Fireteammates of Destiny 2 cheaters may be banned, says Bungie - even if they didn't cheat themselves
"We want you to find new friends, but be sure they have your trust before you go."
Bungie has outlined plans to hit back at Destiny 2 cheaters, including bans and restrictions on "any player who has benefitted from cheating, even if they didn't cheat themselves".
The studio also revealed that while it was, on average, banning around 656 players a week, in the first four weeks since Season of the Worthy's launch, the ban rate has "more than tripled to 2133 punishments per week".
"There's been a growing list of concerns with the game lately: Trials, the rise in cheaters, our new Seasonal model, the balance between rewards you earn vs. items you buy," explained production director Justin Truman in the developer's most recent blog post. "We've been closely watching and discussing each of these topics as we read your feedback. When our community managers relay that everyone at Bungie is listening, I assure you, we are."
"Cheating in Destiny 2 is up roughly 50 per cent since January, and significantly more in the highest skill echelons," added Destiny's engineering director, David Aldridge. "When your pinnacle achievements are denied by encountering a cheater on a high Trials ticket, or devalued by seeing someone else with ill-gotten goods, that's frustrating. Those frustrations are happening too often right now, and the vengeance of the Banhammer is often too far behind."
Consequently, Bungie is now also pivoting to the position that even fireteammates of cheaters "are no longer innocent".
"We now reserve the right to restrict or ban any player who has benefitted from cheating, even if they didn't cheat themselves," Aldridge added. "This includes scenarios where players group up with or provide account information to a guide or carry service, which then cheats on their behalf. We want you to find new friends out there, but be sure they have your trust before you go. If you LFG your way into a fireteam with a cheater, get out and report them. If you ride them to a flawless, the Banhammer will come for you as well."
"We're also working hard from our homes, trying to address and improve each of these areas for future releases," Truman added. "Nothing in Destiny is as easy as flipping a switch, and everything's gotten trickier while working remotely. But as Destiny players ourselves, we struggle with the same issues you do, and we want to fix them as quickly as we can."
