587 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Greetings MechWarriors,

As outlined in our April post regarding the potential use of third-party cheat software, renewed work toward systems that will further address the use of these tools and their users is actively underway.

The purpose of this post is to provide some additional insight into our approach toward those users who have been banned for the use of such tools, and to inform you all as a community about what kind of information you can expect regarding these players in the future.

How does PGI determine that a player is cheating?

None of the cheat tools are flawless, neither in their technical implementation or in their individual use by the player. We use a combination of methods to ensure that the conclusion we reach is the correct one.

What happens when a player is identified by PGI as a cheater?

Once a player has been identified as a cheater, the account in question is permanently banned. Any alternate accounts operated by that player are also banned, regardless of whether or not they engaged the use of such tools on those alternate accounts.

By choosing to use third-party tools to cheat these players have made a conscious decision to risk forfeiting all access to their accounts and any content therein, purchased or otherwise.

What happens to the content on their account?

We are not willing to provide refunds for past purchases of any delivered content in cases where the player has been banned for cheating.

The policy of providing refunds for pre-ordered content yet to be delivered will still apply for players who have been banned as a result of cheating. Despite their use of cheat tools, we feel that refunding their purchase of any unreleased content is still the right thing to do.

Messaging the community when a player has been banned for cheating

Our current moderation policy is that we do not discuss the details of bans, suspensions, or warnings with anyone but the player in question. For the majority of cases where general moderation has been taken against an account, we continue to consider this to be the best course of action.

That being said, we do understand that many players want to see some indication, beyond a verbal assurance, that we are actively policing the use of these tools. Not providing clear indications that a player has been banned specifically for using such tools can lead to uncertainty and give rise to nonconstructive speculation.

Last Friday, we enacted the first ban of a 'competitive-tier' player entirely for their use of a cheat tool. From an outside perspective, there was no indication that this player had been banned specifically for cheating; their forum profile simply showed the standard 'Banned' Group and Member Title. Word spread rather quickly about this ban of a 'high-profile' player, and the publicly unstated reason for the ban led to a fair number of doubts, questions, and speculations.

Going forward, all accounts that have been banned for cheating will have a 'Banned - Cheater' designation applied to their forum profile in place of their Group and Member Title.

Where do we go from here?

We will continue to improve upon our current systems of detection and evaluation to address the use of these tools and their users.

Even though this is little more than a verbal assurance, players should be happy to know that our renewed investigations up to this point have shown that these tools are not so widely used as some players may have initially imagined or feared. Further, their level of use from here on out will only shrink.

They are rare, detectable, and in most cases will not guarantee victory when used.

What if I see something that looks suspicious, or if I suspect another player of cheating?

Report it through an e-mail to moderation@mwomercs.com. Provide us with the name of the user in question and a summary of your concerns. Screenshots and video will always be helpful.

The discussion and proliferation of these tools through any of the Piranha Games and MechWarrior Online services, such as in-game chat or through the forums, is prohibited by the Terms of Service and Code of Conduct. Any such discussions will be subject to appropriate moderation. This includes "name and shame" topics or posts.

Please refrain from 'calling out' or harassing the suspected player in-game or through any other means.

Someone said they'd report me for cheating, but I only made a skilled/lucky shot!

We use a combination of methods to ensure that the conclusion we reach is the correct one. If you're not using a cheat tool, you have nothing to worry about!

Can we get a 'Too Long; Didn't Read' summary of this post?

• Cheating is uncommon
• Cheating is detectable
• Don't cheat
  
• If you do cheat, you'll be banned
• If you don't cheat, you're a-okay
• If you're banned for cheating, anyone who looks at your profile will know it
• You'll lose access to everything in your MWO account(s) and you won't be refunded for delivered content

[Deathlike]

Well, there's an indirect confirmation of what some of us already knew.

[Tool Box]

You say you banned someone in the competitive community and will be sending out messages about people who are banned. Is this you telling the community in game through text "insert banned person's name" has been banned? Or will there be a banned list we can see?
Edit: Also curious who was banned and what for I'll just go surf the webs bound to find out eventually.
Edit: figured it out. Will edit again if I'm allowed to say who. I'm not sure how I feel about name and shame. I know PGI has said not to do it for the most part.

Edited by Tool Box, 11 May 2015 - 06:42 PM.

[fishballz]

noice

[Gut]

Yeah wondering if there would be a banned list or not.

[ShinVector]

Tool Box, on 11 May 2015 - 06:03 PM, said:

You say you banned someone in the competitive community and will be sending out messages about people who are banned. Is this you telling the community in game through text "insert banned person's name" has been banned? Or will there be a banned list we can see?

Probably the title name in the forum dude. Eg. Your Shredder replaced with a pink/purple "Banned - Cheater"
Currently we only see 'Banned' but without any details.

At believe this is a good step by PGI.
Hopefully there are no false positives.

Quake in your BOOTS cheaters !

[LordLosh]

wow I used to think very highly of "said player" Guess i know now how they were so good and i could never compete with their scores no matter how hard I tried.

[TLBFestus]

InnerSphereNews, on 11 May 2015 - 05:50 PM, said:

Even though this is little more than a verbal assurance, players should be happy to know that our renewed investigations up to this point have shown that these tools are not so widely used as some players may have initially imagined or feared. Further, their level of use from here on out will only shrink.
They are rare, detectable, and in most cases will not guarantee victory when used.

How do you know that a cheat is detectable?

Not actually expecting an answer of course, just saying that some cheats are/could be undetected at this point and you don't know.

Other than that...this is good news. It cleared up the conjecture, proving a cheater has been caught and banned.
IMHO one of the best things you can do it promote the fact you caught a cheater every time you catch one. It impresses the vast majority of honest players and dispirits the hackers.

Edited by TLBFestus, 11 May 2015 - 06:10 PM.

[Sereglach]

Greatly appreciate y'all at PGI putting this out there. Thank you. There's always going to be cheaters, but finding out that they're quite rare and that you're always looking into the latest and greatest cheat-sniffers is greatly appreciated.

I'm glad that there's not going to be a public name and shame policy. It's just not needed, and breeds bad blood. However, being able to see if someone was, in fact, a cheater based upon their account group is also good to see, as it just removes questions for people closely related to a situation.

[Repasy Cooper]

I support this.

Cheaters deserve to have their usernames forever etched onto the wall of shame.

[Sereglach]

TLBFestus, on 11 May 2015 - 06:09 PM, said:

How do you know that a cheat is detectable?

I'm not a genius or anything on the subject, but I'm aware of some things out there. I'm sure they've got much better than this, but maybe it'll help answer your question.

1. They can probe the install on the system while its connected to the servers to see if there've been any illegal alterations (IE: Only make terrain appear with solid outlines on my screen and otherwise 90% transulcent).

2. They can look at data traffic to see if data is passing through that doesn't match up with what Server Authoritative HSR (or other metrics) says is possible.

3. They can see if you're moving/tracking on targets in ways that's not physically possible within the games own control scheme.

4. They'll piggyback and spectate/watch the suspected person to get first hand evidence through live data streams/feeds (not just the spectator camera, like we do when dead) to find abnormal information.

All the things lead to rock solid confirmations, as it's not just something that's explained away as "Oh, that was a lucky headshot." It becomes, "Well, regardless of where he was aiming, his system sent data to our servers saying he fired his weapons at this direction and angle to ensure a headshot on that guy. That overrode where he was aiming, which would have just hit the wall."

Edited by Sereglach, 11 May 2015 - 06:28 PM.

[wanderer]

No, I certainly HOPE we get a public name and shame on cheaters.

Cheaters should be known. They should be shunned. And the results of being caught should be obvious to anyone that so much as sees a forum post. And for good measure, if you can ID what they used to cheat, add that to the profile too- so people know that "undetectable" isn't and don't even start.

Make a public list. Replace their forum badge to brand the account as belonging to a useless cancer cut from the game's population. That's what would restore my confidence in PGI's ability to enforce the rules, considering it took an outside controversy to even result in the banstick being applied in this fashion even once.

They have the right idea in Counterstrike. When a playerbase sees cheaters getting the axe, it breeds confidence that indeed, the right things are being done.

[Javin]

Thanks for clearing this up PGI. Keep up the good work.

[sycocys]

Thank you.

[thinkn bout thos Beans mans game]

Can you please outline (and be explicit) how you were able to detect the third party tools in question?

[ICEFANG13]

I mean we can see who cheated, why not make a list of shame? I think that would be awesome. Cheaters can suck it.

ilKhan Judge Dreddrensky, on 11 May 2015 - 06:35 PM, said:

Can you please outline (and be explicit) how you were able to detect the third party tools in question?

They should never do that, since it helps the cheaters. If they tell us how they found it, then the cheaters would know too and aid in hiding the cheats.

Edited by ICEFANG13, 11 May 2015 - 06:38 PM.

[Mustafa Kemal Ataturk]

Are you sure that this is not a result of the player in question's assertion that they will seek a refund?

That is, are you sure PGI as a company is not taking vengeful action against the said individual and declaring them a cheater while providing no evidence?

[Triordinant]

ilKhan Judge Dreddrensky, on 11 May 2015 - 06:35 PM, said:

Can you please outline (and be explicit) how you were able to detect the third party tools in question?

If they do that, the Cheaters will try to come up with countermeasures. They should NOT do that.

[Mustafa Kemal Ataturk]

ICEFANG13, on 11 May 2015 - 06:37 PM, said:

I mean we can see who cheated, why not make a list of shame? I think that would be awesome. Cheaters can suck it.




They should never do that, since it helps the cheaters. If they tell us how they found it, then the cheaters would know too and aid in hiding the cheats.

This is a fallacy. There is no cheat detection tool in this game.

[orcrist86]

Thank you for the clarification. It is appreciated.