Battlefield 3 beta hacked, Dice threatens EA account ban

[Shawn Knight]

The open beta for Battlefield 3 has already been hacked to allow users to host their own servers and unlock alternate game modes and features. But take caution, as Dice has warned that users found playing on hacked servers could face harsh consequences.

A team of hackers has allegedly gotten their hands on the files needed to host your own Battlefield 3 beta server. Those hosting their own server can remove the player cap on one of the beta maps called Operation Metro. The user limit is set at 32 (16 per team) by default but hacked servers can push this limit up to 128 simultaneous players.

A Dice rep has apparently chimed in on the situation, stating that they are aware that a number of unauthorized servers are online. The rep recommends avoiding the temptation to play on these servers while the issue is being dealt with. Furthermore, anyone playing on these servers risks having their account banned by EA, says PC World.

Such a ban would not only mean you couldn’t play Battlefield, but also any other EA title. As of writing it appears the original form post has gone missing, although several other news outlets are reporting on the story.

Battlefield 3 will be released in its entirety on October 25 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s probably best to play it safe and stick to official EA servers for now. Official servers are configured to run 32 players on the Operation Metro map under the Rush game type.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/45713-battlefield-3-beta-hacked-dice-threatens-ea-account-ban.html

 

[lawfer]

Surely if they ban your account, you can always make a new one...?

 

[katoDRAGON]

lawfer said:
Surely if they ban your account, you can always make a new one...?

you would probably have to buy all of your "microsoft" games again, but who cares

 

[Guest]

Not if you get IP banned, then no you cannot make a another account.

 

[Holyscrap]

if your account gets banned you lose all games linked to that account, in that case you can create a new account but you will have to buy the games all over again.

 

[Guest]

Good..

I wish they would ban hackers too... I have a HD filled with wall hackers, chamers and aimbotters from just this weekend. Funny thing is, I send them directly to the ole 2142 link for complaints, & have already got 38 people banned from BC2.

I will soon ban a whole slew of newbtards from BF3 beta. But I am evil and will wait til the game is out, so these banned Origin accounts already paid for pre-release. Then they will have to beg mommy for another CC account & some fresh money.

 

[Guest]

yey . for 1 account per game!

 

[lipe123]

Good my ***...

All EA has to do is allow us to play the Caspian border map instead of that BS metro map and none of this will be happening.

There is so much wrong with metro its not really fun to play at all.

 

[Guest]

Now why in the world would anyone who respects the developer go and hack their servers?

One day, PC gamers will realize that all of these developers could easily stop developing PC games and continue to make $ off consoles. However, without these developers, PC gaming would disappear into indie titles only. It boggles my mind that someone had to resort to this behaviour and couldn't wait less than a month for the full game.

 

[RH00D]

Guest said:
Good..

I wish they would ban hackers too... I have a HD filled with wall hackers, chamers and aimbotters from just this weekend. Funny thing is, I send them directly to the ole 2142 link for complaints, & have already got 38 people banned from BC2.

I will soon ban a whole slew of newbtards from BF3 beta. But I am evil and will wait til the game is out, so these banned Origin accounts already paid for pre-release. Then they will have to beg mommy for another CC account & some fresh money.

You seem to not understand this situation correctly. EA is threatening to ban people who simply PLAY on a hacked server. A hacked server could mean nothing more than an unofficial server with a player count more than 32. Heck, some of the hacked servers I saw HAD 32 players (I know this because the gametype was Conquest, which no official server has) and some hacked servers had less than 32 players.

So a person could very well end up on a hacked server without ever intending to. Because all servers get lumped into one long list of every server unless you apply filters (or if you use quick match you could automatically get dropped into a hacked server) I don't think you really meant what you said because I don't think you'd want to advocate the banning of players who innocently were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Mister_K]

All bans can be spoofed.

 

[amstech]

EA has been very prideful as of late.
Origin was just the beginning.

Newsflash: What happens in IT when you try to own/takeover too much?
Just ask Nvidia, Sony or Microsoft.

 

[Guest]

Such hatred for hackers. Let them beat the system. If EA can't protect their product then its their fault.

 

[Guest]

Eat a **** EA!!

 

[Guest]

This is good news. Thank you DICE and EA.

 

[Cota]

If the hacked servers are all like the one on this video there's no reason to worry, its just greedy ducks being greedy >.>

 

[mistermindless]

create a new account and use that in the firstplace.incase if you get banned you wont miss anything much...

 

[Burty117]

Guest said:
Good..

I wish they would ban hackers too... I have a HD filled with wall hackers, chamers and aimbotters from just this weekend. Funny thing is, I send them directly to the ole 2142 link for complaints, & have already got 38 people banned from BC2.

I will soon ban a whole slew of newbtards from BF3 beta. But I am evil and will wait til the game is out, so these banned Origin accounts already paid for pre-release. Then they will have to beg mommy for another CC account & some fresh money.

I hate people like you, I once got a ban from my steam account once, apparently I was using an unknown hack in team fortress 2? I have never EVER used a hack, hell I don't even know how or where the hell to get them from, you can even ask google to find my static IP I have from home and even check, I have never googled it before!

Just because I'm good at headshots or simply beating said person who feels i'm a hacker doesn't mean i'm hacking! Once I emailed Steam support and explained my account is now back in good standing.

 

[lawfer]

Operation Metro is really getting on my nerves. I had the chance to play Caspian Border and fly a jet, and when I tell you that the map makes a huge difference, believe me because it does. It's like its another game. It could also be because I've been playing Metro since the alpha, and now I'm sick of it.

So I tried to join the Conquest Operation Metro with 64 players, if any, to see if that made a difference, but guess I had not luck. I take it EA has done something about this? Just now I tried to join one, but they all seem regular servers.

 

[Butch]

I don't care about EA but it's this kind of stuff that is going to kill PC gaming then we will all be stuck playing the kiddie consoles or in my case, not playing at all.

 

[Inarius03]

128 players at once? @_@

 

[LNCPapa]

Sweet. Another reason to want an Origin account?

 

[Guest]

lol ea is the worst company in the video game business. if developers had self respect they would support a better company that doesnt try to monopolize everything.

also, banning? lol cool. give me a static ip and i'll have an easier time setting up a private server. thanks !

also, just wait till we hack the game to not even require logging into steam or ea or whatever.

steam is the worst though, i tried to make an account for diablo 3 beta, they took way too much information about me then said i have to own another game to qualify for the beta testing. and theres no way to remove / delete an account except contacting customer service, who said no.

 

[Guest]

And this is why I don't like EA. They never stop pushing the envelope.

They could have easily avoided ALL of this if they would have used a registered server authentication system & implemented an origin based firewall that blocks private servers from being accessed. This is a two-tier approach to the problem - crackers (they are not hackers) wouldn't be able to host private servers and users who try to connect to them, wouldn't be able to establish the connection.

Such a system would have been easy to integrate with the Steam API, which would have allowed them access to a marketplace with over 30 million users and make use of the simple, effective and ever so comprehensive steam server browser.

This embarrassing folly is just another demonstration for how ignorant, arrogant and ill prepared EA is when facing quality control problems. Which I find hilarious, because the only time they have expressed serious interest in controlling the quality of anything is when someone is tampering with their product.

I've seen them look the other way on a whole host of problems from cheating, bad code, bad patches, broken patches, implementing features destructive to balanced game play and the list goes on and on.

They have a lot to prove before they earn a $50+ sale from me ever again.

 

[Guest]

They aren't going to ban your account for playing on them. First this is beta, this is why it exists, to find these loopholes. Second they might not know it is a hacked server. It is EA's job to figure this out and fix it. This isn't people collecting points with an exploit knowing it.

These are people logging into a server to play the game legit. The people running the servers could be banned but to say the players can too is insane.

TL;DR - EA should be thanking them for finding this before release.