Apex Legends update tackles DDoS attacks with loss forgiveness and bans
Respawn EntertainmentRespawn Entertainment are taking a firmer stance against DDoS attacks, releasing an update that grants loss forgiveness to all players involved in affected matches and announcing further ban measures.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are nightmarish ways to ruin a multiplayer game, as they constitute overloading someone’s server to interfere with their experience. Following earlier efforts to “crack down” on those attacks, Respawn Entertainment is now taking further steps to protect Apex Legends players and punish hackers.
In a June 10 tweet, Respawn announced that they’re launching a same-day update that should help players impacted by DDoS interferences while simultaneously laying out more bans against the perpetrators.
The primary measure to protect players in this instance is “loss forgiveness,” where DDoSed players won’t take losses or drops in their statistics in games that have been unfairly interrupted. A complementary measure is to punish the interrupters.
We've just shipped an update to address denial-of-service attacks on @playapex.
Now, when we detect an attack, all players will be booted from the game and granted loss forgiveness. The idea is to deny advantages to attackers and protect victims of those attacks from RP losses.
— Respawn (@Respawn) June 10, 2021
As seen in Respawn’s tweet, when DDoS attacks are registered during a match “all players will be booted from the game and granted loss forgiveness.” While that means players can’t get to finish out their match, at least it ensures they don’t suffer a loss for it.
Additionally, Respawn’s Lead Designer Chin Xiang Chong put out a subsequent tweet explaining the punishment side of this update. They elaborated that more bans will be laid out.
On top of this we've also been banning people identified with DoSing our servers. More fixes will also come in future updates. https://t.co/Y0Ylxm6cOq
— Chin Xiang Chong 张晋翔 (@tangentiallogic) June 10, 2021
In both tweets, the devs indicate that more measures are coming into play in the future. This is likely an encouraging sign for Apex Legends players, as it suggests the work isn’t done and that cheaters will continue to be dealt with.
Overall, community feedback on Twitter has been positive thus far — with players noting that they’re grateful for the efforts and that this is all a step in the right direction.