Publisher Activision revealed the game had its own “internal anti-cheat software”, which it was now enhancing following demands from players.

Several high-profile streamers had criticised the battle-royal game for being “saturated with hackers”.

It comes after UK-based Vikkstar - whose real name is Vikram Singh Barn - announced he was quitting Warzone because of its cheating problem.

“This needs to be fixed,” he told his seven million subscribers.

"Otherwise, it truly will be the death of the game."

Vikkstar has now welcomed Activision's latest announcement as “a step in the right direction".

 

My thoughts

In my opinion, this is a bit of a shitty move from Activision. It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

This has surely been a problem for a long time, it's only now that it's actually causing them bad publicity that they've taken any action.

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55919196

[Hans Christian | Teri]

4 minutes ago, SADS said:

Summary

 Activision today banned over 60,000 accounts from Call of Duty: Warzone for cheating. This appears to have come as a response to some high profile players quitting the game due the volume of players cheating.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

In my opinion, this is a bit of a shitty move from Activision. It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

This has surely been a problem for a long time, it's only now that it's actually causing them bad publicity that they've taken any action.

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55919196

I agree, sadly these ban waves have been common practice for 20 years give or take. It has always seemed like a very lazy approach.

[SADS]

I know that companies do them in waves because this is usually an effective measure.

IE; Ban a bunch of cheaters in one go, rather than one at a time.

 

Banning people one at a time and immediately gives cheaters a chance to know exactly what action it was they took or what software caused the ban.

Saving them up and issuing them all at once helps to stop the cheaters from learning what it was specifically that got them caught.

 

That said, it does mean that you have a whole bunch of time where there are cheaters ruining the game.

 

But it does seem a bit knee jerk of Activision to drop the ban hammer the day after they're called out so publicly.

They probably should have been banning more actively or having better systems in place beforehand.

[Tristerin]

The gaming group Im with stopped playing Warzone (7 of us in the group played) due to cheaters a while back.  The final straw was when someone killed everyone in the zone with a KAR98 so quickly, so efficiently, that there was no going back for us.  FAR TO LITTLE TO LATE.  

[sof006]

I agree, this sounds like a "Oh shit, guess we got to actually start giving a shit now" rather than a "Oh no, people are hacking we need to do something".

 

 

[Vishera]

1 hour ago, SADS said:

It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

The thing is that Activision are trying to tackle cheating since day one,

If it's their Hardware ID ban system,or their requirement for a phone number in order to play,these with the goal of preventing cheaters  that were caught from opening dozens of accounts.

The problem is that Activision have no clue on how to code an anti-cheat system and insists on using their own.

Cheaters are bypassing their anti-cheat systems,the anti-cheat doesn't detect most of the cheaters.

 

The first and most important thing in anti-cheat systems is limiting values,if the value is out of the acceptable range it should be reset the moment it happens,

 

For example:

 

    if (Speed > 1)

    {

        Speed = 1;

    }

 

Another important thing is to synchronize client data,that is based on server data and not the opposite.

For example:

 

On the server:

Money = 18740

 

On the client:

Money = 999999999999

 

If you synchronize client data,that is based on server data then the the value of money will be 18740 regardless of what the client is saying,

The 999999999999 will be ignored,and only the 18740 will be seen.

 

A project for example: https://forum.cfx.re/t/release-synced-data-container-anti-cheatengine/96844

[divito]

Ban waves are normal part of anti-cheat measures. As stated, allowing time to pass obfuscates a cheat maker/user's ability to understand which cheat, function, or version was detected and makes it more difficult to counter. Increasing the frequency is a double-edged sword.

Having been a competitive CS player and on the admin/executive side of a few organizations (including one with an in-house anti-cheat), there's a fine line for some of this stuff. While the timing and optics don't seem great, we are not really privy to the behind-the-scenes with Activision and to what state they were monitoring or investigating certain cheat tools and/or players. Perhaps they were waiting for something or some type of threshold, but were then forced to do something early because of the negative publicity. 

While it does suck that some were able to cheat for an extended period, gathering more information and giving your team time to do the work is always beneficial to have a more substantial impact for the regular users to avoid cheaters.

[WihGlah]

I actually noticed an immediate improvement in Verdonsk. 

[Skiiwee29]

Optics aside.. no way it was just Vik's announcement that spurred the action.. this likely has been in the works for some time now. A lot of times they let it go while they study it to learn how it works and to try and figure out the best methods to combat it to prevent it in the future. 

[Stormseeker9]

8 hours ago, SADS said:

 

 

My thoughts

In my opinion, this is a bit of a shitty move from Activision. It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

This has surely been a problem for a long time, it's only now that it's actually causing them bad publicity that they've taken any action.

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55919196

Been an issue ever since cod MW1 lol 

[Falkentyne]

7 hours ago, Vishera said:

The thing is that Activision are trying to tackle cheating since day one,

If it's their Hardware ID ban system,or their requirement for a phone number in order to play,these with the goal of preventing cheaters  that were caught from opening dozens of accounts.

The problem is that Activision have no clue on how to code an anti-cheat system and insists on using their own.

Cheaters are bypassing their anti-cheat systems,the anti-cheat doesn't detect most of the cheaters.

 

The first and most important thing in anti-cheat systems is limiting values,if the value is out of the acceptable range it should be reset the moment it happens,

 

For example:

 

    if (Speed > 1)

    {

        Speed = 1;

    }

 

Another important thing is to synchronize client data,that is based on server data and not the opposite.

For example:

 

On the server:

Money = 18740

 

On the client:

Money = 999999999999

 

If you synchronize client data,that is based on server data then the the value of money will be 18740 regardless of what the client is saying,

The 999999999999 will be ignored,and only the 18740 will be seen.

 

A project for example: https://forum.cfx.re/t/release-synced-data-container-anti-cheatengine/96844

 

This is harder to do than it seems.

Because you have to separate server data from player movement.

Speed hacks and going to illegal places happen because of player prediction.

The problem is, if everything is server side, then yes, hacking CAN NOT HAPPEN, except "map" hacks (vision), since the server can verify all of the data.

If your gun has an abnormal recoil, the server will see the data is wrong and will kick the player.

 

The problem with that is, it makes the game unplayable.  If your ping is higher than 10, it completely destroys the feel of the game and will destroy aiming and movement.  It will literally turn pros into beginners.  That's why full server sided movement simply isn't done in FPS games.  You see it in MMORPG's, yes, because MMORPG's work well with such a system.

That's why it's so hard to make a good anticheat system.  Players have to be able to compete with a 90 ping (e.g. East coast player connecting to a west coast server), because, well...that's reality.  If a 90 ping player has an extra 100ms of lag in movement and aiming and a 100ms delay when he fires his rifle, guess what?  He's not going to be playing for very long.

 

Maybe my knowledge about this is obsolete, as I haven't looked at this kind of stuff since F2P FPS and Korean MMO explosion at the turn of last decade.  But you get the point.  Yes you can instantly stop all cheating (besides local vision exploits and radar hacking) completely on the server, but you will lose 90% of your player base if you do that.

[Doobeedoo]

I'll always be perplexed of the amount of people that are cheaters, sad and pathetic.

[wamred]

Wooow after publicity comes out they decide to do something about people cheating

[WereCat]

I very much doubt that Vik deserves any credit for this. EVERYONE was complaining about cheaters on social media every day. 

This is confirmation bias at its finest

[XtrafknSauce]

19 hours ago, SADS said:

Summary

 Activision today banned over 60,000 accounts from Call of Duty: Warzone for cheating. This appears to have come as a response to some high profile players quitting the game due the volume of players cheating.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

In my opinion, this is a bit of a shitty move from Activision. It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

This has surely been a problem for a long time, it's only now that it's actually causing them bad publicity that they've taken any action.

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55919196

 

Better now than never right ?

[-rascal-]

I was just playing Warzone with a couple of my ol' University buddies last night, we spectated the last few minutes of the round (we came in 4th), and it was 2 vs 1. They couldn't find the last guy, he wasn't even on the map! The gas eventually closed in completely, and the remaining two people died. He was either under the map or something.

 

Some next level hack. THAT is just bad.

[leadeater]

On 2/4/2021 at 11:16 AM, SADS said:

so why didn't they do something about it sooner? This has surely been a problem for a long time, it's only now that it's actually causing them bad publicity that they've taken any action.

I've been playing FPS games online since CoD original and MoH:AA, it's ALWAYS been a problem.

 

8 hours ago, -rascal- said:

I was just playing Warzone with a couple of my ol' University buddies last night, we spectated the last few minutes of the round (we came in 4th), and it was 2 vs 1. They couldn't find the last guy, he wasn't even on the map! The gas eventually closed in completely, and the remaining two people died. He was either under the map or something.

 

Some next level hack. THAT is just bad.

Yee oldee hacks were worse in my opinion. Hacker spawns in to map and within a second everyone is dead and dies immediately on spawn, boy those were the days.

[Kisai]

On 2/3/2021 at 2:16 PM, SADS said:

 

My thoughts

In my opinion, this is a bit of a shitty move from Activision. It seems that Activision had the power to do something about the amount of hackers very easily and very quickly. It took them just a day after news of Vikkstar's quitting breaking the news to make all these bans, so why didn't they do something about it sooner?

No MMO game has ever figured out how to solve this. 

 

They (MMO developers) know there is a way to solve it, but it would make getting into the game inaccessible to most people. 

 

a) 2FA requirement, require that the 2FA always be used to login, even on forums.

b) No "free trial", full-price the game, including all DLC from the start.

c) Invite-only process for party/match-making/communication

 

But the bean counters and marketing execs want free trials, and people to be able to make accounts with no hurdles so they can inflate their player counts.

 

Then how you deal with cheaters is, to semi-permanently ban the account, and require a deposit and a physical 2FA key sent to their address to reinstate the account. Unfortunately, it's a perpetual whack-a-mole reduced to just the most annoying people.

[spartaman64]

2 minutes ago, Kisai said:

No MMO game has ever figured out how to solve this. 

 

They (MMO developers) know there is a way to solve it, but it would make getting into the game inaccessible to most people. 

 

a) 2FA requirement, require that the 2FA always be used to login, even on forums.

b) No "free trial", full-price the game, including all DLC from the start.

c) Invite-only process for party/match-making/communication

 

But the bean counters and marketing execs want free trials, and people to be able to make accounts with no hurdles so they can inflate their player counts.

 

Then how you deal with cheaters is, to semi-permanently ban the account, and require a deposit and a physical 2FA key sent to their address to reinstate the account.

the real way to solve this is to bring everything server side but that will greatly increase the cost of servers

[Velcade]

12 hours ago, leadeater said:

since CoD original

The days of independently run servers. I miss the UO days, that game was the best. 

[WihGlah]

The hackers are back btw. 

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

the real way to solve this is to bring everything server side but that will greatly increase the cost of servers

The Stadia route is the endgame for MMO games, but it'll just mean that only Americans and Japanese players get to play, while Australians, Brazilians, Russians, never get to play these games, ever.

[jasonvp]

On 2/4/2021 at 7:12 PM, -rascal- said:

He was either under the map or something.

He was likely exploiting the infinite stim glitch, which keeps coming back into Warzone after the developer patch it out.  The latest glitch has been "a thing" since around Christmas time or there abouts.  So odds are that's what you were seeing.  He was sitting in the gas somewhere, with an infinite number of stims, and cranking himself to stay alive until the others died to the gas.

 

Raven literally just patched it out today.   For now.  Until someone else finds a new way to do it.

 

[TempestCatto]

So what you're saying is, there's millions more modders. Got it

[williamcll]

They could take a few lessons from Valve