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Cheaters Under The Microscope

Posted by Zonk on from the give-a-hoot-don't-cheat dept.

1up.com has a piece up examining the reasons and rationale behind the online gaming cheater. From personal pride to pure cynicism, the realm of the cheater has many ways in. From the article: "Using grenades and jumping on friends' shoulders can help you get ridiculously high and reach far-off boundaries in Halo 2. Players like Joe32 call it creative thinking. Victims of sniper fire that seems to come from another world call it cheating."

7 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Cheating is NEVER fair by KDR_11k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To lose consistently to people who got better than you by playing six to eight hours a day while you're at school or worksome people cheat just to even the playing field.

    Cry me a river. Perhaps you should try playing with people who are your skill level instead of wanting to be the Rambo of the higher leagues.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  2. Just by jumping on someone else's shoulders... by Zangief · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you call them cheaters?

    I call that bad map design.

    1. Re:Just by jumping on someone else's shoulders... by Saige · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can't believe they used that as an example. Anything like that is completely NOT cheating. Grenade jumps, jumping on another player, fancy trick jump, etc - those are all completely valid techniques and anyone who considers them cheating is full of crap.

      Level glitches - like the superjumps on various maps, the old trick of pulling flags/weapons through walls, those are also not really cheating, since anyone can do them. People who abuse them to grief people are not cheating, but still deserve negative feedback.

      Standbying (the modem glitch mentioned), and now the whole problem with hacked files - now that's cheating, and those people need to get their asses banned like NOW.

      --
      "You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
  3. Its not cheating if its in the game. by HellPhish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My stance on cheating in video games is that its only cheating if you modify the client app or take advantage of something that other players can't take the same advantage of.

    Simply put, if the game allows it, it is part of the gameplay. It may not be the most obvious way to play, nor may it be how the manual TELLS you to play. As far as I'm concerned, anything allowed by the engine is totally fair.

    There is no such thing as an unfair advantage.

    1. Re:Its not cheating if its in the game. by Have+Blue · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with that approach is that it turns the game from "who can play the best" to "who can perform the best exploit the fastest", which is a completely different game from the one you may have intended to play when you joined the server.

  4. What an asshole by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This asshole thinks using a keyboard and a mouse is cheating.

    Other gamers give themselves an edge by using a mouse and/or keyboard with today's USB-friendly consoles, which increases accuracy and cuts response time--it can be an insurmountable advantage. But, as one anonymous cheater explains, "It's not illegal--it's just using the best equipment available. Anyone can do it."

    People who have been playing games since Wolfenstein 3D know what the best FPS controller is, and it's the keyboard and the mouse. If no console manufacturer chose to pay attention to what PC gamers have known for over 10 F-ing years now, tough shit.

    As I've read in a review of Quake for the Dreamcast, which online could pit computer players against console players: "Playing with a controller versus people playing with a keyboard and mouse is a soul-destroying experience."

    It's not my fault people want to use a shitty controller.

  5. Playing to win by rpumarega · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is an article over at sirlin.net that discusses this. http://www.sirlin.net/Features/feature_PlayToWinPa rt1.htm Here's a small snippet. "You're not going to see a classic scrub throw his opponent 5 times in a row. But why not? What if doing so is strategically the sequence of moves that optimize his chances of winning? Here we've encountered our first clash: the scrub is only willing to play to win within his own made-up mental set of rules. These rules can be staggeringly arbitrary. If you beat a scrub by throwing projectile attacks at him, keeping your distance and preventing him from getting near you...that's cheap. If you throw him repeatedly, that's cheap, too. We've covered that one. If you sit in block for 50 seconds doing no moves, that's cheap. Nearly anything you do that ends up making you win is a prime candidate for being called cheap." -- If you rocket jump of your friends shoulders.. that's cheap!