i made a statement earlier in another thread and it got me to thinking what everyone else thinks.
im of the mind that, the hackers have won, that there really isnt anything gaming companies can do to solve the problem with aimbotters, wall hackers…or any of it. They can put a band aid on the problem, but then hack developers just rip the band aid off and the cycle repeats.
Are we at a point where, we just have to accept that there will be cheaters in games and that’s just how it is? That online gaming, especially somewhat competitive games, really are ruined, because there is no way to stop the problem? Especially with how subtle these hacks are getting now…and they are being refined so well that they are becoming undetectable, that it’s really no point in even worrying about it anymore? It’s just better to expect that cheaters will be in your games, and you just have to accept it, because there is nothing you, or the developers can do?
…it’s been like that since video games have existed. This is not new. There have even been things you could buy to cheat in like the most basic console games. Like pacman.
Some companies have taken more extreme measures, like valorant, but you have to give them access to your entire computer. Which, you probably shouldn’t do.
There are solutions, but they’re expensive and punish gamers who don’t cheat, just like DRM and other BS. The best solution would be to allow public, community-moderated servers, with no SBMM, EOMM, and all the other BS. Then you’d have to convince people to not buy cheats, which is impossible since a lot of them are terrible people IRL that love the anonymity of online games and the fact that getting banned means they can be back to their shenanigans in exactly 5 minutes.
The sad reality is most game companies just aren’t willing to spend the money and resources on keeping cheaters at bay, especially when the money keeps rolling in in bigger and bigger amounts. As long as players keep giving money to these companies they simply don’t see any reason to care about cheaters. Some may even see rife cheating in their games as a sign that it’s popular enough to not give a damn.
The moment the game went free to play the floodgates truely opened.
Without a monetary barrier of enter they can make a free account and get back to griefing and cheating. It’s not much but it deterred some who would have to spend money on cheats and an account that would get banned.
It’s an issue console players had to face for years because you could make a free psn/xbl account and play online on a different account from your main. Had a run in with the same guy back on OW1 complaining one of his accounts was banned for being toxic and then proceeded to be toxic the entire match. History repeating itself lol.
That’s before you get into the Chronos, Xim, wall hacks and aimboting problem.
yes, but you would think that software companies would be able to keep up with and develop software to eliminate cheating, yet, they havent done so. It appears the hackers have stymied these large gaming development companies.
this article says that the company “Chicken Drumstick” is one of the largest cheat developers…with an annual revenue of $76 million…vs a company like Activision with a revenue of over 7 billion…and the small hack companies are winning.
The BBC (via [Kotaku] reports that authorities in Kunshan, China arrested 10 members of the cheat-selling company “Chicken Drumstick.” The company created cheats for large games like Call of Duty and Overwatchand sold them to subscribers, who paid between $10 a day and $200 a month for access to the hacks.
thats how easy it is…$10 bucks a day to make you a superstar in gaming…
it’s sad when you think about it, because its the industry as a whole that suffers…those who legitimately want to really have a good and clean experience will always be at the whim of those who want to cheat.
so yes, while what you say is true, cheating has always been around, I would have expected that the methods to stop it would have developed faster…because you have these massive gaming companies, with their big budgets, vs they much smaller hack developers.
right…so it goes back to my original statement, it’s here and here to stay and theres nothing that anyone can do about it. Those of us who play legit just have to accept that there’s a good chance one or more people in the game are using a hack of some sort.
I remember back in the 90’s, i read an article (i wish it was still available) of an interview with former game hacker. He said in that article, that, there was a 70% chance that there is someone using some kind of hack in your gaming lobbies…this was back in the 90’s. Makes me wonder if that 70% chance is still accurate or not.
They aren’t winning though. They are paying activision money? How is that winning. Activision just won a lawsuit against a different cheating company too for $14 million.
Well, if you understood anything about computers, it’s not just as easy as “we can just stop them if we wanted to.” Hackers/hacks are and always have been a problem in the internet world for a reason.
I’m absolutely positive it was not accurate even when he said it, lol.
People working on AI anti-cheat tech have said a couple of years ago that around a third of all players in multiplayer games are using some form of cheating. Make of that what you may.
To this point though one of my favorite memories as a kid playing video games, I was playing counter strike and someone in our game was cheating. Someone else said, “this guy is cheating, everyone turn your hacks on.” And everyone in the game did. Myself included, lol. We all just starting auto headshotting each other with sniper rifles. But, the funny thing was, everyone in the game had cheats. And it wasn’t like we were all friends or something, it was just a random server.
because the hacking companies are still in operation…making hacks. It would be impossible to shut down the hacking companies, they’ll just pop up again and again. The solution is to develop a way, in the game, to guard against it. Kind of like i heard they did in CoD…where they just had the cheaters playing in games against bots. why cant they do this for OW?
sure…and what that’s telling me is that, apparently, these small hack firms have a grip on these big software companies. apparently giant gaming companies are powerless to stop them?
ok, do tell…because i know what i read. cheating has been around for a very long time, and online gaming has had cheaters for a very long time as well. so if you have a reason why that is wrong, please explain.
lol, your very next quote kind of proves the story i heard… “everyone in the game had cheats”…so, it WAS that common… if everyone in your game had cheats…likely MANY more people had them as well…
I know, but that was counter strike, and a long time ago, because their anti cheat was garbage.
My point more so though was that most people didn’t have them turned on, we just had them on our computers.
Well, for instance, the company that just lost to activision has their website shut down now. I’m sure they are still operating somewhere, but, that’s not winning.
They’ve tried that and failed. What part of it’s not easy to do did you not understand? You think companies can just stop hackers? People pay millions for cyber security.
1 person can hack any company. They have power, but they are not impenetrable either.
Because one kid from some article you read a long time ago for some reason saying 70% of people cheat is absolutely absurd. I don’t need to explain why because that is a stupid comment
sure, but just because you didnt have them turned on, doesnt mean many others didnt.
well, the hacking industry in general is winning.
never said it was easy, just that i would have thought with the budget and the staff they have, they would have been able to crack it by now.
Ever seen the movie “Catch me if you can”? Same concept. why not hire some of these hackers…or former hacker, pay them really well to help give these companies insight as to what they need to do to stay 2 steps ahead of the hacking companies…i dont know…just an idea…maybe it wont work.
i think the guy was in his 30’s. You yourself said everyone had the hacks on their computers…just because you didnt use them doesnt mean others didnt as well…the fact that “everyone had them” kind of would lend some credence to the 70% chance that someone in any given gaming lobby was using a hack.
the guy never said “70% of gaming lobbies were using hacks” btw…he said there was a 70% chance that SOMONE in your gaming lobbies was using a hack of some sort. meaning, there was a 70% chance that at least 1 person was hacking.
theres only two “reasonable” solutions to the problem:
cloud gaming
spyware antivirus / anticheat
for the first one, the only way you could cheat would be to use an AI software or something to put in inputs based on the video the server is streaming to you. streaming though requires low latency and high bandwidth, so it wont work too well for some gamers if there is no cloud-free version. could even make a queue dedicated for cloud gamers to make sure nobody in the lobby is cheating, but then those who are unable to do so will probably be in cheater-filled lobbies
for the second one, it would invade privacy heavily which is a bit anti-gamer, and it might prevent people from playing it in VMs or on Linux (if not native port), but this software may be easy to bypass unless it has total administrator privelages and cannot be modified
the only other methods that exist serve only to deter cheating:
moderation (by the players or by staff / GM)
early cheat detection / logging and banwaves
obfuscation, encryption, etc
server authoritative game model
shadow-banning (cheater’s queue)
OW uses all of these aside from player moderation (unless you are in a Custom Game), but as Valve put it, its a lot of treadmill work to detect, patch, and catch cheaters, and then also to repeatedly action them. even one cheater turns into 10 accounts, so imagine 50 or 100 rampant, repeat cheaters. you have the minority of “white hat” cheaters, “silent aim because i do everything else right” cheaters, but the larger portion of them are not the “i cheat on main” cheaters and will have multiple alternative accounts.
That is where I am at currently. As long as the developers do their best to filter out the most egregious and force them into subtle cheating, I am happy. I actually do not care too much about them regardless. If they are THAT desperate for a win, they clearly want it more than I do to begin with. Take it! Why not?
To be clear because sometimes if you do not outwardly condemn cheaters, or leavers, or whatever people dislike, they assume you are one of them… Cheaters are beta. Cheaters are lame. Cheaters are pathetic. There? See. Would a cheater say that about fellow cheaters?
Unironically… They probably would. These people seem to forget they are cheating and genuinely believe they are just good at the game. No idea what sort of deficiency causes that phenomena, but yeah. ThiccBuddha does not like cheaters. Unless you are on my team. /s
well give me a brief rundown on why gaming companies have zero power to stop it? what you’re saying is that hack companies apparently have this knowledge that gaming companies dont…so the gaming/software companies are powerless against them. that doesnt make sense to me, but you disagree so, im willing to learn.
w…w…well alright then…im glad they used my idea!
why is that ridiculous? i mean, give me something here…just you saying “it aint so” isnt telling me anything…why would that be impossible?
keep in mind also that a lot of cheaters are teenagers or very young, inexperienced in the workforce, and/or in it for the bag and “for the lulz.” hiring a loose cannon like that is a mixed bag and you might end up with content leakers, ransomware, and whatnot. they make cheats to make money and/or troll blizzard
you can hire them as a contractor, so they arent really an official employee, just a pay by hour cheat patcher, detector, or tester, but its difficult to work with some of them due to their unpredictable and often unstable nature, but it is not impossible. there are also Bug Bounty programs where a fairly sizeable sum of money can be paid out to individuals who discover critical bugs or detection methods. OW does not provide this service afaik
