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Combating Cheating In Online Games

Posted by Hemos on from the i-d-k-f-a dept.

mors writes "Gamasutra has an article about how game developers can make life harder for people trying to cheat in online games. It analyzes various ways of cheating, and how they can be made harder. It does stress that cheating can never be eliminated (at some point you need to trust the client machine, so crypto is not the ultimate solution), but can be made considerably harder."

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wow a new repost record by darylp · · Score: 5

    Damn, and I was just about to go to that article to cut and paste all the (5, Insightful) comments and post them under my name... You've blown my scam!

  2. Dude... (and a suggestion) by Seumas · · Score: 5
    That was almost four months ago. Slashdot has had well over 10,000 articles and everyone expects every member to recall every submission accepted by every other staff member over the last several years, including posts of the same content, but varying categories or titles?

    Sure, it's fun to point out when it occurs, but with the load that they deal with (almost 300 submissions last time I checked), it's surprising it doesn't happen more often.

    However, I think it would be worthwhile if they coded some sort of check into the system that would see if the exact same URL (not just a domain, but a full url pointing to a specific page) has appeared previously in other articles and provide brief summarizations for the staff person to read through and see if it is dealing with the exact same issue or not so they can make an informed decision without scanning 10,000 posts manually.
    ---
    seumas.com

  3. Game Cheaters As Resource by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5
    How could the creativity of cheaters be harnessed in other ways, without ruining the game for non-cheaters? Maybe create games where you design in-game ships or weapons by writing some sort of psuedo-code ?

    At WorldForge, we're doing exactly this. The client is made available in source code form so that the player can customize it to make it work better for them. And we make all of the server code available for download so players can look through it and discern new tricks for effective playing. If in doing so, they uncover a bug that can be taken advantage of to the detriment of other players, then they're welcome to make use of it - sometimes this is the best way to test out how bad the bug really is.

    If I don't think the bug is worth my time fixing, then any players sufficiently bothered by it are welcome to download the source code to the server, find the area causing the problem, fix it, and submit a patch. If I disagree with their patch or otherwise refuse it, well then at the least they have the permission to establish a new server and compete with me. So I will probably work hard to make sure to include the patch!

    So I guess a lot of stuff I see called cheats, I think really should be honestly called 'bugs', and responsibility placed with the programmers rather than the players. Some stuff - like denial of service or similar - that's just plain mean, and out of the server programmer's hands to prevent. But a lot of the in-game cheating is preventable via code.

    Maybe I'm an idealist, but the best way to harness the creativity of cheaters, is, IMHO, to establish an environment where giving out fixes to cheats has as much glory as identifying the cheat in the first place.

    We also strongly encourage (even urge) players to get involved in the game development process. Our present game server is written in Python, and we will encourage and allow extension of it by direct coding (the amount of extension is limited by the slowness of Python). Our next game server (being coded now - in C++), will allow players to design assemblies and mechanisms in-game, and automate them with scripting, among other things. :-)

    And of course, since the client is open source, you're welcome (and encouraged) to automate your character as much as you want. (In my opinion, if the game is so simple that you *can* program a super-bot that wins consistently, then the game lacks adequate sophistication. AI programming is tough, and if allowing for this kind of "cheating" encourages lots of people to gain skill at it, then this makes the (game)world a more interesting place! Besides, programmers are cool and deserve an edge. *Wink*)

  4. Comments from the Article's Author by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Oh wow. I just got back into Dallas from Siggraph 30 minutes ago and discovered my mailbox filling up with emails from the /. side-effect. Just a couple quick comments on the discussion....

    0) This article first appeared in print in the June 2000 Issue of Game Developer Magazine.

    1) I didn't come up with the title. I honestly couldn't think of a catchy title, so I let my editor come up with one. As far as nit-picking over the useage of "Hacker" and "Cracker" - don't sweat it. Yes, I know the difference.

    2) The most important point in my mind is that multiplayer cheating hurts other human players and is an order of magnitude different from the things we do when playing solo (single player) games. When a person realizes they are on the receiving end of a cheat - that another human being wants to do that to them - it's a hugely distructive feeling.

    2a) People walk away from games and badmouth them to their friends when they think they are getting screwed. The better selling your game, the more this matters.

    3) Many people have been emailing me and posting about things I didn't cover. I really appreciate it though I do already have some of it. When I wrote the article I had to keep it to about 7000 words, so I only got to cover about 1/2 of what I wanted to. Given the reception it has received, there will likely be a second article on the topic.

    3a) Keep the comments and emails coming - I will try and respond to all.

    That's all for now. I really appreciate everyone's input and thoughts on the matter.

    -Matt Pritchard