More On Online Game Cheating

Build6 writes "The UK Guardian newspaper has an article on online cheating in games, with some fairly broad-ranging observations. These include ways to cheat, players who feel cheated by it, and an interview with someone who actually codes game cheats, in this case for Counter-Strike. He secretly gathers information from his users and claims: 'Did you know most cheaters come from France?'" We covered game cheating a few weeks ago, but this article focuses more on why coders would want to create cheating devices.

Comments

Counteracting cheating

[etymxris]

You need to fight the root of the cause, rather than simply checking the harddrive:

1. Only inform each client of players visible to that client--prevents wall-hacks.
   
2. Track the accuracy of each weapon. Not the shots, but the aiming of the weapon. There should be an expected variance that is a function of the relative velocity of two players. If the relative velocity is high, and the aim remains perfect, it's probably a cheater.
   
3. Create a global anti-cheat list, which will be similar to the open-relay black-lists. If the game is purchased, and each copy comes with a unique ID, then a person who is caught cheating can be added to the blacklist. An admin should record a demo of the cheating, which can be reviewed and appealed.
   
4. For a free game like America's Army, use the MAC address. Can still be spoofed, but not too easy.

There are other things that can be done, but are less desireable:

1. Prevent perfect accuracy. Make it so that a certian percentage of shots always miss, no matter how good the player is.
   
2. Give each weapon "kick". If aim is perfect even with a kicking weapon, it's definitely a cheater.
   
3. Each weapon reduces damage the more accurate you are with it.
   

These last three are less desireable. But simply doing a CRC for files on the system that enable cheating is not a good strategy.

Re:Counteracting cheating

[malakai]

Games like counter-strike have kick. The bots i've seen take the kick into account, about as well as a good player would. Shoot in burts, and know to pull down between burts bya certain amount based on your exp with that gun.

I agree the CRC'ing of the game, and the typical PunkBunster systems are inadequate. Giving the client only the information that is immediately needed and visible to said client is costly, and prevents lag optimizations from working.

Banning cheaters is good, if you have some sort of unique ID. This is one of the usefull things PunkBuster does do. Though for freeware games like Enemey Territory, you can regenerate a new PB GUID by simply deleting the fake cd key file.

Honestly, I know i'll get a lot of flack on /. about this, but this is one of the reasons i look forward to MS Pallidum/Trusted Computing. I could enable Trusted Computing for my games, and servers could require that it be enabled if you want to play in a tournment or such. This would make the client for all practicality, physically secure against cheats. You could leave in all optimization code, knowing that the client code will not be modified.

I'd buy a Palladium motherboard for that capability alone.

-malakai

Publishers are too quick to wash their hands

[osgeek]

I found the one publisher perspective to be interesting: they look at cheating hacks of mature games to be a good way to get people to move on to the next game. I'm sure that works for some, but personally, I'd rather live without cheat-susceptible games than deal with the frustration. I'm done with first person shooters and network RTS games until reasonable solutions are found.

Like cheaters, publishers don't see the big picture. They prefer to see the selfish short-term game, to the detriment of the entire industry.


I think that the only viable solutions to online cheating are the same ones used in real life.

• Player Reputation -- There need to be permanent databases of players, their abilities, and their reputations. What if you had an online identity tied to your real-life one, maybe even with your real name. What if that identity followed you from game to game. Whether you played Quake, UT, or HL, you'd always use the same identity and people in those circles would KNOW who you are. Additionally, anyone could query a central database to see if there had been complaints lodged against you. How likely would people be to cheat when they might get caught and have their reputations ruined? You could then set up servers where only registered players with sterling reputations could play.
• Independent observers -- Some type of referee system would complement the above one and allow greater trust in the reputation system. If a player has a complaint logged against them, a referee could log into games where that player was playing and attempt to determine if the complaints were true.

Re:Publishers are too quick to wash their hands

[sebi]

How likely would people be to cheat when they might get caught and have their reputations ruined? You could then set up servers where only registered players with sterling reputations could play.

This is one of those ideas that sound great but are horrible in theory. Don't forget then length griefers will go to destroy others enjoyment. Those that do everything to disrupt games now will do everything in their power to ruin the reputations of better players in the future. And then you will not only be removed from a single session, but from all future games.

Independent observers -- Some type of referee system would complement the above one and allow greater trust in the reputation system. If a player has a complaint logged against them, a referee could log into games where that player was playing and attempt to determine if the complaints were true.

That one is better, but those referees would either need to be volunteers (and there seem to be some organisations who try to do such a thing right now), or preferably people employed by the game companies (just like gamemasters in MMO games). The companies will only be willing to pay for a staff in subscription based products. But I could imagine that a lot of gamers would be willing to pay a monthly fee if they were guaranteed a fair(er) environement.

Mark Twain said it best...

[malakai]

and many times..

"France is miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen
are miserable because they live in France."

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals-apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country."

-malakai

I'd rather deal with spam than cheaters.

[BoomerSooner]

My little brother's in law always get a new bunch of games, they download the cracks/cheats and win it in 2 days. I play the same game with months of enjoyment and win them on my own.

I wonder who really comes out ahead?

Hell I still haven't won Baldur's Gate! I guess I'll have lots of fun playing 30+ years of video games when I finally retire! Ultima III was the first game I beat as a kid and it took forever. Ultima III-V are probably my favorite games of all time. Crappy graphics, but great story/playability.

ah ha ha, troll?

[malakai]

I'm quoting Mark Twain, and the article itself states:

Did you know most cheaters come from France?

Are we no longer allowed to talk about an article if it hurts a country's nationalism?

-malakai

AIMBOT ?

[orangesquid]

"Evilhack", the main cheat for America's Army, for example, is freely available on the web. It makes all hostiles bright red, while computer-controlled "aimbots" ensure the player's gun never misses its targets. The undetectable program will even throw your M67 frag grenade for you if you accidentally hold it too long.

Ugh, no WONDER I get so many gaming morons asking why my Aol Instant Messenger Bot doesn't work for Counterstrike.

Must.... restrain.... anger....

Damn them!

[ActiveSX]

Damn those French! First they protest OUR war, now they cheat at OUR games! I say we make them drown in a pool of Freedom(R) Fries(TM)!
</patriot>

Re:Don't ban cheaters

[Zed2K]

BS. Cheaters and those that make the cheats are nothing more than criminals. Illegally reverse engineering copywrited software. You should be treated the same as others who crack software. It is currently illegal and you should be dealt with accordingly. You have no honor. You do it because you get a kick out of ruin other peoples fun. You are the lowest of the low. People like you are not smart, you are just lonely little morons who will eventually get whats coming to them.

Instead of saying "fix the game" how about you send the game publishers stuff you find instead of abusing what you find. Its like saying I killed that man to prove that the gun worked.

Moron.

Makes sense...

[Danse]

"Did you know most cheaters come from France?"

What else are they gonna do? Counter-Strike doesn't have a surrender key.

Responsibility

[sperling]

In online security communities, it's quite widely accepted that "Full Disclosure" is the only way to go. If you publish a vulnerability in some vendors application, the vendor will be forced to deal with it. Why so? In essence, because their sales and reputation will suffer if they dont deal with problems.

In gaming, when a cheat is made public, why dont the vendors feel the same need to fix it before their reputation and sales suffer? Why dont they value the trust of their customers more? Maybe because gamers are so used to cheats that it don't even occur to them to blame the vendor...

It's not by any means impossible to prevent cheats, but it costs the vendors money and time. Until it's economically more sensible for them to do something about it, there will be no changes in the amount of cheating going on. As the gaming industry expands rapidly, we'll see more competition and choice for users. In a few years it might be possible that you simply skip buying a new hyped game, because you know that coming from this and that vendor it'll be full of holes. You rather go buying some other game. Until this is the situation, live with cheats.

I guess my point is, yell at the game developers. They are the ones who made it possible to cheat, they are the one responsible.

--Erik
www.darkfallonline.com