Player Vikkstar leaves Call of Duty: Warzone to cheat

A popular Call of Duty player has quit his Warzone game to claim it is “hacker saturated.”

Vikkstar – who has more than seven million subscribers on YouTube – said the game was in “the worst shape it has ever been”.

Warzone was released last March and has been played by over 50 million people around the world.

Activision, the publisher, previously said it had zero tolerance for cheaters.

UK-based Vikkstar – real name Vikram Singh Barn – explained why he was leaving in a video on YouTube.

“The game is in the worst shape it has ever been, Activision really doesn’t deal with the number of hackers in the game,” he said.

“This needs to be fixed, otherwise it will really be the death of the game.”

‘Absolute joke’

The video also shows gameplay where Vikkstar claimed to have encountered a hacker live streaming his actions on Facebook, while also playing the game.

“What an absolute joke,” he says.

“We just caught these guys in there, but a lot of times you don’t even know when people are doing what we just witnessed.

Hackers could be encountered in almost any lobby in the game, he added.

It comes just over a week after another popular Call of Duty streamer NickMercs announced he was leaving the game.

In a stream on Twitch, he said, “There are all kinds of hacks… there is no pride in this thing. [playing tournaments] more.

The story continues

“Where is the dignity? Where is the honor system?”

Last April, Activision posted a blog post, saying, “Warzone has zero tolerance for cheaters.

“We take all forms of cheating very seriously, maintaining a level playing field for all is one of our highest priorities,” he added.

“It’s an area we’ve worked on a lot, but it’s not always something we discuss publicly.”

The company has issued more than 70,000 permanent account bans since the game’s release, the blog said.

“We recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to tackling cheaters, it’s a constant application every day, 24/7. Rest assured, we’re committed to ensuring a fun and fair experience for everyone.

The BBC has contacted Activision for a response to the latest complaints.

Popular hacks

An example of how players can cheat is by using a so called “aimbot”. This allows for accurate shooting of competitors without having to manually aim.

Another popular trick is a “wall hack”, which allows the user to see the location of other players in the game and attack them through opaque objects like walls.

Other hacks allow users to hide and win by default, or heal themselves an infinite number of times.

“Usually, this software is difficult to write but easy to set up,” said Sam Connolly, computer expert at the University of Central Lancashire.

“Cheats are often downloaded by hackers and installed on their own computers with relative ease.

“Call of Duty has always had a history of hackers … unfortunately this is a problem that is not unique to any game type, but seems to be prevalent among many first-person shooters.”

Gamers turned to Activision to implement anti-cheat technologies to resolve the issue.

Other games, including Fortnite and Fall Guys, have developed software to combat attempts to unfairly win their own Last Player of the Battle Royale titles.

“One problem with this type of anti-cheat software is that real players will be mistakenly banned on a larger scale, and the removal process is usually quite expensive,” said Louise Shorthouse, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis.

“There have been hacking suggestions during official Warzone tournaments, which is extremely damaging to the competitive integrity of the Call of Duty brand.”

Activision recently announced its intention to integrate Warzone into its professional esports Call of Duty League.

“Without addressing the issue of cheating, its success and reputation as an esport will undoubtedly suffer,” Ms. Shorthouse added.

Originally published February 1, 2021 at 7:19 pm