Game Developers Cracking Down on Cheating

Hector73 writes "ZDNet has an article discussing a growing concern for the makers of on-line video games. Cheaters and trolls are making it harder for casual users and newbies to get hooked on the on-line versions of games. Considering that on-line gaming may become the major revenue source for game makers over the few years, maybe they will actually do something about it."

This sounds like a job for....

[HP LoveJet]

Black ice.

Do something about it?

[theEdgeSMAK]

There have been many attempts to do things about this. Plenty of bot detectors for the fps's. Between diablo 1 and 2 there were many changes made for anti-cheating concerns. If you look at the top of the changelog here. [counter-strike.net] You'll see that anti-cheat protection is right on top. I believe its goin to be the same battle as OS security, and game console copy protection. There is always going to be something that somebody can do to cheat the system, and there will always be somebody willing to do it just to make themselves feel a little more powerfull.

edge

"It's all fun and games untill somebody looses a harddrive."

Now /that's/ a mature attitude!

[devphil]

From the article (ya know, that thing you should read before commenting on its contents):

"We have a very straightforward attitude to cheating: We see it; you're gone," Jacobs said. "I will happily sacrifice a small portion of my paying customers to ensure the rest of them have a quality experience."

Kick. Ass. I know nothing about this company or their games, but I like them already.

How can they do that???

[Anonymous Coward]

How can Microsoft turn its back on cheating? I mean, cheating, lying and stealing, that's how they got where they are today!

Please, Microsoft, give us the freedom to innova... I mean, cheat!

Monty Burns put it best, "Cheating is a gift Man gives himself!"

Re:Technology backed social fixes

[PD]

In EverQuest one of the biggest problems is finding people to play with

When I played D&D I would just walk into the nearest town, find a place called "Red Dragon Inn", and order a beer. It was never too long before the rest of the adventure team showed up.

Cheaters not "desperate to win"

[loply]

Will you lot stop making it out that cheaters are some desperate for attention, glory seeking mentally Ill people? Ive messed around with OGC in CS myself, and you know what? Its just funny. I was just sitting having a laugh and wondering how the program worked whilst a bunch of nazis went mad telling me I must have no girlfriend and be a 33 year old loner and must never win at anything (all wrong). Get the friggin point! Cheaters are just taking the piss out of you. Why be their entertainment by going all irate and showing yourself up? Theyre just normal guys like you: The only difference is theyre having fun and laughing their ass off and youre not. And btw HLGuard/CSProtector/WhateverItsCalled does not work. I bound my mousewheel up/down to activate/deactivate the OGC aimbot (thus I activated it when aiming at someone) and nobody ever suspected me (atleast not when I was trying to be subtle). Disclaimer: I only tried it to see what its like and whatnot. The experience was valuable: I feel like my eye for cheaters is far more honed than it was before.

Re:A perfect world?

[Alsee]

Code needs to be written to self protect. Once an intrusion or a hack is detected, it determines the nature of the hack, and forbids the next attempt.

&LT sarcasm &GT
Ah! Obvoiusly a fellow programmer!
&LT /sarcasm &GT

-

Re:There's only one solution

[Moofie]

I guess the thing that amuses me most is that some people probably understood this post. : )

Wow. That rhymes.

Re:Uhh..

[whizzird]

Most MS servers are crack proof. How do you crack a box when it's constantly down due to BSODs?