Valve Enables Developers To Permanently Ban Cheaters On Steam

In addition to video game platforms enforcing strict rules against cheaters, Steam has now enabled game developers to permanently ban cheaters from their games. This move is aimed at tightening the noose around cheaters' necks by introducing a second line of defence and punishment against the scourge.

Eurogamer points out that the idea is to make it work alongside Valve's existing VAC, or Valve Anti-Cheat System, tool to catch and punish cheaters. This allows game developers to implement their own customised anti-cheat tools to thwart hackers and cheaters who have managed to outsmart VAC for their games.

This new policy change not only allows individual developers to instruct Valve to ban hackers and cheaters from their games; it also requires players to deal with the game developers instead of Steam's own customer support when reinstating accounts. Valve's announcement states that the developer-issued bans will be permanent to boot. It must be noted that unlike VAC bans, developer bans won't be implemented system-wide but restricted to individual games.

A good recent example where this feature could be implemented is the last two "Resident Evil" games. Both "Resident Evil HD Remaster" and "Resident Evil: Revelations 2" incorporated competitive leader-boards, and in case of the latter, a multiplayer horde mode that incorporates considerable rewards for top players. These games are prime examples where pretty much all of the top players in the leader-boards happen to be obvious cheaters.

This problem is exacerbated in the case of "Revelations 2" to the point that the weekly and monthly special reward events are rendered moot for gamers who choose to play fair and square. Unless players resort to cheating, there's no chance of them earning the rewards earmarked for the special events. In effect, the entire multiplayer experience is held ransom and dominated by the few hundred players that choose to cheat. There are plenty of forum posts on the Steam Community forums decrying this trend.

The concerns involving players hacking and cheating to the top is widespread across the board. The leader-boards in most online multiplayers are filled with players who hack, glitch and cheat their way to the top, thereby defeating the very purpose of the competitive endeavour. Even professionally played competitive games haven't been spared of this scourge. There have been cases of cheating at the professional level within games such as "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," as discussed in detail in this IGN podcast.

The problem is usually widespread in PC games, where trainers and hacks are easily available, thanks to a strong community of hackers who make tidy earnings by selling cheating tools. However, that doesn't mean that consoles are insulated from this plague either. As VG247 points out, even the console versions of games such as "Grand Theft Auto 5" are filled with cheaters who hack their way to the top.

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GTA V player humiliates cheater abusing the invisibility hack (Credit: Hairy Hole on YouTube)