sweep

The reality is that if you picked any point in the last decade you'll find threads just like this one, with people either complaining about the current staff or, just as often, complaining that the current staff aren't producing enough content. We keep a tally. Even back in the Golden Age of Giant Bomb with all the original staff, Patrick, Austin, Abby, and everyone else you grew up listening to, we had the same complaints. You learn, over time, that some people are never happy and there's always going to be someone who feels the need to complain at any given moment, regardless of what changes.

So you're welcome to vent. But honestly, if you haven't yet figured out that the dynamic of the site is fluid and constantly evolving then I don't know what to say to you, my dude.

That's kind of my point - they definitely do not do this and do not take this into account.

I've seen reports of people who have been banned while only playing the campaign, only playing multiplayer, or only playing warzone. Because of the "always online" nature of the game, and the fact that Ricochet (their anti-cheat) is constantly monitoring your PC, if it deems something shady to be happening in the background it will automatically issue a ban regardless of which aspect of the game you seem to be playing, from what I can tell.

Oh I've also seen a lot of reports of console players receiving these same bans too. I'm not sure how you could conceivably be accused of "Unauthorised software and manipulation of game data" on a PS5, which I guess is another indication that these bans aren't justified.

Unfortunately, yes.

This is a problem affecting thousands of people. It's widespread enough it's being picked up by non-gaming media, and there's a plague of reports in both the steam reviews and @ warzone twitter support. I've seen people say they've been banned after the game crashed, for having router issues, for using Razer or Logitech software to manage their peripherals - being accused of "Unauthorised software and manipulation of game data" just seems like an umbrella term for any arbitrary problem the anti-cheat has with your machine. And once you're banned you're locked out of the entire game, regardless of how much money you've spent, and are given extremely limited ability to appeal.

Firstly, and this feels important to mention; it's easy to assume that the people complaining about being banned in Warzone 2 are actual cheaters and deserved it. All I can say is that I hope you're never falsely banned and have to deal with that yourself, because it sucks. I think there's a pretty strong precedent for these ban waves hitting innocent players from the previous warzone, where many players quietly had their bans overturned after several months even though Activision never admitted to doing anything wrong. While there are obviously some legitimate cheaters, Activision does not have a history of nailing these bans every time and definitely do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. Beyond that there should be a more thorough review/appeal process, especially when people are spending money on the campaign or on battle passes.

Secondly, it's not my account that's been banned, but one of my regular squadmates. His inability to join us means our quad is now a trio. For a game that's so heavily focused on teamwork, having a friend blocked from joining kills my own enthusiasm to play the game, because Warzone for me has always been primarily a social experience. I don't want to invest a bunch of time in a game which my friends aren't able to play, and I'm now nervous of spending any money on the game in case my own account is hit with an arbitrary ban.

He appealed the ban and it was denied so quickly that there's obviously nobody checking the appeals and it's just an automated system. He tried to post about it on the warzone subreddit and the post was automatically deleted by a blanket rule which removes any thread that includes the word "ban". He's an older dude, several kids, just plays casually in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed. Quite a timid player, will often end a game with no kills but we like having him in the squad because he's just a nice person to have around. Now he's been blocked from even playing the campaign because of his false ban so he's effectively lost $110. Even if his ban is eventually overturned he could be locked out of the game for months, during the launch window when the game is most popular.

Unless this is fixed soon I'll probably stop playing myself. I don't want to give my time or money to a game or company which obviously has no respect for either. Beyond that, this kind of business practice is completely unacceptable and I'm pretty fucking upset about it.

In summary: licensed games are very bad, except when they're extremely good.

Open World games used to blow my mind, the freedom and potential was so exciting to me. But the Ubisoft formula that most games eventually fell into quickly became tedious, and I found that "Open world" often meant the games weren't as tight, both technically and narratively, as their linear counterparts. Open World fatigue is real and I have it.

I can relate to this, actually. I think about 10 years ago there was a huge boom of indie games and game jams where people were pumping out platformers and adventure games without ever having any real art direction in mind, and the default was often pixel-art. I got bored of it very quickly.

To the people asking how twitter can get any worse; for a lot of people around the world it's one of their primary communication tools. And now it's controlled by a manbaby who blocks anyone who criticizes him and posts 2B fan art.

And yes, anyone who complains about "freedom of speech" or being censored doesn't understand what that actually means.

Personally, the refreshing appeal of Elden Ring is in it's obscurity, lack of exposition, lack of hand-holding, and general refusal to compromise. I'm pretty fed up of being patronized by game developers who feel like they need to hold my hand for the first 15 hours of a videogame before they let me loose on the good shit.

Elden Ring is the antithesis of every MMO which makes you grind for 80 hours before you can access the "real" content at the end. Here's a sword, go hit stuff. Figure it out yourself.

Welcome to the Giant Bomb forums!

$18 million dollars that's million bucks.

Source

The skinny:

EEOC spokeswoman Nicole St Germain said the agency was pleased that Fischer said she would approve the settlement. She said that in addition to the payout, the deal requires Activision to take steps to prevent and address discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

In a 2021 complaint, the EEOC had accused Activision of failing to take corrective and preventive measures on sexual harassment complaints, discriminating against women in pay and promotions, and discriminating against pregnant workers. Activision denied violating anti-bias laws, but has said it will make changes to how it addresses workplace complaints.

Worth noting this is only one of several ongoing lawsuits revolving around sexual harassment cases at Activision Blizzard.

It's unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to get us here, but I imagine/hope developers will pay much more attention to how this shit is handled moving forward, out of financial paranoia if nothing else.