Trading items in Dark Souls 3 is encouraged - it’s a feature. The game’s publisher, Bandai Namco, calls this “taking candy from strangers”, according to its customer service website fielding a question about why a player might find be banned. Eagle-eyed players might be able to tell if an item is hacked - a telltale sign is a weapon being upgraded past what the game should allow - but it’s easy to see how someone might get tricked. It’s possible to trade items with one another, and in Dark Souls 2, if a player dropped a hacked item, it would “infect” your game and you could get banned for picking it up. Other games have used this gaoling technique, but From Software’s ban hammer is large, sweeping and ensnares players who did no harm. If corrupted data is found they’re “softbanned”, which means they can continue to play the game online, but only with other cheaters. Like many online games, Dark Souls 3 scans player data for cheaters and hackers. Unfortunately, it’s been more of the same - it’s a trainwreck. So while Dark Souls 2 had its issues, I was hoping they’d clean up their act for the sequel.

Though a PC version of the original game exists, it wasn’t until Dark Souls 2 that From Software took PC players seriously. I’ve been writing about the abhorrent cheating situation in Dark Souls ever since I joined Kotaku. The game didn’t explain what it meant by “invalid game data”, but in the past, this can mean altering the game code, running mods or cheating.

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