One of Steam’s biggest hits right now is Wardogs, an online MMO military shooter that lets up to 100 players fight each other across a massive map while trying to earn in-game cash from kills, helping others, and blowing stuff up. It’s a good FPS. But some players are resorting to a nasty and frustrating method to cheat and grief: Switching teams mid-match. Things are getting so bad that the game’s executive producer has chimed in with promises of a fix.
In Wardogs, a big part of the game is building up a forward operating base and holding it. To do this, you need to build up walls, gates, and defenses, and stock up on resources. A well-made FOB with plenty of ammo and players can be quite challenging to raid. But in Wardogs, players are allowed to switch between the three teams whenever they want during a match. And, well, you can probably guess what players are doing. Yup, some people are switching teams, then entering a well-guarded FOB and destroying the walls and defenses, letting their friends and former teammates easily overthrow the base.
If you check out the game’s official Discord server or subreddit, you’ll find plenty of people complaining about players switching teams mid-match to either help their team win or just to cause chaos. I’ve seen people report that angry players who are losing will switch teams and start teamkilling players back at the main HQ where players spawn. Other players switch teams to scout out enemy positions and defenses and relay that info in real time to friends on the other team. One player shared a story about how their team had built a barrier around a vehicle that lets players fast-travel to that area. And so some of the enemy players switched sides and started breaking down the wall, forcing the other team to start teamkilling these imposters.
You might be wondering: Why does a multiplayer PVP shooter let you switch teams at any point? The main answer seems to be that it lets friends easily play together, as Wardogs doesn’t have a modern lobby and party system like most other shooters. So instead, you join the server your friend is in and then try to join their team. The idea behind letting players switch teams was likely to give people flexibility. If a friend joins late and is on the other team, you could swap midmatch and join them. The problem is that a lot of players are using this feature to cheat, grief, and cause chaos. And that can make the game’s matches, which can last an hour or more, extremely frustrating.
We’re deciding on a design fix for this at the moment.
— Joe Brammer (@Brammflakes) September 13, 2026
Things are getting so bad that the game’s executive producer, Joe Brammer, has directly replied to someone complaining about the situation on Twitter. “We’re deciding on a design fix for this at the moment,” said Brammer. The devs have also confirmed via a roadmap on Steam that changes to team switching are coming in a future update. For now, players have to just deal with the fact that your teammate might actually be a spy for the other team. And with no vote-to-kick option, another thing the community is asking for, these spies and griefers are tricky to counter.
Since launching earlier this month, Wardogs has become a massive hit on Steam. The game hit over 400,000 concurrent players on PC according to SteamDB, and developer Bulkhead recently confirmed it has already sold two million copies. Any time you get this many people all playing the same game, cheaters and trolls become more likely to appear. Wardogs isn’t immune to this rule. But hopefully, an update will stop team switchers from ruining the fun.
