3 ms·

False bans do happen. Even VAC, which isn't known for banning willy-nilly, will sometimes remove bans because they do make mistakes. Many other anti-cheats have

False bans do happen. Even VAC, which isn't known for banning willy-nilly, will sometimes remove bans because they do make mistakes. Many other anti-cheats have had more or less prominent issues with false bans, for example GTA Online as well as other games had multiple incidents where they banned people using software like Afterburner/RTSS (and subsequently unbanned them). GTA even had exploits which allowed other cheaters to ban other players. The sentiment of your comment remains popular in gaming circles. But as software people on hacker news, doesn't it seem rather obvious that complex software like anti-cheats embedded in hugely complex software like games will have bugs? Add many people overclocking their computers to the brink of instability and silent corruption into the mix and you will have issues. (VAC must've kicked me dozens of times for failing game integrity checks because of this - now imagine if that's a ban, like Activision does. A checksum failure on a gaming PC hardly proves cheating beyond even a passing doubt)

riversflow 4y ago
> doesn't it seem rather obvious that complex software like anti-cheats embedded in hugely complex software like games will have bugs? No doubt, and it does suck that some people get caught up in it. It’s also lame that they prevent you from playing single player, but I’d guess this is to make engine exploit development more expensive and time consuming. I do think that they should have a manual review appeal, not sure how that would work without undermining the anti-cheat or being extremely invasive. I honestly hate that I’m defending Acti-bliz, they rake in hoards of cash and become more predatory every year. Recently they downgraded and deleted my favorite game, giving it one of the worst monetization schemes in PC. But cheating is a serious issue, I have abandon a number of games because cheating at my skill level became too common.
- mdswanson 4y ago
  First, protect legitimate customers. Second, deal with cheaters.
  - riversflow 4y ago
    Protecting legitimate customers and dealing with cheaters is the same thing.

riversflow 4y ago

> doesn't it seem rather obvious that complex software like anti-cheats embedded in hugely complex software like games will have bugs? No doubt, and it does suck that some people get caught up in it. It’s also lame that they prevent you from playing single player, but I’d guess this is to make engine exploit development more expensive and time consuming. I do think that they should have a manual review appeal, not sure how that would work without undermining the anti-cheat or being extremely invasive. I honestly hate that I’m defending Acti-bliz, they rake in hoards of cash and become more predatory every year. Recently they downgraded and deleted my favorite game, giving it one of the worst monetization schemes in PC. But cheating is a serious issue, I have abandon a number of games because cheating at my skill level became too common.

mdswanson 4y ago
First, protect legitimate customers. Second, deal with cheaters.
- riversflow 4y ago
  Protecting legitimate customers and dealing with cheaters is the same thing.