Monday, November 21st 2011
Those MW3 Bans Clarified: There's A 'Douchiness' Scale
Over the weekend, we brought you news that over 1600 bans had been issued to gamers caught cheating by exploiting bugs and loopholes. However, it's not a case of one little cheat and you're out forever. No, InfinityWard's community man Robert Bowling has now revealed that there's a ban scale being used by his studio's security teams, although no specifics were mentioned. He said on Twitter:
So, it looks like not all bans are permanent and Bowling hasn't said how many bans they're up to now. The challenge for those pesky cheaters now of course, is to figure out which cheat delivers the maximum satisfaction for the shortest ban and then try to play it just under the radar to avoid getting caught at all. Or they could quit being douchebags, just act like decent human beings instead and play the game properly, like everyone else.
Source:
The Escapist
Every ban [is] unique to the level of douchiness of the offense. The greater the douche the greater the length [of the ban]. PermaDouche possible. Any attempt to cheat, hack or glitch in MW3 will not be tolerated.InfinityWard relies on gamers reporting each other to help clean up the gaming space. To do this, gamers can rat on each other from the game's lobby, where clicking on a username gives you the option to report them. The information supplied then goes straight to the security team, who will, rather sensibly, vet the claim before issuing any ban, so as to counter the malicious false reporting that must also go on. Bowling explained how they do this:
We verify reports with in-game stats, in-game video recordings, and other data to verify you were cheating.It's not clear though, whether any sanctions are taken against malicious false-reporters who repeatedly try to get other innocent gamers banned. It seems reasonable that there should be sanctions, however.
So, it looks like not all bans are permanent and Bowling hasn't said how many bans they're up to now. The challenge for those pesky cheaters now of course, is to figure out which cheat delivers the maximum satisfaction for the shortest ban and then try to play it just under the radar to avoid getting caught at all. Or they could quit being douchebags, just act like decent human beings instead and play the game properly, like everyone else.
23 Comments on Those MW3 Bans Clarified: There's A 'Douchiness' Scale
And we all probably know at least one "PermaDouche"
The most effective way, in my experience, to police a server is to have a level-headed veteran player that knows how to spot the different types of cheats. Have them report offenses and if a certain threshold is met, the banhammer comes down.
Douching for life! (Random picture on the interwebz)
But in all reality, it's just the same reporting system that's been in place for years in games. The only difference is that IW is policing rather than server owners (or does this take place solely on their servers?).
Admins have always had to filter the crap of "OMG! HE GOT A HEADSHOT!@! HAKZ!!@!!!" vs. "He tracked us through the walls, killed us all instantly with the knife, and flew. Here's the vid of me spectating him."
Same went for M203 underbarrel launchers: sometimes I could get 3-4 kills with a single shell, especially when it was placed behind the stairs on inside the building on Defense team side (where n00bs used to mingle) :) On other maps (SF Hospital before it got nerfed etc.) this was possible using RPGs and fragmentation grenades as well.
It took plenty of offline training and good timing to be able to do this though so I don't consider it cheating by any extent; all this was possible by using nothing but supplied (= unmodified) game that was the same for all players and instructions and tutorials describing offline commands were publically avaliable on official forum. One just had to invest some time in order to "powergame" on par with the best.
Cheating was using aimbots (which was quite prevalent before PunkBuster was introduced and many kids did it even with PunkBuster in spite of bans). Now those were annoying as hell because they could track you through the walls and aim directly at your head automatically so it was an instant kill as soon as you popped out of what would otherwise be cover.
I don't play this CoD game but I wholeheartedly agree with you that using your familiarity with the map and playing styles on that particular map to your advantage should not be considered cheating. If people can't be bothered to take some time to familiarize themselves with the map they're playing on and if theyn't be bothered to put some thought into what others are doing, they probably shouldn't be playing games with human-vs-human interaction anyway. That's how fighting works in the real world as well - you try to outsmart the enemy, not just mindlessly plow ahead or hide in same spot thinking to yourself you'll be safe just because of short rendering distance or fog ...
As mentioned before there are people out there who are really good at specific games, enter a lobby with people who do not like being beaten and know each other, the next thing you know they start crying wolf and attempt to get you banned.
I had some old guy called me a cheat in DiRT 3 Gymkhana, so I explained to him how to get a high score, in response he gave me bad rep.
So really all it would take is a bunch of people in a clan\squad\team who like messing with someones day.A hell lot of them though hide with in the law system. And there is plenty holes in the lay system as well.
I suppose not everyone's priorities are the same.