Our team is constantly monitoring the data we receive from every game played on Xbox Live but due to the sheer volume of games (nearly 500,000 people per day are playing Halo 2 on Live) it takes time to track down people and investigate offenses. We've created a cheater "hotline" email alias to give our community a chance to help us identify alleged cheaters. If you encounter someone online whom you firmly believe is cheating in some way (network manipulation, hacked maps or game files, boosting, etc..) we ask that you please send a mail to h2cheats@microsoft.com . Please be sure your mail includes the following information:

- Your Gamertag
- The Gamertag(s) of the alleged cheaters
- A summary of what you witnessed or observed
- A link to the game(s) on Bungie.net

Question: What is considered cheating or against the rules in Halo 2?

 

Answer: In a nutshell, Bungie considers cheating to be the act of manipulating or interfering with aspects of the game or networking to give yourself or your team an unfair advantage. The exact methods and cases will vary as people invent new ways to do bad things. Our team is constantly monitoring the latest exploits and issues and will be reacting as necessary. Common examples of things that will get someone banned from Live play include "standby cheats" (i.e. interfering with the network connection to disrupt gameplay), using hacked maps or game files or manipulating matchmaking to "boost" your way up the leaderboards.
There are also other issues beyond actual cheating that could result in punishment by either the Live Team or Bungie. Profanity, threats, racism and inappropriate player/clan names are all examples of Conduct violations that will result in some sort of punishment from the Xbox Live Team.

 

Question: What is NOT considered a bannable offense by Bungie? 

 

Answer: Quitting a game is not a bannable offense. Having a team-killer on your team sucks, but that's not a bannable offense either. Many people are also aware of the "super jumping" phenomenon that allows players on some maps to jump to extreme heights. We are monitoring this situation for long term impacts to game balance but we are not banning people who do this simply because it's too widespread and is something that's basically built into the map. Anyone can do this if they want to though it is difficult to pull off in many cases. We will continue to monitor the impacts this bug has on our game. 
 

Question: I was just in a game with someone who was shooting rockets out of their sniper rifle and flying around the map in a Warthog. WTF!?

 

Answer: You've just been the victim of someone using hacked or modified game files on Live. This is a severe offense and one that we take very seriously. "Hacking" Halo 2 to change the game in any way is forbidden and will get you banned. Luckily we have ways of detecting people who use these files and we are banning them as fast as we can. If you encounter something like this, please report them to h2cheats@microsoft.com.

Question: My friends and I want to try out some new modified content we got from a friend. It's ok to do this as long as we only play custom games, right?

 

Answer: No. Using hacked or modified content of any sort, whether it's a custom or matchmade game, will result in you getting banned. We do not condone anyone tampering with the actual game that we shipped and doing so is a sure fire way to get banned. Attemping to use hacked Xboxes on Live is also grounds for having your entire gamertag permanently canceled. Also please note, that due to the "Live Aware" nature of Halo 2, you could get banned even for using these files over system link, if one of your boxes is still attached to the internet. The best thing to do is just steer clear of any of these hacked files and stick to the game that we intended for you to play.