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Some Linux Gamers Using Wine/DXVK To Play Blizzard's Overwatch Banned (phoronix.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the false-positives dept.

Longtime Slashdot reader DrYak writes: Phoronix is reporting that multiple users who all use Wine and DXVK compatibility layers have seen their Overwatch accounts banned by Blizzard. Previously, Blizzard has stated: "playing on Linux or even a Mac while on an emulated Windows environment is not bannable." But users report on Reddit getting banned simply after testing some rendering options. Tech support has answered that they are escalating the ticket and trying to take a closer look, hoping to avoid this from happening to other Linux users. According to Phoronix, the most common explanation for the bans "is a false-positive from Blizzard's anti-cheat technology having issue with DXVK."

38 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2, Informative

    A bit bloody arrogant don't you think, Blizzard?

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      or.. perhaps there are some settings or reproducible rendering bugs in dxvk that give an unfair advantage to players who use it, and the bans are entirely justified.

    2. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Informative

      Looks like a perfectly normal screwup to me, not a reason for indignation.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    3. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Segregating would be a good compromise. Let all the DXVK players mingle with each other.

    4. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by drnb · · Score: 1

      Segregating would be a good compromise. Let all the DXVK players mingle with each other.

      The two or three that are logged in at the same time? :-)

    5. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by lgw · · Score: 1

      I don't play Overwatch - is their anti-cheat technology any good at banning actual cheaters? Or is this its only feature?

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 1

      Never encountered an overt cheater. Then again, I almost never encounter cheaters in any game these days. I think everybody's anti cheat tech is pretty solid.

    7. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by drnb · · Score: 1

      Ah, the gamers.

      The only group that OKs segregation, forced isolation, and public ridicule in response to percieved unfairness....

      /sarcasm

      -- Unbunch you panties, the humor was on point because Linux DXVK are quite rare among the population, and while the total population is quite large the number of those online at the same time will be significantly smaller, multiple orders of magnitude. Now add the low occurrence of Linux DXVK and the player pool will be quite limited.

      -- Their segregation is not forced, they chose Linux rather than dual boot. Politics has a cost, get over it.

    8. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      not really, I banned activision from my house due to their treatment of linux.

    9. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      not really, I banned activision from my house due to their treatment of linux.

      But you're willing to reconsider and rescind your ban if they provide a reasonable explanation for why their anticheat technology flagged a false negative and fix it, right?

      Of course you're not.

    10. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      I'm willing to rethink the ban if they stop actively trying to undermine linux gaming.

    11. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      I'm willing to rethink the ban if they stop actively trying to undermine linux gaming.

      A false positive is not "actively trying to undermine linux gaming."

      But just so long as you're willing to make same "ban first, think about it later mistake" that you're complaining of, more power to you. Improving the world zero steps at a time.

    12. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      The fact they now have to advertise the fact that playing on linux isn't a bannable offensive kinda suggests its not false positive; and even if it is a false positive, its one false positive among a pile the size of E
      verest of true positives.

    13. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      The fact they now have to advertise the fact that playing on linux isn't a bannable offensive kinda suggests its not false positive;

      The fact that they have "advertised" that playing on Linux isn't a bannable offensive rather suggests that it is a false positive, because otherwise there would be masses of Linux gamers who had been banned for using WINE/DVXK long before this. Even TFA calls this a false positive.

      and even if it is a false positive, its one false psitive among a pile the size of Everest of true positives.

      You surely realize that a small rate of false positives in relation to a gigantic number of true positives is the sign of a highly sensitive, desirable screen, don't you?

      TFA reports all of 5 bans, and here you are white knighting on behalf of those five on a random discussion board. You're so-obscure-as-to-be-silent support has surely comforted them and spurred Blizzard into action. Oh, wait, Blizzard was taking action 10 hours before this was even posted on Slashdot

      Good job, you.

    14. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by luther349 · · Score: 1

      you know most banning are done by a bot. so the bot in error probably thought it as a form of cheating. at least that said it was a error and are correcting it.

    15. Re:Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by slack_justyb · · Score: 1

      I totally understand, but specifically this combo showing up as a false positive is going to be difficult to get legit users white listed and still have an effective anti-cheat. I do not envy Blizzard programmers at the moment.

    16. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      No, they started taking action a couple of months after they found out people were playing their games on linux

      https://eu.battle.net/forums/e...

    17. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      Umm, there is not one report on that thread of people being banned for using WINE/DXVK.

      Youre using "taking action" as a euphemism for what, exactly? Failing to provide support?

    18. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      You clearly miss the point entirely. Activision, for nearly two decades have done everything they could to undermine, damage and thwart gaming on linux. from legal action to firing any developer that dared use it.
      for example.
      https://www.gamingonlinux.com/...

      it is definately not a coincidence that a couple of months after someone starts a thread asking "will i be banned for using linux", acti starts hunting down and banning linux users.

    19. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      So you utterly missed the part of your own link that stated:

      UPDATE: It seems Linux was never a platform to begin with!
      Quote
      It's also worth adding a quick note here in case people don't see my clarification later in the thread - Linux was never a platform we were developing for and I simply assumed that it was. Shoot the messenger if you need to, this was entirely a bad assumption on my part.

      What legal action? What developer firings? All you've done is link to pages that say that Linux is not a supported platform. It's not impressive at all.

    20. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      The one that immediately springs to mind is the various id software court cases. but there are a lot of them, as mentioned in https://www.gamespot.com/artic...

      basically they do everything they can to subvert linux developement, its one of the reasons they have only 3 titles on android vs 10 on ios, when android destoys ios for graphics subsystems.

    21. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      The one that immediately springs to mind is the various id software court cases. but there are a lot of them, as mentioned in https://www.gamespot.com/artic...

      Which mentions a single ID software court case that has to do with share ownership squabbles, with nary a mention of Linux.

      I keep asking for support, and you keep pretending that you've provided it. Yet no lawsuits, firings, or bans intentionally related to Linux usage can be found.

      Sad.

    22. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by mSparks43 · · Score: 1

      It starts with "Once again, a nasty legal battle has pulled back the curtain of secrecy that shrouds major game-industry deals. " i.e. there's been a lot of them. Agreements with microsoft to not let any of their studios produce linux versions, replying to linux support requests that they are breaching terms of service by using their pc games on Linux (that was the point I banned them iirc), just a pile the size of everest of examples, I didn't exactly keep a journal, but as far as I know its well known to linux gamers.

    23. Re: Ban First, Think About Fixing it Later by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      It starts with "Once again, a nasty legal battle has pulled back the curtain of secrecy that shrouds major game-industry deals. " i.e. there's been a lot of them.

      And then goes on to describe how several founders allegedly screwed another founder out of his share of ownership so that they could make more from a buyout.

      Money problem, not a Linux problem.

      Agreements with microsoft to not let any of their studios produce linux versions

      Link?

      replying to linux support requests that they are breaching terms of service by using their pc games on Linux (that was the point I banned them iirc)

      Link?

      just a pile the size of everest of examples,

      Not a single on of which you've actually provided support for.

      I didn't exactly keep a journal, but as far as I know its well known to linux gamers.

      Then you should be able to show it to others, not just link anything that mentions lawsuit and claim it's because of Linux.

  2. Sound's reasonable by AlanBDee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to Phoronix, the most common explanation for the bans "is a false-positive from Blizzard's anti-cheat technology having issue with DXVK."

    I tell you what, I already had my cane in hand and ready to shake... but then paused long enough to actually read the explanation and this sounds very reasonable. It's obvious by their response that they have nothing against Linux or people using compatibility layers.

    1. Re:Sound's reasonable by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2

      Coupled with the number of cheaters on Overwatch, and the way they can poison play for paying customers, and it's not a surprise if there is a mistake.

    2. Re:Sound's reasonable by luther349 · · Score: 1

      yep wine and anti-cheat have never got alone. anyone who uses Linux knows this.

  3. It's all part of the plan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Stick with Windows, and everything will be okay." - Microsoft

  4. Re:Serves 'em RIGHT! by Scarletdown · · Score: 2

    From even just TFS:

    "Blizzard has stated: "playing on Linux or even a Mac while on an emulated Windows environment is not bannable.""

    So, how did they break the TOS just by doing something that is actually already allowed?

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    This space unintentionally left blank.
  5. Re:Incompetent just like major-league non-e-sports by murdocj · · Score: 1

    Suggestion: if you don't like the way a game works, don't play it.

  6. Re:Serves 'em RIGHT! by fido_dogstoyevsky · · Score: 2

    So, how did they break the TOS just by doing something that is actually already allowed?

    The TOS allows playing in an emulated windows evironment.

    But... Wine Is Not An Emulator.

    And that's enough until they think of a better reason.

    --
    It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
  7. Re: A Linux user went outside and u wont believe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    he got a motherfucking swirly!!!!!

    From a FreeBSD user

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  10. Re:Serves 'em RIGHT! by Agripa · · Score: 1

    From even just TFS:

    "Blizzard has stated: "playing on Linux or even a Mac while on an emulated Windows environment is not bannable.""

    So, how did they break the TOS just by doing something that is actually already allowed?

    The TOS was a lie.

  11. Re:Serves 'em RIGHT! by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    So it was cake instead of pie...

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    This space unintentionally left blank.
  12. Blizzard: *Should* be supported indeed by DrYak · · Score: 1

    The TOS allows playing in an emulated windows evironment.

    But... Wine Is Not An Emulator.

    And that's enough until they think of a better reason.

    No, it's not a case of Blizzard playing with words in order to have an excuse to kick users out.

    From the Phoronix article :

    Blizzard is investigating and they will be looking to overturn the bans if this is indeed the case. There appears to be at least five reports of bans so far and does indeed seem that the most likely explanation is a false-positive from Blizzard's anti-cheat technology having issue with DXVK.

    Blizzard official attention has always been to let Wine users in. (Hey, more customers == more cash flowing in! And thanks to Wine's / Crossover's / and Valve's Proton people all doing the hard work, it doesn't cost much to Blizzard to get all these extra customers)

    But there's a big difference between intentions and practice :
    apparently, there's strong suspicion that it's the anti-cheat system that has went berzerk.

    Blizzard is promicing to investigate to avoid unjustified bans (Common, they want all these extra customer money in !)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  13. Native Port by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 2

    It sounds like all this could be avoided on Blizzard's part by creating a Linux native port of the game. With all the Linux gaming love coming from Valve/Steam, it seems like as good of a time as any.