Do we need some sort of 'cheater amnesty' as we crack down on cheaters?

Wow - so yes - we have been tracking cheaters for quite some time, and with the launch of patch 130 we basically KILLED almost every cheater from all three major cheatmakers - in spite of their claims to the PB shield and other BS that they have been working on.

I clearly will not tell you HOW you were observed. Let's just say you were observed. And we can say with unequivocal certainty that the account you used has now or in the past been used for cheating. Sorry.

Some people posting in reply to the last post clearly stated things like 'I borrowed the account from a friend' or 'I got the account from a cheater friend.'

So - what do we do now? And what do the cheaters do now?

Sure - as a cheater you can go make a new account and RAGE CHEAT on the servers this weekend. Sure you can get some cheat-time in. But for what? Of course it just means you will be banned again, and with the next couple of builds we are ratcheting up the cheat hunting in such a manner that you cannot return. Ever.

Come Clean Instead!
Instead I have a MUCH better idea. If you feel remorseful. If you think you want to come back to the game. Then uninstall the cheat (or in some cases - because several of the cheats are root-kits that have actually BORKED your machine, you may have to re-install Windows), make a new account - and then play nice in the community for the next few weeks while we roll out the next several changes, and then pray we MAY let you continue on the new account before we launch the next anti-cheat patch. If someone TRULY comes back and plays clean - we may consider it. However, under no circumstances will you get back anything from the banned account. Don't even ask.

There are some interesting stats for the crew we banned (and to give you an indication how this was NOT a 'public' or 'easy' cheat ban). Nearly 50% were paid accounts (!). Some had 1500 HORUS of game play (that's 240 hours a month for the period one of the players played!). Some had spent a lot of money. And they STILL could not keep themselves from breaking the rules and destroying the game experience for those around them. It's all VERY SAD.

Based on the bans we can now even compute the revenues of the major cheat makers. We estimate that the three cheat makers make from $15,000 to $50,000 in revenue per month (depending on the cheat maker) from their cheats from the APB portion of cheats. So - for those of you out there will to pay a farg-ing $30 PER MONTH for a cheat - AND as much for items in APB - WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? AND - why on earth do you support the cheat makers to begin with. THEY are the ones that just cost you a boat-load of money, time and effort.

No cheat will go undetected forever. So I say it again - just don't do it!

Here are some interesting screenshots from the 'top-three' cheatmakers. Anyone feel pity?

You have ONE LAST CHANCE to stay with this game before we go live. Don't F-that last chance up.

/TechMech