Top Counter-Strike Players Embroiled In Hacking Scandal

An anonymous reader writes Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the world's fastest growing eSports, but the community has been rocked by scandal in the last week, with several top players being banned by Valve for using various hacking tools to improve their performance. With the huge Dreamhack Winter tournament taking place this weekend, the purge could not have come at a worse time for the game, and fans are now poring over the archives for other signs of foul play in top tier games — be sure to look out for these tell tale signs while playing.

Comments

Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm too lazy to RTFA, anyone care to list some examples of hacks?

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wall hacks: a common accusation when a player doesnâ(TM)t see their assailant is that they shot them through a wall. There are also hacks that let you see player outlines (like in spectator mode) or grenade paths. One of the more blatant cheats.

Aimbots and triggerbots: like auto-assisted aim on consoles, these hacks can be configured to either snap to a target, or otherwise improve accuracy. Triggerbots fire as soon as the crosshair moves over a target, âoeimprovingâ reaction times in corner ambushes. Can be obvious, or rather subtle.

The âoeESPâ hack: gives you âoeextra-sensory powersâ to know, telepathically, your opponentâ(TM)s ammo/health count and whether theyâ(TM)re walking or sprinting. Can also boost sound levels of footsteps or distant gunfire.

Mobility hacks: these range from slightly increased speed to ability to teleport anywhere on the map. Can include noclip, or âoeghostingâ, through solid objects and walls, however these are less common and almost entirely removed from the game other than cheat console-enabled servers.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[omglolbah]

Wall-hacking and tracking stuff mostly. Since your client knows the location of all the players for the purpose of generating 3d sound etc you can extract that info. These hacks were distributed through steam workshop due to a flaw in that system, and were thought to be hidden from VAC.. until the bans hit ;)

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aim assist/aim bot: Automatically point cursor at enemy, or compensate for random spray, or recoil. Recent hacks are subtle about this.
Trigger bot: Automatically fire when the player when the player is pointed at an enemy
Wall hack: Player is alerted to enemy presence that they would not be able to know without cheating. Blatant examples are enabling the spectator XRay feature where you can see people through walls.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

A pair of headphones with the volume for SFX cranked to ear-splitting volume...

Re:Various hacking tools?

[jovius]

I'd say the game actually would get more interesting if hacking would be allowed. It would expand the skill set demanded to win.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[dave562]

It really does not require any more skill. If hacking were allowed, it would come down to who has the fastest computer and lowest ping to the server.

Playing the game without hacks requires skill.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[DutchUncle]

I think the suggestion is that it requires *other* skills, namely hacking skills. However, since hacks would be wind up being distributed (after all, doesn't information want to be free, even if one person worked on it and everyone else is just freeloading?), the skill would be "researching hacks" rather than 'creating hacks".

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't play CS, but other games from Valve place sound sources accurately and I can easily pick (and shot) enemies behind me or across walls or foliage with any decent headphones, no cheating involved.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[The Raven]

This could be a thing, but would be uninteresting with a hitscan game. When your shots are point and kill (headshot from extreme range) then computer reflexes trump interesting play. But if it's only slow moving projectiles it's possible more interesting gameplay could result.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[parkinglot777]

"hacking" is not related to any game playing skill especially in MMO, and is never supposed to be, period...

Re:Various hacking tools?

[OzPeter]

It really does not require any more skill. If hacking were allowed, it would come down to who has the fastest computer and lowest ping to the server.

Playing the game without hacks requires skill.

Sooo .. sorta like high frequency trading?

Re:Various hacking tools?

[dave562]

Very much like HFT.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[joocemann]

Hacks are so sophisticated that (this is for nearly a decade now) you can pay a monthly fee and a business will guarantee you their hacks will not get you caught. This means that if you are caught, they will buy you a fresh copy of the game. The hacks come by way of a client software that gets the latest undetectable hacks direct from the company and implements them as your game begins. These can include aimbots, wallhacks, etc. Interestingly, the aimbots are engineered to be less detectable, having some deliberate slop and acquisition time in them so that when a player's game is reviewed, it may appear more natural instead of a quick 'snap' to a headshot.

I know this because I played in competitive BF2 and was a huge proponent of detecting and outing the hackers in the top competitive community. Several of my colleagues were anti-hack people who were assigned to infiltrate those very hack selling companies as clients. Guess what? Those companies have forums where hackers assemble to get together full teams for (I'm sure you've got the picture by now) the top leagues and competitive games.

I'm so glad I don't game competitively for many reasons. I loved it at the time, but the paranoia and concern over hackers was such a big deal. Also, be wary of gamers from quebec. Of the competitive gamers caught in BF2 for hacking there were as many from Quebec as there was from the western hemisphere as a whole. There was a huge culture of disrespect coming out of quebec at the time.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[jovius]

Why think only offensive, when things could be really interesting with the possibility to code algorithmic defensive mechanisms. The execution time of the hacks on the server could be adjustable and be protected from hacking. That would allow for human reactions to come into play. Besides the actual weapon systems could be programmable, but this is not the traditional Counter-Strike anymore I guess.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[theVarangian]

I think the suggestion is that it requires *other* skills, namely hacking skills. However, since hacks would be wind up being distributed (after all, doesn't information want to be free, even if one person worked on it and everyone else is just freeloading?), the skill would be "researching hacks" rather than 'creating hacks".

Why bother with the hacks then? If you want unlimited wall hacks you might as well just hold your tournament in a flat open arena with no cover anywhere and disable all the equalisation algorithms. If you want a hacking challenge try hacking some major corporate network. This also has the benefit of being followed by a stretch of vigorous physical exercise as you try to run away from the FBI SWAT team.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Kjella]

I guess it's some kind of meta-game, the same way every forum attract trolls every game attract cheaters. Even playing free recreational chess, no prizes, no loot, nothing but a meaningless, unofficial ranking you run into people who set up a bot for shits and giggles. Then again it's better than the people who play games like a job, the goal is not to have fun it's to grind so you can reach the next level for more of almost the same. And with "Freemium" you can take the addicts' money too, not just their life.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[AlreadyStarted]

It really does not require any more skill. If hacking were allowed, it would come down to who has the fastest computer and lowest ping to the server.

You've just described high frequency trading.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I read here, there was a hack that could have been used at a live LAN event. But that's about as much detail as I could find. Could have been an aimbot that only triggers for an otherwise close miss, a triggerbot maybe - but here the cursor would overshoot, and not stop on the target to fire. You'd think a wall-hack would be obvious. I guess you could drop anti-aliasing around the opponents, say, something very subtle that could be overlooked. ESP could work if information is relayed via headphones, so only the cheater would hear it. But none of the articles I've read actually say!

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say the game actually would get more interesting if hacking would be allowed. It would expand the skill set demanded to win.

I doubt it. Firstly, hacks have never expanded the skill set needed to win. They're written by someone else and used by some no-skill loser that thinks that if their aimbot wins, that means that they win. Secondly, the game is dependent on balance for it's interest, if that is broken, the game becomes one-sided and uninteresting.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[tnk1]

I agree that the people who do it for a job have more reason to cheat. You get almost nothing out of cheating in games for recreation.

On occasion, I used to play on servers that allowed cheats. When I played with them, the experience was interesting at first, but inevitably got boring very fast. In the end, all you do is remove the work done to generate good levels and turn it into a super-flat experience where your ping, cpu, and possibly your actual aim/weapon skill matters. If there are auto aim or other weapon hacks, there isn't even the weapon skill.

So, it gets boring. Especially against other people with the same hacks. It is probably marginally more entertaining when you are playing against people who don't have hacks and don't know that you have them.

However, ultimately, what is the point of playing a game if you don't actually play the game? There are people out there who enjoy trolling, but I can't see that being as interesting as trying to beat other people on a well-designed map.

Getting hacks is easy, although using them covertly is dangerous due to VAC and possible bans. For all of that, it's just a waste of your time, other than perhaps to understand a little of the mechanics of how the game works and how hackers might be using hacks on you.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[hairyfeet]

I have to wonder if they didn't catch 'em using the same trick Vegas uses to catch cheaters, looking at the odds.

It never fails that cheaters get greedy and forget that if they tilt the odds too much in their favor a look at the stats over time will give them away. Sure somebody can have a lucky streak but not THAT lucky, but because they can insure a win they will, or only lose when there is nothing on the line...which again sticks out like a sore thumb.

I remember back in the late 90s when such hacks just started hitting shooters and it would never fail, look at the stats over time of a cheater compared to a really good non cheating player? The ones cheating would become obvious.They always seem to forget that no matter how good they are there will be the occasional "lucky shots" where somebody just happens to be in the right spot at the right time and catch them unaware but that doesn't happen with the cheaters, again they just get too damned greedy.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dropping AA levels per-pixel would be fairly difficult to program.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[tnk1]

Which is entirely valid in CS as well. I remember taking almost blind shots into the dark because I heard someone moving in a manner that I was used to hearing people move through certain areas. It worked because the sound is well placed and you get a feel for what a charge down one side sounds like, as opposed to a push down another.

Hell, if you got on the most common maps, you could run to a certain place, count to 1 and then just fire at a door, and 50% of the time you'd headshot someone who ran the same path, full speed, as everyone else always runs.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this an issue?

Tournament games should not be on computers that the players have access to install software on.

Re: Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. However they use their own computers.
Obviously they aren't using wall hacks in a place where people watch your screen.
I'm gonna guess the most popular hack is aimbot with a very low FoV. Followed by timed auto fire to destroy recoil and offer a primitive no spread effect. Also makes pistols act fully automatic.
But IDK, CS tournaments are lame. I'd never watch that.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[tlhIngan]

I agree that the people who do it for a job have more reason to cheat. You get almost nothing out of cheating in games for recreation.

On occasion, I used to play on servers that allowed cheats. When I played with them, the experience was interesting at first, but inevitably got boring very fast. In the end, all you do is remove the work done to generate good levels and turn it into a super-flat experience where your ping, cpu, and possibly your actual aim/weapon skill matters. If there are auto aim or other weapon hacks, there isn't even the weapon skill.

So, it gets boring. Especially against other people with the same hacks. It is probably marginally more entertaining when you are playing against people who don't have hacks and don't know that you have them.

However, ultimately, what is the point of playing a game if you don't actually play the game? There are people out there who enjoy trolling, but I can't see that being as interesting as trying to beat other people on a well-designed map.

Getting hacks is easy, although using them covertly is dangerous due to VAC and possible bans. For all of that, it's just a waste of your time, other than perhaps to understand a little of the mechanics of how the game works and how hackers might be using hacks on you.

Even if you don't do it professionally (i.e., compete in tournaments) you can still benefit financially from the cheats.

So that's a good motivator - you obviously cannot play in a controlled environment like the final tournament, but if you can get "up there" in the local tournament, you can end up being a local celebrity and get various low-level sponsorships and other things. Do it well enough that you make a name for yourself so you can get on YouTube and get paid for videos on topics not related to what you're cheating in and you're in a good spot.

You may not be able to get the $5M grand prize in a tournament (that requires work), but you can probably make a half-decent living on sponsorships, content sales and other things, without doing too much, either.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[torkus]

So...like the stock market essentially.

As gaming becomes worth more money I can only see this expanding right in line. The more you stand to win, the more you can invest in doing so.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say the game actually would get more interesting if hacking would be allowed. It would expand the skill set demanded to win.

it only expands the skillset for the people doing the hacking. the other 99% just have skills in downloading something from the internet.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I enjoy playing against no skill cheaters and kicking their ass, but I never got why they think cheating is fun. I've tried it on a private server just to see and it's fucking boring.

It severely limits the need for practice.
- - Learning the game is the best part.

It kills the element of surprise.
- - The element of surprise is fun.

It removes the need to focus.
- - Focus enhances the element of surprise.

It makes the need for strategy minimal and kills the need for teamwork.
- - Strategy and teamwork happen to be my favorite elements of most multiplayer games.

Take all that away whats left? Might as well take the characters put them in a box, bolt their feet to the floor, and give them a few grenades. Sure it might be really fun and funny for a few minuets.

Also this shit is not hacking, it's cheating and they're no more skilled than some script kiddie using a rat.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to troll hack sites, download their hacks then remove the password protections and distribute them free to anyone, including VAC and PunkBuster.
 
Good times.
 
By giving the for pay hacks away I took away the peoples revenues that encouraged cheats, people that use these hacks are cheaters they aren't hackers.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to dl those hacks and reverse engineer them, I'd bypass their login schemes and give their hacks away to anyone that wanted them. I'd also pass them along to PB and VAC for addition to their detection systems.
 
It's fun to hack the hackers.
 
I'm not against using hacks if they are used in a server dedicated to such, otherwise I'm against them.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[nanoflower]

It was an aim bot but one that only kicked in when you were already close to your target. So much so that even when viewing recorded footage it wouldn't be spotted. That's how they managed to get away with it at LAN events. Someone either has to see it installed or catch it running to detect that hack and apparently that is what happened.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, did you even look for a job today?

Re:Various hacking tools?

[tehcyder]

Yet more proof that The Market just makes everything better.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[gl4ss]

it's stupid though.

if they want it to be even, make them play on the tournament holders computers and raffle them at start of the game.

seriously, I thought the serious tournaments were played in this fashion but I suppose not. otherwise it's like letting javelin throwers bring their own stuff and not have people go through them(and yes sports like ski jumping have quite scientific ways to measure things like suit lift, because all that has been regulated).

Re: Various hacking tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, the inevitable end of this is a gun that automatically shoots teleporting grenades into all other players heads that instantly explode at the start of the round. Actually that would be interesting to watch... once, anyway.

Re:Various hacking tools?

[ChrisAshcroft]

Actually it could also come down to who can program the best hacking software as well, possibly that may be the most important part. Regardless, hacking is so stupid, the only way it could be fun to use that I could see, is if you are the one making the hacking software to test your code to see how effective your coding skills are at dominating the game vs. other people's hacking software.

LOL ...

[gstoddart]

Oh, great, now we need to get WADA and all them looking in high end gaming to see if people are using Performance Enhancing Devices.

Now, here's a shock: people will always cheat if it gives them an advantage.

I'm totally crushed.

Re:LOL ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah the quake scene even made it part of their culture as soon as they had the chance to get away with high picmip when id stopped Quakeworld development.

though this is all mostly ingrained in european playtowin culture and are the reason why arena fps games are dead.

Re:LOL ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... Now, here's a shock: people will always cheat if it gives them an advantage.

I'm totally crushed.

If rules prohibit something its cheating, otherwise its thinking outside the box. Sport is not a religious belief system despite a the number of rabid people thinking it is. It's just a fucking game, quit dumping time, money, and enormous expectations into it, and all will be well.

Re:LOL ...

[ArhcAngel]

Thank you James Tiberius Kirk!

Re:LOL ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am weary of assholes like you telling others that they should not find meaning in the things that they do. Who are you to tell others how to live their lives, and what they should find imporant.

It is people like you who help make the world a worse place to live in. Fuck you.

Re:LOL ...

[Comen]

I been playing online games since DOOM (yes online via dialup BBS) and I have never cheated, not even a macro, I think its cheating. I loose to cheaters all the time. But the day I start cheating is he day I will just quit. I got better shit to do that let my PC play the game for me while sit back and think I am cleaver, I would rather just go do something productive that probably should have been doing anyway.

Shocking

[sunking2]

It's half the reason I stopped playing it 15 years ago.

Re: Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

The other half...hardware upgrades and a real life.

Re:Shocking

[spacepimp]

Counter Strike: Global Offensive is about two years old. (pedantic I know)

Re:Shocking

[TemporalBeing]

It's half the reason I stopped playing it 15 years ago.

Yep. One friend of mine had a hack that added large rings around each player that you could see nearly all the way across the board, which penetrated walls, etc b/c they were not suppose to be there - simple hack by just replacing the character profile information to include it.

Of course he claimed it was as much a hinderance as an advantage b/c even though the rings were blue/red (to tell you which team) he had a hard time telling which team so would often kill his own team mates too.

Needless to say, I'm surprised Valve hasn't done more to get rid of those kinds of "hacks".

Re:Shocking

[Opportunist]

A rose by another name... You act as if most of these shooters weren't so similar that it takes "true mastery" to even find any kind of difference.

Re:Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

It can be easily argued that CS requires a different style of play than CoD or BF. If it's not your thing then it's not your thing but to act like all shooters are the same game isn't insightful.

Re: Shocking

[geekmux]

The other half...hardware upgrades and a real life.

Arguing "real life" with a hardcore gamer is like arguing the cost of gas with a NASCAR driver. As if they actually give a shit.

If wasting time was any type of real concern, the game would stay in the box and on the store shelf.

Re:Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

Same. I never hacked/cheated, but I've been booted for hacking by those who didn't appreciate it. In person is the best. When you get crushed, and sure they're hacking, you can walk over and look over their shoulder as they continue to share frustration from their godlike skills with others.

Re: Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

If wasting time was any type of real concern, slashdot would have died years ago.

Re:Shocking

[Opportunist]

I guess you're a true master then, for a layman like me can't really see much of a difference in them.

Re:Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

No. What it is is that you're dismissive of something you don't care to understand. It's like claiming that all hip hop/country/heavy metal music sounds the same.
 
Again, if it's not your thing then it's not your thing. I'm not saying that you're a lesser person for it. What I am saying that you scoffing at the concept that not all FPS games are the same is what makes you a lesser person.
 
Not to mention your passive-aggressive cry baby act on Slashdot. But that's another matter.

Re:Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you tell the difference between something like Need for Speed and Gran Turismo?
I don't think it's really necessary to be a master, to notice some fundamental differences.

Re: Shocking

[Rakarra]

"Hardcore gamers" don't remain hardcore gamers forever.

Eventually they actually do develop a real life.

Re:Shocking

[omglolbah]

Valve has done a huge job in getting rid of those sorts of hacks. But this is and has always been a big arms race.

VAC did defeat most of this crud for quite a while, but there will always be people willing to create new hacks as long as there is money or 'lulz' involved.

Best we can really do is be vigilant and weed out those who ruin the game for the rest. Be it with hacks or just general asshatesque behavior.

Re: Shocking

[myowntrueself]

The other half...hardware upgrades and a real life.

Arguing "real life" with a hardcore gamer is like arguing the cost of gas with a NASCAR driver. As if they actually give a shit.

If wasting time was any type of real concern, the game would stay in the box and on the store shelf.

IIRC NASCAR uses ethanol for fuel? (so that the flames are invisible and don't frighten the spectators).

Re:Shocking

[myowntrueself]

It can be easily argued that CS requires a different style of play than CoD or BF. If it's not your thing then it's not your thing but to act like all shooters are the same game isn't insightful.

It can be easily argued that Canadian football requires a different style of play than American football. If it's not your thing then it's not your thing but to act like all football is the same game isn't insightful.

Actually to people who aren't all wrapped up in it it really IS the same game.

Re: Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

> Arguing "real life" with a hardcore gamer is like arguing the cost of gas with a NASCAR driver. As if they actually give a shit.

You missed my point. The "hardcore" gamers are likely still being time-sucked by CS' FPS derivatives in their basement and handing out BOOM HEADSHOTs! Dealing with the constant hacking in CS 1.5 and then hardware upgrades necessary to play CS 1.6 and Source was enough to kick the habit. When you can't tell if you're being hacked or have crappy response time from outdated hardware, it's time to upgrade or move on.

Re: Shocking

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a simple (non-dimensional) balance problem.
Gameplay = Free Time - Work - Significant Other - Sleep

Assuming that you don't work in IT (The Website is Down), and don't have a permanent apartment in your parents' basement, eventually time, money, life, and 12yo script kiddies kick will all previously hardcore gamers to the curb.

Re: Shocking

[geekmux]

The other half...hardware upgrades and a real life.

Arguing "real life" with a hardcore gamer is like arguing the cost of gas with a NASCAR driver. As if they actually give a shit.

If wasting time was any type of real concern, the game would stay in the box and on the store shelf.

IIRC NASCAR uses ethanol for fuel? (so that the flames are invisible and don't frighten the spectators).

Er, don't frighten the spectators?

Because otherwise, a NASCAR race is as quiet and peaceful as a librarians office in the spring?

Points for your accuracy here, but damn if that's not the most pointless reason to use ethanol I've ever heard.

Re: Shocking

[myowntrueself]

The other half...hardware upgrades and a real life.

Arguing "real life" with a hardcore gamer is like arguing the cost of gas with a NASCAR driver. As if they actually give a shit.

If wasting time was any type of real concern, the game would stay in the box and on the store shelf.

IIRC NASCAR uses ethanol for fuel? (so that the flames are invisible and don't frighten the spectators).

Er, don't frighten the spectators?

Because otherwise, a NASCAR race is as quiet and peaceful as a librarians office in the spring?

Points for your accuracy here, but damn if that's not the most pointless reason to use ethanol I've ever heard.

Apparently Americans are afraid of flames... Seriously, this is the reason I read about when I found out that they used ethanol for fuel. People just see a car crash, they don't see the "omg the humanity!!!" flames.

The problem is that the rescue crews also can't see the flames, which increases the risk for them. You might see a NASCAR driver leaping out of his car and rolling around on the ground. Hes on fire but the flames are invisible!

Re:Shocking

[Man Eating Duck]

It can be easily argued that CS requires a different style of play than CoD or BF. If it's not your thing then it's not your thing but to act like all shooters are the same game isn't insightful.

It can be easily argued that Canadian football requires a different style of play than American football. If it's not your thing then it's not your thing but to act like all football is the same game isn't insightful.

Actually to people who aren't all wrapped up in it it really IS the same game.

Yes, that's true, but the thing that makes GP a troll in this situation is that his lack of insight is completely uninteresting. His post is completely useless.

For the record, knitting is just banging two metal sticks together with some curled-up thread mashed in. I don't know anything about it, but knitting is stupid, and there can be no relevant difference between different kinds of knitting since "it takes 'true mastery' to even find any kind of difference". I include weaving, sewing and embroidery in the set {differend kinds of knitting}, by the way, since they all look the same to me.

Re:Shocking

[uninformedLuddite]

I stopped playing somewhere around beta 5.2

Re:Shocking

[Some_Llama]

haha funny. i wonder how many people understand your joke.

Re:Shocking

[TemporalBeing]

Valve has done a huge job in getting rid of those sorts of hacks. But this is and has always been a big arms race.

VAC did defeat most of this crud for quite a while, but there will always be people willing to create new hacks as long as there is money or 'lulz' involved.

Best we can really do is be vigilant and weed out those who ruin the game for the rest. Be it with hacks or just general asshatesque behavior.

Most of those hacks are not really hacks - just things that were there for testing that users discovered; some things will always be possible if you put enough effort into it.

For instance, an easy way to negate the hack my friend did is to force the download of the content in upon the connection to the network; this however has two hacks: (i) doing something that prevents the download and thus forces it back into using whatever is cached on disk which can be manipulated, and (ii) adding some kind of MITM that lets you inject the content you like - this however may be at the cost of some latency which most players wouldn't like.

As you said, it's a bit of an "arms race", but the race is more people discovering what developers did than cracking into the software.

Re:#GamerGaters unite!

[Daimanta]

Don't you have better things to do like doxxing people or making funny captions with holocaust pictures?

The beef from the article

[Anonymous Coward]

Your best bet is checking the replays of a match you were in with the hacker and watching through their eyes. GOTV isn’t 100% accurate to their movements, so very, very subtle aim or trigger adjustments will be hard to spot, but wallhacking is obvious.

Unless the hacker is skilled in masking their ill-gotten knowledge, in spectator mode you’ll be able to see them reacting to player outlines as if they can see what you are seeing too. Tracking a player through a wall until they reach a corner, or not cautiously approaching corners UNLESS there is an outline on the other side are pretty dead giveaways. Of course, if they’ve gone full Matrix and started shooting people from across the map through several buildings you can go right ahead and chalk up a report.

Also in chess

[schneidafunk]

I don't play video games but I'm an obsessed chess fan. There was recently a scandal with a player being banned for cheating. They never found the device, but it was assumed he was using a computer to help him win tournaments (and money).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06...

Re:Also in chess

[schneidafunk]

Sorry wrong link, I was thinking of Borislav Ivanov: http://www.chessgames.com/perl...

Re:Also in chess

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, he's a suck. I beat him using Queen's Gambit Declined just like Fischer v Spassky in 72, game 6. What a chump.

Re:Also in chess

[schneidafunk]

I had to look it up, interesting rook sac - http://www.chessgames.com/perl...

The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know anything about this so-called "sport", but it sounds to me as if people bring their own machines to these events. This is a very curable problem. Get Alienware to sponsor the event with hardware which gets sent back to them at the end. All machines equal, all machines running the same image. This isn't hard.

Re:The solution

[nabsltd]

I don't know anything about this so-called "sport", but it sounds to me as if people bring their own machines to these events. This is a very curable problem. Get Alienware to sponsor the event with hardware which gets sent back to them at the end.

This isn't a bad idea, but you still have to allow peripherals to be brought in, since part of the player skill is likely their mouse and keyboard.

Then, you have to give the player time to config the game to their liking (mouse sensitivity, hotkeys, etc.). With all that going on, it might be pretty easy to slip in a hack of some kind.

Re:The solution

[Opportunist]

No devices you may bring, no internet connection, and if you need your superspecialawesome configuration for some device, mail it in and have it checked, you'll get it at the tournament during your setup time.

Re:The solution

[weilawei]

If you allow them to mail in a device ahead of time, what's to stop it from having a ROM that responds to the special secret knock? USB device, DMA, perfect storm.

It's much simpler to make a blanket rule saying "you cannot bring anything" than try to play the arms race where you make exceptions and need special security procedures for them.

Re:The solution

[Opportunist]

Would maybe be for the better. Announce in advance (a year or so) what specs the machine and periphery will have so nobody can whine about how they couldn't play well because of all the wrong equipment.

Re:The solution

[weilawei]

Agreed. I think that's really the way to go. It might exclude some of the less-hardcore players, but the less hardcore players aren't trying to make a living off tournaments.

Re:The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

A tournament without any hardcore players would be dead in the water. It'd be like the U20 world cup where only players who are 20 y/o or younger can participate.
Sure, it levels the playing field, but most people have never even heard of the U20WC and soccer is probably the most popular sport in the world.

If you want to reduce cheating opportunities in gaming tournaments you'll have to find a way to do it which doesn't put the top level players off (unless it's the inability to cheat which puts them off, in which case fuck 'em!).

Re:The solution

[weilawei]

I said that I think the less hardcore players would be put off. Those would be the people unwilling to invest the money to buy competition legal gear to practice with. I bet the top players would deal with it, and it would go over fine if the leagues picked high quality peripherals, especially if they offered a package deal to buy a competion legal set. There might be a bit of grumbling, but I doubt it would last once the practice was established. Compatibile hardware choices between leagues would also be a key factor.

Re:The solution

[weilawei]

s/competion/competition/
s/Compatibile/Compatible/

Whoops. Guess it's time to hit the sack.

Re:The solution

[Anonymous Coward]

> With all that going on, it might be pretty easy to slip in a hack of some kind.

With a restricted user account, you wouldn't be able to write to the game's installation directory, etc.

Re:The solution

[nabsltd]

You likely don't have to write to the game's installation directory for many hacks.

Most games support add-ons that can be installed per-user, so that means someplace the user can write to. Whether that level of hack would be enough to "cheat", I don't know. I do know that it can give you an advantage, though, by causing unimportant things to not be drawn on screen.

wouldn't even be reported

[Kunedog]

If this scandal had any relation to the Gamergate corruption, then there's no way the gaming press would even cover it. Anybody investigating the players would be said to be "harassing" them in articles, and they'd probably be called "misogynists" too, the players' actual genders be damned.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[i kan reed]

Look, you glued yourself to a movement forged in pure unadulterated misogyny and now whine about how people accuse you of being a misogynist.

It's like wearing a swastika and getting miffed about all the people who accuse you of being a racist, even though you totally don't mean it that way.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Microlith]

If this scandal had any relation to the Gamergate corruption, then there's no way the gaming press would even cover it.

Yeah cause IT'S A CONSPIRACY!

Anybody investigating the players would be said to be "harassing" them in articles

No, there's a difference between investigation and the concerted harassment by gamergate idiots.

they'd probably be called "misogynists" too, the players' actual genders be damned.

It might seem like that, but only to people who have completely lost their grasp on reality, such as you.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

Your post is as hilarious as a KKK member whining about being called a racist.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Lunix Nutcase]

and they'd probably be called "misogynists" too, the players' actual genders be damned.

Women can be misogynists. Just like minorities can be racists.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Kunedog]

I believe you, but in this case I was referring to the investigators being libeled, not the players

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[i kan reed]

"No see, I joined after the misogyny, just like I joined the skinheads after the holocaust, and I really care about immigration".

The fact that being really outrageously offended over a metaphorical statement in an editorial is fucking petty is just icing on the stupid cake.

You joined a misogynistic movement. Accept that and learn from it, or see overly defensive users with mod points guarding you as a justification for how right you are. I don't care that much.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

That was weeks after Gamergater started. Also "X is dead" is a common technology meme. Funny how gamergaters take an article title as a threat, but then won't accept that comments/tweets/etc. directed at an individual person, threatening death and/or rape, is.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

I've said this before, and have to say it again. Gaming press is Entertainment Tonight, not the New York Times. Anyone expecting anything else is either 12 years old or just nuts.

It would also help if the 'core audience' would have some basic reading skills to notice that most of the few articles written were about the 'dude lets scream racist sh*t on Xbox Live and Swatt (however that's spelled) people for fun' type gamers, not the whole gaming population. The whole point of particularly the gamasutra editorial was this, that gaming today is a hobby that spans age, race, gender, anything and everything so we as gamers should not tolerate the xbox live screaming little sh*theads as something that is a normal part of gaming.

Does it also help that the 'corruption' and 'blackout' from 'the media' was based on blog post that was proven false?

It would also help to not keep moving the goal post on the start of the 'movement' it existed a good while, long enough to issue death and rape threats related to the blog post above - though I will fully grant you that it was done by a small minority. Like it has been said, just because you join the KKK in solidarity this year because they got beaten at a rally or something, doesn't make the past disappear and everyone will still think you are a racist pig.

---

All that said, I'm fully willing to give GG a chance and have let this past stuff go, hoping that they show that they can have some control of their members and start doing some worthwhile things. These OMG gamergate comments are about as juvenile as 'you're holding it wrong' was years ago.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Kunedog]

It wasn't one statement or even just one editorial. It was at least ten article across as many sites, all synchronized to launch a smear campaign that's still going on.

Most of the gaming press still tries to throw the word "mysogyny" around like a "Get Out of Journalistic Ethics Free" card. Your use of it doesn't fool anyone either.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Imazalil]

Ahh, crap, didn't realize I wasn't logged in. Above post is mine.

Doesn't really matter I suppose, but was complaining about anons flooding /. and other places anytime GG comes up, so didn't want to be part of the problem.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

Women can be misogynists. Just like majorities can be racist about their own race.

FTFY.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

You do have to hand it to gaming journalists, they have managed to take what should be a major scandal ("hey, you guys, you probably shouldn't be LITERALLY SLEEPING WITH THE PEOPLE YOU'RE COVERING") and entirely derail it to the point that even SUGGESTING that just maybe perhaps video games journalists should employ even the slightest bit of ethics is considered the sign of a misogynist. It's utterly amazing and kind of sad at the same time.

I mean, video game journalism has been a joke since the time it was literally done by the publishers themselves (ah, Nintendo Power, how I miss your blatant advertising - at least you didn't pretend to be unbiased), but they've managed to turn the tables so now the joke's on people trying to improve things.

You're right, they won, trying to get them to act with even a smidgen of ethics is now "misogyny." Just like a police officer shooting someone who's actively trying to kill him is now "racism."

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

I think hardcore gamers are constantly disappointed because they are always having to accept the corporate need to be inclusive and add more casuals. The fact that a common journalistic tactic of declaring that audience "dead" only exacerbates the feeling that the game companies are happy to get big on their shoulders, but are more than willing to cast them off when they can now make cash on casuals.

That said, there's absolutely no excuse for the misogyny. There is nothing more awesome than a gamer girl. Even if she only plays Candy Crush Saga, she is more likely to "get" why you like games than most. Attacking the ladies like that is only shooting ourselves in the foot.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[i kan reed]

Or, here's an idea: don't get involved with a misogynistic-and-violent-as-fuck movement, then try to claim moral superiority.

Making an argument from ethics can't be done from the low-road.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Flentil]

I think it's more like the peaceful protesters in Fergusen all being labeled as rioters and looters because some among them are rioting and looting.

Re: wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

Because all those that speakout against journalistic corruption are responsible for the actions of a small group of vocal trolls.

By that logic all women are all man hating lesbian feminist Nazis.

I didn't know/care about any of it at the time. I first learned about this mess when several game sites started posting these attack articles.

Zoe whatever and her journalist/SJW are over.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

You didn't fix it, you made it stupid.

Racism is defining an individual by a stereotypical view of their race. All asians are bad drivers and know martial arts, for example.

This also extends to jobs - all IT people and CxOs are white, all drug dealers are black.

It is as possible for a member of a minority to be racist as it is for anyone.

One of my friends (a white guy) is in a relationship with a Chinese girl (born in America but her family came from China). Her parents are strongly against the relationship, they really hate him because he's white.

That's racism on their part.

I had a lecturer who walked into class on her first day, and announced that she felt that if we were white, we were wrong and had absolutely no right to be there oppressing her culture.

She ranted and raved about how none of us could speak two languages (when nearly one third of the class put their hands up and said "Actually, I can speak French/German/whatever..." she decided that was racism because they weren't speaking it on a daily basis and so therefore were oppressing her more.

Oh, and on the topic of oppressing her culture? She was outright hostile and shouting at us over it, yet she was adopted from another culture entirely - one she never engaged with, which demonstrates how fluid her definitions were: she was happy to change them to fit any situation, as long as it made any whites racist and oppressive.

Re: wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

The media blackout and the call-to-arms of the SJW crowd seems to suggest the original blog was true.

Kids/adults screaming and trash talking each other occurs everyday. Nothing new there, and not much you can do to stop it.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree entirely. As soon as that police car was set on fire, those thugs in Ferguson should have given up entirely and gone back to their houses and accepted the rule of the police. After all, if they didn't want to get involved with a criminal and violent-as-fuck movement, they shouldn't be protesting.

Wait, what are we talking about again?

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Microlith]

Not true.

Entirely true. When you steep yourself in the echo chamber, your perspective on reality twists and contorts. Gamergate was built on a lie and on hating a specific person.

The customer revolt exploded the day practically the entire online gaming press coordinated to declare their core audience "dead,"

There was no "customer revolt." There was a bunch of assholes who got pissed that the gaming press called them out on their abusive and unwarranted behavior.

in a clumsy and transparent attempt to cover-up their corruption.

Keep lying to yourself if it makes you feel better, I suppose. Righteous self-indignance is the same whether it's built on reality or bullshit I suppose.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Rakarra]

I like how you keep reiterating that this is some sort of "movement" that you "join."

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Rakarra]

There was no "customer revolt." There was a bunch of assholes who got pissed that the gaming press called them out on their abusive and unwarranted behavior

Who is the "their" that you're mentioning? I have no patience for misogyny and it's a very small minority of dickheads who cause trouble, but like every other normal gamer, I got roped into it with the shoddy "gamers are misogynistic assholes" articles pumped out by "games journalists" trying to deflect the blame from their own issues in a transparent attempt to make themselves seem more important and listened to than they are.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

misogynistic-and-violent-as-fuck

So, repeat it often enough and it becomes the truth, am I right?

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[lgw]

There is, in fact, a well-documented "conspiracy", though not a very secret one. There was also a well-coordinated effort in social media sites that gamers frequented to suppress all mention of gamergate (Reddit shadowbanned everyone talking about it, 4chan (of all places) banned everyone talking about it).

No, there's a difference between investigation and the concerted harassment by gamergate idiots.

Sure, but both "misogyny" and "journalistic ethics" are dodges here. Neither is really what gamergate is about: it's about a full-on culture war between the majority of the gaming press, and the actual gamers. The call for more gender sensitivity in game design, for example, seems harmless enough, what provokes people is simply outsiders to their culture demonizing that culture and insisting that it has to change - culture war.

Mostly, I think the real issue is just semantics - the culture of, say, CoD players (and other FPS games that attract mostly teen boys) can be toxic at times, but to criticize "gamers" as if they were all in that group really pisses off all of us addictively playing every other kind of games - from Candy Crush to Civ5.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who doesn't have a horse in the race, thats the pot calling the kettle black.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[emj]

There is, in fact, a well-documented "conspiracy",

As you say there is a toxic culture in some places and if you stand up and fight besides these people you have lost, or if they fight for you cause. It's a common problem.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

I got roped into it with the shoddy "gamers are misogynistic assholes" articles pumped out by "games journalists"

That's not even remotely what any of those "'Gamers' are over" pieces said.

I am convinced that the one defining characteristic of Gamergaters is not misogyny, it's lack of reading comprehension skills.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[tehcyder]

they have managed to take what should be a major scandal ("hey, you guys, you probably shouldn't be LITERALLY SLEEPING WITH THE PEOPLE YOU'RE COVERING")

Even if it was true it wouldn't have been that major a scandal - one journalist and one gamemaker.

As it wasn't even true, it's amazing the amount of sound and fury this has generated.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[tehcyder]

There's nothing wrong with pointing out that individual black or Chinese (or Indian, or Hispanic or whatever) people can be stupid racists, in the same way that they can be just plain stupid.

It just doesn't have anything to do with the fact that racism is essentially an institutioinalised problem of the powerful oppressing the weak.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[Anonymous Coward]

Except: 1. It IS true, she's even admitted to it (go ahead, quibble over "review" which you'll note I never said)

AND

2. It's more than just her, as other events (like AC:U) have demonstrated.

The video game journalism industry is completely corrupt. Everyone knows this and has known this for ages. The only thing new now is this "gamers are misogynists" angle that's being promoted to prevent any sort of meaningful discussion about it, let alone any sort of change.

Re:wouldn't even be reported

[lgw]

As you say there is a toxic culture in some places and if you stand up and fight besides these people you have lost, or if they fight for you cause. It's a common problem.

Nope, it doesn't work that way. You're just wrong, sorry, you lose.

See what happened there? You used a tactic that works mostly against people who avoid confrontation. Why is gamergate still a thing after all these weeks? Because SJW tactics don't work against people who seek confrontation online, and are used to achieving their goals by endlessly grinding, week after week, until they win.

You will not succeed in convincing all "gamers" that an ugly stereotype applies to them. Best give up now.

Valve does 1 "sweep" and so the fuck what?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are literally thousands of people hacking their most popular games, reports do nothing, VAC does nothing.

Re:Valve does 1 "sweep" and so the fuck what?

[omglolbah]

VAC catches the people bad at it. Without it we would have a huge number of free hacks floating around. The ones being used now cost money, which limits the user-base somewhat at least.

Re:#GamerGaters unite!

[i kan reed]

Distinguishing stupid unimaginative satire from stupid posts isn't as hard as Poe's law makes it out to be. Consider reading things twice.

Scandal? Hacking?

[Anonymous Coward]

Geeze kids! In the old days, us sporting types would have drug, rape, gambling, and murder scandals.

Hacking?

God! You kids are wimps!

Did you really think??

[Anonymous Coward]

That all those triple flip, spinning, no look, cross map headshots were actually people NOT using a hack.. ROFLOL...

Re:Did you really think??

[nabsltd]

That all those triple flip, spinning, no look, cross map headshots were actually people NOT using a hack.. ROFLOL...

All of them, no, I don't, as I watched someone repeatedly do something very similar using the stock Xbox controller.

I saw his character jump from one platform, spin and kill with a rocket launcher, then keep spinning and land on the platform across the gap.

Wait, E-sports players hacking?

[Spy Handler]

I am unfamiliar with E-sports so please bear with me. Do you mean to say the players play from home on their own computers via the internet? Like regular gamers?

And anyone is surprised that people hacked?

I was under the impression that E-sports was like regular sports (NFL, etc) and that players got together in real life in the same location and played on identical computers provided by event organizers. I guess this is this not the case?

Re:Wait, E-sports players hacking?

[Anonymous Coward]

They were hacking at LAN tournaments. One of the banned players used them in a Tournament to win a prize of 100,000 USD. They worked by being stored in the steamworkshop so they would be autodownloaded to any computer they played on with their steam account. Thus LAN hacks.

Re:Wait, E-sports players hacking?

[ProzacPatient]

One of the banned players used them in a Tournament to win a prize of 100,000 USD.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer haven't done any indepth research on this.

Since significant cash prizes are involved I'm thinking this might be able to be considered a type of fraud. Criminal legal action could be taken against the cheater but if there isn't some sort of law in criminal code that addresses this type of fraud then I suspect there will be in the future as e-Sports become more mainstream. Undoubtedly the tournament organizers could take civil action against the cheater.

Re:Wait, E-sports players hacking?

[hendrips]

In most tournaments that have a significant prize pool, there is usually an online qualifying followed by an in-person elimination round. This gives the best of both worlds: the tournament is able to invite a larger number of teams than logistics would allow if all games were in-person. But the actual prize money is won at the 2-3 day "main event," where the tournament is able to closely supervise the players.

For example, in Dota 2 the Starladder tournament that is going on right now, based in Kiev, invites 44 teams, and has round-robin group play lasting from Nov. 14 to Jan. 18. Obviously, it wouldn't be possible to make 44 different 5 person teams from all over the world stay in Kiev for two months, so they have to have online play for these group stage games. This means that the fans of just about every major Dota team on Earth will want to watch part of the tournament - great for Starladder's viewership. Theoretically, a team could cheat through the group stages since they're using their own computers, but cheating is fairly unlikely because a) even if the team made it to the finals in Kiev by cheating, they'd just get crushed by the legitimate teams and b) most of the cheats that you can use in Dota are very obvious to observers.

My understanding is that this hack was noteworthy because the creator managed to get it flagged as a legitimate configuration file edit, which means that it was able to be used on tournament computers as well as their own. I could be wrong though; I don't follow CS:GO.

Re:Wait, E-sports players hacking?

[MrL0G1C]

Fraud is obtaining money by deception, money that would not otherwise have been received.

"A false representation of a matter of factâ"whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosedâ"that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury."

Cheating to obtain a prize is very much fraud, the law covers it rather well.

Pathetic

[Anonymous Coward]

How sad and pathetic a person do you have to be to cheat at a game?

Re:Pathetic

[Anonymous Coward]

when your playing for cash.

Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to play people in online chess, but would mirror the games using the game Chessmaster. That way my opponent would not be playing me, but rather Chessmaster. Eventually I got a really high rank and someone beat me. I congratulated him for beating Chessmaster, the game, on the hardest difficulty. He told me that he too was using Chessmaster. His version was higher than mine.

I found that pretty much all the top ranked players were using Chessmaster or some variation to win. In conclusion, all the top ranked players cheat at games if they can get away with it.

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

Was that any fun? I can't image how it would be unless you were that obsessed with winning. Maybe you learn a little something seeing how the program responds to opponents, but there's got to be better ways to improve your chess game.

At least in FPS cheating you have to do something, you move your player around and let the aimbot do it's work or you get the advantage of seeing/shooting through walls. I guess I can at least see how that's fun, I mean kids still like riding bikes with training wheels right. Also the sheer amount of butthurt you get in FPS games when people are loosing has some entertainment value.

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[bigdavex]

Why?

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably more an interesting exercise for him personally than anything he would consider a personal accomplishment.

Even more interesting is how he relegated himself to a proxy between the player (his opponent) and the Chessmaster game. There's bound to be some interesting psychology there. (Wait... is "interesting psychology" on the list of known oxymorons?)

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[swaq]

I'm not the anon, but I also did this a little over a decade ago. I made a separate account on a casual gaming site that had chess. I think I was just curious how the program would stack up to real people. Some of the [presumably real] players at the top gave Chessmaster a real challenge. But I think the only times I lost were when I inputed a move wrong. I quit when people started asking me for advice...

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[rtb61]

For psychopaths cheating is part of winning ie "hah hah sucker I am smarter because I beat you by cheating". This in spite of the fact that cheating proves inferior ability. So psychopaths routinely cheat as proof of their superior ability, at lying, cheating and stealing (killing as well so watch out). They basically play computer games the exact way they play all other 'games'. Politics, corporations, medical services, police, military, all games they seek to win, where personal advantage is victory and actually providing a service is waste of time and in a warped fashion considered a personal loss, as they only doing things for themselves.

This is really no different to PvP as I like to call it purse vs purse where victory is tied to who spends the most and being able to gloat over others and make their victims suffer is all that drives them.

This means that certain and certain players will inevitably draw a lot of investigatory action as the participants are likely to have employed those same lying, cheating, stealing and killing predilections in other areas of human society beyond computer gaming.

Re:Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[ChrisAshcroft]

Sure kids like riding bikes with training wheels at first, since they can not do it without the training wheels. After they can ride the bike without the training wheels, they have don't look back to the training wheels most likely because it is not nearly as fun as without them.

cheating?

[steak]

...in counter strike?

The hell you say.

Re:cheating?

[sound vision]

It's a "scandal" that has "embroiled" the community!

Re:cheating?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a whole subculture you might not be aware about. These people can make a decent living playing games by participating in tournaments and streaming over the internet.
In some countries (South Korea being the best example), this even crosses over to the mainstream and top gamers are considered celebrities with all the perks that it entails.

You may think this is weird and comical, but consider some of our celebrities: wouldn't you rather read about some gamer on the news than Kim Kardashian? At least the gamer had to prove himself good at something.

Re:cheating?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a "scandal" that "has" "embroiled" the "community"!

Inescapable fact of FPS games

[dave562]

I keep hoping and praying that one day someone will come out with a way to effectively deal with this, but the reality is that the problem is here to stay. The way this pans out is that you get a day or two of hack free game play when the publisher updates their anti-cheat code. Then the hackers come out with new binaries that cannot be detected and the game sucks again.

I like FPS games and I really like FPS games on the computer where I can use a keyboard and mouse. Hackers just kill the game though. On a hacker free BF4 server, I will go 3:1 or 4:1 frequently. Yet my overall ratio for the game is down around 0.8:1. That gives some sense of how often the hacks are going undetected.

I do not understand why companies like EA, Valve, etc do not just subscribe to the hacks themselves and update the detection routines as soon as they come out. They have proven that they have technology that will catch the large majority of them. It just seems like they are too lazy to stay on top of it. The cynical side of me thinks that they are have only been aggressive with the BF4 hackers in the last week or two due to Hardline coming out soon.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

It just seems like they are too lazy to stay on top of it.

The cheaters are profitable customers.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[MrL0G1C]

So they don't ban hackers?.. Or put them only with other hackers. What do they generally do?

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[dave562]

They ban them, but I think it is a limited time ban. As someone else commented, those hackers are paying customers. They do not want to cut off the revenue stream.

I think that they should let them play on hacker only servers. Let the trolls all roll around in the muck with each other and leave the rest of the community alone.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

Last I checked, VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) bans were permanent, applied to the whole account (i.e. all purchased games), and simply prevented users from playing on any VAC-secured servers, forcing them to play on unsecured servers (where everybody else was cheating too).

Re: Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Kvathe]

In my experience valve has done a great job dealing with hackers in TF2. Competitive servers are set to sv_pure 2, which restricts all user content/file modifications and pretty much completely prevents hacking. On public servers this is not the case and you'll sometimes encounter blatantly obvious hackers (they spam chat with advertisements for the hack). It's also much harder to hack discreetly in TF2 due to all the projectile weaponry.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

> On a hacker free BF4 server, I will go 3:1 or 4:1 frequently. Yet my overall ratio for the game is down around 0.8:1.

I don't think being good in BF4 means what you think it means.

(hint: it's not about KDR: PTFO)

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[dave562]

Not sure why I bother replying to an AC, but I usually play Conquest so I do PTFO you tool.

K:D is something that everyone, even someone who does not play BF4, can understand.

How about this... when I am playing on a hack free server, I am usually in the top 5 (because I am PTFingO and earning points for my team). If I was all about K:D, I would not spend so much time with a Stinger where I only earn about 50 points for a mobility kill and get 0 player kills.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[mjwx]

I do not understand why companies like EA, Valve, etc do not just subscribe to the hacks themselves and update the detection routines as soon as they come out. They have proven that they have technology that will catch the large majority of them.

Its not quite that easy.

Much like Valve, EA, et al.. the cheating software has it's own form of DRM to prevent reverse engineering. So it would be difficult to tell how the hack is affecting the game because they have little to no visibility on the hack.

Detecting cheaters server side is relatively easy in comparison. What I'd like to see is some software that would degrade the experience of cheaters, I.E. when a cheater is detected using an aimbot, decrease their accuracy or make 3 out of every 4 shots do nothing.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

A VAC ban is permanent: once you are banned you cannot play that game again on the same steam account even if you buy another copy. Of course, this doesn't stop the cheaters from creating another account, but there is little Valve can do about that, short of requiring an ID to sign up for Steam.

The reason why they don't ban immediately is because they want to catch as many as possible before the cheat developers realize that their anti-detection scheme has been defeated.

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep in mind the following:
1.) The hacks mostly don't target poorly written code. A lot of it is targeting basics -- constants copied onto the stack, if-else/switch statements, calling functions, etc... Making something resistant means having a lot of extra code running to check everything all the time. Literally, an insane amount of checking to ensure constants remain constant in dynamic objects (while being threadsafe and high performance).

2.) hacks can go all out -- you can make windows kernel modules, rootkits, etc... A hack can be similar to a virus that doesn't do anything malicious to the user. On the other side, people complain when a game needs to have total system access to everything (including browser history) -- basically getting close to being a virus that happens to be fun to play...

3.) Not all hacks are shared/sold or even mentioned online -- some are one-ten people. Of course these by nature will be in the minority. On the other side, there is a market for hacks. This means a market for people to maintain these hacks and find new ones.

And here is one I can't stress enough:

4.) Hackers are not always deterred by monetary loss or account loss. It is simple to create a hack (working or not) and then add in a keylogger. This is clearly illegal, but people will do it. And it is MUCH easier to get someone to install a virus claiming to be a game hack -- often you legitimately need to disable AV software because the hack performs virus-like functions as part of its normal operation!

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[shutdown -p now]

I don't think they are permanent - or at least there seems to be a process to have yourself reinstated. I've played against people online which had a red "Ban(s) on record" label on their account, and that was on VAC-secured servers.

I have to note, though, that every time I encountered such a label, the person who had it was blatantly using hacks as well (this was mostly in L4D, and things like extreme speed hacks, which are really obvious).

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

I keep hoping and praying that one day someone will come out with a way to effectively deal with this, but the reality is that the problem is here to stay. The way this pans out is that you get a day or two of hack free game play when the publisher updates their anti-cheat code. Then the hackers come out with new binaries that cannot be detected and the game sucks again.

I like FPS games and I really like FPS games on the computer where I can use a keyboard and mouse. Hackers just kill the game though. On a hacker free BF4 server, I will go 3:1 or 4:1 frequently. Yet my overall ratio for the game is down around 0.8:1. That gives some sense of how often the hacks are going undetected.

I do not understand why companies like EA, Valve, etc do not just subscribe to the hacks themselves and update the detection routines as soon as they come out. They have proven that they have technology that will catch the large majority of them. It just seems like they are too lazy to stay on top of it. The cynical side of me thinks that they are have only been aggressive with the BF4 hackers in the last week or two due to Hardline coming out soon.

"On servers where I'm obviously better than the other team I will go 3:1 ir 4:1 frequently. On servers where the other team is better I cast off my failing by assuming they all cheat. My ratio suggests this happens more often than not."

Fix'd

Re:Inescapable fact of FPS games

[Anonymous Coward]

VAC only bans you on the game you got caught on. So, yes. He was a cheater, but on another game. And he was probably banned in L4D too.

Older VAC banned per engine (cheat on TF 2, get banned from other orange box games, HL2, CS:S, etc), but they stopped doing that at around the time L4D came out.

and...

[kuzb]

...nothing of value was lost.

God no...

[Charliemopps]

This article is terrible. First it says it's going to tell you how to spot hacks, then it goes on to give the names of those hacks and what they do... as if that's going to help you spot anything. At best this is going to result it more false hacking allegations. Which are a far worse problem than the actual hacking.

I'll be playing an FPS, have 5x the score of anyone else on the map, and there'll be this heated argument over some other guy hacking. If he's hacking... why does his score suck so bad? Why hasn't he killed me once? Oh, that's right... because he's not hacking, he's just knows the game better than you.

Re:God no...

[kamapuaa]

Lance Armstrong used almost the exact same argument.

Easier way to spot cheats/hacks

[cogeek]

if opp_score >= my_score opp cheats, otherwise, they're playing fair!

Performance Enhancement

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought all you needed to enhance performance were a couple pills or maybe some injections. Now, there are "hacking" tools to improve my performance? Wait till I tell my girlfriend.

CS players cheat?

[slashmydots]

Take the number of cheaters in all major cycling tournaments, multiply it by the number of cheaters at every major magic the gathering tournament, and multiply it by 10,000 and you've got the number of people who cheat at Counterstrike.

By the way, there is so much wrong with this article I don't know where to start. Reporting people is a fucking joke. It does NOTHING. Going over logs to see who cheated just tells you who cheated. Nothing happens. There is nothing the user can do about it. Until companies get serious about cheating, nobody will play their completely ruined games.

In MW3 for the PC, it became unplayable after about 3 months. You literally cannot play one single online round without someone floating through the air and firing at you with zero recoil. That's a $100 million+ game. They just don't give a flying fuck about cheating.

Here's THE answer. Google [name of game] hacks. Download the hacking utilities that everyone else is using. Look at what directory it installs to or what DLLs go where. Have the game check for those files in the next patch. Permanently ban everyone with the hack installed and ban them from Steam so basically those cheating pieces of shit aren't allowed to play video games anymore.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Alternatively, hack your opponents computer to download the cheats and then turn them in. You win.

Re:CS players cheat?

[dow]

You can't permanently band people from Steam when all you need to create a new account is an e-mail address. People will just use a new throwaway account for hacking. Hackers already are known to setup perhaps 10 new Steam accounts when the game they enjoy hacking the most is on sale, and buy 10 copies. I've seen hackers get banned and then brag to people laughing at them getting banned that they have half a dozen more copies and they are going to enjoy getting them all banned but until they do they are going to make life a misery specifically for the guy laughing at them.

The way to go is to make getting a pass to play online painfully difficult. Make it like applying for a passport almost, require a Social Security number or driving license, something that will tie the online ID to an actual person. Making it so that if they get caught cheating once, they can't play ever again with the people that want to play fairly is a damn good idea, but you need a solid form of online identification to do that.

Re:CS players cheat?

[rahvin112]

There is a far simpler solution, simply treat the clients as untrusted and keep any information that would give an advantage on the server.

Re:CS players cheat?

[MrL0G1C]

I thought steam looked at hardware IDs?

Re:CS players cheat?

[Pascoea]

Not that I'm aware of. New e-mail address, new steam account, and $15 to purchase a new copy of CS and you are good to go.

Re:CS players cheat?

[operagost]

You just described Punkbuster.

Re:CS players cheat?

[tlhIngan]

Here's THE answer. Google [name of game] hacks. Download the hacking utilities that everyone else is using. Look at what directory it installs to or what DLLs go where. Have the game check for those files in the next patch. Permanently ban everyone with the hack installed and ban them from Steam so basically those cheating pieces of shit aren't allowed to play video games anymore.

Trust me, those things aren't static. And I'm sure Valve already does that - they purchase the cheats (cheats at this level are sold on a subscription basis) and they ensure that simple measures to detect them don't work.

Yes, it can also include rootkits, or transparent network proxies, DLLs and executables whose name changes every load to avoid detection, etc.

And I'm sure SteamOS will make things worse as wasn't kernel hacking "encouraged" for being an open system? Doesn't take a genius to realize if you can replace the kernel, you can easily break any anti-cheat system. (And userspace can do zilch about it since the kernel can easily lie).

Re:CS players cheat?

[dow]

I think Microsoft ban their consoles from Xbox-live if you're caught hacking the consoles or cheating online. That's another good idea, hurt the hackers by making their hardware worthless. Make people post their graphics / mobo / cpu serial numbers when selling on ebay for buyers to check against Steams banned hardware list.

Apologies for my previous typo, teach me to read my own posts.

Re:CS players cheat?

[omglolbah]

That is what League of Legends does. The fact that servers send the client more information than it strictly needs is just silly.
Though generating 3d sound from players client-side would require positional data.. so it is a bit tricky

Re:CS players cheat?

[omglolbah]

And the next step is kernel module for anti-cheat.. *sigh*

Re:CS players cheat?

[drinkypoo]

You can't permanently band people from Steam when all you need to create a new account is an e-mail address. People will just use a new throwaway account for hacking

So what? It still magnifies the cost substantially.

The way to go is to make getting a pass to play online painfully difficult.

I don't think even Valve can get away with that.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

play in a vm, hardware id problem solved.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with permabans. But as we all know, not everyone on death row is guilty.

Personally, I would prefer that the gaming industry's security be taken more seriously by the devs.
Things like PunkBuster MUST be tracking known repeat offenders by HID & IP address; I bet they could paint a nice world heat map highlighting how widespread the problem is.
I just don't get why physics should be hackable if the game servers and clients were designed to pay attention to each other. People floating in air? A client should be raising alerts to the game server which in turn should spark a rise in alert level at the server before eventually booting as needed. But of course, the server should already know that no one in the matrix is Neo.

Re:CS players cheat?

[pellik]

Or, since hacks already reach in and modify memory anyway, you just also hack the hardware id.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

VAC works by making you download and run binary code at random. You don't know when they'll roll out a new detection scheme and even when they do, they only target some players with it at first to increase the time during which it will be effective. Even if your hack is built into the kernel itself, it would still be vulnerable to "0-day" techniques. Needless to say that they can just flood you with automatically generated faux detectors to prevent any effective "panic mode" when you are confronted with an unknown detection program.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Comen]

True hardware ID's are a myth.

Re:CS players cheat?

[MrL0G1C]

HDD and SSDs have serial numbers, it looks like they are not easy to spoof.

Re:CS players cheat?

[slashmydots]

...and credit card numbers and paypal addresses.

Re:CS players cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you want to put up more barriers to entry. You, of course, have proof that this will somehow gain you more customers in the process?

Good luck with that. +5 Logic. -1,000,000 Real World Application.

CS:GO cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

i am a huge GO fan and play about 30 hours a week, it really pusses you off when people hack and it ruins competitive play. DDOS is becoming a more frequent way to screw with the other team. When one in more players on the other team are destroying the opposition a player will fire a denial of service attack at the users IP address and the port that CS:GO uses rendering the player unable to stay connected and thus drops from the game. It the attack is sustained enough then the three minute window they have to reconnect expires and they get a competitive cool down anywhere from 30 minutes to 7 days. Fucking pricks are destroying one of the fasted growing e-sports. As for the pros from the top teams, your careers are over you greedy, over rated pricks. Fuck off to wallmart or lidl for your income now!

Re:CS:GO cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

CS:GO is client-server. None of it is P2P. So how did they get your IP address?

Re:CS:GO cheating

[Blaskowicz]

IRC is client/server yet it broadcasts your IP to everyone when you join a channel ("coward - some_ip_address_format joined #blah"). Which I find unnerving as it's one more thing to track you down on the internet, and it's right in the open, it even leaks your local username (on your computer) if you're not careful.

If players meet up on IRC as is common, you just got their IP.

Re:CS:GO cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

Some irc-networks offers (legit) ways to fake/hide your hostname.

Re:Who... the... FUCK... Cares???

[halivar]

We need to have a discussion about what a "nerd" is. Here's what it ain't: some vaguely, almost tech-savvy dude who likes to argue politics on the internet and poo-poo's anything actual nerds care about. You're not a nerd; you're a wanna-be hanger-on. Reddit is for you.

Best time

[SuperKendall]

Pretty surge a purge of cheaters and revelation of what tools to look for is the BEST THING to happen just before a serious tournament. Probably a week earlier would have been ideal.

Re:Best time

[Anonymous Coward]

Ban them the day of the tournament. So they get the "You've been banhammered" message displayed on the big screen for maximum hilarity.

Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspected that a long time ago.

Re: Who... the... FUCK... Cares???

[Anonymous Coward]

Nerds are people who almost killed their pet cat with fumes from their solderpot in the second floor duplex they were renting in 1992.

Well that's one working example anyway. But nerds absolutely have to be something beyond computers. Chemistry, electronics, etc. are all acceptable.

Nerds bristle at the people (HR types are terrible about this) who think fiddling around with computers means you are an IT type. IT is the janitors.

MechWarrior?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one that still reads MW as MechWarrior not Modern Warfare? Kids on lawns and all that.

Also, I did the math in your first sentence and all I can make out that Half Life 3 is indeed coming out soon.

Re:MechWarrior?

[Areyoukiddingme]

Am I the only one that still reads MW as MechWarrior not Modern Warfare? Kids on lawns and all that.

No, you're not the only one. I thought that's what he's talking about. Of course, I was playing MechWarrior Online last night, so maybe that's why.

Re:Welcome...

[Anonymous Coward]

to Zombocom!

Real E-Sports ...

[wisnoskij]

Take place on third party computers with cameras and spectators watching your every move, both digitally and in real life.

Re:Real E-Sports ...

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

I don't see why people cheating on public servers would matter for tournament play.

Except of course Valve is a major sponsor for the event and won't allow banned players to enter. On top of that Dreamhack's CS:GO tournament is a small invitational.

I'm glad the fighting game community continues to have open, grassroots tournaments instead of these esports productions.

Not just present in computer gaming

[Firethorn]

I'm so glad I don't game competitively for many reasons. I loved it at the time, but the paranoia and concern over hackers was such a big deal.

Your whole post reminded me of professional gaming and doping scandals. Only the methods change.

Hell, I would not be surprised if 'professional gamers' are occasionally doped up on a cocktail of drugs intended to decrease reaction time without screwing with fine motor control.

Re:Not just present in computer gaming

[Anonymous Coward]

Take your amphetamine of choice, smoke some dope to slow down the twitching hands. Get in zone.

Re:Not just present in computer gaming

[Anonymous Coward]

Starcraft players are usually ever-so-slightly stoned. Keeps the jitters from Adderall/Ritalin to a minimum.

what!!!

[luther349]

people on counter strike cheating cheating no way. theirs a reason i call it cheater strike.and thats way back on the orignal.

SNL skit: the all-drug olympics

[doug141]

https://screen.yahoo.com/weeke...

Difficult problem to solve

[m.dillon]

Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to tell a player using hacks from a player who is simply good at playing the game. I remember, a long time ago (10+ years) my brother was a counter-strike player who specialized in head shots. He was very good at it, but standing behind him while he played there were numerous occasions where he got kicked off a server due to players thinking he was cheating. He wasn't. I was standing right there behind him.

I think the only real solution is to video yourself playing the game so other players can see (after the match) that you were not using any cheats or hacks. Either that or play at an official location with monitors and public hardware.

-Matt

Re:Difficult problem to solve

[Ranbot]

Agreed. Many (not all, mind you) of the article's tips for spotting aim-botters and wall-hackers describe "suspicious" actions that a good non-hacking player would likely do anyway. It's been years since I played CS, but I was pretty good when I did and I had more than my fair share bans from servers for alleged hacking. Needless to say, I never did hack. It's not as easy as just as watching a few rounds or even a whole match to say someone is hacking. Honestly, I sometimes I think the only way to tell a hacker apart from a legitimately really good player is that over a longer period of time the legit player will have the occassional off round or match, because no matter how good you get there's still some element of chance/luck. I think being a high level legit CS player is similar to be a pro poker player...They both develop skills, tactics, and instincts that can tip the odds in their favor [considerably], but the element of chance is never completely gone unless you resort to hacking.

Re:Difficult problem to solve

[Ranbot]

Part of the problem is that it is very difficult to tell a player using hacks from a player who is simply good at playing the game. I remember, a long time ago (10+ years) my brother was a counter-strike player who specialized in head shots. He was very good at it, but standing behind him while he played there were numerous occasions where he got kicked off a server due to players thinking he was cheating... -Matt

I just like this subject so I'll keep talking.... The move that usually got me kicked from servers was this: I would wait quietly behind a corner listening for the footsteps of an enemy and as they came around the corner I would jump/strafe and fire down on them. At that extremely close distance and firing angle the hitbox for the head was huge and very east to hit, so more often than not I got headshots. If I could tell there was more than one enemy coming up on my corner, then I slipped a flashbang in before my attack. In either case if you specced me it looked exactly like a wall-hack and/or aim bot, but I just knew the levels and sounds extremely well.

Sorry if I come off like I'm bragging, but your story of your brother reminded me of my own experiences as a CS player, which have always made me careful of calling hack on others... as you say it's not always clear.

there has always been a good fix

[Anonymous Coward]

Ban by steam id. It cost money for a new one. Server operators need to give ban authority to trustworthy players.

ha esports

[Anonymous Coward]

"Fans?"

There's no such thing as fans. Either you play CS, or you don't play CS.

News? NEWS?

[rickb928]

This has been going on since what, 1999?

I sucked so bad at CS that in the 00s I went to LAN parties to wire up, run the hackpot, and distribute 'clean' USB mice, monitor the LAN, and cycle the overhead monitor showing leaders and their screens to the gallery. This before Valve got serious about the hax0rs.

Yeah, wireframe and autoaim hacks, way fun. Cheating bastids all of them, anything to score.

I got free pizza and beer. And played Avatar over an OC-3. woot. rockin dayz.

grrr i get mad when people CLAIM "hackers"

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why i play BF3 and BF4 on PC in 3 years i have never seen an actuall hacker though i hear people bitch about them regularly mostly because they suck and thats there only answer "hackers" well there arent any on the main servers and you should obviosly avoid illegal servers i have seen people go 150 plus kills and less than 10 deaths on the 64 maps (thats 32 people per team) for you laymen
And they arent cheating i know these people and see them on a daily basis and have to deal with both them and me being called hackers every match every day specially with my KD of 8.0+

Get better at FPS games or stop playing them

Personally i play 12 -18 hours a day 7 days a week (not always FPS games) as i develop for 2 diferent platforms and mod for a couple others as well as being a modderator and a software maintainer AND managing a 2 databases and a webserver in my livingroom rack

Not my fault if i have too much time to get good at games
Theres no hackers here you just suck

Reminds me of Chessmaster cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

"I cheated and got a high rank, therefore anyone who has a high rank is cheating."

Looks like you failed Logic 101 in addition to Sportsmanship. No wonder you had to cheat at chess to be happy. (Not saying you're automatically wrong, either, but not on account of your logic.)

Here's the ultimate hack for that.

[denzacar]

I WIN!

That's it. Game over. Every game ever. I just won them all. Even "Thermonuclear War".
See, computer screen says so. Go me!
You are free to stop thinking about it now.
Cause I just won them all.
With my clever hack.

"Hacking" gameplay is bending and breaking rules. Not playing the game. Playing outside of it.
Real life comparison would be winning like Tonya Harding - by clubbing your opponents outside of the game.
She just got a bot to hack her opponent's rig and downgrade her abilities a little.
Stupid bitch didn't know I won at skating too.

Ban hammer is real

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing like cheating your way to the top

n00b!

[Bitbeard]

NO.

The correct way to identify a cheater is by what they DON'T do.

Cheaters don't:
1) Check common hiding spots.
2) Hop.
3) Dive.
4) Dodge / strafe.
5) Voice or text chat.
6) Reload until they're out.
7) Do anything with thrown weapons (knives, grenades, etc).
8) Go into the center of the map (they stay on edge where no one can get behind them and thus not be seen by the wall hack).

Statements like cheaters trace you through walls is ridiculous. I can trace you through walls because I have 7.1 sound and hear you.

EASY TO MAINTAIN LOW-TECH SOLUTIONS
IMHO, the best way to deal with cheaters is every game should have a "weapon" like Modern Warfare's shield. Aimbot cheats focus on the center mass where you are invulnerable using shield. I love using shield to pwn cheaters and mocking them for having hacks and still dying. They go away very quickly.

Also, for forced matched games like Modern Warfare 2 & 3, there should be a "I never want to play with this person again" button. Kind of an "anti-friend" button. Once their client can't find anyone to match with they won't be back.

Re:n00b!

[ToasterMonkey]

NO.

The correct way to identify a cheater is by what they DON'T do.

Cheaters don't:
1) Check common hiding spots.
2) Hop.
3) Dive.
4) Dodge / strafe.
5) Voice or text chat.
6) Reload until they're out.
7) Do anything with thrown weapons (knives, grenades, etc).
8) Go into the center of the map (they stay on edge where no one can get behind them and thus not be seen by the wall hack).

Statements like cheaters trace you through walls is ridiculous. I can trace you through walls because I have 7.1 sound and hear you.

EASY TO MAINTAIN LOW-TECH SOLUTIONS
IMHO, the best way to deal with cheaters is every game should have a "weapon" like Modern Warfare's shield. Aimbot cheats focus on the center mass where you are invulnerable using shield. I love using shield to pwn cheaters and mocking them for having hacks and still dying. They go away very quickly.

Your list is all wrong, are you talking about a straight up BOT? Cheaters make a lumpy bell curve, and most are not bots. Most cheats are MUCH more subtle. They make the average player feel like the deck is stacked against them.

Listening for footsteps, THANK YOU! An old school cheat from the Quake 1 era is replacing footstep and grenade priming sounds with LOUDER versions. Is it as bad as a radar hack, NO, is it cheating, YES. Another example of subtle cheating was a proxy that automatically recorded the time quad damage/weapons got picked up and warned you when each were about to respawn so you could magically get to the right place at the right time.

There is nothing easy about catching these. By the way, the open source Quake 1 auto aim hack had toggles to aim for the feet, center, or head, back in late 90's, so don't count on that center of mass thing for much.

Also, for forced matched games like Modern Warfare 2 & 3, there should be a "I never want to play with this person again" button. Kind of an "anti-friend" button. Once their client can't find anyone to match with they won't be back.

THAT is the first good idea I've read here. They could even network these with your friends like Slashdot's foe-of-a-friend thing.

Re:n00b!

[Blaskowicz]

I remember playing Valve's DMC, which is Quake 1 multiplayer in another game (something that gets run very infrequently) and I found myself on that big outdoor map (which feels surprisingly sunny for quake 1, but well the graphics are upgraded to 16bit) against a lone guy that kicked my ass constantly. Always 200HP, 200 armor and a big weapon versus my sorry ass.
I assumed he was an oldtimer and timed the weapons by himself. That and knowing the map and not dying. It was painful for me LOL. This makes me appreciate Counterstrike 1.x, where the game engine is the same but there's no respawning and stuff lying around in the map (usually)

Re:n00b!

[Bitbeard]

I'm talking about modern FPS games. I am aware on Unreal Tournament (circa 1999) you could replace enemy skins with a glowing nuclear color and see them from a mile away.

In modern games, if you make the mods you mention the game or VAC/PunkBuster will either "repair" them on startup or kick you from the game.

Cheaters are out there to look like they "pwn" and so are going to give themselves everything it takes to make up for their sorry gameplay ability. Yes, there are cheats that allow you to only turn on radar, autoaim at the feet, and the like, but that's only useful to a player who can also react and fire at the right moment. In other words, not your typical cheater.

But thanks for the compliment on my anti-friend button. Steam, please send me a million dollars.

Maybe the Competitors are Hacking Each Other Too

[BBF_BBF]

To eliminate the competition in an upcoming tournament:
1) Hack into your competitors' computers and install online game cheats.
2) Wait for VAC to catch the "cheaters"
3) See your competitors banned from the tourney
4) Profit!!!

Clealing something up

[Artelis]

This isn't a "all top players cheat" kind of thing. Sure, there are wall-hacks and instant headshot aimbots and every other ridiculous hack out there, but these players play four times a year at $250,000 prize pool tournaments LIVE at LAN centers. They have judges standing behind them watching each computer monitor on computers that are freshly wiped by the LAN center. These players were found guilty of having hacks that can still go undetected in these environments. This really sucks for the community because it was well regarded for a long time that LAN events are the proving grounds of great players to show off their skills without any accusations that they are cheating. That all changed though, which is really sad.

Heurestic Cheat Detection

[Bensam123]

There are two ways of dealing with this and neither has been done. Everyone does the cat and mouse game of chasing down constantly mutating hacks that never works. You have to either lock down the system or add a system that looks for the behavior the cheats present (not the cheats themselves).

A behavior analysis program based off data could very easily do this with little to no false positives. Essentially it's doing what everyone else is already doing, which is looking for the behavior of cheaters. There was a version of this called 'Hack Cam' which came around almost a decade ago, but got shut down due to various nefarious reasons and nothing has risen to take it's place. It works based off the players behavior and scores them accordingly. With enough data the player can be reliably banned.

Aimbots function like a machine, if the game detects a cross snapping to a bunch of peoples faces in a linear fashion with machinery precision - ban.

If someone is looking at someone through a wall constantly before they ever see them - ban.

If someone is manveuring around someone they don't know is there constantly - ban.

If someone moves to dodge something they shouldn't know is coming - ban.

Constantly going around the map dodging people - ban

There is a lot of behavior that could be easily compiled and then used for this purpose. Valve has databases of players and infrastructure to process and take care of this stuff. There is an example of the above system working that I preserved here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfXd-RTiQM

That came out almost a decade ago and the idea and methodology for it hasn't changed, because regardless of how cheats and change and mutate, people don't. The way they interact with the environment and process information does not change. It does based off stimuli, especially off stimuli they shouldn't have access to.

The other option for cheat detection is a completely locked down system and I don't know why console developers haven't been advertising this in spades. This is the ONE area consoles excel at: They're locked down. Meaning it's incredibly hard (not impossible) to cheat on them. They could even be seen and marketed as 'the competitive system', because cheating would be almost none existent. If they took this concept even further I'm sure they could further lock down the systems so it would be next to impossible to install anything on it without their permission, especially with things like soldered on storage. Making it neigh impossible for the average joe, let alone advanced ones to do anything on it. They just need to offer the same experience as on a PC along with the ability to use a mouse and keyboard in all games. This is actually one of the reasons I went from PC FPS's to consoles. It's not worth playing FPS's on the PC anymore, regardless of how good they are.

Locked down is easier to do then behavior heuristics, but heuristics would catch almost all cheaters over time. Locked down would just prevent them up front.

Hackers are EVERYWHERE!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The amount of times I hear about people complaining that someone is hacking whilst playing online games is LUDICROUS, yet I've only ever witnessed it maybe 10 times in the last 5 years (Oh & I game a lot!) I've lost count of the amount of times I've been accused of hacking when playing online, and it's always for the same reason. 'He's beating me!! How is this posssible!? He MUST be cheating!!!!!!' The wall hack accusation are the worst & its simply down to the fact that most players don't actually use SOUND in game, in almost all FPS games you can use sound to tell if an enemy player is coming around the corner.
Articles like this do NOT help, all this does is to intensify the witch hunt from the n00b army!!

Re:#GamerGaters unite!

[tehcyder]

I assumed OP was being sarcastic.

Easy solution

[Anonymous Coward]

This is trivial to solve. The solution is obvious. Start everyone with virtually impenetrable armor and awesome fire power, auto aim bots and advanced radar that sees through walls. As players rack up wins, you scale them back from awesome, to fighting blind with their fists and no armor. In the end, everyone has roughly an equal chance of winning, and the better players merely play with a handicap. Life goes on.