Rockstar Creates 'Cheaters Pool' For Game Hackers

itwbennett writes "Rockstar Games announced yesterday in a newswire post that the company has created a 'cheater's pool' (sort of like the populating of Australia with criminals) where players who have hacked the game to give themselves advantages will only be able to play against other cheaters. Although, Ars Technica points out that players may actually prefer the 'special' world."

Comments

I like this approach

[Firehed]

Seems like a big improvement over the typical banhammer approach. Let cheaters play with other cheaters while legit players can continue to enjoy the game normally. Contrast this to Blizzard's apparent approach where everyone thought to cheat (even in single-player, apparently, since they've blurred the single vs multiplayer line on D3 with this always-on crap) suddenly have their $60 purchase made worthless.

Re:I like this approach

[cpu6502]

If I was a Blizzard or Rockstar player, and they suddenly banned me because of "cheating", even though I never did cheat (or even know how to do it) I'd be pissed. I'd probably start stealing their games. (Since there is no legal recourse against corporations.)

That's fine

[rgmoore]

Although, Ars Technica points out that players may actually prefer the 'special' world."

Sounds like a win all around, then. The cheaters get their "special" world, and the non-cheaters don't have to deal with them. What's not to like?

Re:Interesting

[localman57]

I find this idea rather interesting, but I worry what might happen to someone who was placed in this pool by mistake?

It still seems better than an outright ban. The guys sent to Australia probably thought it better than the gallows.

Honeypot

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a honeypot to me.
Rockstar will be able to observe a plethora of hacks in action to better prevent them on normal servers.

Re:Interesting

[malakai]

The details of this system are scary.

First, this is designed for:

Anyone found to have used hacked saves, modded games, or other exploits to gain an unfair advantage in Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, or to circumvent the leaderboards will be quarantined from all other players into a "Cheaters Pool", where they'll only be able to compete in multiplayer matches with other confirmed miscreants

Which smells to me like they had poorly implemented server side checks, and people who modified their save games or other client in memory vars, were able to rocket to the top or run around invincible. That's just plain bad server-side programming on their end. I don't doubt with the right queries into their server storage they could identify accounts that bypassed something they were supposed to spend time on or accrue. If they had the right amount of auditing sprinkled in.

If you see anyone in Max Payne 3 multiplayer using invincibility hacks, infinite adrenaline, score cheating or doing anything else suspicious, just send us an email at maxpayne3.banhammer@rockstargames.com and include the following:
-Platform (PC, PS3 or Xbox 360)
-Cheater’s Gamertag / ID
-Description of the violation
-If possible, please include concrete evidence, such as a video or a screenshot

Wow, again, very scary. So the server trust the client for things like invincibility, adrenaline, _actual score_..etc. Is this a FPS from 1993?

Will this find aimbots, wallhacks or radar? No. It never will and never can. If you have to trust the client to run your 'aimbot detection code' then you already lost that battle. ( sure, statistically you can find weak cheats, or push down new detection code to try and catch them off guard, but the good ones have checks in place for that ).

All and all, this is part PR ( "Hey we're really mad at those darn cheaters and we'll try and make a difference!" ) and part cover up ( "Oh, we fucked up and let you do crappy memory hacks to rule our leader boards, we were in a rush and couldn't get all the server state checks done in time, plus it was so laggy, so we just decided to trust the client. Now we know better, have more time on our heads, so we'll retroactively try and determine people that cheated and remove them from the leader board")

Re:Interesting

[X0563511]

Who played Crysis for multiplayer? Cheaters apparently. I never even tried, I just enjoyed the single-player game.

Re:Interesting

[Seizurebleak]

Gotta love getting insta-railed in DM1 from the top where the 'nade launcher is and from the ledge where the hyperblaster spawns.

The cheaters were few and far between from my experience - although it only takes 1 to ruin a game. Once knowledge of botting got out, however, lots of really good players would get accused of cheating and sometimes booted from public servers. Sore losers and poor sportsmanship ruined online gaming for me, even more so than flagrant cheating.

Re:Interesting

[X0563511]

But they do have to code it in, which influences the other code and saps hours from all parts of development.

Re:Nice

[networkBoy]

Back on Halo we mod'd a couple maps. We had shotguns that fired sniper rounds instead of pellets that had the impact of the rocket launcher. used in a fairly constrained level made for hilarity as people ganked themselves almost as often as they got a kill.
As long as everyone obeys the modified rule set then it still isn't cheating though, it is a modified ruleset. Cheating is when someone violates the social construct of the environment for their own gain.
-nB