Technology
Call of Duty BANS 48,000 players with secret new method – are you barred?
CALL of Duty has banned nearly 50,000 players using its secretive new Ricochet tool.
The special software finds players who are breaking the rules – and allows Activision to permanently ban them.
ActivisionThink twice before cheating in Call of Duty Warzone or Vanguard…[/caption]
It’s the latest in a long series of mass bans on Call of Duty cheaters.
Importantly, it uses Ricochet, which only rolled out with the new Vanguard and Warzone games this year.
Activision said that 48,000 players were banned in a single day thanks to the system.
These players will have been cheaters using special software to secure kills and win games.
In a statement, the Call of Duty team said: “48,000 cheater accounts were banned yesterday across Warzone and Vanguard thanks to Team Ricochet.”
The exact details of how the new anti-cheat system works are closely guarded, but we have a general idea of what is happening.
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Game makers try not to give too much away – so that hackers can’t get around it.
The new system is called Ricochet, and we know that it operates at the kernel level.
That means it can access all of the resources on your system.
That’s a higher level than a game would usually access.
And it means that Ricochet can detect any attempts to interact with Call of Duty Warzone.
It can then analyse whether you’re using special software to cheat.
Call of Duty has already banned more than half a million accounts in Warzone.
It’s part of a growing crackdown on Warzone cheaters, who cause chaos for legitimate gamers.
Cheaters employ a host of techniques to win games.
These include aimbots, wall hacks, trainers, stat hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors and software that manipulates game data or memory.
The situation has been so bad at times that one pro gamer recently quit Call of Duty Warzone.
“We have zero tolerance for cheaters across Call of Duty and Call of Duty Warzone,” said Activision in a statement earlier this year.
“Our focus is to combat both cheaters and cheat providers.
“We are also continuing our efforts to identify and address cheat providers at the source, who distribute unauthorised third-party software for modding or hacking.
“We are committed to delivering a fair and fun experience for all players.”
Activision says it has security teams monitoring Call of Duty 24/7 to investigate cheating.
And the company has promised to improve the interface for reporting cheaters in-game.
The game maker says all in-game reports are analysed and investigated.
If a player is found to be cheating – including using “hacks” – then bans will be handed out quickly.
Call of Duty cheats – what gets you banned?
Here’s what you need to know…
There are plenty of ways to cheat on Call of Duty
Perhaps the most common hack is an aimbot – a piece of software that aims and targets enemies automatically for you
Activision also explicitly forbids the use of wallhacks, which modifies the properties of walls
For instance, wallhacking software could allow you to see enemies through walls
Typically using glitches to escape outside the normal bounds of the map is also considered to be cheating
Generally it’s a case of using common sense: don’t do anything that gives you an advantage that wouldn’t have been intended by developers
Also, cheating on a sophisticated game like Call of Duty can be difficult – so if you’re cheating, it’s unlikely to have been an accident
According to Activision, the addition of two-factor authentication has invalidated “over 180,000 suspect accounts”.
And a host of unauthorised third-party software providers have been “eliminated”.
Activision also says it will be providing a regular count on the latest number of players banned.
It’s not the first that Activision has doled out mass bans.
Back in April 2020, a whopping 50,000 Warzone players were booted off the game.
Earlier this year, a further 60,000 players were banned.
This was followed by 30,000 players being banned.
Then in April 2021, a further 45,000 players were banned.
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