DICE intensifies Battlefield 3 cheating crackdown

By Fred Dutton Published 12 January, 2012

Developer asks gamers to rat out foul play.

Battlefield 3 developer DICE is to intensify its crackdown on cheats in its FPS sequel.

A new post on the game's official blog stated that the studio has just banned several hundred cheaters and is looking to weed out more.

To that end, it wants you to report anyone you suspect of foul play.

"If you believe you have been the victim of outright cheating, the best way to report your concerns is to go to Battlelog, enter the profile page of the person you suspect and click the triangle in the top right corner of his name," read the post.

"This will open up a window where you can describe to us at DICE what happened. Please enter as much detail as possible, describing what specifically makes you believe this player has used unfair methods, and preferably include a link to the Battle Report for the match in question.

"These reports are then received by our analysts here at DICE who will do a deeper analysis of the situation and take appropriate action, including stats wiping and/or banning players who are confirmed as cheating."

DICE added that it is fully committed to ensuring a level playing field in its games.

"At DICE, we will never tolerate cheaters," explained the blog post.

"We have always taken cheating seriously. Starting today, we will further intensify our efforts to hunt down and rid Battlefield 3 of cheaters.

"Stats wiping and banning this disruptive minority is the only way they will understand that they are ruining the game for others. We do this for the millions of dedicated players out there who deserve a fair game, every game."

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 4 months ago

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

  • FanBoysSuck #1 4 months ago

    Good to hear although I've yet to come across any full on cheaters yet on the 360 version.

    People using gliches on the other hand, is a different story.

    /watches killcam of guy shooting through cover

    EDIT just to clarify, I mean stuff like people being prone behind concrete walls so the gun clips through the scenery.
    Edited by FanBoysSuck at 12/01/12 @ 16:49

  • DrStrangelove #2 4 months ago

    How about griefers?

  • Timotei #3 4 months ago

    I shot a guy through the wall of a tin shack, is that supposed to be realistic ballistics or a glitch?

  • liamaland #4 4 months ago

    I think they should remove the MAV elevator glitch as for me that is cheating because you can access indestructable rooftops and hold an advantage over other players

  • arcam #5 4 months ago

    Cool, I didn't actually know how to report someone before - I will try and remember to do it next time. Best plan though is still to stick to servers where there are active admin who will kick people from the game when it happens.

  • TheGuvernor #6 4 months ago

    Could you just get rid of snipers completely. Thx.

    And all those show offs in their swanky jets, they annoy me too, with their 'look at me & my low level barrel roll while you get shot in the face 'cos your crap' attitude.

    Basically anyone who's better than me, which will make it single player I guess.

  • arcam #7 4 months ago

    @liamaland I agree, it's a cheat really, but I must admit I would miss stuff like this:

    Edited by arcam at 12/01/12 @ 16:55

  • duckmouth #8 4 months ago

    I wish Epic would do this - I'm seeing so many lagswitchers on Gears recently. Definitely a few turbo Hammerburst turds out there too. Can they really prove these things though?

  • anthonypappa #9 4 months ago

    don't agree people should be banned. it is their glitch. it is natural to fuck around with things and exploit them in anyway you can. that's what made man evolve.

    so it should evolve the build and make it stronger and more robust. a ban solves nothing.

  • arcam #10 4 months ago

    @anthonypappa I doubt they're talking about people glitching. They're probably talking about people using aimbots, which is straight up cheating and definitely worthy of a ban. People like that can empty a server in fifteen minutes.

  • Po1ymorph #11 4 months ago

    @anthonypappa They don't ban people for exploiting glitche's, only for using hacks. For boosting and other such exploits they will wipe your stats.

    I wonder how I go about reporting DICE for cheating me out of pure Conquest mode. Stick Conquest Assault in with another mode and leave Conquest alone.

  • kadooosh #12 4 months ago

    What about starting with the people at the top.of.the leader boards who have an average 7625spm...

  • MattRobson #13 4 months ago

    how does one cheat at battlefield? genuine question as im not sure I would be able to spot it....

  • Sodding_Gamer #14 4 months ago

    @liamaland

    The Mav glitch won't stop it though. You can still jump out a helicopter and land on the building. And to get them off the building, you either do the same, or you get your entire squad to spam them with mortars! I personally think they should keep that glitch in as it creates a fun challenge to be honest!

  • Clive_Dunn #15 4 months ago

    How about getting punk buster to actually catch the cheaters rather than relying on our paranoia ?

  • Stratix #16 4 months ago

    @Po1ymorph You might want to untick Back to Karkand maps then. Easy enough!

  • Syrette #17 4 months ago

    @kadooosh They might be boosting/using an exploit as opposed to using an aimbot or whatever on a PC. So not cheating as such, just making use of what's in the game and not using any external program.

    I may be wrong.

  • azic #18 4 months ago

    Its shit like this that should be insta  banned
    cheat

  • ROCK-NYC #19 4 months ago

    @azic Playing like that can't be fun at all.

  • chessboxer #20 4 months ago

    @gotyourmoney

    I'm sure that CAL (when it existed), CPL, WCG, ESWC, MLG and the other large professional and amateur eSports leagues/tournaments hold random drug tests.

    People have been known to use drugs such as Dramamine to help them get into a (not too) relaxed state. I'm sure there are many who believe that they play better when baked.

    I'm pretty sure several years ago there was a company that created and sold an performance enhancement drug for gamers. It was supposed to improve reactions and heighten perception by accelerating neural response (and then came Limitless in 2011).

  • Agente_Silva #21 4 months ago

    @anthonypappa

    Here´s a man who was born from the ass...

  • Agente_Silva #22 4 months ago

    Finally some attention at this BIG issue... Cheaters and glitchers do worst than gameplay bugs! One of my latest posts on BF3 was exactly towards PREVENTING cheaters to join servers. If cheater banning relys only on player reporting we´re all f***ed up.

    I remember back in Medal Of Honor Allied Assault, with DMW3, game folder was scanned for "strange" files prior to server joining... Can´t this be used in BF3 aswell?

  • Agente_Silva #23 4 months ago

    @MattRobson

    maybe you´ve been lucky then... I´ve been knifed by someone who was like miles away from the spot I was standing. This was on Operation Firestorm, I was at the Office flag inside a bulding and the cheater was on openground next to his uncap.

    He was stabbing most players just be waving his knife until he was banned!

    Scores like 200-0 are also a good evidence :S
    Edited by Agente_Silva at 13/01/12 @ 10:36

  • sir_tripod #24 4 months ago

    Rage-ban-request is the new Rage-quit.

  • LEONOFDEATH #25 4 months ago

    I like the challenge of trying to kill a sniper on an inaccessible rooftop. :}

  • Matfink #26 4 months ago

    Have ratted on 3 definite hackers already. They're still playing despite obvious proof... :(