Blizzard Entertainment recently revealed that over 9.7 million people participated in the open beta for its upcoming team shooter, Overwatch, and any game that reaches that sort of popularity also has to deal with a hoard of cheaters who look for ways to gain unfair advantages over other players by using tools such as aimbots, wallhacks, and more.

In a recent forum post, Overwatch community manager Lylirra said that Blizzard expects that Overwatch will have its fair share of cheaters, but the studio will do its best to prevent them from ruining the game for others.

“We’ve always taken cheating in Blizzard games very seriously, and that stance is no different for Overwatch,” Lylirra said. “‘Play nice; play fair’ is one of our core values as a company, and it’s something we’ve taken to heart not only when designing the game, but also as we’ve developed our plans to support it and our players after launch.”

Lylirra noted that, as with its other games, Blizzard will permanently ban any players who are discovered to have used exploits or hacks in Overwatch, but the studio still needs players to keep an eye out for cheaters.

“If you believe another player is cheating or you have information pertaining to the use of hacks, bots, or unauthorized third-party software in Overwatch, please contact us at hacks@blizzard.com,” Lylirra said. “Although you won’t receive a response, our dedicated team of engineers and analysts actively monitor this inbox for your reports.”

Players can also report cheating directly through the game client by right-clicking a user’s name and selecting “Report.” Lylirra said that a number of players used the reporting tool during the beta, and as a result Blizzard has been able to improve the system to make it easier to catch cheaters.

No witch hunts allowed

While there will certainly be cheaters in Overwatch — it is almost impossible to prevent it entirely – Lylirra said that not every suspicious player is using hacks, even if it the killcam or Play of the Game video makes their aiming capabilities look a little too perfect.

“Our in-game camera system does not always play back footage at the same fidelity as real-time gameplay (this loss in fidelity applies to the killcam, Plays of the Game, Highlights, and—to a lesser extent—the spectator camera as well). This can sometimes result in a player’s aim appearing more snappy or less fluid in playback than it did in-game.”

Because of this, Lylirra said that Blizzard will not use footage from killcams or Plays of the Game to determine whether or not a player is cheating.

“It’s important to note that while video evidence from killcams, Plays of the Game, Highlights, and other community captured footage can be very helpful, we will never use it alone to verify whether or not cheating is taking place. As a result, we encourage players to play nice, play fair and avoid publicly accusing individuals of cheating whenever possible and instead use the reporting methods detailed above. ”

Image credit: Overwatch courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.