Since the release of Battlefield™ 1, we’ve seen a lot of questions about our anti-cheat systems and about FairFight – the layer of security we use to combat cheaters. We’d like to address some of the concerns expressed by the community and detail how we’re working tirelessly to create a safe, secure environment for the players.
Please note: in this article, we are intentionally leaving out some of the more intricate details of our anti-cheat efforts to avoid revealing anything which cheaters and cheat program developers may take advantage of.
State of Play: Removing Cheaters
Over the past six months, we’ve steadily ramped up our anti-cheat efforts, working closely with the FairFight team to detect and remove more cheaters than ever before. In October alone, we sanctioned over 8,500 accounts. Since then, instances of cheating have declined. While we have made significant gains, we still can do more.
Improvements to FairFight In-game Messaging
Battlefield 1 veterans may remember the global messaging that was sent every time FairFight had acted against a player. As we ramped up our efforts against cheaters, these messages became a distraction from other in-game discussions, and they were disabled a few months ago based on your feedback. However, our communication about this created some questions. Going forward, our communication will be more clear, transparent, and proactive.
Soon, you’ll see a new form of FairFight messaging. This will condense the combined bans from the last 24 hours into a single in-game post, sent every few hours.
How and When a Player Gets Sanctioned
We saw a rise in the number of social media posts claiming FairFight had banned players incorrectly after the October ban wave mentioned above. However, we are confident that our detection methods produce accurate results. Cheat developers may be attempting to manipulate players’ minds about anti-cheat tools, and to leverage detection information from game developers.
A common misconception regarding FairFight is that higher skilled players are more likely to get sanctioned due to their improved match stats. This is not correct; it is not possible to be banned simply for being skilled.
An important note: unfortunately, we cannot respond to your account questions on social media or the forums. If you believe that your account has been sanctioned by mistake, the best thing you can do is to contact our disputes team: https://help.ea.com/help/account/information-about-banned-or-suspended-accounts.
Protect Your Account – and Help Everyone Out
Be aware that you are responsible for the activity that takes place on your EA Account. Spending a few minutes to ensure your account is secured can avoid possible heartbreak! Learn how to protect your account with a strong password and login verification here: https://help.ea.com/help/account/how-to-maintain-account-security.
Finally, if you want to report a cheater you can do so using this handy guide as a reference: https://forums.battlefield.com/discussion/91390/how-to-report-cheating-in-battlefield-1.
We are always developing new ways to detect players who prefer to circumvent the fair rules of the game, and we’re confident we will prevail. The Anti-Cheat teams here at DICE and EA are working hard every day to even out the playing field by removing cheaters from our games. We will not stop until the community is happy with the results.
As always, continue to give feedback via our social channels and the Battlefield forums. While we might not be able to directly respond, you can rest assured that these messages are being read and relayed to the team every day.
Sean Merson, Anti-Cheat Producer
The DICE Anti-Cheat Team