All games struggle with cheaters. And while single players who cheat can’t affect others, in larger-scale multiplayer titles, they can be a real problem. That’s why Destiny gamers have been crying for Bungie to crack down on the spate of cheating that has arisen in the space shooter. Bungie is going to help, but it needs the community to help in turn.
“We have several team members whose full-time jobs are to ensure the security of your Destiny experience. They tell us that in-game reports are the best way to send us data on malicious activity,” Bungie said in a statement.
In-game reporting is nothing new, though players tend to have mixed feelings toward it. Some see it as a waste of time, since the process of investigating reports is often opaque from the players’ perspective. Others see it as something that’s easily exploited, but for Bungie, it’s the best way to help players have a cheat-free gaming experience.
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Bungie does admit, in its statement about the latest spate of DDoSers and cheaters, that it “closely examines all of the top reported offenders,” which does suggest that someone needs to be reported several times before they’ll stand out to the admins. While this might seem frustrating in that these people are unlikely to receive swift justice for the odd infraction, it is at least good to know that repeat offenders should be caught out.
If we all do our part and report them, that is.
This is better than naming and shaming in public we’re told, as the data that Bungie can look at along with report information is usually enough to confirm if someone was playing by the rules or not. Public shaming always risks the chance of a false positive, since all people can go on in such cases are subjective viewpoints.
For those players who can’t get to a report button in game for whatever reason, there is also an out-of-game report tool you can use. Bungie also assures players that it actively monitors players and has detection measures in place for DDoS attackers. Those players are hit with the ban hammer immediately, rather than waiting for a report to come through. It also claims to have other automated tools in place, but keeps these under wraps so as not to tip off potential infringers.
