zlette

An Open Letter to @EpicGames, @RocketLeague, and @TimSweeneyEpic: Not another hate post. Not personally calling out the developers of Rocket League unfairly. But a genuine plea for help, because the game I love is in an inexcusable state. Up until recently, I thought that posting about cheating would only make it worse. I tried not to make content with DDoS and/or botting being the subject, as to not popularize it and introduce more people to it. Unfortunately, when every single top content creator can't go 3 games in ANY ranked game mode without running into bots, that same philosophy just doesn't hold up. Everybody knows how large of an issue this is now. The bots are everywhere, and there is NO hiding it. The root of the issue? People buying accounts that are boosted to SSL. And it seems like there are several solutions to be implemented that would help curb this issue. To name a few: - Prevent fresh accounts (less than 2000 lifetime wins) from achieving SSL rewards - Hardware bans (EAC will make this possible afaik) - Detect suspicious account activity (Unusual MMR gain, playing from different locations in the world) - Remove split screen ranked - Make accounts be 2FA enabled and linked to a phone number - Disable third party injection into the game - Reports for "Cheating" automatically upload replays to a replay data parser that can detect inhuman consistency in movements (such as whosbotting.com) - MMR return system for players who lost MMR to cheaters (Accounts would need to be harder to make before this, to prevent extreme MMR inflation) - Hiring 5-10 full-time employees to manually review reports from the game. Obviously these solutions are not all simple. Many will require complex implementation and nuance in order to not harm the experience of a normal player. There needs to be a coordinated effort from Rocket League developers and Epic Games to tackle these cheaters, and eliminate the financial incentive that these cheaters have to mass boost accounts using bots and DDoS. And the part that really hurts? It just seems like the Rocket League team is simply not staffed enough to make that coordinated and large scale effort. Despite Epic Games making more revenue by: - Taking away trading - Increasing item shop costs - Seeing a massive surge in player count due to streamers like @jynxzi getting into the game It seems, from an external perspective, like all this extra revenue is not being reinvested into the game and developer team in a way that makes the experience better for the average player. This game has survived and THRIVED for almost 11 years now. Everybody who gets into Rocket League gets hooked for the rest of their life. The game itself, of course, but also one of the most electric esports in the industry. It all hooks people in and makes them dedicated Rocket League fans for life. Am I going to sit here and lie on the timeline and say that I'm going to quit the game? No. I have more passion for creating content, and even improving my competitive skill in this game, than I ever have had before. Not only that, but I'm lucky enough to call Rocket League content creation my full time job. That's not something I could so easily give up. Rather, I love this game so much that I want to see it do well, and for the game to prosper in the way that this large community of Rocket League fans KNOWS it can, change needs to start from the top. So Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, Rocket League. Although you might see increased player counts right now, due to the influence of some of the largest streamers in the world getting into Rocket League, understand that hype is short. If you really want to hook these new players, and make them players for life, fix the issues currently plaguing your games. Make it so your creators and pros can actually play your game again. Show us that we are heard, so that we can wholeheartedly recommend Rocket League to our audiences as the game to play. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I just hope that someone who cares was able to see this, and get the message where it needs to go. With Concern, Coconut ❤️