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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.
I have a dream, that one day, man will frag and snipe without hearing the crys of WALLHACK, OMG HAXOR!!!! Contact your congressman about putting a stop to the cheaters. Paid for by the association of friends of elasticwings.
Blizzard set up 2 sets of "realms", an open realm and a closed realm. The closed realms kept the player's savegames on the server and while you were playing, all your character's interactions went through the server instead of straight to another player, while the open realms allowed you to play online or offline and kept your saved characters on your own local machine. Open realms also worked by the same system as fps's do, ie one player hosts the game, other players's boxes connected to it and none of the gamedata is sent to a secure server. It was a great idea and worked for a while, but cheats still crept into the closed realms from time to time. Of course, they were often patched quickly and the offending players banned, but that was little deterrent for others to try to cheat as well.
The way I see it, anti-cheating measures work the same as bug spray on a camping trip. You can apply it as often as you like, but mosquitoes are everywhere and at some point you've gotta suck it up and realize that soaking yourself in it from head to toe won't keep you from being bitten.
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.
I always thought it would be a great idea for a development company to design a game, may it be a FPS, RTS or whatever, that ENCOURAGES cheating. For example, with the purchase of the game, you are given tools, maybe some source code or something, that helps you actually DEVELOP your OWN cheats. The whole point of the game would be to see who could create the best cheats and dominate. You could share them, trade, etc. I know that already sort of happens with some games, but not on the type of scale as I am mentioning - I'm talking about a mainstream, popular-like title. Hell, make a series of them.. an FPS, RTS, RPG, etc.. if it would help get rid of some of the cheaters from the games I play, then I'm all for it.