Several players were recently surprised to receive a notification from Valve’s anti-cheat system for a ban dating back more than a decade.
These VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) messages mainly concern multiplayer games like Counter-Strike in its original version and 1.6, Team Fortress 2 or even old games Call of Duty. While Activision is busy making cheaters’ lives hell on more recent titles, Valve’s anti-cheat system seems to be sorting through old archives. Most of the bans reported by players date back more than ten years.
No prescription for cheating at Valve
In addition to the anti-cheat system incorporated by the developers for precise gameplay, VAC keeps an eye on Steam. In recent days, he seems to have done an in-depth search in his old databases. Many users have in fact reported bans on multiplayer FPS games like those previously mentioned that they have not restarted for more than ten years.
A player from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 original was thus banned 14 years after having launched the game for the last time. Same observation for a player of Counter-Strike 1.6whose account was banned following a hack, but who received a notification 17 years later.
Side effects of an update?
If Valve has not really commented on the issue, a source of the problem seems to have been found. The Steam client indeed received an update on October 31. The Valve Anti-Cheat system could thus have been indirectly affected, which caused this wave of notifications.
As in the example of the player being informed that they have been banned from Counter-Strike 1.6 17 years after the events, it is not strictly speaking new banning measures. At the very least, these are more like reminders.
So you know what to expect if such a message from a bygone era is sent to you by Valve’s anti-cheat system, due to a hack of your old account, cheating or otherwise.
Source : PCGamesN
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