The so known as “catbot” bans some Team Fortress 2 gamers have been reporting are usually not as random as we had been led to consider.
Earlier this week, the Team Fortress 2 group was up in arms a couple of very weird prevalence. Thanks to a Github bug report, and a number of different reviews from varied gamers, the group believed that Valve’s anti-cheat software program, VAC, has been banning any Linux participant with the phrase “catbot” of their title.
Catbot refers to dishonest bots, therefore the title, that use a script (cheat) operating on Linux to robotically be a part of matches and kill everybody with aimbot-style accuracy. The phenomenon itself was in style final yr, and it was significantly annoying as a result of a single Linux consumer is ready to run a number of catbots to affix in case any of the others get banned.
Of course, the current hearsay didn’t go down properly. For the previous couple of days, the sport’s group believed that Valve was certainly simply banning any Linux participant with “catbot” of their title, no matter whether or not they’ve truly cheated. Because Valve is notoriously silent with regards to speaking with its communities, the hearsay unfold like wildfire.
Now, a Valve worker issued a press release on Reddit that denies Valve banning anybody only for having “catbot”, or some variation of it, of their Steam title. The developer known as the unfold of this hearsay a tactic to “try and sow discord and distrust among anti-cheat systems.”
“VAC has many different types of detections and we cannot discuss what they do publicly because doing so makes them less effective,” mentioned vMcJohn.
“However, one thing I can disclose is that all detections require that the detection occur while a user is actively cheating and connected to a VAC-secured server.”
The developer mentioned that Linux has not truly been fertile grounds for dishonest, in comparison with Windows, however this modified when catbots began showing. He added that their impression on Team Fortress 2 was too huge to disregard, therefore the ban wave.
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