"Call of Duty: Warzone," Activision's free-to-play battle royale offering, which released earlier this month, has already being dubbed a hit, with 30 million players signing up for the action within the first 10 days.
However, the game has been overrun with cheaters who are using unfair means to gain an advantage in the game and active players are becoming increasingly frustrated, especially when they're self-isolating at home due to a global pandemic.
Infested with cheaters
Several users have taken to social media to draw Activision and Infinity Ward's attention to the widespread cheating that takes place in the game, mainly with players using aimbots, which allows gamers shoot impossible shots, and wall hacks that can let players shoot through walls. The users complained that these unfair tactics are not only ruining the experience for them but making the game downright unplayable.
"@Activision @InfinityWard When are you going to address the hackers in warzone?" asked one user on Twitter. "Every game now has some sort of player cheating. Shooting across the map or in the sky but still killing people. Embarrassing that it still goes on."
"I love Warzone, been playing it for the past week and will continue to play. But I am not spending any money on in game purchases until the rampant hacking and cheating has been taken care of. I run into aimbotters every 1 in 3 games," commented a gamer, while another wrote, "The cheating in warzone is getting insane and making it unplayable."
Popular Warzone streamers like Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, and Timothy "TimTheTatman" John Betar, among others have also expressed their anger on Twitter. Check out some of the posts on Twitter.
Anti-cheating strategy a failure?
On March 31, Activision announced on its blog that it had a "zero tolerance" policy against cheaters and has permanently banned as many as 50,000 cheaters since the game's launch. The company also revealed its plans in place to identify cheaters by appointing security teams who will work around the clock to watch game data and find potential cheaters, and improve the game's reporting system for potential culprits.
Despite the cheating ban and the new anti-cheating regulations, gamers are still facing problems. "Infinity Ward's gotta sort the anti-cheat for Warzone, game has so much potential for tournament and viewers but being destroyed by hackers," a user wrote on Thursday.
Meanwhile, another user pointed out that he watched a video of a guy who has only played 113 Warzone games but his average kills are a whopping 42 kills per game. The user added that the player has not yet been banned and that there are reports claiming that Activision and Infinity Ward have only a handful of people in their security team that monitors game footage to identify cheaters.
