Wardogs Dev Region Locks Shooter to Fight Cheaters

Ever tried to squad up with a friend on the other side of the world, only to get blocked at the server door? That's the reality Wardogs players are facing right now, and the community is not taking it quietly.

Bulkhead, the studio behind the multiplayer FPS Wardogs, is rolling out region locking to protect "the largest amount of players from an influx of regions that are more prone to cheating." The mechanic itself is simple: cap the maximum ping at 175, and players from distant regions with unstable connections get filtered out. On paper, it's a fair, non-discriminatory way to keep matches clean. In practice, it's causing a whole lot of friction.

The studio didn't mince words about the trade-off. "It's disappointing for us to have to put these divisions in place with social experience being such a core focus of Wardogs, but we must prioritize the largest group of players over the minority," Bulkhead tweeted. The team also admitted the backend work is "more than a switch to make a meaningful impact," and apologized for letting things reach this point. "We're sorry we let it get to this point that we are forced to make this decision, but we felt that giving certain regions the opportunity to prevail was the right move. Unfortunately, it has not panned out as we'd hoped and we'll be getting stricter on cross pollination of regions."

Naturally, players are pushing back hard. Some are already asking for refunds after being cut off from international friends. "As an American with Australian friends this is a bulls**t change," one player said, arguing the studio should just target China directly instead. Others feel the ping cap unfairly targets Asian players as a whole. "What you clearly should be doing is strengthening the anti-cheat mode, yet the measure you've taken is to outright ban us Asian players," another wrote, describing how normal kills get flagged as high-ping and players get branded "Chinese cheater" in public chat. "We still choose to keep playing your game under all these negative effects, even helping to dispel rumors for fellow Asians ourselves, instead of abandoning it."

Dozens of replies echo that sentiment. The general vibe? This is a blunt instrument that hurts players across every region instead of solving the real problem: identifying and quickly banning cheaters.

Wardogs CEO Joe Brammer hasn't ignored the backlash. Responding to a YouTuber who backed the decision, he acknowledged the collateral damage: "Appreciate that we're harming a % of players to protect the larger. We will find a solution, this issue is bigger than Wardogs though… We're working on solutions for global players… Sucks." He also clarified that the ping-based fix is temporary. "That is coming but takes longer than it needs to be," he said of a permanent solution. "It's not as simple as 'flip a switch'... tracking where people are actually based is not straight forward (VPN etc etc)."

So where does that leave you? If you're playing from a high-ping region or have friends abroad, expect some roadblocks for now. Bulkhead says a better fix is in the works, but there's no timeline yet. What do you think — is region locking a fair trade-off to keep cheaters out, or should the studio focus everything on anti-cheat instead?