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Activision have made a big deal of fighting cheaters with Call Of Duty: Vanguard, bragging about new anti-cheat tech Ricohet, and a new progress report on their anti-cheat efforts makes clear they really want wrong’uns gone. If you get banned for cheating, they’ll ban you from the whole Call Of Duty series (well, as much as accounts allow). Eat it, nerks.
The Ricohet team said on the CoD blog that they have been “issuing bans throughout launch”, which is good. That’s not even their final form.
They note that they’re planning to introduce Ricochet’s kernel-level driver to the PC version starting with Warzone, debuting alongside the new Pacific map in December. It’s a controversial element, which will hook deep into a PC to keep an eye out for cheats. That might sound good but some folks don’t especially trust software having intimate access to their PC, whether concerns are about privacy, principle, or just a fear that it’ll muff up their computer. Still, kernel-level anti-cheat is fairly ubiquitous.
The blog post also warns of changes to their security enforcement policy for Vanguard. Extreme or repeated violations like cheating can get accounts permanently suspended. Attempts to “hide, disguise, or obfuscate your identity or the identity of your hardware devices” can also get you permabanned, which sounds like attempted ban evasion is a permabannable offence too. And if they do get you, they’ll get you good.
“Permanent suspensions for security infractions may now apply franchise wide, including Call of Duty: Vanguard as well as any past, present, and future titles in the Call of Duty franchise,” they say
I don’t know how much of an effect this will have in reality (who cheats on an account they expect to keep?) but it feels spiteful and this is one of the few times I feel spite is really warranted.
Parent company Activision Blizzard are currently embroiled in several legal battles which have made various allegations of harrassment, discrimination, retaliation, and unfair labour practices.