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Videogame PUBG Bans 30,000 Cheaters, Discovers Professional Players Cheated (newsweek.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Newsweek:
The makers of PUBG sent down the banhammer Thursday afternoon in a ban wave believed to iimpact more than 30,000 fraudulent player accounts. What PUBG Corp likely didn't expect, however, was that its new security measures would also implicate several of the game's pro players.
Like ban waves in most popular online games, technology is at the center of it all. In this particular case, Radar Hacking was the main target. For those unaware of how the method works, Radar Hacks reveal detailed server information and send the collected data to an external device via a third-party VPN. In layman's terms, Radar Hacks allowed PUBG cheaters to see all player positions via a second monitor or smartphone application.... Given what we know now, it appears use of this unsanctioned assistive software was somewhat popular in PUBG's European and North American esports scenes. Over the last handful of hours, multiple apologies, suspensions and explanations have been posted on behalf of players and organizations alike.
Newsweek reports that on at least one team, "Suspicions rose when teammates were admonished for not following in-game calls that didn't align with the information available."
Like ban waves in most popular online games, technology is at the center of it all. In this particular case, Radar Hacking was the main target. For those unaware of how the method works, Radar Hacks reveal detailed server information and send the collected data to an external device via a third-party VPN. In layman's terms, Radar Hacks allowed PUBG cheaters to see all player positions via a second monitor or smartphone application.... Given what we know now, it appears use of this unsanctioned assistive software was somewhat popular in PUBG's European and North American esports scenes. Over the last handful of hours, multiple apologies, suspensions and explanations have been posted on behalf of players and organizations alike.
Newsweek reports that on at least one team, "Suspicions rose when teammates were admonished for not following in-game calls that didn't align with the information available."
The e-sports outfits just need to team up with the professional wrestling leagues. The wrestlers can help them become better entertainers and give them many tips on developing their showmanship.
e-sports events needs to be local server only.
So it's fair and so that internet issues don't mess up the event.
Just recently I tried a few rounds of the new Battle Royale mode of the ancient CS:GO FPS shooter.
After you die, as you spectate you can enable "X-Ray" mode that lets you see markers for where other players are, even if out of sight - and it made me wonder if someone could log into with two systems, have the first character die off quickly, then use spectra-view to see if he was looking towards other players.
It didn't seem like other players were doing that (no obvious reaction to x-ray information I could see when spectating) but it sure seemed like a flaw to me to broadcast all player information to anyone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Interesting, maybe all spectating modes should be given a one minute delayed feed to prevent that kind of info.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why is this data being broadcast to the client? It's basic game security 101 that you only send the data to the client on a need-to-know basis to prevent this kind of exploit.
Need-to-know includes units, structures, resources, etc currently not visible. Things that a clean player would not know about yet. Due to network lag and local storage delays a server needs to inform the client of things just beyond legitimate detection so that the client can prepare to render those things smoothly should they become visible, without pause or stutter.
So there will always be the potential for a cheater to acquire an illicit early warning regarding things that a player should not yet know about. Yes, a game should not send everything on the map. But some things local to the player should be sent. The big question/problem in design and polish is how local.
PUBG is short for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds which "is a last-man-standing shooter being developed with community feedback."
Maybe I'm just old and out of touch but I think this should have been mentioned in the summary somewhere.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
This is Newsweek. Not exactly a tech-heavy publication. So rather than going into the weeds, they kept the article simple for the non technically minded.
Not really. Professional athletes are the ones that do sports for a living.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I can't tell you how many times I have been sitting silently in a room with no windows in the middle of nowhere on the map only to have a team of dudes open the door and throw in grenades to kill me.
Only way that happens is to be using a cheat device that showed my location to them on the map.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
"I am shocked—shocked—to find that gambling is going on in here!" -Captain Louis Renault
Seriously, I'm not even into gaming and I saw this coming from about 500 million miles away.
Offer anything of value -money, fame, notoriety, prizes- and people will cheat. Hell, some people will cheat just because they can, no incentive needed.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Interesting, maybe all spectating modes should be given a one minute delayed feed to prevent that kind of info.
The half-life engine had this very option back in 1998.
Another reason not to have e-sports, it's just not a very mature industry. What if balls suddenly deflated during a game. Oh wait...
But seriously, like normal sports, e-sports should uphold a certain set of standards. Be independent of the game publishers, create a strict set of standards for equipment, and so on. If PUBG has problems then remove PUBG from the competition.
Right now this is much closer to entertainment than to sports.