During these uncertain COVID-19 times where more and more people are staying and working from home, that also means that more people are playing video games. However, the flip side is that cheating might also be on the rise. This was indeed the case with Destiny 2, where Bungie has noted in their latest blog post that the cheating rate has gone up since January.
This past weekend, the latest competitive PvP Trials event went live as well, and while Bungie states that they were prepared and ready to deal with the uptick in cheating, they still weren’t happy with the overall results. With all this in mind, it’s become clear that the company is ready to clamp down hard on Destiny 2 cheaters, and that even includes the people who might’ve been on the same Fireteam as said cheaters, regardless of whether they actually cheated or not.
Concerning cheating, Engineering Director David Aldridge stated:
“When your pinnacle achievements are denied by encountering a cheater on a high Trials ticket, or devalued by seeing someone else with ill-gotten goods, that’s frustrating. Those frustrations are happening too often right now, and the vengeance of the Banhammer is often too far behind.”
This Week at Bungie
To combat this, Bungie is assigning more staff and manpower to monitor user data to identify cheaters. Most crucially, if you benefit from being in the same Fireteam as a cheater, you’re liable to banned from the game as well.
“We want you to find new friends out there, but be sure they have your trust before you go. If you LFG your way into a fireteam with a cheater, get out and report them. If you ride them to a flawless, the Banhammer will come for you as well.”
Finally, Aldridge also put forth the possibility of implementing a playtime requirement for all players wishing to take part in Trials. By requiring players to invest, say, 100 hours of playtime in Destiny 2 before being eligible for the event, it would be much harder for cheaters to create dummy accounts to head straight back into the game. This is still under consideration, but Bungie’s certainly looking for player feedback on this particular point.
You can check out the full details of Bungie’s measures against cheating in Destiny 2 here.
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