The Ricochet anti-cheat system for Call of Duty titles was revealed in mid-October. Ricochet is a completely new system, targeting PC users with their relatively open platform. In the wake of the anti-cheat system reveal, there was some push back against the idea of such a deeply integrated “kernel-level driver” being implemented to combat cheats. However, such was the scale of cheating seen, and the harm it can do to multiplayer gaming enjoyment for the moral majority, some unexpected sources considered Ricochet to be a measured response. You can’t use a sticking plaster to remedy a severed hand, so Ricochet is a measured response to the scale of the problem.
Cheating in Call of Duty games is a big turn-off for a large number of gamers, and it is said to be a widespread problem, thus Activision is highly motivated to get it under control. It is important to try and dilute the word associated between CoD and cheating, for the sake of the franchise, and for Activision’s cash-cow income. Though Ricochet is admittedly very nosey about your PC, software, processes, and drivers, Activision promises that “the kernel-level driver only monitors and reports activity related to Call of Duty.”
The first reports of Ricochet going live worldwide came out on Wednesday night. The server side was prepared in advance, but an update to the PC game was made available, and made mandatory, which tapped into Ricochet. On Thursday, VG247 reported that cheaters were already being “banned en masse,” as the system starting doing the work it was meant for.
If you delve into social media, searching this topic, you will see lots of posts applauding the arrival of Ricochet, others bemoaning their bans, some claiming that new bypass hacks are available or due shortly. Mixed among them are some genuine sounding concerns that Ricochet interferes or slows down tools such as video-streaming software.
It is probably too early to say Ricochet is a success; we will have to check back in a few days or weeks for further Warzone coverage. Ricochet is also set to be mandatory for CoD Vanguard on PC. That implementation will come once any Warzone wrinkles are ironed out, one would expect.
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