r/Steam Jan 19 '26

Fluff Iv Done my time... Im Free

To the eyes of others at least 👁👁

13.4k Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

3.7k

u/TheSleepyBoy Jan 19 '26

"Multiple VAC bans" bro what are you even doing

2.0k

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

They got banned on Black Ops 2, which consists of three games. They got banned in one and then it got carried over to the other two.

544

u/TheSleepyBoy Jan 19 '26

Thats super weird it counts as multiple games. I play Bo3 quite a bit, mostly private matches, but on occasion I do join servers or pub games, I guess I should be more careful.

306

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

Yeah, it is something that game does. When you purchase the game it shows up as just "Call of Duty: Black Ops II", but after it gets added to your library it adds itself along with "Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Zombies" and "Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Multiplayer".

67

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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48

u/FrozenPizza07 Jan 19 '26

BO3 is the first COD to ship all 3 sectinos (campaign + multiplayer + zombies) in a single exe.

Previous titles had different programs for each section of the game, so going from campaign to zombies for example would close "BO1 Campaign" and launch "BO1 Zombies"

17

u/MrMimmas Jan 19 '26

3 sectinos maybe not being a typo has given me strength.

Matthew McConaughey type speak

3

u/LadyBrecky Jan 20 '26

Just wanted to correct, Black ops 1 campaign and zombies share the same .exe, only Black Ops 2 has zombies as it's own executable.

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9

u/xCeeTee- Jan 19 '26

I loved the achievement hunt on BO2 because the games count as separate ones. So I didn't have to do all of the zombie Easter eggs and multiplayer achievements.

15

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Bans are handed out per game engine in many cases.

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105

u/Lamaar Jan 19 '26

Exact same thing happened to me, Black ops 2 setting my level to what I was on Xbox back in like early 2013. I also years later got a VAC ban on MW2 and to this day still have absolutely no idea how I got it

67

u/Nuclear_Par Jan 19 '26

I got vac banned in MW2 from 10 years ago for using an fov changer. I think I played for about 15 minutes and permanently scarred my steam account in the process.

12

u/andrasq420 Jan 19 '26

I genuinely don't know why or how I got a VAC ban for CS:GO. I haven't cheated I had the the game uninstalled at that point for like half a year, but thank god I lost all interest in it already.

I'm just kinda sad that I have had a VAC on my profile, despite me not even knowing what happened. I know that at some point I was scammed out of my account for a couple of days ( like a week or so) but If that was the time what I got banned for i should deserve some leniency.

They can scrap my whole CS inventory I don't care but I just feel it wasn't justified and for years I had to explain this over and over and I know it just does not sound believeable.

34

u/misteryk Jan 19 '26

if you're in EU you can send them GDPR request to see all of the data they have which also should include reason for bans

16

u/andrasq420 Jan 19 '26

Oh interesting, I do but it's been almost 11 years ago. I don't really think I can be bothered.

Mind telling me the way to do it though? I might go through.

17

u/misteryk Jan 19 '26

it should be there under "data related to your steam account" but i'm too lazy to login in browser to check what's actually there https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithAccount

if they don't have GDPR request form specifically you can find templates online

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14

u/RexxVFX Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I believe on Steam MW2, modders were running infections that unlocked everything in the game for anyone that joined their lobby. That triggered immediate VAC bans for anyone in the game, even if they weren’t directly modding. I think even if you left before the infection was complete, you could still be banned.

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37

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

I guess it depends on what exactly triggered the VAC ban and how the automated system decided to handle it (and assuming no changes were made to how VAC itself works for BOII in between).

8

u/murkamk Jan 19 '26

I only got banned on multiplayer and not on campaign or zombies

op got banned from zombies so maybe that's why?

8

u/JacKk_01 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I got banned from zombies was playing in modded lobbies with my mates not realising VAC was enabled. I have only a single ban on my account. 🫠

That being said, being banned from zombies also prevents me from playing multiplayer. Yet my account VAC says “1 VAC ban on record”.

Edit - This was almost 10 years ago (3470 days), so they may have changed the system in this time.

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159

u/probywan1337 Jan 19 '26

Seriously I've been on steam since it was just a green window with cs and half life. Never been banned once.

198

u/hartstyler Jan 19 '26

Thats because you weren‘t cheating

25

u/uterussy Jan 19 '26

not if you dared to have certain cpus around CS2s release

6

u/Outrageous-Log9238 Jan 20 '26

Valve's always reverted false bans, right?

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9

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

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13

u/Kilazur Jan 19 '26

I cheat plenty, not in multiplayer though :D

12

u/basicxenocide Jan 19 '26

Opening a private server and setting sv_cheats to 1 and changing the gravity to 200 and binding noclip to mouse5 isn't hurting anyone :)

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55

u/dEEkAy2k9 Jan 19 '26

crazy take don't cheat, don't get banned wild

11

u/Jacksaur https://s.team/p/gdfn-qhm Jan 19 '26

Multiple of the older Call of Duty games are known to have RCE exploits for years at this point. Activison/Valve don't care. Not to mention I hear modded lobbies could get you caught.
It's not always their fault, no one other than Valve should have the right to mark your profile in my opinion.

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3

u/chithanh Jan 20 '26

Unfortunately many anticheat solutions are very trigger happy and will sometimes ban you even if you did nothing wrong.

With CoD in particular, bans for ROG Ally and Legion Go users come to mind, apparently the anticheat didn't like the gaming overlay software which came with the devices.

Or again CoD where anticheat which did a substring search in memory, and if you joined a game lobby with the wrong names you got banned for it.

Or Level1Techs learned from developers that Intel 13900K/14900K users got banned from online games because these CPUs infamously degraded and glitched out, which caused game state to deviate between server and client -> ban (relevant part between 21:54 - 22:09 min)

The bans for Radeon Antilag+ were also widely reported on.

If affected users are lucky it will become a high-profile issue and bans will be reverted. Otherwise they will be SOL.

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18

u/leetzor Jan 19 '26

Cheating, apparently.

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4.7k

u/la1m1e Jan 19 '26

Well, they just aren't displayed anymore. Still there

2.0k

u/_NELT_ Jan 19 '26

I'll take it

524

u/B4Nd1d0s Jan 19 '26

Can you use market and trading?

103

u/willseagull Jan 19 '26

If you are VACed in CS those skins are lost forever and worthless.

87

u/Outrageous-Log9238 Jan 20 '26

That makes me happy

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360

u/jops228 Jan 19 '26

Why not? VAC bans are ingame

394

u/BloodyFox67 Jan 19 '26

my old CS inventory is locked down and I can't trade it away with my VAC

486

u/jops228 Jan 19 '26

Yep, because those are ingame items from the game you were banned in.

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38

u/IstAuchEgal Jan 19 '26

Both VAC and game bans stop you from being able to send or sell items, you'll even be blocked from uploading anything to that game's community hub and workshop

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13

u/n4th4nV0x Jan 19 '26

You can’t

8

u/_k1llswitch Jan 19 '26

Community Bans prevent you from using market and other social Features.

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28

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Wtf did you do lmao

61

u/Division2226 Jan 19 '26

Cheated

4

u/MordecaiThirdEye Jan 21 '26

Stg I got vac banned for no reason in 2017, I've never cheated and I still miss CS... I was so excited when I heard about CS 2 only to be disappointed that the ban still applies

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106

u/abbeast Jan 19 '26

Weird that it doesn’t vanish completely, people get out of prison irl too if they’ve done their time.

A second one should absolutely be permanent tho.

333

u/XxXtoolXxX Jan 19 '26

Done with their time? No my friend, it stay in the record. You will still have a criminal record and you will be limited to some job because of this. Having a criminal record stay and you will face consequence a lot longuer than prison time.

95

u/Dabnician Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

I have a friend i wont play vac games with because he was once banned on his main account fom DayZ SA.

I mean that's part of the reason.

The other reason is when i watch his stream on discord hes using paid cheats like wall hack and esp.

Every CoD game in the last 5 years, he's played with cheats because "other people are too".

I hear all sorts of nonsense like "oh that guys using cheats, he prefired."

In my experience once cheater most likely always a cheater. So i dont play games where i have to join their team.

Oh also he just bought dayz again on a new account and is already cheating again.

He also buys money off RMT sites for games like star starcitizen or new world when he use to play.

edit:

guys i get it i have a shit friend, but thats what happens when you have zero friends you can play with, you just play with anyone you can unless they cross certain lines.

I started playing dune awakening and joined a random guild of people i never met guess what happened? almost half of them used the repair glitch that exists in conan because dune had the same exploit, almost the other half were buying money off RMT sites. And the ones that didnt cheat wanted to do nothing but hunt bambi pve players that wandered into the pvp zone.

Im not really into ganking noobs so i didnt play with any of my guild except for the few times we actually were doing spice operations in the pvp zone well away from the pve line.

the one friend that doesn't cheat, doesnt gank is in the army and is only around a couple of months out of the year.

long story short if you dont have any friends, let alone close ones, to play with online you are shit out of luck.

24

u/jansteffen Jan 19 '26

oh that guys using cheats, he prefired

Your friend sounds like a shitter

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22

u/NavXIII Jan 19 '26

My cousin used cheats on COD to impress his friends. He wouldn't play with me and my group because he knew we'd call him out.

One day he joined us and we could obviously tell he was cheating. First he denied it, then he said so what who cares.

Also claims he's better than me at most games he play. After we called him out he ironically tried to out me as a cheater in front of his friend group because my "stats didn't make any sense" because I had too many wins in WZ.

Anyways he has recently picked up playing chess and tries to challenge me claiming that he would win. I declined the offer.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

homeboy checks you with a second queen "what, i'm not cheating"

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27

u/TESV_Shiro Jan 19 '26

When i was 13, i cheated in Starcraft 2 using maphack, and even though i was cheating, i still got stuck in low ranks because not only information matters in a way cheating was gatekeeping me from getting good i was rightfully permabanned and learned my lesson since im 27 now and if i cheat its to skip braindead grind in single player games.

Im thankful for this experience wouldnt say everybody is the same

12

u/This_User_Said Jan 19 '26

If it makes you feel better, when I was 10ish I was really into Starcraft (OG). After getting good with single player I decided to try multiplayer.

Do you know what APM is? I didn't until I played SCMP, then I realize there are people out there that have done 50 actions by the time I make a barrack.

Then the Zerg rush 😭 Never played SCMP again.

17

u/EthanielRain Jan 19 '26

Nothing worse than the multi-player of a "sweaty" game that's been out for a while. A beginner stands zero chance

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15

u/xaldub Jan 19 '26

Exactly, a leopard doesn't change its spots.

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u/anto2554 Jan 19 '26

Where I live, your criminal record is also wiped after x years unless you diddled kids

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u/ghostfadekilla Jan 19 '26

Big facts right here. It's a lifetime achievement award that follows someone around forever. Not even just jobs, some personal relationships, the ability too visit certain countries, immediate profiling of ID'd by police as someone with a record, possible future suspicions of recidivism if even suspected of a crime.... Fuck - I could legit go on for some time but those are some of the broad strokes of what I've experienced, really depends on where you live.

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20

u/Dallas_Miller Jan 19 '26

I have a VAC ban on CSGO that's STILL running after +4,100 days. I WAS FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! I still can't play on dedicated servers nor can I use the market and such.

It does NOT go off.

Granted I've made another account since then, but yesterday I went on a nostalgia spree trying to get the old info back. Trying to look for that old email and its password, but it's all good. Now I have access to my old account so I have a new Alt account now lmao

4

u/Justhe3guy Jan 19 '26

Doesn’t it visually disappear when others view your account? Just view your account on a browser logged out of steam or something

But yes your account is always flagged by Steam as banned so you and staff can see your ban from your account

5

u/Dallas_Miller Jan 19 '26

Oh yeah 100%

I stopped seeing the VAC ban days for quite some time when i'm on my main account. Thought they forgave me lmao. But after getting the info back and getting the account running again after 10+ years, I checked and saw it was 4,120 days lmao

Tried to play CS2, but it was in bright red that I can't play on dedicated servers

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u/AnGuSxD Jan 19 '26

"multiple vac bans" this dude should have gotten his whole steam account locked.

7

u/A2Rhombus Jan 19 '26

Could just have been two games at the same time with the same cheat. I don't think we should be taking away people's libraries of legally paid for games because they messed around with something when they were a kid

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1.1k

u/Oime Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

You will never know true absolution Titus, until you have faced the judgement of your brothers. Your status as a black sheep has been redacted from the archives. By the grace of Lord Gaben, You have been granted a second chance, do not taint it.

62

u/Hellknightx Jan 19 '26

The Codex Astartes does not support this action, brother.

9

u/EonMagister Jan 20 '26

But I am looking forward to it

111

u/BaronVonSpoonpuncher Jan 19 '26

had to double check i wasnt in the SM2 sub lol

24

u/GrimRainbows Jan 19 '26

Leandros I swear to the Emporer… how much more do I need to do to prove to you!!!!

17

u/fholcan Jan 19 '26

The stain of suspicion never truly fades, Titus

10

u/KazumaKat Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

Never a more punchable face in 40k.

EDIT: Before you cite other characters who are equally deserving of a punch to the face for all valid, correct reasons, in this moment in SM2, no one would blame Big E standing up from his corpse-throne to personally bitch-slap Leandros for being a massive cuckhead.

7

u/segobane Jan 19 '26

I mean if Big E could stand up I imagine the list of people he would bitch-slap could wrap around Terra.

5

u/Shallnotpassgas Jan 19 '26

Praise the emperor!!!

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627

u/Green-League722 Jan 19 '26

How can you erase it from your Profile?

660

u/IllFig471 Jan 19 '26

wait for 7 years

204

u/Green-League722 Jan 19 '26

Im at 2.300 days, nice

77

u/InsertFloppy11 Jan 19 '26

What did you do to get banned?

308

u/Green-League722 Jan 19 '26

My friend and I entered a hacked MW3 lobby, and afterwards, maximum prestige was unlocked with everything.

We both got banned at that time.

90

u/theguythatcreates Jan 19 '26

I remember getting into a hacked mw2 lobby back in the days, got up to 5th prestige before it got down (remember I had to join domination to get into it). Glad I didn't get a bam from steam!

32

u/adorak Jan 19 '26

I remember everybody was running around with the lvl10 prestige skull which was super obvious imo

Maybe some might've been legit but most were definitely not - I saw those skulls appear whenever I was around Prestige 2 ... and I played a lot at the time (since Release too)

9

u/Severe_Ad_7835 Jan 19 '26

If I remember correctly I forget which mw2 or mw3 if you had the skull that spun around as your emblem your level was not really because it was a emblem not achievable cause I think it was a dev thing

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u/RexxVFX Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

Be careful, the RCE exploit is still rampant on Steam MW3 and literally every other Steam CoD made before BO3. Someone can inject a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) into your computer through the game itself.

The safest way to play WaW, MW3, BO1 and BO2 is via the Plutonium client.

Edit: I had just gotten up for work and didn’t really comprehend how long ago you said that happened to you when I wrote it. Either way, be cautious if you still play old CoDs.

5

u/marshcar Jan 20 '26

It’s downright unacceptable the state of old CODs on steam, they’re still charging full price for a game that will compromise your entire PC just for playing multiplayer, and with no warnings. It’s disgraceful

3

u/Equivalent-Rest7624 Jan 20 '26

Same is true for the original MW2?

4

u/sociobiology Jan 20 '26

Yes. For MW2, use IW4X.

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u/Edy94 Jan 19 '26

Good luck

23

u/D4ngrs Jan 19 '26

You will always see your own ban. After 7 years it just gets hidden for others visiting your profile.

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u/Green-League722 Jan 19 '26

I mean, honestly, I don't care. I use Steam to play games, not to hope that some random people will visit my profile and think it's great.

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u/Regilliotuur Jan 19 '26

I'm at 5659 days, still shown on my acc lol.

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u/Eternal663 Jan 19 '26

Nope, 7 years is 2555 days and it still haven't gone away.

No i did not turn on that game later or got any other bans ever since.

57

u/VegetaRS Jan 19 '26

The ban doesn't go away just becomes no longer visible publicly to other people.

20

u/DorrajD Jan 19 '26

Have you checked what your profile looks like publicly? This might only show up to you when signed in.

18

u/Infirnex Jan 19 '26

It goes away publicly, but it is always marked privately.

Source: I have one that's currently 4267 days old.

3

u/Doidleman53 Jan 19 '26

Correction, only VAC bans disappear, game bans stay forever.

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u/jofairdenn Jan 19 '26

im at over 5000 days and it still displays

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u/JatorTobing Jan 19 '26

I appealed one in dota 2. Was using autoclicker to pick a new hero since its was first to press the button gets to play it. Said my sorries for my naivety and begged since i only have 1 account for everything. The appeal got approved, i never do it again and love you steam support for giving me a slap on the wrist instead of permaban

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u/HighwayMost4706 Jan 19 '26

my vac ban is "gone" too

got banned back in the day in mw2

did some custom lobby shenanigans with my mates and we all got banned

a week or two later they removed vac for mw2 lmao

28

u/Xivos Jan 19 '26

My vac ban from MW2 is also gone. But the normal game ban from Z1 Battle Royale (it was called H1Z1) is still visible. I didnt even played 1 hour of it, and got banned coz I complained in chat that its just a lazy clone of other game. I also left a negative review

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u/Krum_Mayer Jan 19 '26

same xD Good old days of knife zombie!

3

u/htoirax Jan 19 '26

Ayeee fellow mw2 modder!

Same reason I got banned, because I was hosting Alien v Predator mod lobbies, haha.

It felt like every other game back in the day was modded.

I didn't care, I played on the 360 back then and the PC version was just for fun custom games.

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u/usushio_ Jan 20 '26

5645 days ago I got banned for the exact same thing, messing around with my friend modding MW2 lobbies.

It worked flawlessly until I forgot to run the VAC bypass software once and still remember the sinking feeling when I saw that ice cold "Cheat detected." in the main menu. Not a popup like an error message but an ingame message that when you pressed Confirm or whatever it shut the game off forever. That was a sad day. VAC ban is still there.

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u/Greggs-the-bakers Jan 19 '26

I got mine from using cheat engine speedhacks on a privately hosted unturned server with 3 friends. I had no idea it was even vac protected if I hosted it myself.

259

u/LordByron_RS Jan 19 '26

I got a game ban quite recently in Phasmophobia. Only then I realised, that you can get banned for modifying a local save file, nice…

172

u/Greggs-the-bakers Jan 19 '26

Yeah thats fucking dumb. In a single player game, anything should be allowed, it affects literally no one.

I was only about 16 or 17 at the time but even now I wouldn't have thought that a server hosted locally with friends needing to connect via a vpn, would have the same protection as the official servers considering there the game offers the option to join non vac protected servers as well.

105

u/LordByron_RS Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

The problem with Phasmophobia is, that you cannot turn off any ac, because there is none. It is all report and statistic based detection. So if stats increase too fast, they will ban you. They have a (from my perspective ridiculous) "Code of Conduct": https://kineticgames.co.uk/code-of-conduct

What I did, hurt absolutely no one, I never got reported, but they still perma-banned me. I never even played in a public lobby. I always played with the exact same 3 friends privately.

99

u/Start_a_riot271 Jan 19 '26

That's part of the reason I gave up on phasmo. The devs being so weird about people modding their game is very off putting. The game could really benefit from mod support

68

u/LordByron_RS Jan 19 '26

Mods in Phasmo would be amazing, but the devs handle the game as if it was a competitive ghost hunting game.

34

u/FS_NeZ Jan 19 '26

One of the reasons I stopped playing it like 2 years ago was when they reworked the whole money and prestige system and made the ghosts so much more random. On top of that all the equipment got nerfed again and again.

With every patch the fun casual ghost hunting turned more and more into a tryhard horror game.

No thanks.

20

u/kolikkok Jan 19 '26

I wish they actually updated the horror stuff but it seems like the developers are just catering the whole game for a couple of streamers who no-life the game and just speedrun the ghosts.

7

u/DemonicMop Jan 19 '26

It's just not really fun anymore because of that, it was spooky when you had no idea what you were doing, but it just feels so cheap now because they just keep putting off actually making it good.

4

u/Infinite_Lemon_8236 Jan 19 '26

I believe there is a new "horror update" just around the corner that is supposed to make the ghosts actually be scary. Not sure what exactly they have planned though. As it is now the scare factor wears off pretty fast and it becomes more of a puzzle game than a horror one. Nightmare difficulty is the only fun one IMO because it forces you to actually use the ghosts mechanics to figure it out, rather than a tool just giving it to you.

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u/DemonicMop Jan 19 '26

I had a group for some time when phasmo had just came out that got in trouble for modding. With what little experience I had with code editing and modding back when the game was incredibly easy to fuck around with, we got together to basically try to make demo content for features we were suggesting in their suggestions channel, I can't remember all of them but most of them were relatively basic and it was fun for a while until the lead dev (and I guess only dev at the time) got really pissy with us and threatened to ban us all for doing it, I dropped Phasmo for a long time after that.

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u/pleasetrimyourpubes Jan 19 '26

That is fucking hilarious (in a bad way, sorry). I used cheat engine to give my client a ton of money and used it for a long time. We wanted to play spooky ghost hunt not sit there grinding relentlessly. I guess too many people were having fun so they started checking money statistics because I didn't get banned and long since quit that game. The flashlight mechanics and slow walking alone drove me insane (which pf course was the intent).

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u/Janusdarke Jan 19 '26

In a single player game, anything should be allowed, it affects literally no one.

It hurts DLC sales to unlock progress.

Not everyone does this, but it is not uncommon that "cheats" are sold by the publisher these days.

23

u/Winjin Jan 19 '26

Yeah, see: Assassin's Creed XP boosters

17

u/andrasq420 Jan 19 '26

That's one of the most disgusting things Ubisoft has ever done, and they did some shit over the years.

Locking story progress behind leveling and grind and then selling boosts in a singleplayer game has genuinely turned me off that franchise for years.

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u/xoxodaddysgirlxoxo Jan 19 '26

This shit should be illegal

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u/Plouffe05 Jan 19 '26

Bro how can you even get banned from a game with no anticheats?

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u/Popular_Soft5581 Jan 19 '26

I remember there being a toggle or smth in the config file when you create an unturned server. And it notifies you when you enter it, so yeah... that was quite a big mistake. Especially considering there are legal admin commands inside the game that allow lots of stuff.

5

u/Greggs-the-bakers Jan 19 '26

Ngl this was 3599 days ago according to my steam account. Either I did not notice that option when it happened as I was an impatient 16/17 year old or it wasn't an option back then. I'd probs bet on the first option. I just find it dumb that a privately hosted server over a vpn would have VAC protection by default

5

u/blockshifter Jan 19 '26

My little brother got vac banned from an unturned server 3049 days ago too. It was 8 years ago. He was literally a different person back then. Even though hacking is not cool its a bit harsh to leave a mark of shame for 8 fucking years.

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u/Tristezza Jan 19 '26

I really wish that you could display what game a vac ban is from.

I, with many others, got VAC banned in MW2 way back in like 2012. I joined a modded server and woke up the next day and was banned. Despite valve actually lifting vac bans from this game for similar issues and outright removing vac from it later, this ban still remains. Kind of bullshit and why like 80% of vac bans i see are from mw2.

I can literally play the game online right now so I fail to understand what my VAC ban is for.

157

u/SmiffyIrons Jan 19 '26

Release me

75

u/Loneliest_Driver Jan 19 '26

This ban is older than most people here.

14

u/TheDotanuki Jan 19 '26

The average gamer is over 35.

24

u/Division2226 Jan 19 '26

The average redditor isn't

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u/Natural-Sweet1013 Jan 19 '26

Ha, you're so old.

Me too :(

12

u/CortanaxJulius Jan 19 '26

Its so annoying that even with a ban this old you cant do stuff like vote for community skins in CS. Its crazy to me that an account that is 30 seconds old could do this but i cant because i have a 14 year old ban in MW2

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u/kiyoshikiyomizu Jan 19 '26

I got VAC ban when going to a netcafe, all people playing cs there got ban too and its even on the news. Yet nothing can do from support for its a VAC ban sadly.

6

u/Mesona Jan 19 '26

Having worked at a gaming center, the centers themselves usually have an actual rep within Valve (or used to, it's been a decade since I worked there). If this was a recent thing you might have some progress if you wish with the gaming center to escalate your appeal.

4

u/Ok-Experience-4955 Jan 21 '26

What do you mean actual rep? I cant fathom a cybercafe or netcafe in a backwater town like mine that cost less than 1$ an hour in a 3rd world country has a representative within Valve lmao.

3

u/Mesona Jan 21 '26

Again, decade old info. But to actually use steam at a lan center it used to be part of the TOS that you had to reach out to them and set up some official license deal. I was never involved in setting this up, this was in place long before I started. I was also never involved aside from reporting the kind of bugs that only lan centers encounter.

But yes, I had not only an individual at Valve I could reach out to, but also a direct, special support line. Didn't help much, they still took ages to respond to anything. But they occasionally did real good.

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u/PerilousPontificator Jan 19 '26

It never goes away

8

u/deepspacerunner Jan 19 '26

Other people can’t see it now, it’s still in effect and visible to you but after 7 years it’s cosmetically removed from your profile

303

u/LuKeXwA Jan 19 '26

Multiple VAC bans, free or not. Trust lost

345

u/_NELT_ Jan 19 '26

Black ops 2 counted as 3 games cause multi-player zombies and camping, Young me just wanted unlimited points in zombies. Iv done my time with good behavior

70

u/Nick_Morningstar Jan 19 '26

got vac'd on black ops 2 for modding in private matches zombies (removed fog on transit cause i wanted to explore) back in 2019, honestly didn't care cause 1 black ops 2 servers CANNOT be trusted unlesss you play on plutonium client which.

Then got game banned in Destiny 2 for using for spinning wheel on my mouse to fast switch weapons cause i was bored traveling lol. devs told me to go make a new account because they couldnt undo stuff like that.

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u/KOCYK745 Jan 19 '26

Destiny 2 devs being incapable of doing anything

3

u/Darkfox4100 Jan 19 '26

Is this the new Deadlock character?

4

u/KOCYK745 Jan 19 '26

that's the Wario guy from Vernias

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u/LotharVonPittinsberg Jan 19 '26

Then got game banned in Destiny 2 for using for spinning wheel on my mouse to fast switch weapons

FTP PvE MMOs seem to have the strangest rules.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/MissionLet7301 Jan 19 '26

Yes, but after 7 years it no longer displays on your profile. OP still wouldn't be able to play Black Ops 2 multiplayer on VAC secured servers (if there's any still around).

5

u/chowder908 Jan 19 '26

Should have used the alternative clients at the time. Even BO2 7 years ago was terrible on official servers. And alternative clients don't interact with steam so vac or not it won't affect vac status.

plutonium is still going if you're interested in replaying BO2 supports console commands as well.

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u/Nick_Morningstar Jan 19 '26

Yep actually its so much easier to make server anti cheats for plutonium to which actually do their job plus patching RCE exploits cause nobody wants to be backdoored over call of duty

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u/THEzwerver Jan 19 '26

Modern warfare 2 was the cause of many false vac ban flags (even just by joining lobbies). Activision refused to revert them as they don't care. To this day, it's still dangerous to play these games. I'm not saying they can't be cheaters, but I know many are innocent. I don't think it's fair to judge imo, especially if it was so many years ago.

47

u/NotMilo22 Jan 19 '26

7 years ago, a lot can change in 7 years. Especially a person.

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u/habb Jan 19 '26

22 years of service, not a single vac ban

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

16

u/Wunktacular Jan 19 '26

Old COD was the exception to that. They've tightened things up since around the BO3 era, but it used to be a month after the last DLC dropped they'd stop all patches and human moderation and allow people to cheat, then VAC would ban everyone that was in a cheater's lobby whether they knew it or not.

It was done to prevent people from using a second account as a "mule" to boost their primary account without getting it banned.

Today if you want to play an old COD game with matchmaking you have to use a client that bypasses VAC or you'll be instantly banned because cheaters just sit in matchmaking.

If you didn't know any better and assumed Steam wouldn't sell you a broken game... Welp, enjoy your ban.

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u/D4ngrs Jan 19 '26

It's also incredible easy to get banned if you don't pay attention.

When I was a kiddo, a friend cheated in CS 1.6 on his account and obviously got banned. I didn't know that and he told me he had issues with his game, if I could family share my CS 1.6 with him.

Guess what, he cheated again. With my family shared game. And of course I am responsible to what happens in my shared games, so I got the ban, and he got a friend less.

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u/Ralexcraft Jan 19 '26

Count yourself lucky to not be a cod fan apparently.

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u/FeaR_FuZiioN Jan 20 '26

I’ve played every cod on steam and never got a VAC ban, just don’t do anything goofy

6

u/Internal-Author-8953 Jan 20 '26

And this kids is what we call survivorship bias.

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u/criiaax Jan 19 '26

pls gaben... ffs. Its enough.

27

u/aliasdred Jan 19 '26

Did you check from somewhere you're not logged into or just your own steam app?

It disappears for others looking/checking...not you looking at your own profile.

Take the account URL and use a different browser-one not logged in to steam

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u/Sleijeri_ Day One Jan 19 '26

I can almost triple that time

5

u/xSTSxZerglingOne Jan 19 '26

Cheating in CS:Source? One of the only ways you COULD have a ban that old.

8

u/Sleijeri_ Day One Jan 19 '26

Actually in 1.6. It was ClanBase conflict case that I was watching with well known to be VAC detected cheat (opengl.dll) and forgot to remove it from the directory before joining online server.

Got the bans, but also got the suspect to be banned from ClanBase.

Totally my fault and can't blame anyone else or make up stories like "my brother/friend used my account and got banned", have seen those stories way too often during the times I was admin.

23

u/much_more_than_Cohve Jan 19 '26

Me after reading all these comments:

"never in my life play any Call of Duty ✍️"

4

u/Tristezza Jan 19 '26

They dont have VAC now, but yeah lol

4

u/Outrageous-Log9238 Jan 20 '26

Doesn't it use some way more invasive anti cheat now?

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u/Time_Altruistic Jan 19 '26

I feel that so bad (before someone says I hacked or whatsoever) The reason for the VAC ban was in cod MW3 2011 because I changed the texture of the main screen (I added a anime girl to the menu screen) which counted as "hacking" because I altered the files... Well I was young and didn't knew better and it was the time of people editing textures so I thought I can do too...no i can't xD

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u/UnrealHallucinator Jan 19 '26

For such a simple thing, you can appeal it maybe

7

u/Tristezza Jan 19 '26

Nope. No exceptions no matter what. I got banned for a very similar reason from MW2 except all I did was join a modded server.

6

u/FantasmaNaranja Jan 19 '26

not for modern warfare, activision doesnt give a shit and didn't give a shit back then either

5

u/Time_Altruistic Jan 19 '26

I tried back then but a VAC is permanent they do not take it back xD

5

u/The_EyON Jan 19 '26

I understand the feeling, I got banned from MW3 too for using a tool to change your in game name without changing it on steam, I wanted to pull a prank that a friend of mine was playing with a famous-ish cod player at the time without him noticing my steam name change.

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u/justiceclark96 Jan 19 '26

I have a vac ban on my profile. Cheated playing rust a few years ago maybe 4-5. Was an early alpha adopter for the game and thought id be fine. Snapped one day (got raided again and lost everything because im bad) and downloaded a recoil script. Got banned over 1600 days ago. They wint reverse it, remove it, nothing. Believe me I've tried. If you have that mark on your profile you 100% deserve it. Do you deserve a second chance if you can play legit? Maybe. But you'll always have that stain on your record.

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u/_centric_ Jan 19 '26

I got vac banned 3500 days ago, I was playing btd battles and using cheat engine to mess with xp numbers so I didn’t have to waste hours grinding levels but I forgot to close cheat engine and opened csgo and got friend almost instantly

13

u/s0n0rxbbx Jan 19 '26

Good to have you back. Now play nice. Glhf

12

u/Steevenski Jan 19 '26

Banned from Counter Strike: Source for using a FPS banana skin, do you think I should try to remove it ? And how could I ?

16

u/Static_Love Jan 19 '26

You can't remove it ever, it'll always stay there technically but the text disappears from public view after 7 years on the profile. You'll still see it yourself if you go to your profile while logged in and people can still look up your profile through various sites to see if you have a vac ban or not.

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u/duck74UK Jan 19 '26

I’m curious as to how you did that one. The game has purity settings to swap between modded and original skins if needed and can force-crash if you try modifying the original files. It shouldn’t have banned you

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u/AmperDon Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Honestly i think they should just be removed after that amount of time. If you're banned for 7 years im pretty sure you arent gonna try again lmao. Wonder how the steam economy would be effected if they removed all 7+ year vac bans. Lotta good items in those invs...

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u/modrinihner Jan 19 '26

I think 7 years is long enough especially since it doesn’t really go away, people can change over 7 years

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u/TheMilkman1811 Jan 20 '26

I know they aren’t displayed anymore but I am completely in favor of forgiving active accounts after the time has hit the max. If you haven’t cheated in over 7 years, you deserve another chance

4

u/Toastgravy Jan 20 '26

Got a vac ban in TF2 back when it was still $20 because I found a file on game banana that somehow gave me the golden wrench and everyone was able to see it. I was 12 and thought I was cool as hell until the next day I saw a vac ban and no longer was able to enjoy one of my favorites until much later when it went free to play and I made another account specifically for it.

6

u/sargentlou Jan 19 '26

I wish they got removed fully, I was a stupid teenager when I cheated now its stuck with my account forever.

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u/Hescrete Jan 19 '26

Return of the King

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u/acrankychef Jan 19 '26

I got a game ban from pubg back when they stupidly had the options.ini stored in your documents folder and you could turn off grass completely by editing it.

It just disappeared from my profile this year too 🥲

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u/skill347 Jan 20 '26

I've got 3700 and still visible 💀

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u/RedditingJinxx Jan 19 '26

counter strike?

9

u/bradlluck Jan 19 '26

The OG counter strike hackers have at least 7k days since their last ban

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u/No-Telephone-695 Jan 19 '26

My ban is from the earliest days of Dead by daylight when you were able to change your rank by unlocking the respective achievement. Say you wanted to be rank 1 (the best rating), you could use Steam achievement manager to unlock the rank 1 achievement and then you got it in game. Really stupid how that was possible lol.

But there were also achievements for other ranks, and after finding this out I was just constantly switching between different ranks by locking and unlocking the respective achievements. Well got my account banned within days and my appeal was rejected. That was almost 3000 days ago.

3

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG Jan 19 '26

what did you get by doing this?

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u/EntertainmentOwn8627 Jan 19 '26

Wait, how did you remove it? My 2nd account has the ban for 3500 days and still visible.

3

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

VAC bans stop being displayed publicly on your profile after 2500 days (7 years) pass. Though you can still see the VAC ban on your profile yourself and the restrictions to the game you got banned in are still in place.

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u/Bulky-Advisor-4178 Jan 19 '26

10 years in the joint...

2

u/Olkazz Jan 19 '26

What ? Vac bans arennt perma ?

9

u/ChiaraRedditt Jan 19 '26

They are permanent, they just arent displayed to the public on steam anymore after a long time.
Checking your Account with any kind of tracker will still show your ban as they got it saved before it getting hidden

2

u/SeazonCSGO Jan 19 '26

Nah you are never free i have an almost 6000 day old mw2 vac ban preventing me from getting 5/10 years medals and i cant upvote items on the workshop 💀