Brothers and Sisters,

It's time once again to remind everyone of the perils of cheating in a single player game, especially with Steam. Rule number one in our CoC is "No Cheating". It's always been that way, always will be.

First of all, we are not talking about single player games that specifically allow "mods". The Fallout franchise, STALKER, Witcher, Borderlands, etc have the ability to be modified, and the publishers release tools expressly for this purpose and encourage it. These are not "cheats" (though yes, God mode, zero gravity, unlimited ammo etc are definitely cheating in a sense...lol) but modifications for those that wish to stretch their enjoyment of a game beyond it's original purpose and storyline.

What constitutes a cheat? Using a 3rd party program, or unsanctioned (by the publisher) manipulation of the game's code files to achieve a certain purpose. Here's where things get sticky with games that have a single player and multiplayer dimension. The hacks that you have to download to cheat at the single player version also have components for cheating on the multiplayer side.

Now, you may not ever have the inclination to give yourself an unfair advantage in online multiplayer matches, you just want to beat the single player game faster, increase your rank faster, unlock weapons faster, whatever. The anti-cheat programs do not differentiate between those two things. They see an MD5 hash that is misconfigured from what it is supposed to be, they're flagging it. That flag is going to result in a ban somewhere. I believe the CoD franchise's newer games allow you to unlock weapons and perks in the multiplayer version by doing things in the single player version. Cheating to get those things is still cheating, and that's how Valve is going to see it.

When you download a "trainer", be aware that the backend of that is jacking your game files, and that jacking is going to be flagged by the anti-cheat program. In Steam, this is going to result in a VAC ban. A VAC ban will get you removed from our great Community, the same as any other ban.

There is no excuse we will accept for a ban. Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. Be very clear on this. This is not a "gray area" issue with us. No matter who you are, what rank, how well anyone likes you, you will be kicked from =VX9=. A ban, is a ban, is a ban.

Why? Because there is no way for us to prove otherwise. The anti-cheat program listed you as banned, not the reason why. All it is telling us is that you specifically took the time to do something that is against the ToS and EULA of a game. It's cheating, pure, plain, and simple, regardless of the reason why it was done.

Yes, there are definitely false positives that pop up in some instances, and every time those false positives are rescinded by the anti-cheat developer very, very quickly. If there isn't a deletion of the ban, you won't be able to be a member here.

So, please think about this anytime you look at a 3rd party program that promises rainbows and unicorns for your gameplay. Over that rainbow is usually a dismissal from our ranks, and if you truly enjoy the people that make this community great, you won't want to jeopardize that.


One Team!