Infinity Ward bans Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 cheaters

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 21 November, 2011

"Every ban unique to the level of douchiness of the offense."

Infinity Ward has banned hundreds of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 cheaters.

Over 1600 bans have been issued, targeted at those who "cheat, hack or glitch", Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling said.

These bans relate to the PC version as well as the home console versions. On PC, "mass bans" are happening as Infinity Ward works on updates and hot fixes.

Those who cheat "will not be tolerated", Bowling continued.

He advised players to report cheaters in-game through Modern Warfare 3's report a player option, found in the lobby when selection their name. These reports go directly to Infinity Ward's security team, which issues bans after verification.

"We verify reports with in-game stats, in-game video recordings, and other data to verify you were cheating," Bowling revealed.

The extent of the ban relates to the severity of the cheating. "Every ban unique to the level of douchiness of the offense," Bowling said. "The greater the douche the greater the length. PermaDouche possible."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 6 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • roz123 #1 6 months ago

    Bans for glitching? Sounds harsh

  • PaulieWaulie #2 6 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:23:40 06-01-2012

  • Tuffty #3 6 months ago

    Seems like every game I go to I see at least one player with a hacked clan tag to display XBox buttons. It seemed like a minor thing in COD4/MW2 but still notable of a ban, so has something changed? How come it's so prevalent now?

  • Nephirion #4 6 months ago

    Bring back dedicated servers, It is even worse on PC where you have no way of avoiding those who cheat or are generally abusive over mic. At least with dedicated servers you can get an admin ban for griefers and cheats.

  • Eurolamer #5 6 months ago

    These kind of stories make me sad; that the most significant flaw with an otherwise great game is the tendency of the human beings playing it to be pricks.

  • speedjack #6 6 months ago

    Seems reasonable.

  • kadooosh #7 6 months ago

    <quote>Tuffty wrote:
    Seems like every game I go to I see at least one player with a hacked clan tag to display XBox buttons. It seemed like a minor thing in COD4/MW2 but still notable of a ban, so has something changed? How come it's so prevalent now?</quote>

    I see this all the time, generally by kids, know idea how they do it!

  • homerramone #8 6 months ago

    Think its so prevalent because:
    A. Lots of kids are playing it
    B. Its easy to find out how - just google it
    C. Doing it is no more difficult than changing your clan tag normally is.

  • goondocks74 #9 6 months ago

    It's a start! But do you think IW could ban all the players who are better than me next?:redface:

    Nope! I thought as much!
    Edited by goondocks74 at 23/11/11 @ 23:34

  • Ultrasoundwave #10 6 months ago

    Cant remember which map it is but some cunt was killing people from INSIDE a parked truck - he somehow managed to climb ontop of it and glitch himself inside it, racking up 40+ kills in that game.

    I REALLY hope hes one of the ones who gets banned :mad:

  • jablonski #11 6 months ago

    As if Activision actually react to the in-game reporting system.

    I've reported loads of players with swastika gamerpics, but they are still there weeks later

  • Bravestinsane #12 6 months ago

    @roz123

    Yeh it does sound harsh.

    If its intentional and repetitive in order to gain an advantage then its rightly so.

    But MW games in fact CoD full stop tends to be riddled with Glitchs, so if they released a bug free game this wouldn't be happening

  • youhavenomail #13 6 months ago

    Maybe if the game ran properly, there'd be less desire to cheat. Are they going to punish players who dashboard out of a match where the lag makes things impossible for them next?

  • CFacto #14 6 months ago

    Best way to punish them is to set their k/d stat permanently at 0.1. They'd soon stop cheating when the only thing they have in life is taken away from them.

  • camo_kill #15 6 months ago

    I wish they'd sort out the lag compensation. I'm sick of being the host (through my decent connection) and being dropped by some tool on dial up.

    WHY AM I BEING PENALISED FOR TAKING MY GAMING SERIOUSLY?

  • Jonny5Alive7 #16 6 months ago

    @Ultrasoundwave I know which one you're referring too, the name escapes me too but its the snowy one.

    Its great they're doing something about cheats, because its fallen on deaf ears in the past. They need to actually fix the glitches too though.

    Also not that I'm encouraging it, but the clan tag thing is extremely easy to do, you just use some of the foreign symbols.

    "ÁA= A button
    
ÁB= B button

    ÁC= X button
    
ÁD= Y button
    
ÁE= LB button
    
ÁF= RP button
    
ÁN= Start button
    
ÁO= Back button

    ÁP= LS button
    
ÁQ= RS button

    ÁR= LT button
    
ÁS= RT button
    
ÁT= Up arrow button
    
ÁU= Down arrow button

    ÁV= Left arrow button

    ÁW= Right arrow button"
    Edited by Jonny5Alive7 at 21/11/11 @ 12:17

  • BigDannyH #17 6 months ago

    @camo_kill

    I thought being host was a good thing i.e. host-advantage?

    People who crave a good KD ratio are weird. Especially when they dashboard-out of games to preserve it. Classic example of only cheating themselves.

  • Stratix #18 6 months ago

    Douches get banned? But they wont have any players left!

    Bring on the negs baby!

  • camo_kill #19 6 months ago

    @BigDannyH Not this time round. The host is chosen for their strong signal and then the lag compensation gimps them.

    A good KDR ratio means your succeeding (to a certain level) and for people like me that = a jolly good time!

  • CYPRIOTCleANER #20 6 months ago

    What a bloody shame:rolleyes:

  • holloguts #21 6 months ago

    Worst cheat I've seen (only once) was a player who was under the map on 360 version. Got his kill streak up and then exploded a Nuke... I remember the players name and will leave any game he joins, but if I had known there was a report button on players names to inform IW I would have used that instead of the Microsoft report section.

  • BigDannyH #22 6 months ago

    @camo_kill

    Ahh, I'm going to choose to believe you and blame my awesome BT Infinity internet for my shocking performances instead of my woeful ability.

    Also, I understand that a good KD implies you are good at the game but surely it's meaningless to you if you know you've massaged the numbers.

    Or is it because people are comparing to their mates ratios and it becomes like the old drugs in sport argument of "well, if everyone's doing it ..."

  • brod #23 6 months ago

    Glitching? Yeah, how dare people play the game using the tools that the developer provided and failed to patch.

  • miiiguel #24 6 months ago

    Glitching? Yeah, how dare people play the game using the tools that the developer provided and failed to patch.

    Not that I care, honestly, don't want MW near me, but that's no excuse, it's like saying I should be able to drive my car at 200 Kmh because it can reach 200Kmh. MP in my book should be kinda like any other social relationship, not only do shit because we can but also respect other ppl. Want to be douche, do it with bots.

  • Cardiff1 #25 6 months ago

    Why are people always moaning about cheaters in COD like it's something new. It's been going on for the last few games. Just get Battlefield instead.