I was playing a regular match of Team Death Match in Call of Duty: Ghosts and after I finished the game, I logged out. The next day I came back it said I could not connect to the game, telling me to check back later and to check the game's server status. The issue persisted for more than a week and later on the game had a message saying that I was VAC Banned. I was extremely confused at this point, because the only way to get banned is if you broken the code of conducts found in the link bellow.
https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Call-of-Duty-Ghosts-Online-Cod e-of-Conduct
I then went into the official Call of Duty: Ghosts forum which is the one we are on right now, and I noticed that there are many posts that are extremely similar. This is crucial, because this means that I am not the only one with this issue. What I am thinking right now is that the latest patch note stated that there was an "overall anti-cheat improvements" (candyslexia). This can be found in the link bellow under the update on June 6, 2014.
In addition, this was not the first time that this has happened in Call of Duty: Ghosts overall. This issue was first presented on the Playstation 3 and the Playstation 4 where there was a ban wave occurring during March 16, 2014. The article's link can be found bellow this section written by David Veselki. Moreover, it was stated at first by Activision that the bans "will not be reversed" (Activision). This was then revised by Activision that stating that “[they] understand some players were incorrectly banned over the weekend and [they] have since corrected the issue. Try playing again now” (Activision). Based off this, Activision has taken responsibility to reverse the effect of this horrible mistake on the major Playstation consoles, but so far have not corrected this issue persisting on the PC version of Call of Duty: Ghosts. Users on Steam now have a VAC Ban linked to their account. PC players have contacted Activision support and the only information provided was "all bans are final and irreversible" (Abigail). Activision support is basically saying that no far, they have no intentions into removing the bans from the accounts effected negatively.
Twitter / InfinityWard: We understand some players ...
The PC community is definitely smaller than the consoles, but should not be unheard and not cared for. PC players are loyal customers of the Call of Duty franchise but sadly this issue may push us away slowly. Factors of this were also the game not being optimized to it's full potential but optimization can be tolerated, but punishing innocent players without compensation is another story. No one, including console users will want to play a game that falsely punishes innocent players. Many players, once again including console users, have been reported for hacking and have been banned due to them achieving high kill streaks, but what is the 25 gun streak rewards for? It is to be achieved and not used as a way of determining who is a hacker. "Mistakes were make" but many can be fixed like hitting the re-spawn button in game, or simply listening to the community for feedback if you are a developer and take it into action. We all are forgiving people if we are understood and considered and many issues can be fixed with some determination. Please lift the bans, and communicate with the Steam Enforcement team to lift the VAC Bans from innocent players who have been effected.
My Thoughts
We are all people and makes mistakes than can be reversed, but sometimes we need some help and suggestions and a little bit of change. For example, there can be a Ban Appeal system in action for players to be given a chance to show their point of view of a situation, this is why courts are fixed in the real world. Simple things like these can bring a gaming community closer together.