Ubisoft on Efficient Ways to Battle Cheaters and Toxic Players

Source: Ubisoft.

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Fighting cheaters in video games is often a Sisyphean task. Nevertheless, there are times when developers manage to discourage quite a few cheaters from "playing" games. Ubisoft has allegedly given hell to both users and sellers of cheats for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege.

Rainbow Six has an effective (?) computer mouse trap

The French publisher boasted of its success in a post on the game's official website. Most attention was paid to MouseTrap - a system for detecting players using a computer mouse on consoles with the help of third-party apps (so-called spoofers). The tool has been tested for a long time, but it is only since April 11 that the developers have been actively using it in the fight against cheaters.

After three months, the "mousetrap" has reduced the number of "spoofers" on consoles by 78% (73% in ranked matches). Ubisoft expected it to be only 30-50%. Promptly, the company is very pleased with the result.

Daily mouse and keyboard usage in Tom Clancy's Rainbo Six: Siege On consoles.Source: Ubisoft

It is worth mentioning that - like intriguing systems by Call of Duty devs - MouseTrap does not block "spoofers," but only punishes them with increasing lag when using mouse and keyboard.

1. This is because Ubisoft decided that it was better to encourage this type of "players" to play honestly, i.e. to give up cheats.
2. Apparently, this has worked, because 43% of players caught using "spoofers" were never punished again by MouseTrap. So it can be concluded that they simply gave up on this type of cheating altogether.

QB and penalties for toxic behavior

This last sentence could be considered a sign of excessive optimism, although it is not entirely without basis. Indeed, Ubisoft has set a trap not only for computer mice. Starting from November, Rainbow Six: Siege also see the operation of the mysterious QB system, which itself helped ban more than 10,000 cheaters and allegedly discouraged "a dozen" of cheat sellers from further activity.

In addition, the developer has also targeted toxic in-game behavior. Ubisoft claims success here as well.

1. Since March, "verbal abuse" has been punishable - after two warnings - by a voice chat block for 30 matches, complementing the ban on writing in-game messages introduced in October.
2. In addition, the so-called "reverse friendly fire" has been in effect in the game since August 2022. If we injure allies too often, shooting at them after the initial warning will deal damage not to them, but to our character.
3. The effect: half of the "toxic" players abandoned such behavior in both chats after just the first warning.

Ubisoft sifts out the worse kind of cheaters

However, for Ubisoft, this is just the beginning of the fight against cheaters and a constant arms race with cheat makers. For the next, eighth year of development of R6: Siege The French are preparing more changes, including in the reputation system and the addition of a mechanic to "praise" players to encourage positive behavior.

This all sounds great, but without concrete numbers it is impossible to confirm the actual measure of these "successes." As recently as a week ago, one could find quite a few complaints about "mouse" fans on consoles.

Nevertheless, gamers comment also that while cheating is still possible, thanks to Ubisoft's actions, it requires much more knowledge (and often expense) than before. In other words, MouseTrap sifts out at least the least ambitious cheaters, which can be considered an improvement. Though not necessarily a significant one.