Overwatch Cheaters Are Getting Wrecked By Blizzard

[Davroth]

The public shaming is a step too far, but I wont lose any sleep over a hacker losing their account because they were in breach of the terms of use for a game/service. Just so long as false positives are able to contest their bans and get their accounts reactivated.

Blizzard has always been very good about rectifying false positives... wait. No, they weren't.

When the dick (cheaters) decides to be an asshole, and the other dick (Blizzard) fucks the assholes.

Class act, this one.

That's in essence how laws and rules work right?

Its a dick move to murder someone. But its also a dick move to stick someone in a 6 by 8 human cage for the rest of their life.

Its a dick move to disrupt a classroom. Its also a dick move to keep a person after class for 30 minutes.

There has to be a punishment for cheating in online video games that assures very little people do so. It can ruin communities of legit good games and for MP only games, that means a dead game quick.

I personally can never understand the mentality of people who cheat online. Its just so ruinous to the spirit of the game.

What kind of comparisons are those..? It just really seems off to me that Blizzard is able to tell if you have been previously banned for cheating, honestly. Do they hide shit on your computer to identify you? Read out data? It's just plain creepy.

And it's also unnecessary. If your copy becomes unplayable after cheating, that should be enough punishment. It's not like anyone is going to keep on buying copies of the game to cheat for a day to be banned again. I agree, punishment should fit the crime. This punishment doesn't really. It goes way over the top, which is undoubtedly a marketing ploy. I mean, look at all the free press they are getting for it. But I guess we all got used by now that we don't own what we pay for, just rent it.

It has always been an acceptable strategy, It is never, EVER, a bad idea to not hit your enemy hard enough to end the confrontation. Most companies are too weak kneed to do it and the ones that don't still have player satisfaction problems due to ongoing cheaters. Overwatch will never have the Steam sale syndrome of waves of cheaters appearing over the holidays because the previously banned trolls bought new copies.

Oh is that why we execute every criminal? I mean, if a criminal is dead, he can't possibly commit any more crimes. Problem solved!

I don't think you are thinking this through. If they are already spying out their userbase, they could just invest in detection of third party programs rather then resorting to draconinan punishments and supposedly hiding files on a caught cheater's computer to identify them indefinitely. I really want to know how they do it.

 

[Frost27]

It has always been an acceptable strategy, It is never, EVER, a bad idea to not hit your enemy hard enough to end the confrontation. Most companies are too weak kneed to do it and the ones that don't still have player satisfaction problems due to ongoing cheaters. Overwatch will never have the Steam sale syndrome of waves of cheaters appearing over the holidays because the previously banned trolls bought new copies.

Oh is that why we execute every criminal? I mean, if a criminal is dead, he can't possibly commit any more crimes. Problem solved!

I don't think you are thinking this through. If they are already spying out their userbase, they could just invest in detection of third party programs rather then resorting to draconinan punishments and supposedly hiding files on a caught cheater's computer to identify them indefinitely. I really want to know how they do it.

You turned banning cheaters into a video game into a capital punishment comparison and you don't think that I am thinking this through? I think you threw up a straw man because you have a thin argument.

You think that the majority of these people would simply not cheat ever again because they got caught once? If you do, you are quite naive. The majority of these people had every intention of cheating again after they rebought the game as on the majority of the examples (If you want more, check the subreddit) removing the hack or modified DLL was one of the last steps taken to avoid the ban.

Blizzard has a responsibility to the paying customers that are not going to misuse this service and this responsibility is both in the interest to preserve the play experience of their honest customer base as well as to protect their own financial investment by retaining customers who will continue to financially support the product.

Now, I normally wouldn't do this, but I am going to address your fallacious comparison to criminal behavior in society.

Do we execute them all? No. But we sure as hell lock them away so they don't get to be a part of the same society as the rest of us that don't break the rules. That is EXACTLY what this is. Not a single one of these people cheated by accident. They all knew it was wrong. They all knew it was unfair. They all knew the consequences of getting caught, and they all chose to actively seek out ways to either take something that they didn't earn in the form of progression or to actively hinder the enjoyment of the millions of honest players out there "for the luls". They knowingly broke the law, and they knowingly earned their punishment.

As to the how: It is believed that they track the HWID of the user's machine, thus the only way to not be identified would be a full wipe and reinstall of your OS.

 

[Riddle78]

Good. Good fucking riddance. Hackers are a cancer upon any online gaming community. They tear down the potential of fun that regular users want and enjoy,and replace it with an endless parade of unwarranted dominance and curbstomping. I might not play Overwatch,nor will I ever (Short version; My Battle.Net was hit with too many false positives for my comfort),but this is an excellent stance. Cheaters will not be tolerated. It doesn't matter if those banned are truly penitent. They've wasted their chance. Now,they must suffer the consequences of their choices. Only the certainty of harsh,lasting punishment will deter cheaters. This is exactly that.

 

[Veylon]

Sounds an awful lot like if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear?

To play up the secret police angle a bit, anonymous denunciations have always been an easy form of revenge in police states. Have a grudge against your neighbors? Report them in as whatever flavor of political incorrectness the authorities are antsy about this week. And, of course, swatting is a thing as well.

How easy would it be to fake activity that gets someone else banned via identity theft? If I got someone else's credentials, could I nuke their entire game library in a single sitting? I imagine there are plenty of hacker-griefers that would experience intense schadenfreude at performing such an act.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

This is going to end in a class action lawsuit against Blizzard.

 

[Yuuki]

Apparently everyone in this thread would rather go scorched earth on anyone suspected of cheating instead of at least trying to rehabilitate them.

I feel such draconian measures should be reserved for repeat offenders.

Overwatch is just 1 game. This type of "draconian" permanban only serves to teach them a harsh lesson. They will be that much likely to never cheat in any other game going forward. In the long run this will only improve online gaming for everyone.

In this day and age it is common knowledge that cheating in multiplayer online games is a flat out wrong/unethical thing to do. Whoever is cheating is fully aware of what they are doing to others. It takes a certain mindset to consider cheating, and that mindset is fucked.

So...fuck cheaters. Fuck them for getting their kicks from ruining other people's experiences. Fuck them for using cheats purely out of spite/envy/whatever and gaining satisfaction from frustrating others.
I wish I could smash smash their fingers to pieces with a sledgehammer so they never touch a computer ever again. That is the depth of my hatred for them and what they do. Feel free to say "relax man it's just a game" - but gaming IS how I relax after long hours at work.

It's the equivalent of people who seek joy from vandalizing property and throwing rocks at pets. They need to have their arms and legs broken.

The question of anti-cheat was really the only thing that was making me hesitate to buy Overwatch (I knew it was a solid game), and Blizzard laid all my concerns to rest. I give them a standing ovation and I have bought the $60 full edition of Overwatch to support them.

Blizzard just showed all other online gaming devs/publishers what pathetic greedy cowards they are for not taking a similar stance on cheaters. Fuck any company that gives cheaters a chance to come back. Where are the consequences?!

This is going to end in a class action lawsuit against Blizzard.

No it won't. Their game + their rules + common sense. Cheaters are universally hated in everything, not just gaming.

 

[Czann]

Or just buy another account created by another IP and play it by VPN. Though I have no idea why people bother.

It seems the rat and cat game is more enticing than the game proper for some people.

 

[MonsterCrit]

If that's not enough, reports from cheaters themselves seem to suggest that even if you buy a new copy of the game, Blizzard will ban you again. Permabanned means permabanned - not just from Overwatch but from all Blizzard titles on your battle.net account.

I wonder how long before this gets Blizzard into legal hot water with the consumer affairs.

Also wonder, how many false positives are gettiung themselves banned.

 

[EternallyBored]

If that's not enough, reports from cheaters themselves seem to suggest that even if you buy a new copy of the game, Blizzard will ban you again. Permabanned means permabanned - not just from Overwatch but from all Blizzard titles on your battle.net account.

I wonder how long before this gets Blizzard into legal hot water with the consumer affairs.

Also wonder, how many false positives are gettiung themselves banned.

I think there's some bad writing going on here, cheating in Overwatch doesn't get you banned from battle.net, it just gets you banned from Overwatch, the sentence is indicating that all b.net games have the same policy of permabanning you if you get caught cheating in them.

The law, at least in the U.S. Isn't going to do anything, I'm curious what legal hot water you think they are going to get into, Blizzard has been permabanning accounts and individual games for over a decade at this point, nothing they are doing here is new, WoW has the same system, the only difference here is how swift they were in doing it, and publically announcing the names of the banned accounts.

As for false positives, I have no idea how they are doing the detecting, so I'm hoping they have a reliable system both for detection and appeals, I haven't heard of any significant number of false positives so far, given the low number of bans compared to player population, they are likely being at least somewhat thorough. False positives are always a risk though, as I doubt any system is perfect.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Definitely want to echo what many others have said. Banned from Overwatch? Fine. Banned from any new copies of Overwatch and ALL of your Battlenet games? That seems excessive, and it kind of reinforces my wary relationship with Blizzard. I don't know, Blizz's fanbase just seems so rabid and culty at times; and I really don't appreciate having to install an ecosystem that manages all your Blizzard games. Like it's this special clubhouse with big brother Blizzard looking out for you. You could say the same thing about Steam and Valve but it just feels different to me when we're talking about 1 developer and its games.

 

[Yuuki]

Banned from Overwatch? Fine. Banned from any new copies of Overwatch and ALL of your Battlenet games? That seems excessive

I don't know why you would think it's excessive. This is exactly what cheaters deserve. Blizzard doesn't have that many games. If someone is cheating in one game, they are extremely likely to be cheating in others too. It takes a certain mindset to cheat, and that mindset is fucked. If you let cheaters buy new game copies they WILL keep doing that and cheat again (rich daddy's credit card). There are many places that mass-sell game keys for cheap.

Blizzard simply want to wipe that scum off all their games forever and I agree with them. Once cheating scum, always cheating scum.

I don't know, Blizz's fanbase just seems so rabid and culty at times

No different from any fanbase.

I really don't appreciate having to install an ecosystem that manages all your Blizzard games. Like it's this special clubhouse with big brother Blizzard looking out for you. You could say the same thing about Steam and Valve but it just feels different to me when we're talking about 1 developer and its games.

Because said developer is big enough. BattleNet works quite well, brings Blizzard fans together and lets people communicate across their games using the actual inbuilt game chat. You can talk to a friend who's playing Diablo using the same chat as your WoW Raid group. That level of integration is something nobody else has managed to do.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Banned from Overwatch? Fine. Banned from any new copies of Overwatch and ALL of your Battlenet games? That seems excessive

I don't know why you would think it's excessive. This is exactly what cheaters deserve. Blizzard doesn't have that many games. If someone is cheating in one game, they are extremely likely to be cheating in others too. It takes a certain mindset to cheat, and that mindset is fucked. If you let cheaters buy new game copies they WILL keep doing that and cheat again (rich daddy's credit card). There are many places that mass-sell game keys for cheap.

Blizzard simply want to wipe that scum off all their games forever and I agree with them. Once cheating scum, always cheating scum.

I don't know, Blizz's fanbase just seems so rabid and culty at times

No different from any fanbase.

I really don't appreciate having to install an ecosystem that manages all your Blizzard games. Like it's this special clubhouse with big brother Blizzard looking out for you. You could say the same thing about Steam and Valve but it just feels different to me when we're talking about 1 developer and its games.

Because said developer is big enough. BattleNet works quite well, brings Blizzard fans together and lets people communicate across their games using the actual inbuilt game chat. You can talk to a friend who's playing Diablo using the same chat as your WoW Raid group. That level of integration is something nobody else has managed to do.

Okay, agree to disagree I guess? I would say labeling someone who cheated in a game "scum" is excessive. Dishonest and annoying? Sure. But a ban in that game gets them out of your hair. Telling someone that they can't play any of their games because they cheated is too far in my book. What exactly are these cheats anyway? Is it an aimbot? I have trouble seeing how that carries over into Diable or WoW or Hearthstone. Why don't we just have Blizz send their PC the self-destruct order so we can finally rid these scum from PC gaming ONCE AND FOR ALL HUZZAH.

Disagree on Blizz's fanbase being the same as others. in my opinion I think it comes across as being particularly fanatical and circle-jerky.

Again, I am allowed to dislike the Battle.net system just as you are to enjoy its benefits. None of those benefits apply to me. I don't enjoy having yet another library to have an account and password for. I don't need chat windows to my friends playing different games. On the rare occasion I decide to play a Blizzard game I'd rather not have to go through Battle.net to do it.

 

[Yuuki]

I don't enjoy having yet another library to have an account and password for.

Your single BattleNet account is what you use to log into all Blizzard games (WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, Diablo, etc). It's unified in that sense. There's also a fairly large overlap in those communities so it makes even more sense.

Or do you prefer to manage separate accounts/logins for each game, despite them being developed and continually supported by the same company?

You're "allowed to dislike" whatever you want, but I'm just pointing out the bigger picture. In the same sense I'm "allowed to dislike" Justin Bieber but I still completely understand why he is rolling in money with millions of fangirls.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Or do you prefer to manage separate accounts/logins for each game, despite them being developed and continually supported by the same company?

I don't want to manage accounts/logins for any games. I know how Battle.net works. My point is, I think it's dumb that I have to open up another application and sign into it just because Blizzard wants me to. If I want to play, say, Heathstone, I should just be able to open Hearthstone and play it. Not have to open Battle.net to see Blizz's latest propaganda and check in on all of my cool fellow Blizzard pals.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

This is going to end in a class action lawsuit against Blizzard.

No it won't. Their game + their rules + common sense. Cheaters are universally hated in everything, not just gaming.

I'm pretty sure that permabanning people from EVERY Blizzard game that they own because of their actions in a single game is the type of overreach that, no matter what is in the EULA, is not going to stand up in court.

 

[EternallyBored]

This is going to end in a class action lawsuit against Blizzard.

No it won't. Their game + their rules + common sense. Cheaters are universally hated in everything, not just gaming.

I'm pretty sure that permabanning people from EVERY Blizzard game that they own because of their actions in a single game is the type of overreach that, no matter what is in the EULA, is not going to stand up in court.

Except that's not what's happening, the cheaters reporting being banned are reporting being banned repeatedly from Overwatch, not all Blizzard games, I'm not sure where Bogos is getting that information as I can find no indication from anywhere else that Blizzard is handing down blanket Bnet bans.

The sentence seems clumsily worded and the accurate wordage is that Blizzard hands down permabans in its other games as well if you get caught cheating.

Unless someone can find evidence otherwise, I have not seen anyone reporting blanket bans for all Blizzard games.

EDIT: In fact, even the official word from Blizzard goes out of its way to avoid mentioning Bnet accounts, they specifically only talk about banning Overwatch accounts and Overwatch games.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

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.

Honestly? I'd be fine with that as long as demos resumed being a thing.

Mind you, I think "burying code to fuck with the pirate" ala Game Dev Tycoon to be much funnier and certainly a better solution...

Although it is pretty fun to point out double-standards (especially when it's clear that vested interests are involved), I do have to point out that piracy is inherently different to cheating simply because me pirating a game does not directly affect your online game experience. This is quite the indisputable fact by the way, unlike the whole "how much money does piracy cost the industry" argument that's been bickered over for years.

And that's ignoring the fact that it's kind of stupid to punish pirates by... making pirating the only way to get your games. Even IF that means no multiplayer for them.

 

[KenAri]

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 dunno. If I had a tumor removed, I wouldn't want it being put back in, even if it promised to be benign. Later on down the line cheats are gonna become a hell of a lot harder to detect, and I don't want some guy previously convicted for hacking getting reinstated into the game and ruining my play with a sneakier cheat.

I still think a stealth-banning system where cheats can only play against other cheats functions better, though.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

This is going to end in a class action lawsuit against Blizzard.

No it won't. Their game + their rules + common sense. Cheaters are universally hated in everything, not just gaming.

I'm pretty sure that permabanning people from EVERY Blizzard game that they own because of their actions in a single game is the type of overreach that, no matter what is in the EULA, is not going to stand up in court.

Except that's not what's happening, the cheaters reporting being banned are reporting being banned repeatedly from Overwatch, not all Blizzard games, I'm not sure where Bogos is getting that information as I can find no indication from anywhere else that Blizzard is handing down blanket Bnet bans.

The sentence seems clumsily worded and the accurate wordage is that Blizzard hands down permabans in its other games as well if you get caught cheating.

Unless someone can find evidence otherwise, I have not seen anyone reporting blanket bans for all Blizzard games.

EDIT: In fact, even the official word from Blizzard goes out of its way to avoid mentioning Bnet accounts, they specifically only talk about banning Overwatch accounts and Overwatch games.

I tried to find the "Blanket ban" policy myself last night but couldn't. However, I just chalked it up to having poor google-fu when it was past time for me to be in bed. Thank you for clarifying that Blizzard's policy only permabans cheater accounts on the specific game in which the cheating occurs (which is a rock-solid policy). I bow to you, good sir.

 

[Yuuki]

I still think a stealth-banning system where cheats can only play against other cheats functions better, though.

That's also a great concept if implemented well. Cheaters should only be matched with other known cheaters, which should also result in painfully slow queue times and anger/frustration. Perfect.
They'll be stuck in their own little hell, accusing everyone else of cheats while using cheats of their own. Meanwhile genuine players can have a great experience away from those fucks. Hahahaha.

Would be awesome if Blizzard did that instead. It's a win/win because they'll still get money from those cheaters.