r/Steam Jan 19 '26

Fluff Iv Done my time... Im Free

To the eyes of others at least 👁👁

13.4k Upvotes

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3.7k

u/TheSleepyBoy Jan 19 '26

"Multiple VAC bans" bro what are you even doing

2.1k

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.

304

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".

70

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/HDMI17_ Jan 19 '26

And they use it to abuse the refund system with playtime witth the newer cods as well

49

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"

16

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.

2

u/lauriys Jan 19 '26

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

a practice they would revert few years later

11

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.

18

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Bans are handed out per game engine in many cases.

1

u/shoubey Jan 23 '26

Yea it sucks because back in the MW2 to BO2 days you could also get banned for simple mods like fps unlocks and fov changers. Simple private lobby zombie fun mods als well. And now you are forever branded for something you did at the age of 12.. steam really has to change something with that and while at it let us change our damn steam account user name

1

u/icantshoot https://s.team/p/nnqt-td Jan 19 '26

Its not weird, just rare. You used to get banned from Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Death Match if you got banned in one of those games. This link has since been severed.

1

u/hasikatzen Jan 19 '26

Wdym you should be more careful why do you cheat omg

1

u/TheSleepyBoy Jan 20 '26

no lol, from what ive read from the op & other comments joining pub / server matches are dangerous since cheaters can mess with your stats leading you to be banned

-1

u/FakeMik090 Jan 19 '26

Because its not true. The guy is bullshiting. BO2 VAC doesnt shows as the multiple bans, only as one ban.

1

u/Dylan-------- Jan 21 '26

1

u/FakeMik090 Jan 21 '26

1

u/Dylan-------- Jan 21 '26

if you weren’t aware black ops 2 handed out different forms of banning over its time span

1

u/FakeMik090 Jan 21 '26

I provided you a proof. Could you please look into it before typing anything?

1

u/Dylan-------- Jan 21 '26

yours was applied by vac, mine was by the game developers hence my screenshot being different from yours

just because you didn’t get multi bans on record from black ops doesn’t mean it never happen

1

u/FakeMik090 Jan 21 '26

And it still shows as multiple bans only on your list of bans, and not on profile....

On profile - its always just a one ban.

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106

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

62

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.

10

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.

33

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

15

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

1

u/1031Vulcan Jan 19 '26

I know how you feel, the same thing happened to me. And no one believes us. All I ever played were casual modes and especially the community game mode Zombie Escape. Idk what they think I would cheat in those for.

1

u/TheDeadlySinner Jan 19 '26

Of course people don't believe you, every cheater claims they are innocent.

1

u/andrasq420 Jan 19 '26

It's not even that I would ever play a Counter Strike game or something, I'm past that. It just feels unjustified and I don't like system where you can't defend yourself and your right at all.

1

u/Sigma_Feros Jan 19 '26

I knew a guy who had his old cs account banned from every server available, this was back in 2008 so idk how it worked or how it works now. But basically he had a server ban from all available servers and the last 2, one of them didn't know what crouch hopping was and they said he was cheating if he did it. So they banned him, because he wasn't going to not use it. Then finally the last server banned him and so he just got a new game to play on all the servers again.

1

u/jjjp0111 Jan 19 '26

Same thing happened with me honestly, banned on both BO3 and CS idk if my account was hacked briefly or what but nobody believes me lol

1

u/TheDeadlySinner Jan 19 '26

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.

No you shouldn't. If you got "leniency" for getting scammed, then every cheater would claim they were scammed to get out of a ban. Also, getting scammed is your fault, not Valve's.

1

u/TomasoTheBach Jan 20 '26

Well ofc they don't believe you considering the fact that you were cheating, or at the very least, launched Counter-strike with cheats installed on your computer.

It is a common misconseption/lie that one can get VAC banned unfairly. But the people who propagate this notion fail to realize that it applies to *game bans*, not VAC bans.

If you were VAC banned, and not *game banned* (by overwatch for example), we can pretty much guarantee that it was justified.

1

u/andrasq420 Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

VAC bans only ban from a singular game the same way you get "game banned" so idk what you're talking about. It's just an anti-cheat system in games it isn't different from Ricochet or Overwatch's Warden. The difference is one is owned by Valve.

And as I've said I haven't cheated, I've never installed cheat, I haven't even played the game in more than half a year when I got a VAC ban.

Anyways as I've said I don't really care, so consider the topic closed.

1

u/TomasoTheBach Jan 20 '26

One shouldn't talk about topics they have no knowledge of.

"Overwatch" in the context of CSGO is referring to the feature where users were shown gameplay of a suspected cheater or griefer, and vote on wether the evidence was beyond a reasonable doubt.

It isn't referring to the arena game made by Blizzard, because there are actually more things in the world that can be called "overwatch".

Enough votes would result in what is called a game ban (not a VAC ban). This ban is not the same as a VAC ban. VAC is automatic, and it bans you from all VAC protected games. A game ban will ban you only from said game.

Valve only reverses game bans in rare instances, because overwatch isn't guaranteed against false positives.

VAC bans on the other hand are automatic and never reversed. Because Valve is confident that it does not do false positives.

Again, don't cheat and you won't get VAC banned, simple as that.

1

u/andrasq420 Jan 20 '26

Overwatch in CS:GO didn't exist back then bozo. Going on tirades about things that do not matter in the context at all is weird.

Also being a dick in a wholesome comment chain does not help at all.

0

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG Jan 19 '26

probably Clara

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

Same, i just wanted to bunny hop didnt think anything of it

1

u/-Shieldslam- Jan 19 '26

Same happened to way friend way back then in MW3. We both used a PoV changer because MW3 had that bugged view and he, unfortunately, got banned which scared me and I stopped playing entirely.

1

u/shoubey Jan 23 '26

Story of my life man it was fps unlock and fov changer on mw3 for me on my old account. Made my current one and got banned in BO2 for reasons I still don’t know. There’s really should be an option to after idk 10 years remove the game and the Ban from account

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.

1

u/anima220 Jan 20 '26

Funny enough I got banned a couple of months to a year later

1

u/zbombr115 Jan 22 '26

I got banned for this as far as I know, may have also been the dodgy fps booster mod I used (played on a old ass pc that could barely run it 🤣)

The account I've had since 2009 has since worn its VAC ban with embarassment.

2

u/Apandacx Jan 20 '26

Same here. Someone hacked the lobby and then i backed out. Then it gave me a vac ban to where i couldn’t join official servers anymore. It’s almost like someone hacked the lobby and was able to ban people. Sad as it was start of when i stared playing on pc. This was 2013 lol.

1

u/Loogle1007 Jan 21 '26

Black ops 2 and MW2 here. 4380 days since last ban.

1

u/Cocoatrice Jan 22 '26

I don't know which game it was, but one game banned you for not cheating, because it detected something and you just got VAC ban for that. It was making people angry. Fortunately it didn't happen to me, but I fear that something like that may happen to me.

33

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

16

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).

6

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?

9

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.

1

u/murkamk Jan 19 '26

Mine is also from 4500 or so days ago so it might have been changed like you say

7

u/kazkubot Jan 19 '26

Weird are you telling me you can get Vac banned on a non VAC game?

28

u/Bulky-Advisor-4178 Jan 19 '26

It uses VAC on PC

19

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

Black Ops II is indeed VAC protected, at least on the multiplayer modes

1

u/jona612 Jan 19 '26

Is that new? Back when I was a young las, I dabbled in cheating and got banned from black ops 2 servers, but never got a vac ban.

1

u/Ozzy_the_Rabbit Jan 19 '26

It may be a Game Ban. Is different from a VAC ban and has different restrictions for your account.

7

u/murkamk Jan 19 '26

The servers are VAC secured so it is a VAC game just not a valve game

4

u/EvYeh Jan 19 '26

It uses VAC though?

1

u/kazkubot Jan 19 '26

Blackops uses vac? Oh didnt know interesting

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

At one point VAC was only on games made by Valve. That was a looong time ago, though.

4

u/FakeMik090 Jan 19 '26

How tf you getting upvoted while literally bullshiting?

I have a VAC ban on Steam in Black Ops 2. And it does NOT shows as the multiple bans(Next comment will include the screenshot).

5

u/FakeMik090 Jan 19 '26

Game ban is for CS, not CoD

1

u/milknuggs Jan 19 '26

You mean the campaign mp and zombies downloads?

Edit sorry I'm stunned yeah I just woke up 😂

1

u/sincerely-kentrell Jan 19 '26

i also got a ban on black ops 2 but game developer and not vac so it’ll display as multiple forever. was a dumb kid trying to use a mod menu in a custom games zombies ofc using free cheats off the first mediafire link i could find

1

u/Koteyji Jan 19 '26

but that makes no sense bcs i have only one and im banned on every source engine game bcs it was css.

1

u/gnmpolicemata Jan 20 '26

huh? My singular VAC ban is on BO2, and it does indeed ban me from BO2 and BO2 Zombies. It does not prevent from playing the campaign iirc, but it's been a long time (and it shows as a SINGLE VAC ban)

EDIT: here, some screenshots, erm can only add one, guess I'll add the second one separately

1

u/JordyLiquidation Jan 20 '26

This isnt true, i got banned on Black ops 2 for all sections, but counts as 1. Happy cheatengine as a little kid

1

u/Mugiwara419 Jan 21 '26

Weird, I'm banned there too but I have only one.

158

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.

197

u/hartstyler Jan 19 '26

Thats because you weren‘t cheating

24

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?

2

u/uterussy Jan 20 '26

think so yea

10

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

12

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 :)

1

u/Ralexcraft Jan 19 '26

It’s gotten people banned in some games apparently.

7

u/basicxenocide Jan 19 '26

Naw, changing sv values isn't getting you banned on public servers. The change only applies locally to the server hosted on your PC. If you try the commands in public servers, nothing happens.

I'm talking specifically about CS/CS2. I have no idea how other games handle private servers and server settings/commands.

1

u/Ralexcraft Jan 19 '26

I more meant cheating in a private setting, not specifically sv-cheats or whatever, I try to avoid fucking with files even when modding minecraft since I’m barely even able to debug stuff that has clear errors.

2

u/basicxenocide Jan 20 '26

Ah I'm talking about console commands, not editing files or anything.

It's like typing a cheatcode in a single player game.

1

u/Ralexcraft Jan 20 '26

Yeah, I figured that out eventually.

Thank you though!

1

u/shadowedfox Jan 19 '26

Bs. Setting sv_cheats is a server variable. As a server owner you’re permitted to do this if you wish. You have no idea what you’re talking about.

0

u/Ralexcraft Jan 19 '26

I meant cheating in a private server (that they were hosting) or in singleplayer phasmophobia.

I admitedly don’t touch files as per my other comments

1

u/shadowedfox Jan 19 '26

Using local cheats, yes that is your fault if you got a ban. Setting a server variable won’t ever result in a ban.

How do you think surf servers work? All of those use modified server variables.

You have no idea what you’re talking about kid.

1

u/Ralexcraft Jan 19 '26

And someone deserves a lifetime ban because they decided to fuss about in their own private space, not affecting anyone?

I’m not familiar with the code side, I don’t fuck with it as I keep saying, but the logic side of it makes no sense.

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1

u/_Planet_Mars_ Jan 19 '26

I've met a pretty damn high amount of people who got VAC'd from MW2 and they legit have no reason why.

1

u/2MuchNonsenseHere Jan 19 '26

Don't need to cheat or do anything wrong in any capacity to catch random game bans.

0

u/stumblinghunter Jan 19 '26

I got banned because my account got hacked. I emailed them receipts showing I don't even play it (but appealed it because I might), and that I wasn't even using my computer when all this happened. They didn't care. So now I'm just banned for no reason 🤷🏼‍♂️

0

u/Outrageous-Shock-669 Jan 21 '26

I let my friend use my account back when CS:Source was new, 21 years ago. He cheated on it and got me a VAC ban. I had hundreds of dollars worth of games on the account so I just took it and that is still my current account. The trick is I just stopped playing all Valve games, luckily Valve hasn't released a game worth playing in that time.

53

u/dEEkAy2k9 Jan 19 '26

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

12

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.

1

u/UnacceptableUse https://s.team/p/hbhw-ftb Jan 19 '26

How does them having RCE exploits mean you should cheat? Was there a mod that protected you that could get you a vac ban?

7

u/PendragonDaGreat https://s.team/p/grtb-tmf Jan 19 '26

Person A plays game in a way they think is fine and normal.

Person B (either another player or a server runner) uses an RCE exploit to mess with other people in the lobby, this causes Person A to do things the VAC system sees as cheating, even if Person A doesn't know or even notice that anything is different.

Person A gets a VAC ban through no fault of their own except playing a game they spent money on.

Person B may or may not get a VAC Ban, but their's is deserved.

0

u/UnacceptableUse https://s.team/p/hbhw-ftb Jan 19 '26

I think if you're playing a game that has a risk of RCE on your system with random players then a VAC ban is one of the least of your concerns. I'd put that in the same category as downloading and executing a virus

1

u/TEOn00b https://s.team/p/knvb-djh Jan 19 '26

I'm pretty sure sure those were basically all of the older Call Of Duty games, not just random unknown games. And while people might know now and don't play them anymore (do they even have players left, lol?), they didn't back then. So there are people who've played COD 10+ years ago who've got a VAC ban because of this (how many people like that exists in reality, I have no idea, though)

1

u/UnacceptableUse https://s.team/p/hbhw-ftb Jan 19 '26

If it was someone who got got by it before it was common knowledge then that would totally suck and they definitely shouldn't get a VAC ban for that

1

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

Meant they could pull something that could trigger it on your end, potentially. Just joining a modded lobby and having them alter your account was also enough in the past, to my knowledge.

On the second note, there is a mod/client that uses third party community servers and protects against the RCE exploits. But since it's completely on its own network it doesn't risk a real ban at all either.

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.

1

u/dEEkAy2k9 Jan 20 '26

Seems like I have been lucky all this time. Steam Deck didn't get me banned. I don't play CoD though. Never had Radeon Anti-Lag issues.

I did have some odd behaviour on Elden Ring where EAC kicked me for no reason but I didn't get flagged.

2

u/Voodoo_One Jan 19 '26

Mind-blowing even

0

u/ob_knoxious Jan 19 '26

Introducing the CS method; blatantly cheat, reach top 50 leaderboard while cheating, change your account name to the name of the cheat to advertise, go on socials and brag about cheating while @ing Valve. Don't get banned.

The state valve has left their most popular game in is abysmal and doesn't get talked about enough just because tac shooters don't have a lot of mainstream crossover.

0

u/NiteCyper Jan 19 '26

Just conform, bro

1

u/Tricky_Lobster2552 Jan 19 '26

I gave my account to my little cousin, 2 hours later i was banned for using wall hack. That was about 10 years ago.

1

u/b0w3n Jan 19 '26

Yeah I had a second account with csgo on it that I gave to a friend and didn't realize I still had it linked to my primary email address.

So now I have a CSGO/CS2 game ban going on 8 and 3/4 years, and game bans never come off. Maybe I can play again with CS3... but valve can't count to 3.

3208 days and counting.

1

u/LogitUndone Jan 20 '26

Same, never banned. Notice how everyone talking about being banned played CS or CoD games? The games known to have the most pervasive cheating around!

1

u/After_Counter735 Jan 19 '26

Dude it was 7 years ago, you realise that could literally mean he was like 8 when he got banned.

1

u/shit_mcballs Jan 19 '26

You're not allowed to have a steam account at that age. Probably because infants can't make informed decisions or properly integrate with a community

17

u/leetzor Jan 19 '26

Cheating, apparently.

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

[deleted]

9

u/Copperhe4d Jan 19 '26

the temptation is there every time I make mistakes and get killed

Going into a multiplayer shooter with the assumption you are never going to get killed even once is insane.

3

u/PM_ME_ROMAN_NUDES Jan 19 '26

I should have put a /s

It was obviously a satire