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'Pokémon Go' will flag creatures caught using cheats
Niantic has decided that forcing Pokémon Go cheaters to a life of catching Pidgeys isn't quite enough of a punishment. Now, any Pokémon caught using "third-party services that circumvent normal gameplay" will be marked with a slash in people's inventories and "may not behave as expected." The developer has announced its new anti-cheating measure on The Silph Road subreddit, explaining that they're meant to ensure its new features remain fun and fair for all Trainers. Niantic is probably talking about its recently announced raid battles, wherein up to 20 players can participate, that's expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Turns out Blizzard found more Hearthstone cheaters to ban
Earlier this week, Blizzard banned "several thousand" botter accounts in MMOTCG Hearthstone for the crime of botting. But the bans were only temporary, and the problem players will be back in the game by the turn of the year. The subjects of a new wave of bans, says Blizzard, won't be let off so easily. Community Manager Whirthun told forumgoers last night that win traders have and will continue to be banned -- permanently: We've recently banned Hearthstone accounts that were found to be participating in win trading. Win trading at any rank is something that we do not take lightly, and is in violation of our Terms of Use. As we mentioned in our previous statement regarding fair play in Hearthstone, instances of cheating will not be tolerated. Accounts that were discovered participating in win trading have received permanent account closure and disqualification from events where ranking is used as a method of qualification. Win trading is an exploit of the matchmaking system to position accounts for easy ladder climbing. PC Gamer reports that several big-name Hearthstone players have already fallen to the ban, including a grey hat player who went public with the exploit nearly a year ago in the hopes of provoking Blizzard to fix it.
Blizzard mass-bans Hearthstone cheaters
Last night, Blizzard announced that it's brought the banhammer down on cheaters in its MMOTCG, Hearthstone. "Several thousand" botter accounts have been banned for the next two months, though the studio warns it won't be so lenient next time: We've recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as "bots" or "botting." These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated. We're committed to creating a fun and rewarding environment for our players, and we will continue to closely monitor activities within Hearthstone and take appropriate action against cheating in any form, as outlined in our Terms of Use. From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning. Blizzard encourages players who encounter exploits to contact the hacks team; those who believe they've been wrongly banned can appeal their ban through the customer service department. [We've corrected our original story, which directed folks to the hacks team for all issues.]
APB update pwns cheaters and creates quicker matchups
APB: Reloaded has moved beyond merely shaking a fist at cheaters to waging war on them. Today, Reloaded Games released its Open Conflict patch that contains the much-vaunted "FairFight" technology that monitors for illicit behavior and nips it in the bud on the spot. This system also publicly shames hackers and botters as they are banned so that the entire server can witness their downfall. Open Conflict also contains cloud saves for character settings and a new matchmaking mode that lumps people together based on availability instead of skill. [Source: Reloaded Games press release]
Elder Scrolls Online lowers the banhammer
Elder Scrolls Online cheaters beware! ZeniMax is taking aim at your head with its mighty banhammer. Community Manager Jessica Fulsom posted an announcement today of the studio's opening shots against evil-doers: "Today, we made our first major strike against those who choose to cheat in ESO, permanently banning thousands. This is only the beginning of our ongoing efforts to keep the game free from botters, speed hackers, and gold spammers. We want to thank everyone who has sent in-game reports about these individuals in ESO -- your reports helped us identify many of the accounts we banned today."
Blizzard lowers the boom on Diablo III cheaters
Blizzard's had all it can stands, and it can stands no more. The studio is taking aggressive action against botters and cheaters in Diablo III, reporting that it's gone through "several rounds of account bans" against such players. The studio also used the ban announcement as an excuse to clarify its position on hacks and third-party software. If you're curious about what steps over the line that Blizzard has in mind, wonder no longer. Beyond allowing some players to get away with an unfair advantage over others, cheat programs reportedly cause instability and performance issues with client software and Battle.net at large. "We strongly recommend that you avoid using any third-party software which interacts with Diablo III," Blizzard posted, "even if you are accessing that software from a reputable third-party site-as doing so can result in permanent ban from the game."
League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000
With $2,000,000 US in prize money up for grabs in the League of Legends World Championship tournament, last week's accusations of cheating by several teams threw the e-sports scene into chaos. Several teams were accused of looking across the room at the enemy team's minimap, which was on display for audience members. Riot Games initially announced that nobody had looked at the minimap, but as viewers at home dug through the recorded streams, the evidence of cheating mounted. This week Riot carried out a full review of each match that was called into question, investigating both the incidents of players peeking at the opposing team's map and the impact on the match. One team was cleared of all misconduct, three were issued warnings for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Korean team Azubu Frost was fined 20% of its winnings. The $30,000 fine will be donated to Riot Games' charity programme in Korea.
How to kill a Skyrim dragon with a single arrow
Do you have the patience it takes to craft a mighty bow, capable of felling an elder dragon with a single strike? We ask because ... well, we'd love for you to take care of it for us. Here's our copy of Skyrim. Thanks![Thanks, Chris.]
The Road to Mordor: Frozen in time
My goat snorted as it cleared the final rise, and I pulled its reins to bring it to a halt. Raising a hand to shield my eyes from the sun, I gazed at the decrepit ruins before me. A chill ran up my spine as I imagined the horrors that awaited me within the crumbling structure. For many days I had traveled the countryside looking for just this place, yet now that I'd found it, I was unsure whether I wanted to be here at all. My guides had long since fled in terror, abandoning gear and food in their haste to flee what they called "evil territory." I curled my fist and summoned all of the powers of determination that remained within me. It had to be done. I had come too far and shed too much blood to turn my back on the ruins' ancient secrets right as I was on the verge of discovery. Sure, it was the beginning of every scary play ever, but I knew completely that my destiny would be made or broken in the next few minutes. I kicked my mount into action, and we solemnly entered the deep shadows of the ruins' domain. It was do or die time. "FREEZE TAG!" I shouted. "GAME ON!"
Examiners use spectrum analyzers to bust cellphone-packin' cheats
We don't see too many spectrum analyzers 'round these parts, and when we do the applications are usually pretty obscure. But catching cheating cheaters before they cheat again? That we can understand -- and apparently that's exactly what happened in Taiwan recently, when folks being tested for government jobs were overseen by folks packing a Rohde and Schwarz FSH4 spectrum analyzer. In addition to being a "closed book" test, this one was also a "closed phone" test, and the analyzers allowed examiners to listen for (and pinpoint the location of) mobile phone signals. As of right now, it looks like officials have uncovered three prospective cheaters, although additional evidence will have to be offered before a conclusion is made (perhaps they were just sexting). Can we offer a friendly word of advice? The next time you're taking a test somewhere, and the room is full of people outfitted with large spectrum analyzers and Secret Service-style earbuds, you'd probably want to take that as fair warning and turn off your celly.
SOCOM cheater convicted in grand jury investigation for crashing Sony's site
There's a few valuable life lessons in the following story, so pay attention: A Pittsburgh news station recently reported on a 17-year-old boy who was disqualified from a SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals tournament after it was discovered he was cheating. In retaliation, the young man hacked into the official PlayStation site, and crashed it for 11 days back in 2008. Sony re-retaliated by opening up a federal grand jury investigation into the "cyber attack," which led back to the aforementioned boy, who is now in a whole heap of trouble. The teen pleaded guilty, and was convicted on four felony charges: Unlawful use of a computer, criminal use of a computer, computer trespassing and the distribution of a computer virus. He'll be sentenced later this year. The moral of the story? Don't cheat while playing online games, and don't crash the web sites of gigantic corporate entities. If caught, you could end up being branded a cheater. Or, you know, a felon. [Via Kotaku]
Martin Fury cheat draws Blizzard ire
WoW Insider had a chance to sit down today and talk with Karatechop, the man at the center of the cheating scandal that has been rocking World of Warcraft to its core.We'll have the full interview up for you soon (later today hopefully, or tomorrow at the latest), however one thing we learned from the interview is that his account has been closed, permanently. While we cannot verify this with Blizzard directly, as there are privacy concerns that forbid them from talking about other people's accounts, we can verify that the account administrator who dealt with the closure is real, and that the template used in disseminating the account closure information is legitimate.The account closure email was forwarded to us from Karatechop during the interview, and we are confident in its authenticity. You can see the full email after the break. We have his express permission to reproduce and report on the actions taken against his account.The other thing to note is that despite claims on other websites, he is not an employee of Blizzard. There is no evidence to support such claims, and he made a point of telling us today that he is in no way affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment, which we believe.The full account closure email, sans personally identifiable information, after the break!
RF Online server rollback combats cheaters and 500% inflation
RF Online in the Philippines recently had serious issues with dupe hacks, prompting an unannounced rollback of the servers. PlayNoEvil writes that the operator of RF Online for the Philippines, Level Up Games, discovered a dupe exploit and tried to purge it from the servers as well as those who used it. However due to time constraints with unraveling the intricacies of the exploit, the company decided to roll back the game to a point before the exploit was used. Level Up Games issued a statement on the problem: Based on DB evidence, numbers as well as feedback from the community, the GMs, the Vanguards and also from our field agents, there was an oversupply of in-game currency and gold - as high as 500 %. GMTristan of RF Online Philippines clarified the situation further on his blog:
Examear: helping students make the best of exam day
Sure, quite a few intrepid students have tried to slip on an earpiece of some sort to gain an unfair advantage come test time, but those DIY attempts oftentimes lack the top-notch qualities found in professional, in-ear cheating liaisons. Enter Examear, which aims to "help students succeed" by offering up a trio of wireless earphones that enable test takers to hear recorded content on a nearby DAP or the voice of an abettor. Each of the models fit sneakily within your ear and sport varying levels of battery life / features, and while you can snag the low-ender for a mere $185, the Bluetooth-equipped platinum edition looks to be the best bet for the avid cheater at $300. 'Course, we certainly wouldn't recommend nor condone actually using these things for subverting an exam, but presenters who often forget their lines and those who long to be an undercover spy could certainly find a good bit of utility here, too.[Via MetaFilter]
Rumors: Pokemon cheaters banned from online play
So you think it's cute, trying to cheat on being a pokey-man collecta', huh? I hear you're getting your hits using these Action Replay codes with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl: National-Dex Catching All 493 Pokemon All Shiny Well, I got news for you, buddy. Word on the street (i.e. Wii60 forums) is that Nintendo is banning players who are caught using the aforementioned codes from online play. No trades, no barters, just cold isolation with yourself. My Pokeymans, let me show you them ... I can't? Oh, nuts![Via DS Fanboy]
Chess cheater's Bluetooth scheme sniffed out
It's no surprise to hear of someone using mobile / wireless technology to their advantage, and in the latest case of cleverness slapped down by the law, a scandalous Indian chess player was banned for a solid decade in order to "send a message" about how serious they took his act. Umakant Sharma had reportedly logged rating points at an alarming pace in the last 18 months of play, and even qualified for the national championship. But alas, racking up such insane numbers was bound to attract an investigation, and it was discovered that Sharma had been communicating to outside accomplices via a mobile handset and a miniscule Bluetooth earpiece stitched inside a cloth cap, which allowed an external computer to direct his each and every move. While we fully understand the wrongness of such a ploy, we can't deny the humor in envisioning seasoned chess players becoming enraged at their sudden misfortunes, but we'd highly recommend ditching the headgear (and any devious thoughts) before entering a tournament yourself.
Gears already riddled with cheaters
Emergence Day was supposed to be a celebration. A celebration of chainsaws, headshots, and curb stomping. It looks like it was a celebration of something else entirely: cheating. Remember the hubbub about not having friends in ranked matches of Gears? It looks like it was all for naught, as getting into ranked matches with your friends is easy as hell. All you have to do is host a game and your friends find your name in the host list. So, in pursuit of points and prizes, there were plenty of stacked teams yesterday. Gamer Andy tells of a particularly nefarious exploit using 5 people. "But GOW uses teams of four," you say, and right you are. The fifth person is actually on the opposite team, a saboteur for whatever clan is trying to rise to the top of the leaderboards. That not cheatery enough for you? How about the fact that the host has the power to start the match at any time, whether all members have clicked "Ready" or not? This makes it easy to stack games with uneven teams of 4v3 or even 4v2. Easy, ranked pickings for anyone. But wait, there's more. Another nasty exploit can be employed during execution matches. In execution, players can only be killed via curb stomp or execution. After a predetermined amount of "bleed out" time, a downed player will simply revive. So, cheaters start by stacking a 4v3 game, execute 2 opposing players, and leave a third alive. The third player is then shot down, but not executed. Why? Because downing a player is worth more points than executing them. Once the player revives, cheaters shoot him down again, wait for him to revive, rinse, repeat. This continues for the duration of the round. This also leaves the victims with an unfortunate choice: quit a ranked match and risk negative feedback from cheaters, or stay and endure fruitless minutes of death and rebirth.We'd like to believe that all this cheating was merely for the sake of winning some of the Emergence Day prizes, but we know better. Sure, cheaters may have hoped for a prize, but they would have cheated regardless. The unfortunate truth is that some people are just jerks (especially Pod 6). A lot of these problems could be solved simply by tweaking the lobby system -- not displaying host names, not letting hosts force start matches, etc. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the upcoming patch. Has anyone experienced these exploits online?[Via Inner Angst]
Inside the mind of a cheater
Have you ever played Battlefield or Halo online, only to be faced with dirty, filthy, joy killing cheaters? What was your first reaction? Whatever it was, we're pretty sure it wasn't "hey, would you like to do an interview?" That's exactly what Richard (nice name) from Aeropause did. The interview is a fascinating look into the thought processes of a cheater. Here's one of our favorite selections. When asked what game makers should do to curb cheating, the schmuck responds:"Give Up! There is no way to stop us. Everyone wants to cheat and we will always find a way to do it. Anyone reading this is simply jealous of the fact that I have enough nuts to cheat and play the game the way I want to."Wow. In denial much? Cheating because you enjoy making people miserable at least has some semblance of sense to it, but actually believing people are jealous of the act? That's practically mental instability. Still, his response to one question makes it all better:"Do you have a girlfriend? Schmuck5000: What kind of freaking question is that for this kind of interview? How does me having a girlfriend relate to cheating? (AP: We will take that as a NO!)"Ah, the fetid reek of Loserville. Makes us all warm inside. Hit the read link for more insight, if you dare.
Banned cheaters grovel before Bungie
Bungie recently publicized a series of emails sent by banned cheaters desperate to get back onto Halo 2's multiplayer servers. Here's a snippet from our personal favorite:"Please! I'll destroy my mods. i'll snich on some people that r getting away with mods on matchmaking! Just PLEASE appeal my ban. i want to play matchmaking again. i want to be clean for the arrival of Halo 3! c'mon! i didn't know what i was getting into when i got mods from my friend and from [website censored]! you have to believe me!!!"[Thanks, Sense; via 8-bit Ninja]
Blizzard bans 5,400 WoW cheaters, suspends an additional 10,700
Following the release of patch 1.10, Blizzard has continued its aggressive stance against World of Warcraft cheaters. Today, a Blizzard rep revealed that 5,400 accounts have been banned since the patch was introduced. In addition, 10,700 accounts have been suspended. Blizzard encourages players to report cheaters to hacks@blizzard.com.In related news, a group of reputed gold farmers have launched a "Stop Snitchin'" campaign to protect their assets. T-shirts are on sale for $20.
