A YouTuber spoke with a German cheat developer. He provided deep insights into the biggest problem of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
What kind of cheat developer is this? The Austrian YouTuber and Twitch streamer VinKub spoke in a video with a German cheat developer and asked him several questions – especially about Call of Duty and the anti-cheat system of the shooter. V1nKub primarily showcases Call of Duty on his channels, so the questions mainly concerned CoD.
At the beginning of the video, the cheat developer, whose voice was distorted, explains that he has been a “very, very unknown cheat developer” for 7 years now. By “unknown”, he means that he does not operate in the foreground.
He does not have his own service where he sells his cheats to hundreds or thousands of players and does not lead his own community. Instead, he sells licenses for his cheats to various providers, meaning websites that then distribute them to the actual users.
He started cheat development with Call of Duty because he was a CoD player himself before. When he developed an interest in coding and technology, it seemed natural to begin developing cheats for CoD. However, he now also makes cheats for other games.
Cheat developer provides insights into the fight against Activision
What does he say about the anti-cheat of Call of Duty? The developer clearly states at the outset that it is not easy to bypass Ricochet. Nevertheless, he questions the functionality of the system: “It is still a kernel-level anti-cheat like Riot Vanguard, like BattleEye and EasyAntiCheat, even if Ricochet is more show than substance.”
He then explains that Ricochet “does not run continuously in the kernel”, unlike Riot Vanguard. Furthermore, he adds, most cheats today also operate in this kernel space, and if you operate from there, you can bypass most anti-cheat systems – even Riot Vanguard.
However, he is not sure what exactly the Ricochet system does. While Riot Vanguard might be one step behind the cheat, Ricochet is at least 3 steps behind, according to him: “It exists […], but it does not work at all.”
Cheat developer gets bored because it’s too easy
During the video, V1nKub asks whether the cheat developer could also imagine switching sides and, for example, working with Activision on anti-cheat. The cheat developer answered this with a clear “yes”, but not for Activision.
He finds the idea “very cool” to work for a software developer or generally in cybersecurity and says he is “a bit tired of cheat development – especially with Call of Duty, where there is not such a big challenge right now.”
He says he doesn’t even have to release an update himself after an update of the anti-cheat. “It gets a bit boring when they do nothing.”
Spam reports do more than Ricochet, but lead to false bans
In Call of Duty, the so-called spam reports (massive reports) have been a big problem for a while now. Players are reported multiple times as cheaters by other players, which then leads to a so-called shadow ban. However, it can occur that legitimate players are punished due to false spam reports.
What does he say about spam reports? The cheat developer actually describes Call of Duty’s report function as CoD’s most effective means against cheaters. For him, it feels like Ricochet consists only of these reports. He estimates that these lead to more bans of cheaters than the actual anti-cheat system. He adds that it feels like the anti-cheat does not include any mechanisms that detect cheaters in real-time.
However, the cheat developer is also convinced that the reports lead to bans of legitimate players. To check whether the bans are due to spam reports or a fault in his cheats, he created a new, so to speak, pristine account.
This account is supposed to have played for less than an hour. It seems that on the new PC, there was a new IP address and no cheats were active. They should have reported this account at least 5 times in 3 rounds, which then led to a shadow ban.
You can watch the complete video of V1nkub with the interview of the cheat developer here:
Only 2 accounts have been permanently banned in Black Ops 6
What does he say about possible bans: In the video, the cheat developer also states that since the release, only 2 accounts using his cheats have been permanently banned – and that was in the initial phase when he had just developed the BO6 cheats. While there are often shadow bans, these are gone after 7 to 14 days and normal gameplay can resume.
Generally, he says it all depends on the player and the cheat used, whether and how quickly a cheat user gets a shadow ban. There are ways to get through without getting banned.
Cheating is currently the most significant problem of Call of Duty. Just recently, even a former employee of Activision commented on the issue and gave his assessment of why it is currently worse than ever: Former Call of Duty developer explains why the biggest problem of Black Ops 6 is worse than ever before
