Is the MW3 server the only game infested with hacked accounts - August 2018

The last week has been terrible for anyone who plays MW3. There are so many hacked accounts it makes the play unbearable. Now when you login to the game you have a 50/50 chance of playing with a unkillable player who can derank you to level 1 or even a
negative rank. What's worst is now that there is no monitoring by Activision and these thugs in the game are threating anyone who complains. I did call Microsoft and they sent me to Activision and here is the online conversation I had with the Activision
helpdesk. My understanding is I should go play something else, which I will, but it sucks that this was my choice of a game I liked.

___________________________________________________________

Secure connection with Support Agent established. Welcome, (redacted) Monday August 27, 2018 3:30pm EST

Francisco M: Activision Support reporting for duty!

How may I help you today?

You: Has Activision canceled monitoring of the Microsoft 360 servers for MW3?

Francisco M: We apologize for all the troubles this situation might have cause you but I'm afraid that due the game's age there is no further actions that can be taken on that game
and the profiles :c

You: I like the game and play everyday under the name (redacted). I don't mind the kids with the hacked accounts. I usually just logout and reconnect as I have over the last 3 years.
This past week everything has changed. There is a hacked account every 2 games and now worst of all they are brazenly using the feature "no logout". I have to shut off the Xbox to even exit the game. That's not the worst of it.

You: The hackers are now threating anyone who complains that they will derank them once they connect the next time. You can look at the threats I have in my email under that player.

You: Even my account has weird status due to logging in with players that are hacked.

You: I spend a lot of money on 5 accounts yearly for the past 10 years or more. I play one game. I was hoping for some valid response here.

You: hello or you there?

Francisco M: We understand that you may love that game so much, but the franchise is already working on another tittles. And we no longer support those profiles. The suggestion we
can do here is to move on a newer tittle.

You: Back to the first question, is the server monitored. Let's understand why a user has an id using the N word. If the server is full of children and its not monitored I assume
you tell me.



Francisco M:CoD MW3 is a M+17 game

Francisco M:No child's without supervision should play this

You:OK that's the answer

Francisco M:The servers are still up, that means someone work on those, and we still have the report system. But as I mentioned we're time to time decreasing the help on this
game to let them go eventually. As I mentioned we understand that you liked this game so much, but here in support there's not much we can do to help. I'm sorry.

Francisco M:Is there anything else I can do for you today?

You:No you cant help me but I am going to escalate this a little higher up. I suggest you shut it down or monitor it. Either way its my money that pays you and those servers.

You:Thanks for your help. I got it now.

:)

 

help choosing

[quote user="ChickinOnaChain"]

It'll only be a matter of time before MW3 and BF3 will be infested with hackers, modders and cheaters. So I'd go with Skyrim and Batman AC.

[/quote]

I haven't seen a single hacker or modder in BC2 and I've been playing since launch, not to mention it's nearly impossible to mod or hack on a dedicated server. MW3 on the other hand will definitely be infested with them.

 

help choosing

[quote user="FEARecon"]

[quote user="ChickinOnaChain"]

It'll only be a matter of time before MW3 and BF3 will be infested with hackers, modders and cheaters. So I'd go with Skyrim and Batman AC.

[/quote]

I haven't seen a single hacker or modder in BC2 and I've been playing since launch, not to mention it's nearly impossible to mod or hack on a dedicated server. MW3 on the other hand will definitely be infested with them.

[/quote]

Pretty much this but in all fairness, there was one Exploit of the "under-map" PBR in Vietnam but that was quickly addressed.

 

Black Ops 2 servers are awful too, but nothing can be done, due to the games being unsupported

 

This is unveliabable, i tought Ambassadors has the capability to punish this kind of behavior. I think this cant continue like this, no matter if its an old game, must be free of cheaters... doesn´t mean because it is an old game doesnt need any more support,
is unveliabable, if a customer is paying for play online, he has the right to play any game he wants no matters if its a game from 2011 or 2018, so are we oblied the to play the crappy "Future Warfare" i personally preffer the oldies ones. Not so long ago
i bought COD Ghost for Xbox and PC, and on PC all the time you play you find a cheater make the game an awfull experience, on Xbox doesnt happen so often or doesnt happen, sometimes makes me doubt, but... anyways that´s why i preffer to play on Xbox because
i tought was a more secure plataform free of cheaters but looks like i am wrong. So my question is... We reach this point where cheaters, and people without moral can do anything they want, and no one takes action? the policy of "Who cares"? this can´t be
like this, i believe that companies who develop the game like the plataform you are playing are responsible for that, they should granted to their customers the best gaming experience, and punish who attemp against this, i think this is part of the rules that
cant be violated to be welcome on Xbox Live, or am i wrong? We need to work together against cheaters, a passive behavior will not erradicate the plague.

 

Hi,

I can understand your frustrations here, but you need to understand something about how these old games work for online Multiplayer. Let me quickly try to explain.

So we pay Microsoft for Xbox Live, but the games run on Activision's 'Servers' right? But why can't Activision fix their own game servers?

You may not be aware of how these online games operate, let me explain. Modern Warfare 3 doesn't use dedicated servers to host these games. There is a COD server, but it's main function is to link players together for matchmaking
(in co-ordination with Xbox Live), keep scores and player rankings and select users in a lobby to 'Host' the game. Which leads to the most important part, the 'Host'.

In effect, one user, who, depending on their network speed and geographical location, is chosen by the Activision servers to run a particular match. So, the games themselves, when in progress, are actually run by other console's, not Activision or Microsoft.
Activision kind of sits in-between, keeping players together and recording scores. This is why, at least in the first COD games, if the host quit or lost connection, everyone was kicked and returned to the main lobby.

These older Call of Duty games were run like this because the advantage from a business point of view is they cost very little to run. The disadvantage is that they are extremely difficult if not impossible to monitor. The only way exploits can be fixed
is to patch the game. Patching costs money, and can take away work from other projects. These games are old, they aren't going to be patched anymore.

So what's different with say Call of Duty WW2 on Xbox One compared with COD games on the 360?

The big difference is the games are hosted on dedicated servers. These are dedicated machines set to run all online matches. The advantages are huge. The servers generally can't be easily manipulated to run versions of the game with mods. From what I
understand, it's almost impossible. And, because they are fully run by Activision, they are far more easy to maintain and more importantly, monitor.

The main disadvantage is cost, and longevity. After a time, the publisher may choose to close the game servers down. When this happens, no one will be able to play the game anymore.

Hope this makes sense, and explains why these games are in the state they are in.

 

It’s the way all old CoD games are. It’s why I don’t like most of that particular community.

 

Hey there,

As unfortunate as it is, MS can't assist with the hacked accounts, ultimately its up to Activision to ratchet down on their servers. The most MS can do is suspend or ban players who are in violation of their ToS.

 

Your explanation is helpful.

I still have to point out even Activision uses the "Reporting" feature as their go to response when a user has a issue with a hacked account. I have been playing this game for over 5 years a few times a week. I always report the egregious hackers. I never
bother to report the self promoting ones that use flashing user names. I assume Activision knows about them without my help.

I got one (1) response from my reporting in 5 years that Activision actually removed an egregious hacker. Only one time has the reporting feature worked for me. I think from my experience that even though legit gamers are reporting bad players using the
specific description of 'tampering' there is no effort on Activision or even Microsoft to remove these players that affect the overall population of the gaming world.

My suggestion, monitor the simple 'Tamper' list that the users give you. Period. On my estimates, I reached player rank 9000's legitimately a while back in one of the primary games in MW3. Then the hackers started to multiple. Within 6 months I dropped
to 26000 in rank. First it was one hacker every 10 games. Now it is a hacker every 2 games. I guess that the 100's of modified Xbox360's have created roughly 20K fake rankings just in that one game mode. Those modified boxes can then give mods to general
accounts. So the number of affected accounts is in the 100K's. My own account was infected by one of these players and even I have weird stats due to being in a game.

I guess to make my point, Why can't Activision or Microsoft simply monitor and run a maintenance on the Tampering reporting database once a month, once every 6 months or even once a year. If the player database was cleaner I suspect more people would continue
to buy these old games. I know that is easy money for the developers.

 

Now that MW3 has add MW3 to the Xbox One game list, will this provide any protection from the hacked accounts or can the hackers still affect the Xbox One game settings?

 

It the same for most Backward Compatible games that still have online servers. I know its a huge mess with people spoiling the game for others.

 

No not really. While it may be more difficult for Xbox One users to mod the game, backwards compatibility allows you to play with Xbox Live users who are still playing the game on their Xbox 360 consoles, which may be playing hacked versions of the game.

Remember, when you play online on Xbox 360 BC titles on your Xbox One, you aren't just playing with Xbox One users.

 

So it has been this way for that game series all this time?

 

It also doesnt help that alot of these modders use a paid Xbox Live Stealth service to bypass security challenges by Microsoft & avoid bans as much as possible. Ive also talked to a good number of legit players, and the general consensus is most of them
stop reporting as, in their eyes, its a waste of time due hackers avoiding bans & not getting banned at all for what seems like forever. Even people DDoS attack you if you even remotely do good in a game as well. Its really deterred me from going back to
play any of the old CODs again. I'll say this...if Stepto
(RIP) was still working at MS & alive today..I think it would be a different story with amount of hacking going on in COD & a few other games, but thats imo.

 

When a new CoD comes out the devs work on patches but once the next CoD comes out the previous one is left with no upkeep. So at this point the older games like CoD4 and WaW are impossible to play without fear of hackers and cheaters. It's like leaving an
house abandoned for years in the woods.