author: Jan Kopacz
Escape from Tarkov Devs Go to War With Dataminers
The developers of Escape From Tarkov have condemned the practice of datamining. The company has decided to block all accounts belonging to people who engage in this activity, as well as those who share information obtained in this way.
Battlestate Games has announced a zero-tolerance policy on datamining, or players obtaining information by digging it out of game files, in Escape from Tarkov.
- The studio intends to ban all accounts belonging to those engaged in datamining and those who share information discovered through this method.
- The developers claim that datamining is "illegal infiltration of game code and databases to extract information that is intentionally hidden from users."
- This is where the devs miss the point. Some of the methods used to dig up such information and some of the ways of using it (e.g. in cheats) may be illegal, but datamining as such is not illegal.
- It's worth noting that for the developers, it's not the potential cheats that are the problem. Instead, they don't like the disclosure of information they would like to keep secret.
- Battlestate is demanding that Escape From Tarkov players use only official sources of information. The studio also promised to try to be more transparent about its future plans.
As could be predicted, the developers' statement triggered a wave of criticism. Under the tweet posted by devs gamers complain that they have to collect information through datamining, since the devs themselves hardly communicate with their community.
Battlestate Games is a Russian studio. The company was originally founded in St. Petersburg. The developers have moved their headquarters to London, although some of them continue to operate from Russia.