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Cheating in Multiplayer Games

Posted by michael on from the bang-you're-dead dept.

millertime3250 writes "Tom's Hardware is running an interesting article on cheating in multiplayer games. In an issues that has gained increasing notority, it is a great read for those Counter-Strike players and others alike. It defines the different types of cheats like Client Hook, OpenGL Hack, and Hard-Coded Hack, and cheating's effect on gaming."

17 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Kick em out... by irokitt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think common cheats should have a forum where they are documented. That way, if someone at a LAN party gets noticed using them, they can be kicked out.

    --
    If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
    1. Re:Kick em out... by ergo98 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most cheats are well known. For Quake III based, OGC (that's an interesting page in general with good screenshots) is well known and often suspected.

      However I think the problem isn't so much at LAN games where you have actual physical people who'll clearly see if you're turning on auto-aim or wallhacks, but rather online games where every person is isolated, and the only monitoring is the realism of their gameplay. Some guys, like Urban Terror, allow some players to spectate, or to spectate after they die, and this can allow one to look over someone's shoulder and determine, to a pretty good accuracy, if their play seems skillfully good, or unreasonable. Wallhackers, for instance, are generally brutally obvious.

      Most online games I've played have been ruined by hackers. From Diablo, to Quake 3, to America's Army. Cheaters in online games are not only morally reprehensible, they seem to have a very weak desire to be challenged, and hence can often be considered the weak of the herd.

  2. interesting by no+reason+to+be+here · · Score: 5, Funny

    In an issues that has gained increasing notority

    George W. Bush has started submitting articles to /.?

    That's an interesting strategery for the upcoming presidential race.

    --
    my pet machine
  3. Good election karma by irokitt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, it might make me vote for the guy...

    --
    If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
  4. TCP to the rescue! by ArsonPanda · · Score: 5, Funny

    Man, its a good thing we'll have MS's Trusted Computing Platform soon, to help deal with things like cheaters.
    Counter Strike - Palladium Edition

    --

    --I don't want the world, I just want your half.
    1. Re:TCP to the rescue! by 0101000001001010 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Believe it or not. This is actually one of the DRM applications I am actually looking forward too. It would make (massively multiplayer) online games so much more entertaining.

      This goes to show once again that no technology is inherently good or bad. It is the application of said technology where we must collectively learn to act more responsibly.

  5. Damn by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    No one ever accuses me of cheating, probably cos I am so crap. Does camping count ? I'm really good at that.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  6. More whiners than cheaters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For every cheater, there are at least ten players who'll complain that you're cheating when you kill them - sour grapes.

  7. Sorry... by dethl · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm too busy cheating on Counter-Strike to go read the article.

    --
    "Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
  8. Touch-screens and other equipment by Eberlin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've heard rumors of touch-screens being used to make headshots. Under the definition given by the article (altering config files, etc) this isn't classified as "cheating."

    Does "better" equipment constitute cheating? Someone with a laggy connection, for example, becomes harder to hit. Someone with a bigger monitor may be able to see movement more clearly than a poor guy with a 15in screen. Is this the digital divide in fragging? :)

    I know touch-screens could provide a REAL advantage but wouldn't be defined as a cheat by the article. Sure, it's not as deliberate as an aimbot but it has to at least come close.

  9. No mention of hlguard by JohnCub · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm surprised that the article didn't mention hlguard, also developed by united admins. It runs on all sorts of hl mods and is likely one of the most used anti cheat tools available. In case you are not familiar with it, it contains tools to check for aimbotting, common cheat cvars, and manual ogc detection. If you run any type of hl server (and it's interesting they don't mention the hundreds of other hl mods) hlguard is definitely a server side addon you should look in to.

    http://www.unitedadmins.com/hlguard.php

    --
    -= Why can't I add 'Anonymous Coward' to my list of Foes? =-
  10. Re:cs anti cheats by krisp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd rather play with the possibilities of cheaters then be forced to run something that 'checks my hard drive' or 'takes screenshots' of my game and ftps them back.

  11. A great resource by legomad · · Score: 5, Informative

    For this kinda info is the forum at www.gamehacking.com

    Actually they discourage multiplayer hacks, but otherwsise there is just about any info on the subject you may want.

  12. Re:Where's the fun at? by Dthoma · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I really don't see anything amusing about it all except that you guys like to open your mouth and talk about how 1337 you are when in fact you're nothing but a bunch of little pathetic script kiddies.


    While that's the usual and stereotypical reason given, I think there's a more obvious reason; to these people, it's really really funny to watch everyone jumping up and down and getting angry screaming "OMG CHEATER" because of their cheating. That's the fun for them - not the winning, but pissing everyone else off.
    --

    Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".

  13. Re:The game architecture is part of the problem by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Funny
    I would think most multiplayer gamers would give up a few FPS to play cheat-free.
    Give up FPS? You're new here, right?
    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  14. Re:cs anti cheats by Chucow · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'd rather play with the possibilities of cheaters then be forced to run something that 'checks my hard drive' or 'takes screenshots' of my game and ftps them back.

    An interesting point and something I myself have been worried about for quite some time. More frightening to me than a cheating person (usually a lamer using someone else's scripts with poor or little understanding of how they actually work), is the eventuality of an admin who decides to use a server maliciously. It seems to me that with the power server admins have over the clients in some games, it would be feasible to use a server to distribute a virus, etc.

    Imagine how many unique gamers go to a well-populated game server everyday...

  15. Dear God... by ffatTony · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ok, ok, I promise never to cheat in multiplayer games again, just for love of god change the color scheme on this page.