DICE Drops the Banhammer on Cheaters in Battlefield 3

GR - "EA DICE is well aware of player complaints about cheaters in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta, whose presence has done nothing but hurt the online experience."

[HK6]

That picture is awesome. Glad EA are starting to take some action against the cheaters.

[JoGam]

I don't know what they mean by cheaters but if they want to rid most cheaters, they need to fix the glitches in the game. You are promoting cheaters by having glitches.

[ZombieAssassin]

So true, I don't know how many times I've just been walking or running and suddenly I'm halfway in the ground.

[Jobesy]

"As cheaters try to damage the game's server infrastructure in beta, DICE will have a good idea of how to prepare themselves upon the release of the game. In other words, it's a "What will assholes do?" preventative fact finding mission."

What does it matter? Didn't Dice say EVERY glitch and bug in the beta isn't in the retail release?

[Winter47th]

The point of the Beta is to bring the worst in a Beta. And they reward the ones that find the glitches/bugs by banning them?

They cheated? That's even BETTER! it's better to fix those glitches in a Beta than the final version. DUH!

[Kushan]

IT'S A BETA!

Say it one more time:

IT'S A BETA!

You know what "beta" means? Here's a hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Let me pick out the nuggets of Gold for you: "The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing"

Furthermore, the beta code is at least a month old. A month! And the game isn't out for nearly 3 weeks, so the final game is essentially going to have 2 months+ solid, crunch-time work done to it. So give it a rest, learn what beta means and enjoy the game.

[pangitkqb]

I just don't understand cheaters. Are they really such nerdy-losers so desperate to win that they'll take the time to figure out a way to cheat?

really? "Look at my impossible kill-to-death ratio! I owned that bi*** with my cheats!"

Wow...bet that gets them all the ladies and money.

[gamingdroid]

... and you feel comfortable about usability testing four weeks prior to release and two weeks to Gold?

With less than 2 months to go, that build is not only atrocious, but gives limited feedback if anything especially right before release. This demo masqueraded as a beta will have little to no tangible benefits, beyond maybe stress testing servers.

[red2tango]

You guys need to learn the difference between being under map and using aimbot.

[Dee_91]

i hope the long neck in the final build
it just wont feel right without it

[BattleAxe]

I don't think its cheaters they're banning, just like the picture shows, its probably people that are getting caught in these glitches, and now DICE has PEE on their face so they're banning people to make themselves look good and feel better.

[badz149]

EA and DICE should've known better! IMO Crysis 2 fell victim of its own beta and it sold less copies on 3 platforms compared to its predecessor which was PC exclusive.

gamers are taking beta as demo nowadays but they're not to be blamed as other betas like UC3, Gears3, R3, KZ3...all were solid and really felt like just a load test but BF3's beta seems a lot more than just a load test! low res textures and glitches everywhere!

now I know why Activision don't do beta! so, I think EA will take the same approach after BF3 which is "sell first, fix later"! seems to be working out super fine for Activision sales wise and I think EA is taking note!

[Pixel_Enemy]

I am so glad DICE has the balls to ban cheaters unlike COD.

[Legion]

A big difference between people who take advantage of glitches in the Beta and the cheaters that are being reported in the forum. the cheaters are those that are getting instant spawn kills without even shooting. Aimbotting, and revolver sniping from across the map. Also, a few have been able to make themselves invulnerable and or even able to walk through all walls.

So many PC players(hackers) are really taken advantage of the game. Haven't seen the manipulation on the consoles above glitch manipulation.

[Bladesfist]

@legion What are you talking about? They hosted thier own servers... Dice responds by banning you even if you accidently end up in one of those servers. They ban your origin account so you wont have access to all your games on origin. Its a stupid response.

[Kushan]

@gamingdroid having worked in the games industry myself - YES. You have no idea how much work goes into those last few weeks before it goes gold. A lot of those bugs are fairly trivial to fix, a lot of them will have been fixed even before the beta went live.

[stevenhiggster]

@bladesfist

I've played against hackers on normal servers (KillerCreationUK servers). People who were top rank with 45-0 k/d ratios. Then when I looked at their profile they had over 5 million kills (They would have to have been playing 24/7 and getting 29'761 kills per hour to achieve that without hacking).

So they're not just playing on their own servers.

[Philoctetes]

Maybe they should spend more time fixing their game. There wouldn't be as many glitchers if there weren't so many glitches.

[DeFFeR]

...it's a Beta... you know... that tool that some developers use to find glitches so they can get rid of them?

[hiredhelp]

"MAYBE THEY SHOULD FIX THERE GAME"
Dam im getting sick tired hearing that line.
Tell you what tell 95% of ALL games that get published today on game consoles and pc's to also do the same.

Only thoes other games userally dont grant us early acsees or a beta so we can test it.

The main bugs we seen like underground glitching ect. has been fixed for retail.
The way some you you moan its like you expecting a beta to have updates so you can play it like a retail copy with no issues.

Well roll on bf3 cos i dont care about what some of you may think about this game im buying it sat in my preorder cart for few months or more now.

[Sarcasm]

Are you guys REALLY trying to justify cheaters because of bugs and glitches in a F'in BETA???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[cannon8800]

Those human giraffes never get old.

[RioKing]

Looks like the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" cover to me. lol

[scotchmouth]

Who doesn't love longneckin?

[Prophet-Gamer]

lol
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[DaTruth]

I think I just hurt myself laughing so hard!

Bubbles!!!

[zerocrossing]

But surely the cheaters are pointing out the glitches the devs are suppose to fix right? Shouldn't DICE be thanking them instead of banning them? they wouldn't even know of the glitches existence if it wasn't for the Beta testers finding them.

[gcolley]

they are not pointing them out they are full time exploiting them meanwhile ruining the experience for everyone else.

but yeah this really is a maturity issue, don't release an open beta if you don't want the immature crap that comes with an open video game beta. release a beta to people who have a certain rank in previous BFs or something like that. this is how you get usable feedback from players who have invested time in BF.

just ask valve

[tiffac008]

In my experience even on MMO's the majority of players will exploit a bug rather than report it. That's not to say there aren't players who will report the bugs (bless their souls) but you know how it is.

[krisq]

you'll love this : http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[chadboban]

DAT SCREENSHOT!
NOPE.

[BakedGoods]

I'm just going to leave this here...

[Pandamobile]

Nope.avi

[rattletop]

lol @ the pic.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Taking action during a Beta process of the game, I guess.

[mandf]

Let me guess, cheaters have rights too.

[Shojin1]

LOL!

[Megaton]

Hah, nope.

[TheOtherTheoG]

That was pretty much what I was going to post...

[Sarevok]

damn you! that was my post too!
Don't know how I missed yours. XD

[kamakaz3md]

people who cheat... well there BF3 players should have to wear a pink dress with white poka dots... DO IT DICE!!!!

[gcolley]

awesome idea. let 'em play but make 'em stand out in pink. maybe even have a giant arrow above them so you always know where they are

[damnyouretall]

that is the greatest solution, humility .bubbles man

[capcock]

Picture brought me here, not the article xD

[Fishy Fingers]

Bit harsh seeing they didnt bother including anything to stop or even hinder "haxors" or cheaters in the beta. But whatever.

[capcock]

I have played bf3 beta 9h on pc & 2h on ps3
Haven't seen any hackers just some f**ced up glitches xD

[J86blum]

I have enjoyed the beta, I wasnt aware there were cheaters though I do admit at some points I was questioning how I would headshot someone with the MKmod11 and they were still kicking or when I unloaded a M416 and they hit me twice with a Glock 17 and after I died I noticed their health still said 100.

and yeah the bugs suck but its the beta, the worst is if you go prone on uneven ground u would clip through the ground, or the random purple/red screen popins, BUT all in all still have the game pre-orderd and picking it up.

[Fil101]

yeah hit detection sometimes is non exsistant and along with all other niggles I love it and the 28th cannot come quick enough

[CoD511]

Fat lot of good that does in the beta when they can just register another account and download it :p

[OC_MurphysLaw]

hmm...not sure what to think. I mean on one hand certainly we all hate cheaters.

On the other hand...its a beta, and well... shouldn't Dice encourage people to try and break the system so they can see what is being done and address it in the final build? Isn't that the purpose of a beta? This is a beta right? It's not a demo of the game where you would expect DICE to take action on cheaters...but its a beta where you look for bugs, glitches and cheats so you can fix it.

Dice dropping the "Ban Hammer" on cheaters in their "beta" is just another sign that this "beta" was intended more as a "demo" than a "beta".

[Hufandpuf]

No, the hackers were getting too rampant on the servers that even if you went to quick join you could be put in a hacked server and get your stats reset. I don't think devs would want that ruining the experience. Would you rather keep them in? Or if you could fix it And ban them now?

[radphil]

They didn't drop the "ban hammer" yet.

The thing is, all the article states, was that there's a thread for people to report abusive players and such.

[Kushan]

Getting banned from a game before its even out? Brilliant. DICE doesn't want cheaters money and I thank them for that.

[sovietsoldier]

hacked servers and aimbot/wall hacking is to different things. if you want to boost go ahead as long a it don't mess with someone else game play and larger player count server are no harm to anyone other then who play on lagy server. but if you aimbot wall hack or do some other lame unfair shit you should be banned for life.

[RioKing]

I respectfully disagree (to the whole "boost if ya want, as long as it doesn't bother anyone) comment.

I consider boosting to be cheating as it boosts your rank unfairly. I think boosters who get caught should get their rank levels reset to 1...and the more hardcore cheaters get the permanent ban hammer dropped on their ass.

[sovietsoldier]

and how does that effect you or anyone else?

[RioKing]

It doesn't f**king matter if it affects me or not. If I'm playing fair and earning my score legitimately, then others should have to play fair also...or if not, be at risk of a stat reset.

[blackhammer]

I like the bans.

I don't very much like the Metro.

[mrsatan]

Yeah, they can just as well ban that map too.

[ZBlacktt]

This to me is why online gaming is just all BS. Every single game put out has cheater's of some kind. Be it glitcher's, laggy player's ( red bar signal ), lag switcher's, program user's with aim bots, booster's, modded controller's, etc. There will always be those looking for exploits and advantages to win. This outside the scope of how the games are meant to be played.

Then more times then not. The Dev's of these games seem to not want to deal with the issues. Or they start out strong policing the games. Then as time goes on, fade off to nothing.

Online is more like a fantasy of good time gaming. Yet, dev's have yet to come up with the prefect solutions to all the very same problems they all face time and time again. How to stop the exploiting player's who only goal is to win no matter how it gets done.

[Kahvipannu]

You can't be more wrong in this particular case, it's a beta, and it's only purpose is to gather data, for example hacking/cheating. It's worth gold to developers to gather as much info about these idiots who cheat, and how they do it, and once done, ban them. Tought I'm not sure if you commented to the article here, or just in general, if that's the case, just ignore above.

In general of MP games today, yes, I agree with that, but usually I just report these guys and f.ex. continue playing in different servers and try to forget these guys.. Yes, it's sad, there will always be cheaters, no matter what..

[ZBlacktt]

"Tought I'm not sure if you commented to the article here, or just in general, if that's the case, just ignore above."

I see, just ignored you. What I said is beyond 100% fact. So no need to sit here and go over it again.

[erivera1994]

it was actually a pretty good idea because now dice can prepare and know what to expect from cheaters.

[Kahvipannu]

Yeah, it's part of betas. Cheaters can do theyr trick when they get theyr hands on the game, and developers can study what they do, so they have more data when the game hits the market to prevent this kind of activity.

[Beahmscream]

Anyone else reminded of the Terminator 2 Cop by that picture?

[geth1gh]

exactly what I thought as soon as I saw it.

[RioKing]

Like I said a few comments above, it initially reminded me of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"....but I totally see what you mean, its spot-on.

[scotchmouth]

Good call!

[_LarZen_]

Cheaters should be baned for ever in games they cheat online in.

[Sarevok]

Nope..

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Bleach]

Im sure glad i play the PS3 version.

[xX TriiCKy Xx]

I was playing the PS3 version last night and I swear this guy had some kind of Godly power on man. He could teleport through walls, trees, etc. My entire squad pumped UMP45 and Sniper ammo into this guy and he would NOT die. He ended up finishing the game 100-0. :(

[Bleach]

Lag switching, see it all the time on GTAIV multiplayer, sneaky newbs!

[Soldierone]

The thing I hate about this is that glitch near A in the first checkpoint makes people look like they are cheating. You simply crouch or walk over it and you fall into it and if you are scouting a person it would be stupid to not shoot them....

However people keep jumping into it on purpose and making it seem like pure cheating.

[NarooN]

LMAO @ that picture. Reminds me of TF2 engy nope.avi

[Big_Dom]

I wonder how that wanker that was using the aim bot last night and getting 90+ kills in a round is going to feel now once he gets slapped with a ban. He wont feels so shit hot now, will he. The little tosser!

[jmac53]

I dont understand why they would ban someone for doing what you want them to do in a beta. Which is to find/exploit bugs and glitches in the beta. Now if it was the retail game ban those a-holes!

[CrimsonEngage]

Invite people to take part in your Beta knowing it's going to have bugs?

<insert dumb image here of DICE>

Ban them for glitching under the map and finding ways to exploit the game to help give them an unfair advantage.

Seems legit.

[JAMurida]

Not sure if you guys have seen this, but it made me bust out laughing in class today:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[0neShot]

A beta indicates the quality of a software release. A beta is not a build with the developer's intention and knowledge of glitches and bugs. It is actually a preliminary release of the latest or final software build.

DICE reasoning that it's a month old doesn't make sense. It goes like, okay let's announce to the whole world we are deploying a beta that we know is a month old and full of bugs to solicit feedback and get first hand opinion of the game, and as a way to test our backend stuff. They want to get you opinion and testing the production infrastructure but using an outdated and glitchy build? Really dodgy.

[Ingram]

yeah..."cheaters", it's not that the game is a clusterf*uck.

They "stretched" every platform strenghts big time...

[Yodagamer]

Long neck mode ftw!!!!!!!!

[Kos-Mos]

That picture symbolizes my thoughts about people playing shooters and the american military.

[Rifkens]

To me, that sounds like when these cheaters buy the game theyre going to get insta-banned, which I think is not fair.

[KendrickGLS]

Drop the hammer on them! Righteous!

[generalthadeape]

I can see why EA Dice may be willing to put up with all of these "shenanigans" during the beta-- they need to see what & where the exploits are so that they can put a stop to them.

If they fail to do this, then Battlefield 3 will be just as f ucked up as Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops & probably the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 3.

EA Dice needs to track down all of the "glitchers" / "hackers" / "exploiters" to ban them, block their IP Addreses, and brick their systems.

If that doesn't work, then they need to go to their houses, pull them out by their hair kicking and screaming & curb stomp their ugly a ssed skulls in. I say, "Take lots of pictures & post everything on YouTube".

That's what Bungie did with Halo: Reach & I don't recall a whole lot of "foolishness" going on when playing that game online.

Of course, no game is completely "safe" from all of these things-- I'd just like to see more companies get tougher on those jackasses, that's all...

[GROTSTOMPA]

I'm aware of the amount of cheating going on, but the screen shot is a bug I thought? or a glitch... quite different if so... it's pretty hilarious seeing it on the battlefield... soldier stretched out to twice his size while he's coming over a rock prone... I love it, easy target haha.

[user9841288]

that picture looks like the character models from Brink ;)