Blizzard Taking a Zero-Tolerance Stance on Overwatch Cheaters

[ffronw]

Blizzard Taking a Zero-Tolerance Stance on Overwatch Cheaters

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1321/1321564.jpgBlizzard says they'll be banning Overwatch cheaters permanently when caught.

After the huge success of the Overwatch beta [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167431-Overwatch-Open-Beta-Almost-10-Million-Served], it's a good bet that there will be plenty of people playing Blizzard's upcoming shooter when it launches on May 24. Of course, that also means there will be at least a few people cheating as well. Blizzard is aware of this, and they're planning to employ a zero-tolerence policy toward cheaters.

In a post on the Battle.net forums [], Overwatch Community Manager Lylirra laid out the company's policy on cheaters. Put simply, if you cheat, you will be permanently banned. "If a player is found to be cheating - or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage - that player will be permanently banned from the game. Full stop. Not only does cheating undermine the spirit of fair play that all of our products are based on, but it works to diminish the fun and enjoyment of others."

Unlike some games, Blizzard isn't going for half measures like temporary bans. Honestly, that's not all that surprising, as they did the same thing with Diablo 3. Cheating is one thing that can doom an online shooter, and it's good to see Blizzard taking affirmative steps to address it.

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[Veldel]

Honestly I would rather a strike system at least for a game just coming out because no anti cheating system is perfect and it would suck for someone to be banned who never did anything wrong. If you need a good example look at what happening in Dark Souls 3.

 

[RJ 17]

Honestly I would rather a strike system at least for a game just coming out because no anti cheating system is perfect and it would suck for someone to be banned who never did anything wrong. If you need a good example look at what happening in Dark Souls 3.

There's a difference though. DS3 has people getting banned because cheating jackasses jump into their games, drop a bunch of modded gear off, then leave. That changes the data in the game to indicate the save file has non-standard gear in it. That's where the mistake is coming from.

Conversely: Overwatch is simply a shooter. I don't believe there's anything a cheater can do in a competitive shooter that would make it seem like someone else was cheating when they weren't.

 

[teh_Canape]

I personally want them to ease off on the quitter penalties, or put in a sort of system to measure the latency at the time of quitting
I got hit with a -75% XP penalty for quitting even though I did it because I was getting unbearable lag spikes

admittedly I solved it by getting the PC version
but I want games for my PS4, you see

 

[Saelune]

I personally want them to ease off on the quitter penalties, or put in a sort of system to measure the latency at the time of quitting
I got hit with a -75% XP penalty for quitting even though I did it because I was getting unbearable lag spikes

admittedly I solved it by getting the PC version
but I want games for my PS4, you see

When its a full team both sides, quitting should be punished. When everyone else has quit and its you versus a full team, you shouldn't be punished for quitting.

Also be nice if they can detect unfair BS. I'm using Call of Duty as an example here, spawn camping is uncool, so quitting because you don't want to feed a killstreak shouldn't be a slight against you.

I do like that you don't get punished for joining a game late in BO3 though. Don't know how any of this may affect Overwatch (like I don't know if you can spawn camp or join games late) but its something all shooters should atleast be aware of.

 

[Davroth]

I predict a not minuscule number of false positives, as usual.

 

[Lunar Templar]

$20 says it'll still have a shit ton of hackers, and complaints about hackers with little actually done about it.

 

[Iceklimber]

I predict a not minuscule number of false positives, as usual.

When did Blizzard ban false positives? This is not usual at all*

 

[The Enquirer]

They've actually really impressed me so far. The game isn't perfect but it's a shooter I can really see myself getting into thanks to stuff like this.

 

[hentropy]

I love mods when it comes to games like Fallout, but as much as I know it sucks, all attempts to modify or change game files should be disciplined/banned for games like these. There's just too much at risk, here.

 

[RJ 17]

I personally want them to ease off on the quitter penalties, or put in a sort of system to measure the latency at the time of quitting
I got hit with a -75% XP penalty for quitting even though I did it because I was getting unbearable lag spikes

admittedly I solved it by getting the PC version
but I want games for my PS4, you see

When its a full team both sides, quitting should be punished. When everyone else has quit and its you versus a full team, you shouldn't be punished for quitting.

Also be nice if they can detect unfair BS. I'm using Call of Duty as an example here, spawn camping is uncool, so quitting because you don't want to feed a killstreak shouldn't be a slight against you.

One easy thing they could implement would be a "Vote To Surrender" option as seen in LoL (and other games, I'm sure, that's just the one that comes to mind).

That way if your team is getting curb-stomped and it's clear to everyone you can just call a Surrender vote to end the game early and no one gets punished.

 

[RaikuFA]

Yet I guarantee harassers will not have anything done to them.

 

[Renegade-pizza]

I love mods when it comes to games like Fallout, but as much as I know it sucks, all attempts to modify or change game files should be disciplined/banned for games like these. There's just too much at risk, here.

I don't see how modifying a single player game and giving yourself unfair advantages in a competitive game are related

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

When its a full team both sides, quitting should be punished. When everyone else has quit and its you versus a full team, you shouldn't be punished for quitting.

Also be nice if they can detect unfair BS. I'm using Call of Duty as an example here, spawn camping is uncool, so quitting because you don't want to feed a killstreak shouldn't be a slight against you.

I do like that you don't get punished for joining a game late in BO3 though. Don't know how any of this may affect Overwatch (like I don't know if you can spawn camp or join games late) but its something all shooters should atleast be aware of.

I get your outrage, but no one's life stops just because we sit down to a game.

In my life, at any moment I can:

-Get a call from my lawyer about Guardianship
-Get a call from my realtor about my new move
-Get a knock on the door to get a delivery
-Hear my mother fall, and given her dementia, age, and overall frailty... that would take up most of my thoughts.

That's just four things that will probably cause me to ignore the game. Should I just stay in the match to make sure I'm not penalized for something I can't control and hurt the other team? Shouldn't I leave to make sure someone can aid my team?

This kind of thing punishes people who are responsible.

 

[Saelune]

When its a full team both sides, quitting should be punished. When everyone else has quit and its you versus a full team, you shouldn't be punished for quitting.

Also be nice if they can detect unfair BS. I'm using Call of Duty as an example here, spawn camping is uncool, so quitting because you don't want to feed a killstreak shouldn't be a slight against you.

I do like that you don't get punished for joining a game late in BO3 though. Don't know how any of this may affect Overwatch (like I don't know if you can spawn camp or join games late) but its something all shooters should atleast be aware of.

I get your outrage, but no one's life stops just because we sit down to a game.

In my life, at any moment I can:

-Get a call from my lawyer about Guardianship
-Get a call from my realtor about my new move
-Get a knock on the door to get a delivery
-Hear my mother fall, and given her dementia, age, and overall frailty... that would take up most of my thoughts.

That's just four things that will probably cause me to ignore the game. Should I just stay in the match to make sure I'm not penalized for something I can't control and hurt the other team? Shouldn't I leave to make sure someone can aid my team?

This kind of thing punishes people who are responsible.

If life is more important, then why do you care? You kind of answered your own question. I would rather be punished in a game cause I had to ensure my grandmother doesn't die cause she fell or something. Hell, my friend who is an EMT and often has to bail on a game himself gets annoyed at people leaving, since its more likely they just got mad, not cause of an emergency.

 

[MoltenSilver]

So how long till a few thousand people get falsely flagged by a bug and banned? What's their recourse? Don't get me wrong I wish every cheater would be shot out the door by a cannon, but in any automated system I've seen (at least I'm assuming it's an automated system since the kind of manpower needed to process that much data is unfeasible) there is a non-trivial rate of false positives, and I'd be out for blood if I had bought a game and got kicked out by a false positive. Kudos to Blizzard if they've somehow 'solved' this and have a perfect system but I'm not going to believe that until I see it.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

I love mods when it comes to games like Fallout, but as much as I know it sucks, all attempts to modify or change game files should be disciplined/banned for games like these. There's just too much at risk, here.

I don't see how modifying a single player game and giving yourself unfair advantages in a competitive game are related

He looks like he's saying they are different so I'm a bit confused at the apparent objection here.

He loved one and says any modifications in these competitive games should get a ban.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

If life is more important, then why do you care? You kind of answered your own question. I would rather be punished in a game cause I had to ensure my grandmother doesn't die cause she fell or something. Hell, my friend who is an EMT and often has to bail on a game himself gets annoyed at people leaving, since its more likely they just got mad, not cause of an emergency.

Same token. It's a game. Why do others care so much that other people are being punished because of a game? It has no real importance in real life. So why is it important that people are punished for displeasing others in a game?

 

[MoltenSilver]

When its a full team both sides, quitting should be punished. When everyone else has quit and its you versus a full team, you shouldn't be punished for quitting.

Also be nice if they can detect unfair BS. I'm using Call of Duty as an example here, spawn camping is uncool, so quitting because you don't want to feed a killstreak shouldn't be a slight against you.

I do like that you don't get punished for joining a game late in BO3 though. Don't know how any of this may affect Overwatch (like I don't know if you can spawn camp or join games late) but its something all shooters should atleast be aware of.

I get your outrage, but no one's life stops just because we sit down to a game.

In my life, at any moment I can:

-Get a call from my lawyer about Guardianship
-Get a call from my realtor about my new move
-Get a knock on the door to get a delivery
-Hear my mother fall, and given her dementia, age, and overall frailty... that would take up most of my thoughts.

That's just four things that will probably cause me to ignore the game. Should I just stay in the match to make sure I'm not penalized for something I can't control and hurt the other team? Shouldn't I leave to make sure someone can aid my team?

This kind of thing punishes people who are responsible.

It punishes people who diminish the experience of the other players, which, unfortunately, includes people who are being responsible to other priorities. Don't get me wrong, I am not arguing that anyone should let any of these things take a backseat to playing the game, but at the same time if someone frequently is leaving their games even for the best of reasons they are still harming the game experience of others. I'm not saying it's a good thing or a nice thing or even a fair thing, but if someone has so many intrusions in their life that they are leaving games frequently enough for the punishments to matter then I feel it has to be acknowledge they are damaging the experience for other people, and that it is a publisher's right, if not outright necessity, to discourage someone who isn't reasonably certain they can commit to the match from starting a game. It's a terrible situation that potentially bars some people from playing team games who want to, but I'm not sure what the alternative is.

 

[RaikuFA]

If life is more important, then why do you care? You kind of answered your own question. I would rather be punished in a game cause I had to ensure my grandmother doesn't die cause she fell or something. Hell, my friend who is an EMT and often has to bail on a game himself gets annoyed at people leaving, since its more likely they just got mad, not cause of an emergency.

Same token. It's a game. Why do others care so much that other people are being punished because of a game? It has no real importance in real life. So why is it important that people are punished for displeasing others in a game?

Because paying customers are more important than your personal life.