Black Ops 6 Sees a Rise in Toxicity as Rage Reporting and Shadow Bans Are Becoming a Menace in the Community

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been one of Activision and Microsoft’s biggest wins in a long time. It has rejuvenated the series’ interest, and the developers have simply done great justice to every aspect of the game.

That said, however, one issue with the game, which surfaced during its beta, is now becoming a major cause for concern within the community. As reports of abuse in the shadow ban system continue to mount, many players are now worried that this feature may become a breeding ground for toxicity if left unaddressed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Shadow Bans Are Harming the Entire Community

As it stands, the shadow ban system, introduced by Ricochet’s anti-cheat software to curb cheating, has become the biggest bane of every guiltless COD player’s existence.

For the uninitiated, these shadow bans essentially place reported accounts into “limited matchmaking,” where flagged players are matched exclusively with others under the same status while Activision investigates the reports.

In Black Ops 6, this system is increasingly being used as a tool for players to retaliate against the more skilled players, turning simple frustrations into baseless reports and pushing the system into potentially and unfairly penalizing innocent players.

Limited Matchmaking AKA the ‘Shadow Ban’ system, needs addressing by Activision. This is extremely unacceptable and this topic needs to gain traction!
byu/Tropi- inblackops6

As the user states in the post, players who perform exceptionally well or dominate a match often find themselves victims of “rage reporting. ” With just a few reports, their accounts can be flagged, limiting their access to regular matchmaking queues and grouping them with others suspected of cheating.

To make matters worse, accounts flagged once are more susceptible to future shadow bans, creating a cycle in which affected players may feel pressured to underperform to avoid further scrutiny or simply leave the game altogether.

It’s a messy situation. On the one hand, it is understandable why Activision would want to implement such a system within their game, as it is effective in filtering out cheaters.

But on the other hand, with how people generally act at the end of the game, Ricochet’s arguably too susceptible to abuse at the moment, which, understandably, has stirred up a lot of resentment towards it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Skill-Based Matchmaking Is Also a Part of This Problem

Skill-based matchmaking, SBMM for short, was introduced in Black Ops 6 to ensure fair matchups by placing similarly skilled players together. But think about how it works for a moment, and it becomes all too clear that this well-meaning system has inadvertently exacerbated the shadow ban problem.

When players enter a match slightly outside their skill bracket, outperforming others or achieving high scores can often trigger frustration and, consequently, rage reports from other players. This overlap between SBMM and the reporting system leaves little room for players who may simply be having a great game but end up flagged as a result.

Now, we all know that SBMM isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but to address the core problem, Activision must revisit the mechanics underpinning shadow bans, potentially requiring more substantial evidence of cheating beyond player reports alone.

For instance, community-driven solutions like CS2’s Overwatch system could curb the issue. Here, only the most reliable, experienced, and trusted players may review reports, adding a layer of human judgment to the anti-cheat process and reducing the reliance on mass reports alone.

More importantly, Ricochet needs some human oversight as well, as the system alone would not be able to make sense of whether to shadow-ban a person. This would, hopefully, ensure that legitimate players aren’t caught in an unfair cycle of shadow bans.

Look, at the end of the day, this is a slight problem with many solutions worth trying. Considering how massive Black Ops 6 is at the moment, there’s little reason for Activision to not take action soon enough and implement changes. All that’s left, then, is to wait and see when that happens.

But with all that said, what are your thoughts on shadow bans in Black Ops 6? Is SBMM actually contributing to this problem? Let us know in the comments below!