[2020] Cheater & hacker update 11/18

Dk_rek

CG_LucifersDaddy

Keithkia

Are these bans permanent?

For the most part yes.

In the past we've tried to rehabilitate these types of abuses with intricate and severe account adjustments... but with so many this go round we're just going to a perma-ban.

We may entertain reevaluations in a few months, but I can not emphasize enough how low of a priority it is to set aside time to accommodate cheaters. They cheated, they're gone.

LD

Just so you know on Reddit they are posting something like 2 week bans...or even in the past..

That's crazy they can buy themselves to first by cheating get 2 weeks off then get to go right back to first place.....

That would almost BE AN INCENTIVE to go out and try to cheat....that would be INSANE..

It HAS to be permanant or everyone in their brother is going to go out and try to do this..

I know better than to let reddit rile me up but those guys have a point about temp or suspensions that woudl allow them to come back would just encourage more people to cheat.

Yeah I read those reports. It gives me pause, knowing the truth and such.

We don't share specific account information, but I can tell you that at no point has an account that was found guilty of crystal fraud been released back into the game without a serious, and I mean serious adjustment.

This can and often would include the removal of event exclusive characters. Which in the case of our game means they will never be able to obtain them (e.g. BB8, Yoda, CLS...) Oh and all currencies, items, a bunch of gear and a smattering of high value heroes.

But really, if they got back into the game in a couple of weeks, the account was a shell of its former self.

Also this was likely during a time when we were still grasping at the magnitude and reach of such violations, thus release said accounts for further monitoring helped to yield much needed information.

LD

Commander_Wolffe

CG_LucifersDaddy;d-187540

Greetings Heroes,

We take cheating at Galaxy of Heroes very seriously and are tirelessly working to identify and remove cheaters from the game. You may have noticed or have heard that one of our investigations resulted in a mass banning. Well sit tight, cause this purge is just beginning (insert sinister laugh here.)



LD

Does this ban also include the client exploiters (in regards to battles/arena)?

thanks,

These client exploiters in the arena / TW / RAIDS... that is an ongoing and daily hunt.

This announcement is specifically about major action being taken on accounts that we've been investigating for months and months.

There's a couple of us here, so rest assured that the battle cheaters are still our number one priority, even when we do a massive purge like the one happening this week.


LD

Boov

I'm honestly a bit curious why everyone seems to be so happy about this. Do you guys really dislike other players buying an account or getting crystals cheaper so much? I mean, i get that you don't want other guys to get things cheaper or still face an account of a player who stopped playing because they're your competition in arena, but it's not like you can notice a difference while playing between a legit whale and a crystalfraud/bought whale account. What leaderboard you're placed on when you started playing most likely plays a far bigger roll in your ingame performance than these accounts that are getting banned ever did.
Maybe i'm completely wrong about this, but the way i see it is that ea/cg are mostly protecting themselves against theft instead of banning cheaters who're actively ruining the game by hacking.
Don't get me wrong, i do think "thiefs" should be punished, but it's not like i'm cheering when the local supermarket busts a thief or anything like that (eventhough pricess may go down if theft goes down, wich would be in my interrest).

My take on this is... why not do both?

Frankly this fraud stuff took over a year to investigate to the point of this weeks actions because we spend the vast majority of our time on arena/ raid / TW / battle cheaters. As gamers, we 100% agree that those cheats are the most impacting to a good game experience.

As the fraud investigations slowly unfolded in front of us we could not ignore. And this week we found ourselves in a position to take the first of what will be several waves of action.

The original post is intended to answer the question that others began posting Monday: Why are so many accounts being banned all of a sudden?

And a little fun/sad fact (coming from someone who has tracked cheaters, hackers, and fraudsters for years): rarely does one just violate the covenant of trust once, or in only one realm of play. We consistently see that a player willing to cheat a raid will soon escalate to cheating TW. Or a player willing to cheat to get crystals, will soon cheat to take first place in the arena.

I hope our actions in our little slice of the studio have a positive impact on your gaming experience.

LD

Shadroth

@CG_LucifersDaddy thanks not only for the actions taken but for taking the time to randomly converse with the player base in this thread. Cheers mate 👍

You kidding? Crumb would hunt me down if I dropped this post and went back to my cave without making sure all is understood.

But really it is my pleasure... I fracking love games and the communities they build. No way am I gonna not take this chance to converse.

LD