- Call of Duty has ramped up AI with code optimizations to catch cheaters
- Since ranked play launched a week ago, 19,000 bans have been enacted
- But cheating still remains a thorny problem with Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been out for a month, and multiplayer is, of course, where cheaters are doing their best to ruin everyone else’s fun – but Activision is doing its best to catch them with an increasing emphasis on using AI.
Call of Duty games use an in-house anti-cheat (at the kernel level) called Ricochet, and on X, the developer has outlined the latest achievements in terms of taking out cheaters.
Apparently, Ricochet has facilitated the ban of over 19,000 cheaters in ranked play since that mode launched (a week ago).
📢 #BlackOps6 #RankedPlay #TeamRICOCHET with an update on the ongoing work to combat cheating in Ranked Play:• AI systems continue to ramp up with code optimizations to accelerate enforcements• Over 19,000 Ranked Play bans since the mode launched• Hourly sweeps to remove…November 26, 2024
As you can see from the post on X, there are “hourly sweeps” to eject cheaters from the ranked play mode (and leaderboard), and we’re told that AI systems are being ramped up with “code optimizations” to better achieve this goal.
Analysis: The war on cheats
Fewer cheaters is good news for everyone, of course – except the offenders themselves, naturally. However, as someone replying to the above post on X points out, all cheaters do after they are banned is create another account. Or, we should clarify, persistent or dedicated cheaters do this.
So, should Activision just give up and not bother? Obviously not, and some more casual cheaters might be put off by a ban (or repeated bans, certainly). But what about the more hardcore cheats out there? The workarounds to obtain a new account (including buying a hacked one) aren’t expensive or that difficult to do, sadly.
While AI is likely to very much help to police cheating, especially as these systems get honed more and more, it’ll have to be doing so in a really timely manner to start putting proper roadblocks in the way of those who want to break the rules in Black Ops 6 (or other games).
Meanwhile, the arguments continue as to the best way to deal with determined Call of Duty cheaters, including forcing two-factor authentication for accounts to at least help combat the number of accounts getting stolen – but there are thorny issues whichever way you look at this.
Via Neowin