‘Call Of Duty’ Cleverly Thwarts Cheaters With Realistic ‘Hallucinations’

There’s nothing worse than battling against those with an unfair advantage in video games. To address this ongoing issue, Activision—the creator of the popular title Call Of Duty—has come up with a series of measures to tackle in-game cheaters.

Previously, Team Ricochet has employed several measures, including rendering them unable to see targets or simply removing their guns. Now, a more interesting feature will deploy when the servers detect a possible cheater within a game and deploy “hallucinations.”

Fear not; legitimate players will not be affected by the change, as it’s specifically designed to disorient hackers. Intriguingly, each hallucination seen in the game will be a clone of a real player and move, look, and interact with the virtual world just like any human player would.

This is to trick cheaters into thinking they’re up against a real opponent when in reality, there’s no one there at all. Call Of Duty seems confident players won’t be able to distinguish between real and “hallucinated” players, as they will emit the same information cheaters receive from hacks.

Once a hacker interacts with a hallucination, they’ll be outing themselves to the game as a cheater. If caught, cheaters will be subject to account bans. The game maker said this would be the “first but foundational” step in mitigating hacking within the community.

“The #TeamRICOCHET mission is to fight unfair play using all means necessary. From developing new detection and protection systems, mitigations, and even Cease and Desist notices, our commitment to gameplay integrity is unwavering, and we will utilize every tool available to us to keep your experience fun and fair,” the team said.

[via Engadget and Dexerto, images via Call Of Duty]