CoD fans slam 'atrocious' shadowban system that's punishing innocent players

CoD fans slam 'atrocious' shadowban system that's punishing innocent players
Courtesy of Activision

Written by 

Alex Garton

Published 

25th Sep 2023 09:19

In an attempt to combat cheating in Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2, CoD offers an in-game report feature that allows players to flag any suspicious gameplay.

Unfortunately, this is regularly exploited by griefers and trolls who spam report opponents who are completely innocent.

This leads to these players being shadowbanned and locked out of their accounts until Activision reviews whether there's been a "potential violation."

As expected, this is causing a huge amount of anger in the community, with fans calling on the devs to fix the "atrocious" shadowban system.

Call of Duty players hate "atrocious" Shadowban system

Taking to Twitter on September 23, popular Call of Duty account ModernWarzone called on Activision to address the "atrocious" shadowban system.

According to them, innocent players "can go through WEEKS of being unable to play... because of trolls spam reporting and griefing."

The current system seems to lock an account and put it under review as soon as enough reports have been registered. Rather than basing the punishment on evidence, it simply prevents a player from using their account until they've been cleared as not being a hacker.

"I got falsely banned last year for cheats but never once downloaded any hacks on my computer, they gotta fix the Anticheat because it’s terrible," said one user, with another claiming "I get banned from MW2 every time I boot up the game, people spam report on search unreal."

Some CoD fans are in an endless loop of suspensions

SMG Operator
Click to enlarge

Once your account has been locked after a shadowban, the situation only seems to get worse as the reviews can take months to complete.

This means players can be stuck in an endless loop of being locked out of their account, despite not downloading any hacks.

"I’ve been shadowbanned consistently for MONTHS, it’s a non-stop cycle and I can’t even play on my main account."

It's obvious that the current system is being abused to punish those who have not downloaded third-party software. Activision will need to address malicious reporting very soon, or they risk losing more and more frustrated fans to other FPS titles.

Alex Garton
About the author
Alex Garton
Alex is a Senior Writer at GGRecon. With a BA (Hons) in English, he has previously written for Dexerto & Gfinity. Specialising in Call of Duty & Apex Legends, he loves (attempting) to improve his aim in competitive shooters and will always make time for a single-player RPG.
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