Overwatch Cheaters Are Getting Wrecked By Blizzard

[tzimize]

On one hand, fuck hackers. They're the reason I quit playing MW2 back in the day.

On the other hand, banning them again if they buy a new copy of the game is unnecessarily harsh. If they buy the game again, they should be caught cheating again before Blizz starts to autoban future purchases. If they learn their lesson the first time they lose access to their game, let them enjoy your product; save the account-wide bans and bans of future purchases for the repeat offenders.

Honestly, locking out all of their Battle.net games AND publically shaming the cheaters is kind of a dick move, as well.

I respectfully disagree. FUCK THE CHEATERS. For ever and ever.

Edit: Just to put it in a nice perspective.

I dont cheat. Ever. So it presents ZERO problem for me. Cheaters do. If you dont cheat, its not a problem for you either. So, in short.

People suffering from this: Cheaters.
People not: everyone else.
As it should be.

 

[Win32error]

Hm i'm not sure if this isn't going a bit too far. Sure, fuck cheaters and all that, but banning people when they buy a new copy? I haven't had all that many issues with cheaters, and it seems that as long as the devs care there's no need for draconian measures. Besides, if you start banning people when they buy a new copy of the game, you'll end up with lawsuits at some point.

 

[McElroy]

It's only a game why you heff to be mad? Blizzard too. Their service so they can do what they want with it, but I think dealing out permabans for cheating in casual games is... well, off-putting. No any sort of offline mode either. You won't see me playing these dumbass games.

NOT because I got banned on day one. Certainly not.

 

[Cowabungaa]

from all Blizzard titles on your battle.net account.

That is unjustifiable. Absolutely draconian. Cheaters are nuisance, sure, but that's borderline robbery. Goes to show that games-as-a-service is not a good idea. Banning them from Overwatch is one thing, but this is a whole 'nother level.

As for Overwatch itself, I'd rather have cheaters forced to simply play offline. You can't play nice with people? Here, a bunch of bots to cheat with to your heart's content. Have fun on your own. Robbing them of their purchase? Nope, a bridge too far in my book.

I don't get the cheers for this in this thread. Cheaters are just a childish nuisance, what the hell people?

 

[Scarim Coral]

So the only way a person would played it again would be in a different pc location (IP) and a new account?

Either way, I ok with their descision. Don't want to get banned then don't cheat! Granted I think a three strike may have been better (1st strike, shame on you, 2nd strike shame on me and 3rd being the final.)

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Banning them from the game they played when said cheating occurred? Good thing.

Banning them from ALL Blizzard games they have acquired on their account? BAD thing.

That's going a step WAY too far, in my book. If a person has cheated in one game, you do not ban them from EVERY game on their account. You ban them from the game they cheated in. Mark them as a known cheater in other games they have if you have no evidence of them cheating in the others games they legally purchased.

To me, I smell a lawsuit if someone has the money to challenge this. I want cheaters to be punished, make no mistake of that; but, to go so far as to block EVERY game they have on their account? That kind of service denial, even if it is clearly stated in a Terms of Service or Code of Conduct agreement, sounds to be borderline (if not, outright) illegal.

 

[RJ 17]

Alright...I used to love the one with McCree standing next to a clock with all the digits replaced by "High Noon"...but the pic in this article has now become my favorite Overwatch meme. :3

OT: While I'm absolutely loving the fact that cheaters are getting what they deserve in Overwatch (pretty sure I've run into a couple myself), I think banning them from all Blizzard titles is a bit much. Just because someone's cheating in Overwatch doesn't mean they're cheating in Diablo.

 

[natenate95]

Banning them from the game they played when said cheating occurred? Good thing.

Banning them from ALL Blizzard games they have acquired on their account? BAD thing.

That's going a step WAY too far, in my book. If a person has cheated in one game, you do not ban them from EVERY game on their account. You ban them from the game they cheated in. Mark them as a known cheater in other games they have if you have no evidence of them cheating in the others games they legally purchased.

To me, I smell a lawsuit if someone has the money to challenge this. I want cheaters to be punished, make no mistake of that; but, to go so far as to block EVERY game they have on their account? That kind of service denial, even if it is clearly stated in a Terms of Service or Code of Conduct agreement, sounds to be borderline (if not, outright) illegal.

Welcome to legally binding agreements, "clearly stated in a Terms of Service."

I'm fine with this policy and a bit surprised they're still people left who think you own anything when you purchase a game. You're just a customer getting a limited licence to a service which if you fuck with, can have any amount of completely justified repercussions because of the paperwork you rushed to get to the end of. There isn't some heroic situation where a cheater sues because the account, again which he doesn't own, gets completely removed regardless of how much he invested into it and then sues successfully against a corporation that has nearly all the legal footing in the world.

 

[Gladion]

I'm fine with this policy and a bit surprised they're still people left who think you own anything when you purchase a game. You're just a customer getting a limited licence to a service which if you fuck with, can have any amount of completely justified repercussions because of the paperwork you rushed to get to the end of.

Is any repercussion completely justified because it was buried in some text that was deliberately written to be as obnoxious to read and incomprehensible as possible? Is that a proper and fair transaction? Hard-earned cash for a company's permission to consume a work that, in reality, everybody reasonably expects to be able to continue to consume until their last day? If you think so, then I guess we have nothing to discuss. "You're just a customer", indeed.

Although I hope that everybody cheering for this system is aware that they are cheering for Activision Blizzard having the possibility to take away any customer's ability to play a game they paid for (perhaps even multiple times). Not saying that it's going to just ban people for no fucking reason whatsoever, just that it has the possibility and that you're apparently not the least bit concerned about that.

 

[fix-the-spade]

On the other hand, banning them again if they buy a new copy of the game is unnecessarily harsh. If they buy the game again, they should be caught cheating again before Blizz starts to autoban future purchases. If they learn their lesson the first time they lose access to their game, let them enjoy your product; save the account-wide bans and bans of future purchases for the repeat offenders.

Honestly, locking out all of their Battle.net games AND publically shaming the cheaters is kind of a dick move, as well.

I disagree entirely.

If a person is willing to buy the game, then start using tools to not only gain an unfair advantage, but ruin everyone else's enjoyment, then they are not welcome, period.

Allowing them further access is just giving them time to examine the game's systems and work on ways of circumventing them in future. Because they will, hackers are like that, it's much better to hit them with the hammer until they go somewhere else.

Publically announcing their names is brilliant. I wish every game did this so over time persistent offenders can be spotted from a mile away. I'm hoping in the future that Overwatch will have some kind of content/mod generation tools of it's own like Starcraft 2 does, then the people who wish to experiment can do so to their heart's content, but right now the rule is play but don't alter, anyone who thinks otherwise can go find another game.

 

[IceForce]

Make sure to report all the Soldier 76 players, because they all seem to use aimbot hacks whenever they use their ult. wtf?!

 

[FirstNameLastName]

To be honest, this type of scorched Earth method makes me unlikely to ever buy any Blizzard games (not that I really do anyway, so they won't really be losing a customer here). Punishing cheaters is all well and good, but you're really asking me to buy a whole bunch of Blizzard games, then put my faith in their automated cheater detection tools and hope no false positives get me perma-banned from every other Blizzard game I've bought (an potentially black listed from others, what with the public shaming)? Faith is for churches, and I'm not a pious man

I don't trust these detection tools, and with their history (have we forgotten about Dark Souls 3 so quickly?) I feel that lack of trust is well warranted. Sorry, but as nice as it is to revel in the misfortune of those who deserve it, I'm not optimistic enough to believe their system is perfect enough to not be flagging any innocents in the process.

 

[MCerberus]

Alright...I used to love the one with McCree standing next to a clock with all the digits replaced by "High Noon"...but the pic in this article has now become my favorite Overwatch meme. :3

OT: While I'm absolutely loving the fact that cheaters are getting what they deserve in Overwatch (pretty sure I've run into a couple myself), I think banning them from all Blizzard titles is a bit much. Just because someone's cheating in Overwatch doesn't mean they're cheating in Diablo.

Blizzard may have been better using something similar to VAC (only with appeals that aren't jokes) where you're banned from online functionality for cheating. So there goes your WoW and hearthstone for sure, but you can still play Diablo and StarCraft single player.

And a lot of talk in this thread about the punishment being hidden in the ToU... what is this your first rodeo? Read every EULA for any piece of software in the last 25 years. There is always a "for any or no reason" termination clause for whoever made the software in those things. Even outside of games, Microsoft could nullify the license to, say, all of windows 98 because they feel like it(though with operating systems there's probably a lot of collateral leading to a class action). Blizzard is also known for having legally-sound EULAs.

 

[RJ 17]

Alright...I used to love the one with McCree standing next to a clock with all the digits replaced by "High Noon"...but the pic in this article has now become my favorite Overwatch meme. :3

OT: While I'm absolutely loving the fact that cheaters are getting what they deserve in Overwatch (pretty sure I've run into a couple myself), I think banning them from all Blizzard titles is a bit much. Just because someone's cheating in Overwatch doesn't mean they're cheating in Diablo.

Blizzard may have been better using something similar to VAC (only with appeals that aren't jokes) where you're banned from online functionality for cheating. So there goes your WoW and hearthstone for sure, but you can still play Diablo and StarCraft single player.

And a lot of talk in this thread about the punishment being hidden in the ToU... what is this your first rodeo? Read every EULA for any piece of software in the last 25 years. There is always a "for any or no reason" termination clause for whoever made the software in those things. Even outside of games, Microsoft could nullify the license to, say, all of windows 98 because they feel like it(though with operating systems there's probably a lot of collateral leading to a class action). Blizzard is also known for having legally-sound EULAs.

Oh I'm not arguing that Blizzard doesn't have the right to do it, just saying that banning them from all Blizzard titles seems a bit extreme.

It sure is one way to send a hell of a message, though, I'll give'em that.

 

[Neverhoodian]

My only concern is the possibility of false positives. I don't have much experience with Blizzard games aside from WOW, but I know Valve's VAC system isn't infallible.

If Blizzard's program is anything like VAC, there's the very real danger of being falsely flagged for cheating and suffering a permaban with little to no means of disputing it. Add subsequent auto-bans to new accounts/purchases and it seems like Blizzard's begging for a lawsuit.

Honestly, I find people's unwavering faith in such systems to be rather naive. People cry foul whenever game companies try to implement things like obtrusive DRM claiming it doesn't work, yet they'll rabidly defend anti-cheat programs with a "guilty until proven innocent" mindset on the user's end. I'm not saying give the cheaters free reign; I hate your resident wallhacker/aimbotter as much as the next legit player. All I'm asking for is some way to appeal in the event of a false positive.

 

[shirkbot]

[...] if you know the penalty for getting caught is losing your entire account and subsequent accounts, would you still cheat?

People very rarely actually know the consequences of being caught, be it in games or in life. They know it's wrong, and sometimes they're aware of the punishments others have received in similar circumstances, but by and large there's no real cost-benefit/risk-reward analysis happening. They just assume they won't get caught and never consider the punishment.

OT: I know it's their house, so everyone has to play by their rules, but it's still extreme to ban them from other games in which they've not been caught doing anything wrong. Banning them from Overwatch forever isn't that great, but at least they actually did something wrong in Overwatch...

 

[Proto Taco]

This is exactly why I don't buy Online-Only games anymore. If I'm at risk of having my $40 burned on the pyre of corporate indifference I'll go to Chile's. At least then I can get a molten brownie cake for my trouble.

 

[Erttheking]

This is exactly why I don't buy Online-Only games anymore. If I'm at risk of having my $40 burned on the pyre of corporate indifference I'll go to Chile's. At least then I can get a molten brownie cake for my trouble.

Uh I'm pretty sure you're fine so long as you don't cheat.

Unless there's been some Dark Souls III problem where innocent people get caught in the crossfire, which I haven't heard anything about in this situation.

 

[EyeReaper]

The funniest thing about this thread?

If a big game corporation had said it was enacting a new system that say, permabanned all service for life anyone caught pirating a game, we'd be all up in arms over "not right" and "Too far." It'd be the biggest controversy since Tracer's ass/GhostbusterAVGNsogony/The Next Thing Sarkeesian says.

I guess extreme punishments for bad things are only acceptable if I am not the accused.

 

[Denamic]

On one hand, fuck hackers. They're the reason I quit playing MW2 back in the day.

On the other hand, banning them again if they buy a new copy of the game is unnecessarily harsh. If they buy the game again, they should be caught cheating again before Blizz starts to autoban future purchases. If they learn their lesson the first time they lose access to their game, let them enjoy your product; save the account-wide bans and bans of future purchases for the repeat offenders.

Honestly, locking out all of their Battle.net games AND publically shaming the cheaters is kind of a dick move, as well.

No, when you get banned, *you* have been banned from battle.net, not the copy of the game you paid for. *You* are not allowed to use battle.net any longer. That's not unnecessarily harsh, that's what being banned means.