Game developer Bungie reiterates its call for clean gaming as it bans players from its space-age shooter "Destiny." In its most recent Weekly Update posted on July 30, the company has acknowledged the need to crack down on cheating players.
Its post reads: "We know you want justice. We've seen the chatter. We've read the reports. Yesterday and today, our Security Response Team has restricted access to the Crucible by the worst offenders among us all."
Although no numbers were mentioned, it is speculated that the move is a sweeping one, affecting perhaps hundreds of cheating players worldwide. The information about offending players were collated based on player reports and Bungie's own system for tracking.
One of the most serious offenses that Bungie detailed that would boot a player from the game is "manipulating network traffic." Although there are many ways to do this, the most frequent is downloading torrents while playing the game. Sharing the bandwidth between downloads and "Destiny" will weaken the connection, and players can take advantage of the lag. Meanwhile, there is also a deliberate way of cheating – using a lag switch that delays data flow directly on the router. The switch itself freezes enemies, while the player's Guardian itself can still move and take advantage of the situation.
Bungie also warns that cheating is not tolerated and that the system administrators will continue to watch and ban offenders.
The post concludes, "Shaming your offenders in a video might feel good, but it doesn't factor into our process for passing down a guilty verdict – and it might get you in trouble with the moderators of your favorite Guardian clubhouse! Issue a report. We're watching and monitoring."
"Destiny" is a futuristic, massive online multiplayer title that pits Guardians against AI in its quests and missions, and also against other players in its PvP mode. The title is currently preparing to receive its third expansion, "The Taken King," to be released next month.
