Valve Bans Nearly 100,000 Cheaters in One Fell Swoop

[Guest]

Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) bans were handed out to nearly 100,000 cheaters on July 18 and 19.

Valve Bans Nearly 100,000 Cheaters in One Fell Swoop : Read more

 

[roger_hardang]

does that include swearing on call of duty or is it just CS ?

 

[King_V]

I'm going to assume that the VAC system can't detect swearing.

Not to mention that swearing isn't cheating...

 

[Snipergod87]

And people who take offense in swearing in CoD or CS should probably be playing a different game than FPS's

 

[captaincharisma]

does that include swearing on call of duty or is it just CS ?

so swearing is a no-no but the violence in a FPS isn't? #fail

 

[Matt_550]

Call of duty is still relevant? I thought the trash heap of Infinite Warfare doomed a once promising franchise to the land of obscurity....

 

[techy1966]

I am going to assume these bans for online play only and does not affect those players that decide to use cheats and trainers that are playing the single player part of a game and not the online part.

Personally I hate it when you try to play a game online and you can plainly see that someone is cheating and they pretty much pwn everyone else in the game. Now for those that want to use a trainer or cheat and play the game offline by themselves I have no issues with it is your own business what you do on your own but do not try to take that character online ever or you probably will get banned.

That brings up what I would call a problem in the games. In most games you can make a toon up and play it either offline or online from the same toon. That's the problem right there they need to force it so you have a offline toon and if you want to go online you need to make a toon for the online play and that is stored on both the local system and the game servers under your account. Then if you try to make changes and if the accounts do not match you either get a warning about it and then the server syncs everything up and you continue your game play. This would get rid of a lot of the cheating and maybe those cheaters would also get so upset that they would go else where and try something else in another game but at least most players could then enjoy the game knowing everyone is on a more level playing field.

 

[homeybaloney]

thats a gud idea 2 sets of files. and a log of when the folder is accessed and authenticating with the online server whern its accessed.

 

[araczynski]

I cheat like a mofo in single player, don't have time for multiplayer gaming.

Don't know why in this day and age all developers (for the PC builds at least) don't have built in cheat options for those that just want to have fun/explore/enjoy a story and don't give a F about achievements or challenges. i.e. want to relax and unwind.

 

[beshonk]

I'm with you Araczynski, iddqd for the win.

 

[Zaporro]

"VAC bans are "permanent, non-negotiable, and cannot be removed by Steam Support.""

Welcome to glorious dictatorship, the soviet republic of steam.

Lets make brainless and bumb machines ban people and then strip them from very basic rights to defend themselves.

Every dictatorship wet dream "if we say you are guilty you are".

 

[milkod2001]

@ARACZYNSKI
because once you start to cheat, SP or MO doesn't matter game will bore you much quicker then achieve the very same thing without cheating.

 

[BulkZerker]

Zaporro, VAC isn't punkbuster. it is a very good anti-cheat tool and I know of only one person who was picked up by it falsly, it was around the time MSI just released afterburner and they we're running the overlay while playing TF2. They say the bans are non negotiable but that isn't true you have to prove what you were doing and also get a body that works steam support to lift the ban. Bringing a bug in their system to light usually gets you a lot of Goodwill.

 

[roger_hardang]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

 

[0InVader0]

Bulkzerker Tbh, I'd take PunkBuster over VAC any time. At least punkbuster worked. VAC might not have any false positives, but it barely does anything. It's cool that we had this ban wave but we don't know in which game and for what exactly. I'd bet a good amount of money CSGO is still absolutely infested with cheaters in the higher ranks. The day I quit I was in a match with 8 other cheaters who didn't even try to hide it and I was laughed at for not using any. Judging by the fact that people are now actually willing to pay money for a 3rd-party premium moderated matchmaking service, I imagine things haven't changed one bit.

 

[King_V]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

Why? You seem a little hyper-obsessed with this, and it's not really the service's place to play language-police.

Abusive behavior targeting someone, yeah, that I can potentially see. But not auto-permanent-ban on swearing.

 

[roger_hardang]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

Why? You seem a little hyper-obsessed with this, and it's not really the service's place to play language-police.

Abusive behavior targeting someone, yeah, that I can potentially see. But not auto-permanent-ban on swearing.

microsoft xbox bans swearers

 

[thrasher32]

So I have several thousand dollars worth of games on Steam. If they were to mistakenly ban me I could create a new account but I'd lose all those games that I paid for - at least the ones that are VAC protected. What recourse would I have to recover the software that I paid for?? Seems like a legal nightmare waiting to happen.

 

[Gam3r01]

So I have several thousand dollars worth of games on Steam. If they were to mistakenly ban me I could create a new account but I'd lose all those games that I paid for - at least the ones that are VAC protected. What recourse would I have to recover the software that I paid for?? Seems like a legal nightmare waiting to happen.

Its not a legal nightmare, its in their TOS which you agree to every time you use their platform.
Contrary to what they want you to believe VAC bans are not set in stone, if you can prove you werent doing anything to cause the VAC (like the old afterburner overlay issue) then they can undo your ban.

 

[King_V]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

Why? You seem a little hyper-obsessed with this, and it's not really the service's place to play language-police.

Abusive behavior targeting someone, yeah, that I can potentially see. But not auto-permanent-ban on swearing.

microsoft xbox bans swearers

That doesn't answer my question at all.

Further, I don't think that's accurate. I know their terms of service say they can be banned for it, but I'm not aware of any wholesale automatic banning. They MIGHT go after the most problematic people, but the TOS also refers to "offensive language" in lieu of "profane words or phrases."

Previous TOS documents and a code of conduct referred to “profane words or phrases,” according to a report on Gizmodo. This change appears to draw a distinction between foul language, and words that are designed to wound, particularly those aimed at women and minorities.

This suggests they're LESS opposed to swearing than you're trying to portray.

Again, why are you so hyper-obsessed with this? Do you think you should be in charge of choosing which swear words should result in an automatic perma-ban?

 

[captaincharisma]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

Why? You seem a little hyper-obsessed with this, and it's not really the service's place to play language-police.

Abusive behavior targeting someone, yeah, that I can potentially see. But not auto-permanent-ban on swearing.

microsoft xbox bans swearers

That doesn't answer my question at all.

Further, I don't think that's accurate. I know their terms of service say they can be banned for it, but I'm not aware of any wholesale automatic banning. They MIGHT go after the most problematic people, but the TOS also refers to "offensive language" in lieu of "profane words or phrases."

This suggests they're LESS opposed to swearing.

Again, why are you so hyper-obsessed with this? Do you think you should be in charge of choosing which swear words should result in an automatic perma-ban?

the guy is probably some parent who doesn't want their kids hearing swear words but lets their young kids play violent videos games all day. irony at its finest

 

[feelinfroggy777]

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

i hope when call of duty moves to battle.net they ban the people who swear

Why? You seem a little hyper-obsessed with this, and it's not really the service's place to play language-police.

Abusive behavior targeting someone, yeah, that I can potentially see. But not auto-permanent-ban on swearing.

microsoft xbox bans swearers

That doesn't answer my question at all.

Further, I don't think that's accurate. I know their terms of service say they can be banned for it, but I'm not aware of any wholesale automatic banning. They MIGHT go after the most problematic people, but the TOS also refers to "offensive language" in lieu of "profane words or phrases."

This suggests they're LESS opposed to swearing.

Again, why are you so hyper-obsessed with this? Do you think you should be in charge of choosing which swear words should result in an automatic perma-ban?

the guy is probably some parent who doesn't want their kids hearing swear words but lets their young kids play violent videos games all day. irony at its finest

As a gamer that now has a 5 year old son, it has really changed a lot of games that I play. I am not worried as much about the language as I am with the violence in a lot of games. You can mute the chat. I don't want him exposed to games like Battlefield or CoD.

I have let him watch me play Overwatch, but even then, I don't know if that is really for the best. I think Fortnite is okay for kids, but I just hate the game.

But we have retropie and he absolutely loves it and thinks that Mario 3 is a "new game". Cracks me up.

 

[bobba84]

Playing against opponents in China should be opt-in.

 

[0InVader0]

So I have several thousand dollars worth of games on Steam. If they were to mistakenly ban me I could create a new account but I'd lose all those games that I paid for - at least the ones that are VAC protected. What recourse would I have to recover the software that I paid for?? Seems like a legal nightmare waiting to happen.

First of all, that's not how VAC works. You get banned from a particular game, not from Steam entirely. Getting banned from the entirety of Steam is super rare.

Second, by cheating or using other software for assistance you may or may not have violated the Terms of Use of that game, so if you did, they totally can take access to that game from you. It's no different from buying a train ticket and then fcking up the cabins and getting thrown out early. You can discuss it with the developer whether your VAC ban is false positive or not and they can unban you.