Marcus Reed
Articles (78)
Rocket League added Easy Anti-Cheat — here's what changed (and Steam Deck still works)
Rocket League's April 2026 Easy Anti-Cheat update breaks BakkesMod overlays but keeps Steam Deck and Linux fully supported — here's the rundown of what changed and what Psyonix folded into the base game.
When a VAC ban is wrong: the CS2 false-positive wave and what to do
Valve's VacLive briefly banned thousands of legitimate CS2 players in January 2026 over mouse sensitivity. Here's what happened, and what to do if a bad VAC ban ever hits you.
Can you play Battlefield 6 on Steam Deck? The current answer
Battlefield 6 doesn't run on Steam Deck because of EA's Javelin anti-cheat — here's what blocks it, what EA has actually said, and which handhelds do work.
Can Steam Family Sharing get you banned? What to know
If you share your Steam library, a cheater you lend to can cost you the game and your sharing privileges — here's exactly how bans and Family Sharing interact.
Does an EAC ban affect other EAC games?
A ban in one EAC game almost never locks you out of your other Easy Anti-Cheat titles — here's what carries over and what doesn't.
Does an HWID ban transfer to a new PC?
A HWID ban follows old parts and the banned account, not a genuinely new PC — here is what to change and what you can keep.
How to tell if you have a HWID ban
A HWID ban follows your PC, not your account — how to recognise the signs and confirm it with a clean test.
HWID ban vs IP ban: what's the difference?
An IP ban is about where you connect from; a HWID ban is about which machine you connect with. The two fail in opposite ways.
What is a HWID ban, exactly?
A HWID ban is a hardware fingerprint match, not a mark on your PC. What it is built from and why some are harder to escape.
Easy Anti-Cheat explained: the industry's most common anti-cheat
EAC protects Fortnite, Apex, Rust and many more. Why the same anti-cheat enforces very different rules per game.
What is BattlEye? The anti-cheat behind dozens of major games
BattlEye protects PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Tarkov and more. How it works and why its bans follow your hardware.
Rainbow Six Siege bans: BattlEye and beyond
R6 Siege uses BattlEye plus Ubisoft's own enforcement. How its bans work and what hardware bans mean here.
5 reasons to change your HWID in 2026
From HWID bans in Valorant to license recovery after a hardware upgrade — five real scenarios where changing your hardware fingerprint saves time and money.
FACEIT Anti-Cheat explained
FACEIT runs its own kernel-level anti-cheat for competitive play. How it differs from a game's built-in protection.
PUBG anti-cheat: BattlEye and zero-tolerance bans
PUBG runs BattlEye and is known for strict, hardware-aware enforcement. How its bans work and why they stick.
Call of Duty's Ricochet anti-cheat explained
Ricochet pairs a kernel driver with server-side analytics. How it works and why its bans reach the hardware.
Apex Legends anti-cheat: how bans work
Apex Legends runs Easy Anti-Cheat. How detection works, why bans can reach the hardware, and what the ban tiers mean.
How anti-cheats detect virtual machines
Many anti-cheats block virtual machines outright. The signals they use to spot one — and why VMs stand out.
Roblox HWID bans and the Hyperion anti-cheat
Roblox enforces at the device level with its Hyperion anti-cheat. How its bans work across platforms.
Cloud gaming and hardware IDs
When a game runs in the cloud, whose hardware does the anti-cheat see? Why cloud gaming complicates the HWID picture.
Escape from Tarkov bans: BattlEye and the hardcore stakes
Tarkov's punishing design raises the incentive to cheat — and BattlEye plus Battlestate's enforcement raise the stakes back.
Shared PCs and false HWID bans
When several people use one PC, a hardware ban earned by one can catch everyone. How shared-machine bans happen.
How long do game bans last?
Temporary, escalating, permanent — game bans come in tiers. What decides the length and which bans never expire.
VAC bans explained: Valve Anti-Cheat across Steam
VAC protects many Steam games at once. How it differs from kernel anti-cheats — and why it is account-bound, not hardware-bound.
GTA Online bans: BattlEye and the modding problem
GTA Online on PC has long fought modders. How its BattlEye protection works and what bans mean for players.
Anti-cheat false positives: when innocent software gets you flagged
Overlays, macros and system tools can trip an anti-cheat. Why false positives happen and how to reduce the risk.
Denuvo: anti-tamper, not anti-cheat
Denuvo is often blamed for things it does not do. What anti-tamper actually is, and how it differs from anti-cheat.
Rust bans explained: EAC and the wipe cycle
Rust runs Easy Anti-Cheat and bans hard. How its enforcement works alongside the game's relentless wipe cycle.
Why games ask for your phone number
More games require a phone number before ranked play. What problem it solves and how it relates to bans.
Gaming cafes and HWID bans: a shared-machine problem
In a gaming cafe, dozens of strangers share each PC. What happens when one of them earns a hardware ban.
Fake HWID spoofers and malware: how to stay safe
Gaming tools are a favourite disguise for malware. Why "free spoofer" downloads are risky and how to protect yourself.
Trust Factor explained: matchmaking by reputation
Trust Factor decides who you are matched with, quietly and invisibly. What feeds it and why it is not a ban.
Dead by Daylight bans: anti-cheat in an asymmetric game
Dead by Daylight runs Easy Anti-Cheat. How cheating works in a 4v1 game and how its bans are handled.
Vanguard comes to League of Legends
Riot extended its kernel anti-cheat from Valorant to League of Legends. What changed and why players debated it.
WoW's Warden: the anti-cheat that started it all
Warden has guarded World of Warcraft for two decades. How this in-process scanner works and why it predates the kernel era.
HWID landscape 2026: what to expect
HWID landscape 2026 — what to expect.
How software licensing uses your HWID
Hardware IDs are not just for games. Paid software binds licenses to your machine — and a hardware change can break activation.
Overwatch 2's Defense Matrix explained
Defense Matrix is Blizzard's umbrella for keeping Overwatch 2 fair — anti-cheat, account checks and reporting combined.
FiveM bans: GTA roleplay and its own enforcement
FiveM powers GTA roleplay servers and runs an enforcement system separate from official GTA Online. How its bans work.
Anti-cheat on the Steam Deck
The Steam Deck runs Linux, and anti-cheat support is not automatic. Why some games work and others refuse to launch.
Does anti-cheat slow down your PC?
Anti-cheat software runs constantly while you play, and sometimes before. An honest look at its performance cost.
nProtect GameGuard and the Asian MMO anti-cheats
GameGuard and XIGNCODE3 protect many Asian MMOs. How this older, deep-running style of anti-cheat works.
Aim assist vs aimbot: where the line is
One is a built-in feature, the other is a bannable cheat. Why they get confused and what actually separates them.
E-sports and spoofing — the line we don't cross
E-sports and spoofing — the line we don't cross.
Why cheating is rarer on consoles than on PC
Consoles are closed systems; PCs are open. That single difference explains most of the cheating gap between them.
PunkBuster: the anti-cheat that came before the modern era
Before kernel anti-cheat, PunkBuster set the template. A look back at one of the first widely used anti-cheats.
The economics of game cheating
Cheating is an industry. Cheats are products, sold by subscription — and that funding shapes the whole anti-cheat fight.
Minecraft's unusual anti-cheat landscape
Minecraft has no kernel anti-cheat. Its fairness depends on something very different — and that shapes everything.
Cheating in mobile games, and how it is fought
Phones look locked down, but mobile games have a cheating problem too — with its own tools and its own defences.
Gaming data breaches and credential stuffing
When a gaming company is breached, the danger spreads — because so many people reuse the same password everywhere.
Windows 12 rumors and HWID implications
Windows 12 rumours and HWID implications.
WebRTC IP leaks: when a VPN is not enough
Your browser can reveal your real IP even behind a VPN. WebRTC is the usual cause — here is why and what to do.
Controller-emulation devices and how games fight them
Some devices feed a console scripted or cross-input commands while looking like a normal controller. Games are pushing back.
Android emulator HWID bans on PC
Android emulator HWID bans on PC — and how mobile anti-cheats spread to desktop.
Discord bots and HWID bans: a strange genre
Discord bots and HWID bans — a strange genre.
TF2 ban waves: a retrospective
TF2 ban waves — a retrospective and lessons learned.
The real cost of a game ban
A ban is not just a closed account. Adding up what is actually lost shows why "just make a new one" is expensive.
Anti-cheat trends in Asia
Anti-cheat trends in Asia — Korea, Japan, China.
Why anti-cheat and antivirus sometimes conflict
Two security-minded programs, both watching your system closely. Occasionally they get suspicious of each other.
How we accept Stripe payments — privacy notes
How we accept Stripe payments — and what we know about you.
A short history of cheating in video games
From printed cheat codes to a funded industry, cheating has changed beyond recognition. The arc explains the present.
Honeypot cheats: when the cheat is the trap
Not every cheat a cheater finds is real. Sometimes it is bait, placed to identify whoever takes it.
The psychology of HWID bans
The psychology of HWID bans — why a ban hurts more than it should.
MSI and ASUS BIOS tools — what they expose
MSI Center, ASUS Armoury Crate — what these tools expose at HWID level.
CS:GO → CS2: how anti-cheat evolved
How CS:GO → CS2 changed anti-cheat — and what it means for HWID.
Console ban waves explained
How HWID bans work on PlayStation and Xbox — and why everything's different from PC.
Anti-cheat roadmap 2024: where the industry is heading
Anti-cheat roadmap for 2024 — where the industry is heading.
Fortnite HWID bans: anatomy of a wave
Anatomy of a Fortnite HWID ban wave — and what really gets you banned.
Windows 11 23H2: what changed under the hood
Windows 11 23H2 — what changed under the hood for HWID-related work.
License resale: legal status across regions
Software license resale — legal status across regions and how HWID change fits in.
QA and virtualization: testing on isolated hardware profiles
Why QA teams use HWID change instead of virtual machines, and where the tradeoff lives.
Trust and safety: legal use cases for HWID change
When is HWID change legitimate? A list of legal scenarios where the technology is genuinely useful.
MAC spoofing myths and reality
MAC spoofing myths and reality: where it works, where it doesn't, and why some apps still see your real MAC.
EA FC bans explained: how the publisher tracks your PC
EA FC (formerly FIFA) bans — how the publisher tracks players across PCs.
Valorant Vanguard: a deep dive into the kernel anti-cheat
Vanguard explained — Riot's most aggressive anti-cheat and how it differs from competitors.
Windows 11 22H2 — what changed for HWID
What Windows 11 22H2 changed for HWID — and why some old changers stopped working.
HWID bans in 2022: how anti-cheat policies changed
Vanguard, BattlEye, EAC, FACEIT — they're banning more aggressively by hardware. Here's what changed in 2022 and why false positives spiked.
What is HWID and which parameters it includes
We break down which exact hardware identifiers Windows uses to recognise your PC — and why they're so hard to wipe by hand.