A popular Call of Duty player has left his Warzone game because he claims it is “saturated with hackers.”
Vikkstar – who has more than seven million subscribers on YouTube – said the game was in “worst shape ever.”
Warzone was released last March and has been played by more than 50 million people worldwide.
Activision, the publisher, previously said it has zero tolerance for cheaters.
UK-based Vikkstar – whose real name is Vikram Singh Barn – explained in a video on YouTube why he left.
“The game is in the worst shape it has ever been. Activision really doesn’t state how many hackers are in the game,” he said.
“This has to be fixed or it will really kill the game.”
‘Absolute joke’
The video also shows the gameplay where Vikkstar claimed to run into a hacker live streaming their actions on Facebook, while also playing the game.
“What an absolute joke,” he said.
“We just happened to catch these guys in it, but often you don’t even know when people are doing what we just saw.”
Hackers can be found in almost every lobby of the game, he added.
This comes just over a week after another popular Call of Duty streamer, NickMercs, announced he was leaving the game.
Unfortunately, authentic Warzone tournaments without an anti-cheat are simply no longer possible. We learned a lot from those gloves and I told you all … There is too much cheese and way too many rats. Bob & weave baby.
– FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) January 22, 2021
In a stream on Twitch, he said, “There are all kinds of hacks … there is no pride in this thing [playing tournaments] Lake.
‘Where’s the dignity? Where’s the honor system? ‘
Last April, Activision published a post on its blog, saying, “Warzone has zero tolerance for cheaters.
“We take all forms of cheating very seriously, maintaining a level and fair playing field for all is one of our top priorities,” he added.
“This is an area that we have been working on intensively, but it is not always something that we discuss in public.”
The company had issued more than 70,000 permanent account bans since the game’s release, the blog said.
“We recognize that there is not one solution to combat cheaters, it is constant enforcement every day, 24/7. Rest assured, we do everything we can to give everyone a fun and honest experience. “
The BBC has contacted Activision to respond to the latest complaints.
Popular hacks
An example of how players can cheat is by using a so-called “aimbot”. This allows accurate shooting of competitors without having to manually aim.
Another popular cheat is a “wall hack”, which allows the user to see the location of other players in the game and attack them through opaque objects such as walls.
Other hacks allow users to hide and win by default, or heal themselves an infinite number of times.
“Typically these pieces of software are difficult to write, but easy to set up,” said Sam Connolly, a computer expert at the University of Central Lancashire.
“Cheats are often downloaded by hackers and installed relatively easily on their own computers.
“Call of Duty has always had a history of hackers … unfortunately it’s a problem that’s not unique to one type of game, but it seems to be widespread among many first-person shooters.”
Players have called on Activision to implement anti-cheat technologies to address the problem.
Other games, including Fortnite and Fall Guys, have developed software to address attempts to unfairly win their own battle royale titles for the last player.
“One problem with these types of anti-cheat software programs is that real players are mistakenly banned on a larger scale, and the banning process is usually quite tough,” said Louise Shorthouse, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis.
“Hacking has been suggested during official Warzone tournaments, which is extremely damaging to the competitive integrity of the Call of Duty brand.”
Activision recently announced plans to bring Warzone to its professional esports Call of Duty League.
“Without addressing the cheating problem, its success and reputation as an e-sport will undoubtedly suffer,” added Ms. Shorthouse.