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Video Game Cheaters Outed By Logic Bombs

Lirodon writes: A Reddit user decided to tackle the issue of cheaters within Valve's multiplayer shooter Counter Strike: Global Offensive in their own unique way: by luring them towards fake "multihacks" that promised a motherlode of cheating tools, but in reality, were actually traps designed to cause the users who installed them to eventually receive bans. The first two were designed as time bombs, which activated functions designed to trigger bans after a specific time of day. The third, which was downloaded over 3,500 times, caused instantaneous bans.

34 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Video Game Entrapment? by blueshift_1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hope we can get Sean Connery to play the lead role again...

  2. Assholes against assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looks like a classical case of vigilantism.

    1. Re:Assholes against assholes by mSparks43 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is the #1 reason I gave up on PC gaming and went Linux desktop and PS4 for gaming.

    2. Re:Assholes against assholes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's what prompted me to enjoy either standalone or Local Network Multiplayer games. The rest of the world cheats.

  3. Why do I care abou this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If doesn't help prevent cheating in tux racer or bzflag why do I care? This tool was probably written in Rust too, wasn't it? Don't lie

  4. Just a fucking game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's bad enough you play it religiously, but cheating in it to get ahead? What a fucking loser.

    It's the equivalent of cheating at old people's bingo night. Actually, it's even worse because at least if you cheat at bingo you have a chance to win money.

    1. Re:Just a fucking game by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Way back in the distant dawn of time (or at least, of competitive Counter-Strike play), I ran a major UK Counter-Strike league. Cheating was a pretty big issue back then (not least because software anit-cheat was much less developed) and we spent a lot of time on the watch for it. In the 18 months or so I was running the league, we had maybe 10 cheat detections during competitive play. The guys running the "open" public servers sponsored by the same company were getting a similar number of detections in the average week.

      By and large, I think there were three reasons why people cheated. The first was simple curiosity; people who were bored of playing the game honestly and just wanted to see what the cheats were like. There probably weren't too many of these.

      The largest group were the trolls; the people who cheated not because it was fun in itself, but because they got off on pissing off other people and screwing up their leisure time. Some of them would try to hide their cheating, but a lot of them were pretty damned open about it. After all, it's annoying to play a guy you think might be cheating. It's even worse to play a guy who is open and proud about the fact he's cheating, in a world where it can take time (up to an hour, on the public servers) to summon an admin.

      The third kind were the properly competitive gamers who felt they were struggling to keep up with the pack and thought that by making subtle use of cheats, they could give themselves an edge. This was the only kind we tended to see in the competitive league. "Pro-gaming" was in its infancy back then, but was already becoming "a thing" and there was sponsorship and prize money floating around. There were lots of players who frankly weren't good enough who thought they could make a fist of pro-gaming. When it became clear that they weren't cut out for it (you need both a hell of a lot of practice time and god's own natural reflexes to cut it in that world), they'd often resort to cheats. They would always try to hide the fact they were cheating, so unless you got a rare software detection, discerning cheating from good or lucky play was hard (but not impossible) for an admin.

  5. Re:Not a big deal by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So being a cheater yourself, tell us what the fuck inspires you. It's a game, what possible enjoyment is there in cheating to win? why play at all?

  6. A new low for Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Linking to a subreddit, this is a new low.

    1. Re:A new low for Slashdot by Infiniti2000 · · Score: 2

      But, it's only 3 days late so that makes it okay!

    2. Re:A new low for Slashdot by BronsCon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why hasn't Netcraft confirmed the death yet?

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  7. Lesson learned by blogagog · · Score: 2

    "Video Game Cheaters Outed By Logic Bombs"

    That's why I play it smart and never use logic!

    1. Re:Lesson learned by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A friend of mine and I used to play a football video game back in the NES days. He would employ football strategy to plan his maneuvers, but i knew nothing of the game so I's just choose random plays and button mash. More often than not, I'd beat him because he couldn't figure out what my strategy was to make a counter to it. He'd plan a defense based on the most logical (to someone who knows football) offense, but I'd do something completely different and would win.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:Lesson learned by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2

      "Video Game Cheaters Outed By Logic Bombs" That's why I play it smart and never use logic!

      It's an error by the editors. The title should be "Video Game Cheaters outed by other Video Game Cheaters."

  8. Re:Not a big deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The joy isn't in winning, it's in ruining the game for others and possibly making them quit in frustration. It's the same reason forum trolls exist.

  9. Offline, single player ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is why I continue to prefer console games with no internet access ... I don't have to worry about the other guy cheating, but if the company made ways for me to "cheat" it doesn't hurt anybody.

    If I want infinite ammo and can't die, who cares if I'm sitting in my basement and nobody else is affected?

    Cheat codes used to be part of the fun of one-player games.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  10. Re:Not a big deal by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, come now ... people are selfish bastards, and if there are rules, someone is always trying to get around them.

    Don't go expecting noble acts from video gamers or the internet just because you seem outraged.

    This is really no different than real life ... someone is always trying to bypass the rules and not get caught.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  11. I can give input there! by Sowelu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to make bots for my own use in Puzzle Pirates. Less directly competitive, but there were global ratings and you helped your crew by performing highly (without directly griefing other players). I found that writing them was a lot of fun--it was a challenge to see how optimized I could make them, and how realistically I could make them act as humans. Big 'oops' moment when my bot went to the top of the world rankings after it'd only been running for a couple days, and I think I got banned because my bot optimized for weird combos that humans are unable to predict very well; it would stand out blatantly if anyone ran those particular statistics, but at least it had delays and mistakes and weird mouse movements like a person. In any case I found the 'botting puzzle' to be much deeper than the 'bilging puzzle'. It would still be fun if it was single-player.

    But, that's just me as a writer. I could see distributing it to friends as a kind of intellectual challenge in managing people, and getting ahead in the game to see more high-level content. In a one-shot game like CS:GI though, downloading someone else's bot is just pointless. There's no long term progression to gain from, and you don't get the challenge of writing the bot yourself. All you get is the meaningless short-lived internet points from seeing yourself on top of a scoreboard, and you won't even win fights in a way that earns respect from your enemies.

    Now see, what I'd REALLY love is a game (fps, mmo, puzzle, mud, etc) that is populated by user-submitted bots only. Upload and then forbid human communication with bots while they're running. Your bot needs to adapt to the way other bots behave that season, maybe your bot even needs to be designed in a way that it can try to form alliances with other bots for common interest--I guess some kind of open spec for communication protocol within the game would be good there. Who's trustworthy, who's not, can you share information, can you trust information, and of course just basic ability at playing the game. THAT would be a serious intellectual challenge. Things like Corewars just aren't as in depth as I want.

    1. Re:I can give input there! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You may be interested in screeps.
      MMO world run entirely by bots.
      Seems interesting, haven't tried it yet.

      No direct control as far as I can tell.

      https://screeps.com/

    2. Re:I can give input there! by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 2

      Yeah, and make the requirements on the bot :

      1) Your bot must have a unique hash

      2) You must sign the hash with a key associated with only your account

      I used to like Corewar but the problem is the VM it runs in is too limited in scope for it to be interesting after a while.

  12. Re:Not a big deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's right. Cheaters were discarded by the DoD and hired by the NSA instead.

  13. Logic bombs? by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't think "logic bomb" means what the submitter thinks it means (the stories don't use that term). These were trojans.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  14. Re:News for gamers with no life? by Drewdad · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dice sold Slashdot. Maybe you missed it?

    http://meta.slashdot.org/story...

  15. Re:Not a big deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cheating at single player games (say, to see more content) isn't so bad because you're not ruining anything for anybody else. Just don't post your ill gotten high score :)

    Cheat at multiplayer, especially MMOs where you can't simply leave the cheat-affected server, and you're simply being a douchebag.

  16. Re:Not a big deal by phishybongwaters · · Score: 4, Insightful

    None of your examples hold weight against a competitive multiplayer game that's play professionally in an e-sports type manner. What you are talking about is griefing or trolling, and I agree 100%, that's just part of life. Actually manipulating the game code be it with mods or actually rebuilding the source, is something completely different. So, ignoring your examples because they don't apply, we can start to argue if this is in fact stealing, because that's what you are really doing, you are screwing other people out of the game THEY purchased. With that said, you do have to give some of these modders credit for the work they've done to get their hacks out there. I respect that, right up until they start illegally profiting from a derivative work they have no legal license to use. Playing skyrim and ignoring the main quests is NOT the same as playing a competitive game FOR MONEY with hacks doing the work for you. The fact you tried to argue this leads me to suspect you are the type of person who would buy these hacks.

  17. Re:Not a big deal by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Look, if people will cheat for FUN, they'll sure as hell cheat for MONEY.

    EVERY endeavor with rules has had someone cheat. The Olympics, car racing, the fucking stock market ... all of it.

    Are you so naive as to think that the higher the stakes the less likely someone is to cheat? Because if you are, you need to get out into the fucking real world and look at what humans are really like.

    Yes, they're all very bad people who should be punished with spankings and sentenced to hard labor to atone for their sins ... now grow the hell up and stop acting like you just fell of the hay wagon.

    I don't play online games because a) I have no desire to interact with some smart ass 12 year old half way around the world who can kick my ass, and b) because I prefer to pick up a game, play for a couple of hours, and put it down. On-line gaming provides no value to me. In fact, it's a negative.

    The fact you tried to argue this leads me to suspect you are the type of person who would buy these hacks.

    The fact that you felt the need to make an ad hominem attack tells me you're fucking asshole with an inflated sense of self importance, in addition to a woefully incomplete picture of what human nature really is.

    I'm not advocating cheating in multi-player games.

    But I am saying people who are shocked it happens are probably idiots.

    Of course my Skyrim example is nothing like cheating where money is on the line, because it was about why people might choose to define "fun" other than the game designer intended.

    But if you think your moral outrage will change the world ... good luck with that. Humans will ALWAYS cheat in large enough samples.

    Acting like they don't is naive and childish.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  18. Cheaters was my favorite show on tv. by truck_soccer · · Score: 2

    And that is what the gaming community needs: someone like Joey Greco and his team of detectives to kick the doors in on these cheating bastards and expose them on camera in front of literally tens of people.

  19. Re:Video game cheater ousted by video game cheater by mukinrestak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've made several cheats (mostly using cheat engine, because it's a fine program) but that doesn't mean I cheat in everything, nor that I cheat in games vs other people. It's quite possible that he feels, as I do, that not winning a match through one's own skill is not winning at all. There's no fun in shit-talking a friend about kicking their ass when you don't legitimately kick it.

  20. Re:Not a big deal by godel_56 · · Score: 2

    Actually, America's Army was a US military recruitment tool.

    Cheating in that game could be considered patriotic, educational trolling of the DoD to teach them that video games are a terribly useless way to find new recruits.

    Bravo, good sir! The b-tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of simulated patriots and aimbotting tyrants.

    In a real war, cheating is considered a good thing. It means fewer of your troops going home in body bags vs the enemy.

    General Patton: “No dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it by making some other dumb bastard die for his country.”

  21. Just quietly stick the cheaters together. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Valve should just quietly put the cheaters all by themselves, let them piss each other off whilst everyone else gets on with life.

    --
    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
  22. Re:Not a big deal by KGIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am not a gamer but I've read about EVE. Even if they made a client for my system, I'd not play. Nope... Someone's gonna shoot someone over the antics in that game - by the players themselves. I've read stories about some of the greatest takeovers, robberies, and con jobs - and they all took place in EVE. Iceland has like a half dozen firearms, in the whole country. A bunch of crazy Americans are going to hop on a boat, row to Iceland, and just start shooting the developers.

    Seriously, EVE is gonna result in someone waking up dead one day. I live vicariously through the stories. No, I seriously do look for the stories and read them. I like the long, exposé, types of stories that go into full details and actually describe what happened. It's like watching a wreck happen in slow motion where the people are cheering and wearing party hats. They know, they have to know, that they're going to die. I'm just waiting for someone to die in real life.

    Hell, for all I know, it's already happened and I've just not read about that story yet. Someone, somewhere, is plotting how best to stitch another EVE player's skin into a body suit so that they can wear it while they kill the rest of the team. I'm not saying that I'd agree with such a person, or their behavior, but I'd have a little sympathy. I've read what those fuckers do to each other - intentionally.

    It's an evil, vile, game that brings out the worst in people. That has some certain benefits to it and, from a pure outside view, it appears the owners actually appreciate, if not condone, that sort of practice. I know that I'd do so if it were my game to control. Absolutely... I'm just not sure how they'll deal with it when it spills over into the real world and people actually kill each other over their in-game antics.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  23. Gamerscore by tepples · · Score: 2

    You can't actually cheat in a single player game

    Or at least you couldn't until console makers introduced achievements (Xbox) or trophies (PlayStation) as a means of comparing your e-PINGAS to those of your friends.

  24. The Last Starfighter by tepples · · Score: 2

    special video game and it turns out that it was a real recruitment tool

    So it wasn't The Last Starfighter (1984)?

  25. Re:Not a big deal by metaforest · · Score: 2

    Sorry, KGIII, reading a few articles about the crazy shit that goes on in EVE doesn't give you any notion of what the game is really like.
    While there are some notorious Alliances and Corps that are out and out trolls the vast majority of players just like to play rough. The way EVE is structured all of that rough and tumble play, the meta-gaming, the scheming and theory crafting make the game a hell of a lot more fun than just about any other game I have played.

    I don't know of any other game where literally thousands of players are interacting - live in realtime - on the same server cluster, engaged in coordinated operations that can and do have profound influences on the entire game, and how it is played. CCP (EVE's creators) have had to learn along the way too that emergent game play does not come from restricting play styles and beefing up the TOS.

    The scamming, backstabbing and other interesting stories that come out of EVE are mostly operating within the games rules:
    There are really only a few things that gets CCP swinging the ban-hammer: Real Money trading, hacking the client - server protocols, exploiting bugs in the game logic, and illegal harassment of players (DOXING etc).

    EVE's core players take extra joy in making cheaters miserable once their MO is discovered and communicated through the galactic grapevine.

    o7