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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."
As has been discussed in length already, it is impossible to trust the client unless you send each frame prerendered to every client pixel for pixel. Because of this, the only real solution is to ban the cheaters. The way this works is that the people running servers and Epic trust each other. When a client tries to connect to the server, it will check the CD key against Epic's master ban list. If you are banned, you will not be allowed to join the server. Someone could hack the server code as well as the client code to make sure this check is not done (actually, it's configurable), but the cheaters will not be able to play on servers that do such authentication. And as people prefer to play in a cheat-free environment, these servers will natually be more popular.
Of course, someone can always come up with a better cheat or a new handle, but each time they are banned they will have to buy a new game to play again. That's an expensive mistake for the cheater. Making cheating economically prohibitive is the only way, as far as I can see.
Writing a cheat tool is not a perfectly valid strategy for playing the game. It's actually a perfectly example of violating the user agreement. It's a perfect example of a reason to ban cd keys. It's a perfect example of somebody trying to ruin the fun for everybody else because they don't want to spend the time to actually get good.
You said it yourself...games SELL because of graphics. The game buying public speaks with their wallets that graphics are the most important thing. When that changes, and only when that changes, professional game developers (i.e. those who make games in order to make money) will start emphasizing other things.
I expect this to come around sooner rather than later, because the graphics arms race is reaching a point of diminishing returns. There's such a thing as "good enough", and "more complicated pixel shaders in your 3D" isn't the kind of jump that "now in 3D instead of 2D" was.
People don't cheat solely to be as powerful they can be. Some cheat because for them it gives them the same thrill as winning fair and square. They have no sense of fair play. Others cheat only to ruin the game for other people. These cheaters would still flock to the "good set" because thats where these two kinds of cheaters need to be to get their fix.
In my opinion, writing a cheat tool is a perfectly valid strategy for playing the game -- a good aimbot or whatever isn't exactly easy to make.
I suppose you'd be okay with a boxer bringing weapons and armor into the ring, as long as he had built them himself?
Engagements -- whether sporting or gaming -- have rules. They have rules so that everybody can compete on an even footing, know what they are up against, and most of all have fun. They do not have rules so that annoying little assholes who use aimbots can ruin everybody else's day by not following them.
If the rules of a particular server allow cheating, then by all means go for it. Knock yourself out and have a blast. If the rules do not allow cheating, do everybody a favor and don't cheat.
This is just common fucking sense, people.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
I imagine that the majority of cheaters out there fall into the second category, which I like to call "Ruiners." Most of the cheaters I've seen derive their enjoyment from breaking the game rules through invulnerability, impossible weapons, etc., and from seeing the complaints from legit users. The enjoyment here is similar to that received from shining laser pointers at the screen in movie theaters.
I've played CTF-style games against an invulnerable flagger, and it's incredibly frustrating to watch a cheater enter your base, grab the flag and walk back to their side while ignoring concentrated fire from the defenders. Flaming quickly fills the chat space, and the cheater just sits back and taunts.
First off, let me clarify, I hate cheaters. I run an ethics guild, and one of our rules is don't cheat. So I have no desire to see on-line cheaters flourish.
BUT
If you spent $50 on a computer game, only to have one of the major reasons you paid for it disabled by the manufacturer, wouldn't you be shouting bloody murder? Especially if they singled you out personally? I know I would be furious! Chances are, I would go down to the courthouse and file a claim in small claims court the next day.
Question is, is there a better way to handle this other than a permanent ban from the master server? (Someone mentioned a set of cheating servers. I think I would be OK if those were the only servers you had access to once you were banned/restricted)
Better yet, does the master server just work for browsing playable servers, and could you bypass it with clients like GameSpy, or is it more like how Half-Life used WON to check WonIDs?
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
I don't think this would work for a company as a profitable product. I mean seriously, the people that would be interested in playing a game based upon writing cheats wouldn't buy it. They would download and crack it. And as far as the lamers that use utility cheats made by crackers. They'll lose interest once everybody is cheating and the playing field is leveled so that they can't ruin legitimate games. It's like back in the days of the first Diablo. Make a game called HAXS DUELZ GOD KILL and nobody, not even regular cheaters, will join. Make a game called LEGITS ONLY, and it will fill up with the most possibly hacked characters possible all begging you to go into their portal.
The only problem with that, of course, is that your Congressman (or other representative to your national parliamentary body) hasn't yet realized just how much money is present in the videogame industry, and so is more likely to write a bill banning videogames... but more importantly, and all humor aside, I really don't think you'll stop seeing "omg u f***ing h4x0r!" and its associate idiocies anytime soon. The problem doesn't devolve on game companies, either - although it would be nice if they could release cleaner code on launch day, I don't think most hacks depend much on bug exploits.* The real problem lies with the immaturity of the gamer community. (Don't get me wrong here, I don't mean physical age; I know fourteen-year-old geeks that play games with more honor and respect than some college-age gamers I coexist with.) People can afford to cheat, annoy, PK, etc. because there aren't any real disadvantages to it. (This is one reason I've completely ceased to play on Bnet.) Sure, a company can occasionally run a check for duped items, like Blizzard does with Diablo II; but what can Epic do for UT2K4 beyond banning an IP? And games like Counterstrike, which has no central authority to ban people, are even worse. I don't really see a solution for the latter, but the former might be solved (in part!) by a peer-driven system of 'honor' rankings. (This idea is shamelessly stolen from a MUD I used to play.) Players give positive or negative rankings to various accounts - not nicks - with the record stored in a central list; a game's host can choose to set a threshold for players to meet before they can join their game. Obviously there's room for abuse here, but the overall idea could be sound with some improvement (that I'm too brain-dead to think up tonight.) *Correct me if I'm wrong on this. I'm a gaming politics geek, not a gaming code geek.
+++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot.+++
"Engagements -- whether sporting or gaming -- have rules. They have rules so that everybody can compete on an even footing, know what they are up against, and most of all have fun."
In fact, this is the fundamental basis of game theory: a situation with two or more participants and a limited (i.e. non-infinite) set of available actions, with all participants trying to achieve the best outcome for themselves. Cheating breaks the whole concept of the "game" apart.
I wonder if cheaters know this? My guess is that they just can't recognize that disrupting fair competition is not a measure of their skill.
+++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot.+++
I disagree with this completely. Every single player game is designed so that one person, i.e. YOU, plow through it steadily to keep your interest. When you lose you have to start over again, but YOU are the star of the show. For this reason, multiplayer games are very frustrating for players of primarily single player games. I don't think these people know or care that they are hurting others. They just want to win the game. (the ones who brag about it are excepted)
Creating a cheat-server would not work, because all they (the cheaters, griefers, etc) are interested in is ruining the game for *normal* players. People have been trying to run FPS-servers for newbies for years now, creating a place where newbies can get to grips with the game and not get massacred over and over on regular servers. It rarely works, though, because a lot of griefers enjoy joining these servers and rack up tons of easy frags and humiliating the newbs.
I don't know the real sales figures, but UT2004 has a much better "buzz" than UT2003 -- and the only real difference is new/improved gameplay.
Kinda like shoplifting to see how long you can get away before you get taken away by the police.
As the consequences for getting caught shoplifting are far worse than those of getting caught cheating in a video game, this analogy isn't really valid.
Rob (Though I wouldn't exactly be shocked if some kleptomaniacs thought that way)
If I get your CDKey, and I get banned with it - you can't play the game as you paid for.
Dat's a crime. It might not seem like a big crime, but I think once you got done screaming at forums about how you have to go plunk down another $50 to play again, you might disagree.
I think it fitting that the number one master hacker in all of UT (the zellius bot is legendary) is the first person they banned. I wonder if they sat back and let other botters (helios, Lamp, Ten Bucks, etc. ) pass by waiting for him? lol.
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
Totally disagree here. This is exactly what the Homeland Security office's response is to international and domestic terrorism -- harsher controls, clamping down on any type of non-identifiable interaction. Basically, everyone who speaks, reads, types, looks, smells, or hears anything needs to have a tattoo on their forehead with a barcode in it for easy ID by the Feds. In a marketplace, these controls make even less sense than in the legal realm. Once again, I will state what others before me (and will after me) have stated for years. It will be in caps, not as a shout, but as an attention getter: THE BEST RESPONSE TO CHEATERS IN THE ONLINE VIDEO GAME ARENA IS TO IMMEDIATELY LEAVE THE SERVER WHERE THE CHEATER IS CURRENTLY CHEATING. Ignore them, leave them. For some reason, it appears there were few people like me who had the shit kicked out of them by bullies in grade school. It took a very long time before I believed my parents and ignored the bullies by walking away and removing myself from the location. The bullies get bored and stop -- or go bug someone else not hip to the trick yet. Cheaters will get really bored if everytime they pull some stunt, every single player who sees it immediately logs off that server, dissapears instantly, poof gone into the bit-aether. They're left playing with themselves, which is nothing new to them, right? >-) Just leave. Vote with your connection. Go to another server. Yeah, you'll be moving quite a bit for say 3 months or so, but then the cheaters (I guarantee it) will get bored and move on to some new activity -- or they'll stick to servers where people are too stupid to leave. This will leave your servers clean and fun. Try it! It works!