Popular Twitch and Call of Duty: Warzone streamer Aydan Conrad believes he has been shadow-banned by Activision. The core of the issue relates to the larger problem of cheating in Warzone, preventing many players from enjoying all that the battle royale game has to offer. The game is still plagued by glitches and players looking to cheat their way to the top. Activision has responded by removing up to 60,000 cheaters believed to be utilizing a popular hack software. It's unclear if all the accounts that have been removed belong exclusively to those that are guilty of cheating. Although multiplayer games often feature anti-cheating software, it still remains a pressing issue.
Unfortunately, Warzone players have much more to contend with than just the prevalence of hackers. The appearance of countless glitches and game-breaking bugs is also having a negative impact on how much enjoyment players get while trying to play the game. The highly hated stim glitch typifies the extent of Warzone's glitch problem.
According to Dexerto, a shadow-ban occurs when a player's account is taken from standard matchmaking games and thrown into a pool composed entirely of hackers. This is believed to happen when a particular player is singled out by in-game reports. It is not clear if this process has affected Aydan at this point. Other users have reported that the shadow-ban may sometimes drag on for several months, essentially forcing the user to replace their old account with a new one if they wish to continue creating content. It is widely believed that mass-reporting can lead to shadow-bans, with Activision automatically applying the containment measure to users believed by the community to be guilty of cheating.
It has become such an issue that popular YouTuber Vikkstar has made a public statement by quitting Warzone, protesting the high incidence of cheating and Activision's response to the controversy. Although the Call of Duty franchise continues to generate huge profits for Activision, it's recently been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, upsetting dedicated players and content creators with huge followings in the meantime.
Cheating is undoubtedly ruining the gaming experience for many Warzone players. While Activision has taken steps to address the scale of the issue, many feel more must be done to keep famous YouTubers like Vikkstar on board. The combination of in-game cheating and the shadow-bans will continue to push gamers away from Call of Duty: Warzone until more is done to solve the issue.