2500 PC Gamers Banned from Modern Warfare 2

[Greg Tito]

2500 PC Gamers Banned from Modern Warfare 2

Infinity Ward said that the "Steam ban hammer" was smashing cheaters on the PC version of MW2.

Robert Bowling, Creative Strategist at Infinity Ward, announced on his Twitter account last week that Steam has banned approximately 2,500 PC gamers from playing multiplayer Modern Warfare 2 using the Steam client. The announcement was made in response to a Tweet from user toncijukic [http://twitter.com/toncijukic/status/6109878418] linking to a YouTube video showing what appears to be an aimbot.


The full Tweet from Bowling [http://twitter.com/fourzerotwo/status/6115913241], "Top men are on it. In fact, the Steam ban hammer is coming down on about 2,500 confirmed MW2 cheaters on PC today."

No other details were given, but let's hope that Steam's VAC anti-cheating system lives up to the hype. Otherwise, all of the hullabaloo of needing to install Steam to run the game on the PC seems kind of pointless.

Even though most gamers are playing MW2 on their consoles, 2,500 PC bans does not feel like that big of a number. The Tweet was on November 27th, so the bans should have gone out before this weekend. Did anyone notice a significant drop in cheating while playing MW2 over Steam?

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/30/so-long-2500-modern-warfare-2-steam-cheaters/]

Permalink

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

Since I love all the flak Activison and IW are getting for this game (bunch of wankers all of them) I have been following ModernWarfail2.com and the Infinity Ward forum. Seems like there where less hackers and cheaters that day, and then everything just went beyond what was normal the next day. According to a lot of forum-users on their official forum you more or less see a aimbotter or wallhacker every match. If that is the norm now is hard to say for me, since I didn't waste my money on it.

If you are interested in this game in any way, either as a fan, a potential buyer or just for the lulz like me, ModernWarfail2.com and the IW forums are fun to watch.

The total lack of response from IW is really fun. It seems like they just don't give a damn about the fans. As the article states, all people have heard from Bowling has been said via Twitter. While they have a whole forum for it. Yeah, good going IW.

 

[TheBadass]

I never noticed any cheating to start with, and I've put in at least thirty hours since launch. Seems to me like this things been blown a tad out of proportion, but hey, at least the few who were doing it are getting chucked on their asses.

Edit: Jaren, that really hasn't been the norm for me at all. The vast majority of people playing on the PC aren't having many problems - at least in my experience! Although the lag can get annoying when in Ground War... fuck Ground War - and it seems like a very vocal minority bitching about all this. Most people are too busy getting killed to make whiny posts about how the P90 is gamebreaking or whatever the minor, stupid issue of the day is.

Again, happy that cheaters are getting chucked on their asses... but it's not nearly as common as some would have you believe, not even close.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Damm. 2,500 isn't all that big a number, but still, it shows that Infinity Ward isn't fucking around.

 

[accountdeletethis]

You play with fire, you get burnt (even though they'll only get their bogus steam accounts banned)

 

[Pimppeter2]

Top men are on it.

And epic lulz ensued.

 

[Nurb]

Still, it's not going to get easier after the holidays. The lack of dedicated servers forces people to put up with the developer or publisher handling hackers/cheaters... eventually. Nobody can boot them during the game from what I understand.

 

[uppitycracker]

Wow, a whole 2500 people, eh....? Impressive numbers, considering how many people own MW2.... Yeah, definitely a better route than dedicated servers.....

 

[Amnestic]

You know what'd be good? If they weren't just banning, but were actively stopping the hacks that were already being used.

There's an idea.

 

[Carlston]

Low # but then again, steam never had a real system to report cheaters.

Reminds me of the old Jedi Knight days when people would cheat so baddly no one played multiplayer ever after a month. Gonna make a game dependant on multi play better have the punkbuster up.

 

[Sebenko]

Top men are on it.

And lulz ensued.

TOP MEN.


Anyway, whatever. Serves them right. For buying the game, I mean.

 

[mikecoulter]

2,500 compared to the recent Xbox Live ban numbers really isn't that many...

 

[tmujir955]

You know what'd be good? If they weren't just banning, but were actively stopping the hacks that were already being used.

There's an idea.

...I think you just blew my mind.

 

[Sovvolf]

I don't get Cheating... truly I don't, not on a game like COD... were's the gain, ho your top on the leader board go you, you have no skill you just hacked it. Playing games online is a test of skill.

 

[Gladion]

2.500, eh? Sounds like the actual number of PC sales on the game.

 

[Amnestic]

I don't get Cheating... truly I don't, not on a game like COD... were's the gain, ho your top on the leader board go you, you have no skill you just hacked it. Playing games online is a test of skill.

Griefing other players. Making them feel like shit. Ruining their enjoyment. Getting your rocks off to their impotent screams of rage as they yell at you for being a dickless shitbag cheating not-nice person.

It's not as if griefing in games is anything new. I would've thought people would understand what goes through their minds by now.

 

[Therumancer]

In general one of the things that is holding back multiplayer gaming of all sorts is that companies do not want to assume the expense and difficulty of actually policing games. Even in cases where people pay substantial membership fees, the team in charge of the game mostly just lets things take care of themselves, responses to cheating mostly being a token effort due to the fact that they already made their money more or less, the cheaters are paying for the game, and nobody really believes that those complaining about cheating will actually leave the games in any numbers worth note.

Simply put to keep games "Fair" requires constant attention from a group of empowered people who are able to respond more or less instantly. I look at say MUDS and how various "roleplaying enforced" MUDs had to act to keep things operating smoothly, cheater free, and the way they wanted them to.

Right now even in a game you play $15 a month for, if you can get a GM's attention in any kind of timely manner (there aren't enough to fit demand) chances are they can't do anything without what amounts to an act of congress behind it. You typically aren't going to see any kind of justice on a level that is going to be a deterrant.

With FPS games and such that don't have a fee attached, those behind the games care less because they have already made their money off the initial sales. Not providing dedicated servers or whatever simply reduces their responsibility even further.

When you do see actions taken it's mostly banning everyone that can be seen using a specific client or mod from how it looks in the code. Rarely is there any individual action being taken to single out specific problem players and do anything.

In the final equasion, even with fees attached, it's simply not worthwhile to police these games in any meaningful fashion due to the fact that people will keep playing anyway. If it seems like complaints might actually be getting to the point of mattering, they do some kind of formula ban, but even if it hits a lot of people (seemingly) it really doesn't matter much because to the cheaters they mostly figure they just have to roll the dice about when a ban hammer will land. Othjerwise they can do whatever they want and nobody is going to seriously single them out in most cases.

Not saying there are any easy solutions, but really when I hear "Valve bans 2500 MW2 cheaters" it inspires the same level of faith as like when Blizzard has announced "We've banned 10,000 chinese gold farmers". It's not like it had any meaningful or long term effect.

While it might occasionally go wrong, one thing I felt MUDs learned after a while that more professional games need to learn is that to keep true order and stability you need justice like lightning. Some dude who sits there in PVP who secretly has a multi-tasked GM account waiting to see a cheat or exploiter so they can hit the "Ban" button or whatever.

 

[SantoUno]

Good, fuckers got what they deserved, sure hope the player in the video gets something worse.

 

[LeonLethality]

well I don't play the PC version and from what I heard it was full of hackers so I am glad they are making an effort