With Marathon set to release in a few weeks, Bungie is laying the ground rules early, and they’re unforgiving.
In a blog post, Bungie laid out the technical aspects of how Marathon will work. As engineering director Eamon McKenzie puts it, the game is meant to be unforgiving in that you die either because the environment or players got you.
“These are the things we have to get right if we’re making a game in this genre. It’s non-negotiable,” said McKenzie.
Technical director Chris Butcher followed up by saying Bungie wants to establish a fair field where everyone gets the same information. “You want to know that it’s a level playing field. All of the information that you’re getting needs to be precise and accurate.”
To this end, Bungie will use BattlEye to prevent cheating. It also plans to use a server-side fog of war mechanic to help “keep gameplay secure from exploits that reveal the location of items or the contents of containers.”
Of course, nothing is perfect and there are bound to be cheaters who fall through the cracks. For them, Bungie has a simple and punishing message.
“Anyone found to be cheating will be permabanned from playing Marathon forever. No second chances,” said Bungie in a social media post.
It’s unknown if Bungie means an account ban, a hardware ban, or an IP address ban. Still, the message is very clear: cheat, and you won’t get to play the game again.
This is in stark contrast to Ark Raiders, which uses a three-strikes rule for cheaters. Offenders initially get banned for 30 days, then 60 days, and then a permanent ban for a third offense.
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