Some new reports from upset Call of Duty: Ghosts fans might be a sign that Activision may have been a bit too heavy-handed with their latest round of account bans. MP1ST is reporting that multiple users across gaming communities are complaining about recent multiplayer and console bans on the two PlayStation versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts.
The bans in question appear to be over violating the game's terms of use, in specific, playing the game with mods. Hacked lobbies evidently are, or rather, were, a prevalent problem in Call of Duty: Ghosts' multiplayer, allowing people to cheat their way to the winner's seat by use of aim-bots and other hacks.
On the Call of Duty forum, Reddit, and in MP1ST's comment section, people are claiming that they have been banned for no reason. Whiners will no doubt be made of people who were banned for the right reasons, but the amount of reports from those being banned despite limited playtime, and the reversal of bans, leads us to believe that Activision's method of dealing with these cheaters may have been sloppy.
Call of Duty forum member themidnightsociety created a post stating that his surprise ban was reversed after he sent messages to Activision and Infinity Ward via emails and social networks. Several others on the same thread reported they were unbanned while some stated that they were not.
Activision's comments on the bans have been mixed stating that "bans are put in place after an account has been investigated into. Any code of conduct violations WILL result in a ban. [...] All bans are final and will not be reverse." The same Activision support reps that wrote the previous statement on Reddit then began asking people for their personal account names and platforms to help investigate the issue, suggesting that a problem was identified and Activision's support were given new instructions.
"The security team at IW thoroughly investigates each report. As long as you haven't violated the CoC, you have nothing to worry about," said one Activision support rep on Reddit.
A suggested reason why people are being banned is that they may have entered a game lobby that had hackers or exploits. Simply joining one of these lobbies shouldn't be an offense to the game's terms of use, but an automated method may have been employed by Infinity Ward issuing false bans to unlucky players.
Anyone out there affected by this ban wave? If so, tell us and reach out to Infinity Ward directly.