There are some things that I’ve simply accepted that I’ll never fully understand; the Kardashians with their vain yet tenuous grasp on reality amassing millions of followers, geriatrics not comprehending that the planet is changing for the worse due to our consumption rate, and users logging into a multiplayer video game with the purpose of cheating. While I could talk at length about the oddities and mental gymnastics of the first two, I’m only supposed to be focusing on video games here, so we’ll talk about that final point.
It strikes me as simply bizarre that users readily log into video games where competition is the primary draw, and use various scripts and cheats to eliminate the opposing team. It makes the singular point of the title moot in favor of users somehow pretending that their ability is good enough to win games when the reality is that they’ve purchased and downloaded applications that ruin the experience for everyone. These users climb the ranks and leaderboards slowly, ruining games for everyone along the way, until they end up playing with people that are actually that good; ruining their games as well.
Then these users continue to show their complete lack of integrity and intestinal fortitude by actually having the gall to complain when they’re finally banned. It’s a level of mental gymnastics that one would need to stretch before attempting, lest they pull a muscle.
A ban wave hit Blizzard’s Overwatch yesterday, and roughly 25,000 accounts were permanently banned from the title. Interestingly, over 20% of the bans were from accounts within the top 500; a rare group that is supposed to be filled with the best players of Overwatch has instead been infested with script-kiddies.
Great to see Blizzard finally take action here, but it’s strange it took so long when the pro scene has been yelling and screaming so long about this issue. More than 20pct of the top 500 were cheaters? Imagine finding out 20pct of Harvard students cheated their way there. https://t.co/bHAxsbDETb
— Gen.G Arnold (@arnoldwh) April 17, 2020
The ban wave was international, with accounts from all over the world being permanently removed.
Many users took to Blizzard’s forums with claims that they weren’t cheating and were inappropriately flagged; one user inflamed Jeff Kaplan to the point that he chimed in on one such egregious claim, informing the community that the user in question has been detected and reviewed to be using multiple cheats, resulting in his permanent ban.
Even with the help of years of experience, I’m having a hard time putting the general distaste into appropriate words.
Many of the users are planning on switching over to Riot’s Valorant as the ban is allegedly marked by hardware, meaning that hardware can no longer log into Blizzard services; a standard nail in the coffin for many. While many are pulling out the world’s smallest violin to play an appropriate ballad in remembrance of those that couldn’t cut it, and now never will, Riot needs to be ready for what appears to be a gigantic influx of cheaters looking for a new game to crash.
