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Epic Cracking Down On UT2K4 Cheaters Already
qasimodo writes "Gamespot.com is reporting that Epic has banned the first cheater from Unreal Tournament 2004. You can read the thread explaining this on the official Atari forums for the game. DrSin, one of Epic's programmers started the thread as a warning to fellow users, and so far everybody seems to be happy. I agree with that, we need to stop the cheaters before they ruin every game out there. But the question remains: How can they stop them completely? Surely, script kiddies will just stop and go somewhere else, but how about the guys who write all the tools? They won't stop so easily." Elsewhere, nerdb0t points to an ACM Queue editorial on the subject of cheating in online games, arguing: "Perhaps game developers don't realize they're enabling roving gangs of sociopaths who are effectively destroying the virtual world the developers have worked so hard to create."
It didn't fail. It detected someone cheating, notified the admins, who verified it, and then they banned the cheater. Case closed. The anti-cheating measures in-game are the reason it took a full week to notice someone with a cheat - it's hard now.
I agree about spoiling the fun though.
EULAs aren't enforcable unless you agree to the terms before you purchase the game. If I made a video game and one of the terms on the EULA (to be read once the game was installed and there was no possible way to return it, at least in North America) was "You agree to me hacking into your bank account and emptying it," or even "You agree to send me $10," would it hold up in court? Doubtful.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Good points. As well, lawyers are not allwed in small claims court, it is just me, the person I am accusing of doing me wrong and the judge, with damages of around $500 max (I would definately do more research before walking in there, of course). If I was claiming damages of $50(cost of game) + $30(frustration, time, etc), do you really think they would fly their CEO or the tech who banned me out there to defend against an $80 claim in small claims? Heck no. Free game + dinner on them! (assuming I could collect...)
However, reading on their forum, I did manage to get some great answers to some of my original questions. You are banned from the master server browser. Which means that you can use alternate means to connect to the game servers (GameSpy, IP given to you by a friend, etc). You are only banned from the Epic Master Server Browser which will inhibit your ability to connect, but not stop you altogether (so it isn't as damaging as we had been led to believe). As well, server operators have the choice of honoring the ban recommendations of the master server, but by default that is not enabled. If Epic did decide to defend against my small claims suit, they could easily argue that access to the master server is not critical to playing online, and is a service they provide with limitation. If I cheat, they can remove access because of my abuse of that service, without stopping my ability to play online. Heck, if I were a judge I would rule in their favor.
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
I think Gabe's (from PA) theory that 'normal person + anonymity + audience = Total Fuckwad' has a point.
Creating a cheat enabled server probably wouldn't solve anything, but how about servers that eliminate anonymity? Where you have to log in using some form of real world identification (like a credit card)? Everyone would be playing as themselves and not 'N00bSlAyEr_666' or whatever and I think that would drastically cut down on cheating.
Dr Sin is an Epic programmer, but he was just another gamer who wrote a mod for the original UT. The mod he wrote was CSHP (Client Side Hack Protection) to combat the first bots. Epic hired him to write cheat protection for UT, but it's not like the other programmers even care about cheats in UT. For Dr Sin to talk about a cheater then gamespot to say "Epic wages war against online cheaters"...it's not epic, it's just Dr Sin. Just like before Epic/Mark Rein/Whichever big guys don't care about botters, they just care about their money.
the fact that they hired Dr Sin, and Amateur programmer from the UT community also shows that no one on their staff has any idea about writing a secure game.