Activision Blizzard banned thousands of cheaters in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone with a major banning wave. However, it seems that innocent players were also affected, and they are now demanding answers. The developers remain silent.
What is it about? The popular shooters Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone have a cheating problem. God modes, wall glitches, or aimbots ruin fair players’ matches repeatedly. Players on consoles even disable crossplay to protect themselves from cheaters on PC.
Infinity Ward reported two weeks ago that they have already banned about 70,000 cheaters.
However, it appears that this consistent banning of cheaters also produces collateral damage. More and more players are complaining about unjustified bans and report that numerous CoD Points and play hours have likely been irretrievably lost due to these bans.
Other than general statements regarding the bans, the developers have had nothing to say so far. Now, user “John Jefferson Sy” has even started a petition on Change.org to get Activision Blizzard to speak, which has already reached its first signature goal. However, the creators remain silent.
Players feel wrongly banned – petition is ongoing
What do the players demand in the petition? The first goal of the petition is the restoration of the banned accounts or at least an explanation as to why the accounts were suspended. The petition is addressed to two high-ranking officials at Activision Blizzard – CCO Kristin Binns and CEO Bobby Kotick.
The first goal of 500 supporters has already been reached. The next milestone is 1,000, and so far, 575 people have signed the petition (April 28, 1:00 PM).
What do the developers say about it? The responsible parties remain stubbornly silent regarding the emerging accusations. Other than the official announcements on handling cheaters, there has been no response to the questions from the upset CoD soldiers.
“John Jefferson Sy” tried contacting Activision support, but they presumably only said:
“Temporary and permanent bans in all game modes are final and are not subject to review. Activision Support cannot answer or assist with enforcement matters.”
As the issue of cheaters became increasingly prominent in the community, officials commented on it a few weeks ago in an Activision blog post. Here, the strict communication policy regarding cheaters is clear: “This is an area we are working intensely on, but we do not always discuss it publicly.”
Why aren’t the creators providing clear answers? Developers or the respective studios often tend to obscure their actions against cheaters as much as possible. Once the methods are known, the chance increases that inventive hackers will find effective ways to prevent the detection of cheats and hacks.
Activision analyzes data and only bans with strict scrutiny
How does Call of Duty ban cheaters? In the blog post, the developers revealed a bit about their approach. They use automated analysis programs to look for anomalies. A security team monitors the data around the clock to identify possible violations.
When we report a player, they are analyzed and filtered based on key factors. If the data confirms the suspicion of the reporting player, the cheating soldiers then appear on the security team’s radar.
If the suspicion is confirmed from the data or the reports, the security team can then impose penalties. On the website with the English CoD security guidelines, it states:
“All violations undergo a thorough review process by the security team of Infinity Ward before enforcement, and penalties are not subject to further review.”
Which actions lead to bans? According to the English security guidelines of CoD Warzone, the following actions are prohibited:
- Using third-party software for modding or hacking
- Using fake CoD versions (piracy)
- Unsupported peripherals and applications
- Boosting – unintentionally enhancing rewards such as XP
- Glitching – exploiting game errors for personal gain
- Griefing – ruining the game for other players with one’s behavior
- Offensive behavior such as cyberbullying or racism
- Players with content or objects that are actually unavailable
- Decompiling or reverse-engineering game data
According to Activision, most points on this list have a “threat level” and result in a temporary ban. Only after a second or third infraction do they lead to permanent bans. However, modding/hacking, piracy, and decompiling source code lead directly to a permanent ban without warning.
Statement against statement – the banning issue remains intriguing
Does the petition have a chance of success? “John Jefferson Sy” claims that a large portion of the banned players are innocent. If this is confirmed, it could soon become a serious problem for Activision Blizzard. This would mean several tens of thousands of players could take to the streets against CoD and its banning policy.
However, the statements of the CoD creators stand against these accusations. Every ban, whether permanent or temporary, is subject to manual review by the security team. While human error may occur, it is unlikely that a large portion of the bans went wrong.
Either way, the responsible parties recently issued clear warnings against cheaters and continue to diligently ban suspected hackers and cheaters – or at least send them to their own cheat servers. However, if it turns out that there are many innocent victims of the war against CoD cheaters, the action somewhat misses the actual purpose. The issue remains intriguing.
