False bans for games, A real thing?

[imtoooldforthis]

I’ve got a mate who is 45 years old, computer retarded, can’t aim and who had a KD of 0.3 and he somehow got banned from MW1 for cheating. They eventually overturned it after some long process, presumably after realising that no one with stats as bad as his could possibly be cheating.

 

[hyperseven]

My guess is the anti cheat picking up on icues ability to use macros, since you can make macros to help with recoil, shooting speed etc.

aren't macros built into any modern HID suite, LGHub and the like Surely they cannot ban the millions of those users?

 

[Rroff]

I’ve got a mate who is 45 years old, computer retarded, can’t aim and who had a KD of 0.3 and he somehow got banned from MW1 for cheating. They eventually overturned it after some long process, presumably after realising that no one with stats as bad as his could possibly be cheating.

I've seen some people who are horrifically bad cheating - even if it isn't much advantage for them using wallhacks/ESP still results in unfair situations. Though personally doesn't bother me so much if they don't have the aim to match it as few players can outplay me using cheats if the don't have the other skills to match as long as they aren't using an aimbot.

There are others who purposefully fudge their stats on an account but will use it for the odd game where they think it amusing to turn the cheats on just enough to be disruptive now and again

 

[carrot1401]

https://twitter.com/_tom_henderson_/status/1587512342170030081?s=46&t=K98vXH5PUP6x_Z-4cRvzeg

I've been unbanned!

I've been banned again (sound like I was never unbanned actually, just their system had a bug as in that time some people tried and still couldn't get on)

 

[Bizarre]

I was shadow banned a few years ago on the then new Black Ops, I didn't even know a shadow ban was a thing until I looked into what was going on. Basically, I was never told I was banned I was just put into player lobbies with cheaters who'd also been shadow banned. Every game was wallhack and aimbot city, frustrating asf. I think it was about a week until I noticed I was put back into lobbies with none cheaters, never played the game much after that, besides it being gash, I had been completely put off it.

 

[Tired9]

Bans are not false at all, I once cheated in COD 4 and Punkbuster got me because I left a .CFG file from the cheat in the directory when playing on PB enabled servers, I got it unbanned by saying I downloaded a custom config from a website and will contact the admins of the website, clearly my quick wits out witted the PB staff.

I have never cheated since, I did this on non PB enabled servers because well non PB users are mostly all pirates anyway and many would turn on as soon as I went into the erver to anti-cheat the cheater.

 

[Rroff]

aren't macros built into any modern HID suite, LGHub and the like Surely they cannot ban the millions of those users?

Macro software, etc. is usually a kick with warning in first instance, 24hour or 7 day suspension in the 2nd and only banned if client modification or gameplay patterns are detected - though that can vary between anti-cheat software. Those who are claiming they've been perma banned for such stuff 9 times out of 10 are either not telling the [whole] truth or have ignored repeated chances to avoid being properly banned.

I once cheated in COD 4 and Punkbuster got me because I left a .CFG file from the cheat in the directory when playing on PB enabled servers, I got it unbanned by saying I downloaded a custom config from a website and will contact the admins of the website, clearly my quick wits out witted the PB staff.

I can't remember exact details now but years ago there was a problem where someone could maliciously paste text into chat like mIRC and/or as part of files downloaded from the server when joining a game which would trip cheat detection in Punkbuster - after which usually remnants of a config file alone, either on disc or in memory, won't be a perma ban in the first instance any how.

 

[House]

TBH I got the latest COD for free on Xbox so i haven't even installed it on my PC yet, but was tempted to get it later or download the F2P version of warzone once its released.

Why have all these systems aps become so feature bloated, I want iCue to set RGB and cooling curves nothing else., I want Logitech GHub to control my settings and not need its own wanna be social media rubbish, I want Steelseries GG to control my sound settings on my headset not try and record game highlights, like Geforce, and dont get me started on WTH Discord is trying to be.

Maybe I'm old but apps used to do what you wanted them to not 50 other things that aren't even in their wheel house. Bring back all seeing eye and roger wilco I say.

 

[Grim5]

oooo so is reshade a bannable offence ? dont get me wrong i despise cheating in games, but i know a lot use reshade in elite dangerous and i was thinking about using it myself.

also use voice attack which whilst i know is fine for elite could be argued gives an advantage i suppose in some games. Personally i am totally not a competative gamer and i despise cheaters in online games.

but i do like 3rd party apps which either increase immersion (voice attack) or improves eye candy (reshade)

Yes it would be bannable in some games, for moral reasons reshade is changing the graphics of the game which could give you a theoretical advantage in spotting enemies in a shooter as an example.

But anti cheats aren't too smart, they will look for apps that inject changes into the game's memory processes and ban if any are found - some people have even been banned just for having an afterburner overlay that shows fps performance, though anti cheats should white flag certain apps but the risk is that a real cheat would try to hijack a white flagged app like a Trojan, to inject its down code into the game files - it's all rather complicated.

Most cheaters get banned because they use cheats easily found online. Anti cheat makers go around buying access to all the new cheats so they can reverse engineer them to figure out how they work then they change their anti cheat to combat it.

In theory someone who's good at software engineering can build their own cheat and as long as they don't share it, it can go undetected for years

 

[Rroff]

I was shadow banned a few years on the then new Black Ops, I didn't even know a shadow ban was a thing until I looked into what was going on. Basically, I was never told I was banned I was just put into player lobbies with cheaters who'd also been shadow banned. Every game was wallhack and aimbot city, frustrating asf. I think it was about a week until I noticed I was put back into lobbies with none cheaters, never played the game much after that, besides it being gash, I had been completely put off it.

Similar happened to me on BO because of this:

Black Ops M14/Pistol combo

Using the M14 to good effect

www.youtube.com

It looks a lot cheatier as a spectator than it actually is - I was actually quite slow reacting to the one before last M14 kill despite the quick snap of aim - I was playing at a lot higher resolution than the video capture. Fortunately I had the whole match recorded.

EDIT: Though I don't think I really played again after either - the game ran quite jerky/lumpy feeling which killed my aim, lots of bugs like weapons stopping working at random, ruined my enjoyment.

 

[bigmike20vt]

whilst I know examples exist in general this is one place where consoles have a big advantage over pc. because they are closed gardens (generally) unable to run unsigned code, and online is a paid service. which can be revoked along with hardware bans, in general you get much less cheating. Sure you still get people cable pulling and causing lag etc but these are things which developers can mitigate, and if they don't then it is partly at least on the Devs.
I am not a big competetive gamer (quite the opposite, I much prefer coop and single player story games) but I saw far more cheating on pc games than console . I know a few of my console owning friends were very concerned about crossplay with pc mostly for that reason (tho going agains KB/M players was also a worry)
note my issue with cheating is purely in MP games.... solo games fill your boots imo

 

[Felon]

Most cheaters get banned because they use cheats easily found online. Anti cheat makers go around buying access to all the new cheats so they can reverse engineer them to figure out how they work then they change their anti cheat to combat it.

In theory someone who's good at software engineering can build their own cheat and as long as they don't share it, it can go undetected for years

To be honest, a lot of the larger game studios are banning based more on player data, as opposed to trying to detect bots or wallhacks, because you can't really win by doing that in the long run.

For example, if you start playing a game right now, say CS:GO - your performance will fall to within an expected range, by performance we're talking every element of your play, how you move, how many headshots you can manage, the skill difference between you and the people you kill - etc. You can generate a number or value based on the aggregate of all of those statistics, and assign a skill level to it.

If you play for a few days at that level, then download a cheat - and your performance instantly exceeds that of a top 500 player in some metrics, it's obvious you're cheating from the data. You don't need a screenshot or admin review, the data proves you're playing at an impossible level - it's that big jump in skill level that gives it away, because people just don't play like that normally.

When I worked at Riot it was obvious in League of Legends, most players who cheat - download the game, play for around 10-15 hours - get owned and download a cheat, then their skill level skyrockets to impossible levels, they get banned. They download the game again on a new account, do the same thing again and again. In the end Riot stopped trying to ban every new cheat account, and simply had the matchmaker put them all into the same game, so we had thousands of servers running which were just full of cheaters playing against cheaters, whilst keeping clean players on separate servers only being match-made against other known players of good standing.

 

[StrongSad]

I had a False ban on GTA online after the gun-running update. There was a false positive when using the shooting range in the bunker. Basically spending too much time on the shooting range (which had an achievement) flagged you as a cheater as that was a mechanism for an exploit. I was one of many though.
I appealed and 48 hours later I had my account and all my stuff restored. However, they took nearly all my cash. I had 45M all legit and they only returned 450K.

 

[swampy]

Anyone remember the asus wallhack motherboard!
I had this asus motherboard many years ago and if you enabled some option in the bios for overclocking or something you had a counter strike wallhack lol
I was honest and told the admin when playing on the server he banned me for life!

 

[Smokey Deza]

I was banned from LoL.

When I worked at Riot it was obvious in League of Legends, most players who cheat - download the game, play for around 10-15 hours - get owned and download a cheat, then their skill level skyrockets to impossible levels, they get banned. They download the game again on a new account, do the same thing again and again. In the end Riot stopped trying to ban every new cheat account, and simply had the matchmaker put them all into the same game, so we had thousands of servers running which were just full of cheaters playing against cheaters, whilst keeping clean players on separate servers only being match-made against other known players of good standing.

Apparently I cost some guy his promo to Diamond back in S9 because I was 'cheating'. Scary thing is, after the game, he made good on his threat. He, or someone, got into my account, loaded up a bunch of scripts, played a couple of games, and then I was banned.

I appealed, and even though it was painstakingly obvious my account had been breached, Riot didn't even respond. I'm guessing they simply don't bother outside exceptional circumstances, as people will just sign up with another account, artificially inflating their player base?

 

[Felon]

I appealed, and even though it was painstakingly obvious my account had been breached, Riot didn't even respond. I'm guessing they simply don't bother outside exceptional circumstances, as people will just sign up with another account, artificially inflating their player base?

I can only speak for the time I did work there (2016-2021) I was never really involved with player support, but I know they did have dedicated teams which worked on player tickets.

I'd honestly be surprised if they ignored you and didn't respond at all, but honestly - I have no idea, as I never worked in support (I was in engineering and infrastructure)

 

[Smokey Deza]

@Screeeech​

You said you worked 'at' Riot Games, rather than 'for', so presumably you were working at one of their offices abroad then? Can only see a Readng office in the UK that opened this year. Sounds like it would pay well? How come you left, if I can ask?
And yeah, my account was actually worth quite a bit given its rank and skins I'd accumulated since 2013, so I was also surprised. Really poor show by them. Even the forums (when they had them back then) said I 'might get lucky' if I appeal, but not to get any hopes up.

 

[V F]

Yes it would be bannable in some games, for moral reasons reshade is changing the graphics of the game which could give you a theoretical advantage in spotting enemies in a shooter as an example.

But anti cheats aren't too smart, they will look for apps that inject changes into the game's memory processes and ban if any are found - some people have even been banned just for having an afterburner overlay that shows fps performance, though anti cheats should white flag certain apps but the risk is that a real cheat would try to hijack a white flagged app like a Trojan, to inject its down code into the game files - it's all rather complicated.

Most cheaters get banned because they use cheats easily found online. Anti cheat makers go around buying access to all the new cheats so they can reverse engineer them to figure out how they work then they change their anti cheat to combat it.

In theory someone who's good at software engineering can build their own cheat and as long as they don't share it, it can go undetected for years

The Division 2 PVP is rife with cheating. Its anti-cheat hasn't been updated since 2019 and there is so many clips of people glitching, running really fast, going invisible, shooting through walls/buildings from long distances, going outside of the map to get on top of the buildings roofs. Yet the developers do nothing about it. They tell them to supply footage yet people do and nothing happens. Rinse and repeat.

The latest glitch people has been speaking of about the game is somehow they're aligning a gamepads auto aim while connected being transferred to the mouse. How they're doing it I do not know but quite a number of people know about it and has confirmed it.

 

[Felon]

You said you worked 'at' Riot Games, rather than 'for', so presumably you were working at one of their offices abroad then? Can only see a Readng office in the UK that opened this year. Sounds like it would pay well? How come you left, if I can ask?

Nah I worked for them as a full on employee for about 5 years, I lived in Ireland for years and then LA for a while.

I spent years working on the infrastructure for Valorant, it was great and the team I was in was brilliant. After Valorant was released, we were all a bit lost and aimless, lots of people left and went to start-ups and some of the FAANGs (I went to Amazon which was horrible) and that was that!

I wish I'd stayed to be honest, but if I had a crystal ball..........

 

[carrot1401]

Sadly my appeal on COD/Warzone has also been rejected too with no word on 'what' caused it, as with MW2. Bit stumped on what to do next. At this point previously, I would be one of those people who'd think "simple, don't cheat" but when you on that other side of the coin, falsely accused, I can see why it's super frustrating.