As with any competitive online game, the developers of Call of Duty are continually working on protection mechanisms to keep cheaters at bay. It’s a constant game of whack a mole, though, as cheaters work very hard, often for profit, to get past these protections. With the Season 2 update for Black Ops 6 and CoD: Warzone on the horizon, Activision is detailing its next salvo in this ongoing battle, including the banning of 136,000 accounts.
CoD’s anti-cheat system, Ricochet, which the company describes as a “multi-faceted approach to combat cheating,” has recently gotten several upgrades. These include updates to its behavioral systems to detect things such as aim botting, an improved cross-examination tool to more quickly detect and deal with cheaters, and new detection systems for “repeat Playing with Cheaters behavior.”
The Season 2 update will make Ricochet even more robust. There will be improvements to both client and server-side systems used to detect cheating, a new system for detecting tampering, a major update to the kernel-level driver, and driver security improvements. Activision also notes that it will continue to work on making Ricochet better, and that players should look forward to even more anti-cheat updates for Season 3.
Additionally, the company took time to address a solution proposed by the community. Many players would like to see IP based bans, as they feel it would be a more effective solution to all the cheating happening in the game. However, Activision doesn’t want to use this strategy as it could negatively affect innocent players. Especially those who game at places like internet cafés or college campuses and are unlucky enough to be part of an IP range associated with a cheater.
Other changes coming in Season 2 include more flexibility while playing ranked matches. Players on console will now be able to choose whether they want to participate in cross-play with PC players. Moreover, teams can now vote to forfeit a match if it’s a blowout to spare them having to go all the way to the official end of the match. There will be no penalty for forfeiting a game.
While these anti-cheat updates will likely be a temporary fixes, it’s nice to see that Activision is being proactive about it and sharing details with players. Hopefully game developers can find more effective solutions in the future.