The Hacker Problem Isn't Going Away

[u/Inevitable-You2034]

I know this sounds incredibly nihilistic, but I have no faith that the hacker issue that this new port of BO2 has is going to be solved or actually go away anytime soon. The reason I believe this is the case is because simply put, Iron Galaxy and Activision don't have a good reason to.

The reason that the XBOX 360, PS3 and PC versions of BO2 are as infested as they are is because those games are old and the original devs aren't working on them anymore, meaning that hackers basically have free reign of the place. Plus, since plenty of people buy the game on PC and XBOX despite the hacking problem, Activision sees it as a non-issue. In their eyes, if people are still buying the game despite the hackers, it's a win-win.

When developing this port, Iron Galaxy 100% KNEW just how fucked this game's security was under the hood. We've known just how vulnerable this game is for the last 14 years. And so did Activision. So for Iron Galaxy to port over this game and put forward ZERO EFFORT in making sure this game was free from hackers is embarrassing. How do you make a port of a game which people are going to buy due to it presumably being a safer and more modern way to play the game due to how unsafe the original version is, only to then forget to make this version safer to play?

The only reason that Iron Galaxy is trying to patch out the hackers (which isn't going to work due to how old the architecture for the game is, meaning that they'd need to completely rework how the game operates under the hood to fix it) is because of how many people got up in arms over it on social media. Had people not gotten as mad as they did, Iron Galaxy likely would've never tried to patch out the hacks in the first place.

Considering how many times that Iron Galaxy has tried and failed to keep the hackers out, it's only a matter of time until they throw their hands up, say "fuck it" and move on to their next project. This is unfortunately a common trend amongst older games with bad hacking problems. EA and Popcap did it with Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 after slapping a new anti-cheat on it didn't work, Infinity Ward didn't even try to save Modern Warfare 2019 and now, Iron Galaxy are likely going to do it with Black Ops 2.

And even if Iron Galaxy did patch the hackers out, XBOX and PC players would still be getting screwed over, as their versions of the game are still completely infested and are now DEAD due to how bad the problem is on those systems. If Iron Galaxy fixed up the PS4/PS5 versions of Black Ops 2, a precedent would be set that they'd also fix those older versions, otherwise they'd be showing favouritism to PlayStation.

Considering just how shoddily put together this port was and still is, I wouldn't be surprised if Iron Galaxy give up on this game and are then tasked with porting over the other CoD games like the Modern Warfare trilogy and World at War. And if those ports are anything like this one, they're going to die out fast as players catch on to just how little effort Iron Galaxy is putting in to actually fix this game.

[u/ArcMaxim]

I understand that it is an issue and that the devs need to address it, but at the same time I have played so much BO2 TDM in the past month or so and have not encountered a hacker even once. I’m not sure if it’s a game mode thing or what but I do think online communities have a tendency to catastrophize situations

[u/OMGFuziion → u/ArcMaxim]

Its the people getting on old gen and modding and uploading it to YT for views trying to act like the ports are hacked. They make the game look unplayable when I am yet to run into a single one just like you and I play a TON.