EA declares that they want to create a safe and fair environment in BF2042. For this, the initiative “Positive Play” takes hold
The goal is ambitious: EA and DICE want to keep Battlefield 2042 “free of harassment and cheating”. Design Director Daniel Berlin explained this in a Q&A session at Epic Games:
“In terms of anti-cheat, it’s important for us to say that it’s extremely important to us that our players have game sessions that are free of harassment and free of cheating.”
However, the wording leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Strictly speaking, the goal would also be achieved if at least some games could be played without cheaters. In contrast, it would be ideal if most games were safe and fair.
To achieve the goals it has set itself, Berlin refers to the EA guidelines “Positive Play”. These set out rules of conduct that are intended to ensure pleasant and fair interaction.
What does Positive Play mean?
The commandments in EA’s “Positive Play Charter” include the following aspects:
– No Toxic Behaviour: This includes harmful behaviour such as racial hostility, attacks on sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, religion, heritage, country of origin et cetera or unwanted sexual advances and messages.
– Fairness: Players should not cheat or gain an unfair advantage.
– Clean Content: Players should only share appropriate content.
– Follow local laws: Players should not perform illegal acts in the game. This includes insulting, defaming, harassing and threatening.
What happens in case of violations? The charter thus sets out a broad spectrum of undesirable behaviour, similar to the terms of use and community guidelines of EA games. Violations can be punished with temporary account suspensions (bans), which can also be imposed permanently in repeated and particularly severe cases.
How could anti-cheat work in Battlefield 2042?
Details about the concrete measures against cheaters in Battlefield 2042 were not mentioned. The developers are holding back on this so as not to play into the hands of cheat developers. However, we know that in the predecessor Battlefield 5, DICE relies on a mix of in-game and server technology such as Fairfight to put a stop to cheaters.
The developers also need help from the community. In other words, in-game reporting tools are available to make it easier to report conspicuous players. This is an important cornerstone for identifying cheaters and removing them from the game.
Although Battlefield 5 has had some complaints about cheaters, at least the situation did not seem to be as extreme as in competitor CoD Warzone. The factor that Battlefield 5 is not a Free2Play title, which are traditionally more affected by cheaters, most likely plays a role here.
A Free2Play example from EA would be Apex Legends, which also relies on a whole range of anti-cheat techniques, including the common tool Easy AntiCheat. It is conceivable that the programme will also be used in Battlefield 2042.
