Fallout 76: Bethesda Bans Players For Cheating, Asks Them To Write An Apology Essay

One of the many, many issues players had with Fallout 76 with launch, at least as far as those who play it on PC are concerned, was that it launched without mod support, with Bethesda promising that the same would go live late in 2019. Given the fact that the PC community is one where games thrive because of modding, Bethesda Game Studios titles more than most, on top of the fact that the game launched with very poor PC optimization and a lack of basic features (many of which have since then been patched in), the need for mods within the Fallout 76 community on PC is obviously quite keen.

There have already been a few mods made by players using third party outlets such as Reshade or Cheat Engine anyway, a few of which have in fact fixed some significant issues or added useful features as well. However, Bethesda has recently been shutting down several users who’ve been engaging in modding- which, to be fair, makes sense, because players often use mods to give themselves unfair advantages in games. If Bethesda’s taking action against cheaters, there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Except, as per posts on a Reddit thread, several of these users have been getting banned for no reason- apparently, Bethesda has seen them make use of mods, and regardless of the nature of said mods, has been banning their accounts. And here’s the best part- how is Bethesda responding to fans who appeal against their bans? Well, all you need to do is write an apology essay about the evils of third party cheat software, and if Bethesda likes your answer, they’ll unban you.

“This account has violated the code of conduct and terms of service by cheating.” reads the email that banned users have been receiving. “The account was detected to be running a third-party application, which provides an unfair in-game advantage, while logged into Fallout 76. If you would like to appeal this account closure, we would be willing to accept an essay on ‘Why the use of third party cheat software is detrimental to an online game community’ for our management team to review.”

Banning players who’re using third party software to cheat is obviously perfectly fine, but asking them to write an apology essay as an appeal to get their accounts unbanned is more than just a little weird. Has your account been affected by similar bans? Let us know in the comments below.