Players in Steam’s Latest Shooter Are Team-Switching Mid-Match to Cheat and Troll

One of the hottest games on Steam right now is Wardogs, an online MMO military shooter that pits up to 100 players against each other on a sprawling battlefield. Players earn in-game cash through kills, assisting teammates, and causing mayhem. While it’s a solid FPS experience, some players have resorted to a frustrating tactic: switching teams mid-match. The situation has escalated to the point where the game’s executive producer has promised a solution.

In Wardogs, a key aspect of gameplay involves constructing and defending a forward operating base (FOB). Players need to build walls, gates, and defenses while gathering resources. A well-fortified FOB can be tough to breach. However, the game allows players to switch between three teams at any time during a match, leading to some players exploiting this feature. They switch teams, infiltrate a secure FOB, and dismantle its defenses, making it easy for their friends to take over.

If you browse the game’s official Discord or subreddit, you’ll find numerous complaints about players switching teams mid-match to either secure a win or create chaos. Reports indicate that frustrated players on losing teams will switch sides and start team-killing at the main spawn point. Others scout enemy positions and relay that intel to their teammates. One player recounted how their team built a barrier around a vehicle for fast travel, only for enemy players to switch sides and start tearing it down, forcing their own team to retaliate against these infiltrators.

You might wonder why a multiplayer PvP shooter allows team switching at any time. The primary reason seems to be to facilitate friends playing together, as Wardogs lacks a modern lobby and party system like many other shooters. Instead, players join the server their friends are on and attempt to join their team. The intention behind allowing team switching was likely to provide flexibility, enabling players to join friends who arrive late. Unfortunately, many are using this feature to cheat and create chaos, making matches—some lasting an hour or more—extremely frustrating.

“We’re deciding on a design fix for this at the moment,” said Joe Brammer, the game’s executive producer, in response to a complaint on Twitter. The developers have also indicated through a roadmap that changes to team switching are on the way in a future update. For now, players must contend with the possibility that their teammate could be a spy for the opposing team. Without a vote-to-kick option—another feature the community is requesting—dealing with these spies and griefers is a challenge.

Since its launch earlier this month, Wardogs has skyrocketed in popularity on Steam, surpassing 400,000 concurrent players on PC, according to SteamDB, and selling two million copies already. With such a large player base, the likelihood of encountering cheaters and trolls increases. Wardogs is no exception to this trend, but hopefully, an upcoming update will curb the team switchers and restore the fun.