cheating
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The War Z devs to players: 'What should we do with cheaters?'
The War Z devs are considering an interesting take on punishing exploiters. They've been tossing around the idea of allowing people who've been banned for in-game cheating to play on special "jail servers." These servers would be isolated from the game's general servers and would be populated entirely by cheaters. On these servers, cheats would not be interfered with -- that is, exploiters could keep on using their cheats. This has the potential to help the dev team; being able to observe the cheats folks use and run "anticheat experiments" without worrying about banning innocent players would probably give the team a lot of valuable information. On the other hand, though, those cheaters are totally jerks and why should they keep getting to play, right? So the dev team is putting the issue in the hands of the players by posting a survey to see whether the idea is even worth pursuing. You can read the full rationale on the official forums. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
The Azeroth Ethicist: Is it cheating to trick the LFR loot system?
Before I write anything else here, the issue to be discussed in this article will no longer exist in patch 5.3 if the changes announced in the PTR patch notes from May 22 survive. For the record, I think this is one of the best changes to come along in a while, as it should reduce queue times for the Raid Finder significantly, while also being a great quality-of-life bonus for anyone trying to gear an offspec. However, it's still a problem at the moment. After reaching level 90, I ran heroic after heroic obsessively in order to scrape the ilevel needed to enter the Raid Finder. After a few drops and the generosity of a guild leatherworker, I cheerfully queued as a tank for Vaults, and then went off to do dailies, figuring that the wait might be a little longer than normal given the popularity of new raid content, but it probably wouldn't be too bad. 30 minutes later, I shrugged and thought to myself, "Well, everybody's running LFR now." 52 minutes later, it occurred to me while yanking pink turnips out of the ground that I had been a little overoptimistic about wait times. Oh well. The farm wasn't going to tend itself. An hour and 20 minutes later, I tabbed out of the game to check the forums, wondering if others were complaining about queue times, or if I'd just had a stroke of really bad luck. Nope. Wait times for tanks through LFR, as a legion of enraged forum posters screamed, were through the roof at the beginning of the expansion. Right now, it seems like DPS players are getting the lion's share of agony. Rather than wait it out, many -- perhaps most -- tank players chose to exploit a loophole that allowed them to get a raid more quickly on a less easily-filled role.
EVE Online's anti-bot policy now two-strikes-and-you're-out
Are you a fan of charts and graphs? Are you curious to know how CCP's war on bots is going in EVE Online? If you answered in the affirmative to either of those questions, the latest EVE dev blog is tailor-made for your reading pleasure. In it, the firm details organization and personnel changes to the anti-botting team, and it also acknowledges the substantial amount of user feedback that frowned on the rather lenient "three strikes" enforcement policy. Effective immediately, then, EVE Online is switching to a two-strike policy wherein strike one results in a 30-day ban and strike two results in a permanent ban. Furthermore, any client modification or "involvement in RMT" will lead to a permanent ban on the first offense.
Riot rules on League of Legends Elo-Boosting, alleged DDoS attacks
Riot recently celebrated the five-million-concurrent-players milestone, but it seems that not all of those players are on the level. League of Legends' competition committee has dropped the smack down on a number of pro players due to Elo-Boosting. The company defines Elo-Boosting as "the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else's account (a "client") for the purpose of artificially improving the client's Elo rating." Seven players and one coach, representing pro clubs that include Curse and compLexity, have had their accounts suspended for 14 days. Additionally, the cheaters have had their Season Two rewards revoked. Riot also issued a "first and final" warning to Good Game University general manager Sam "Hexo" Bouchard for allegedly using a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack to disrupt an opponent's internet connectivity. The LoL competition committee provides an example of Bouchard's antics and it also notes that he currently boasts the worst harrassment rating among all LCS North American players. [Thanks Officer Jenny!]
The Soapbox: No sympathy for cheating
Some years ago, a good friend of mine was chatting with me after he had received a three-day suspension from Final Fantasy XI. "I don't see why they suspended me," he said, with what I assume was an exaggerated shrug and a hang-dog expression. "I mean, I was using FleeTool, but I was just hacking my movement to be faster in cities. It's not like I was really cheating." "So you were using a known cheating tool." "Yeah, but just in the cities." What followed were several sentences from my end filled with so much profanity that attempting to type them out here would make it look as if my vocabulary consisted almost solely of the word "redacted." He had been expecting some sympathy from me, some compassion for his plight. As it turned out, I didn't have any. If you get nailed for cheating, you deserve exactly what you get.
Blizzard reversing some short-term PvP suspensions
WoW Insider recently posted about Blizzard taking decisive action against players who had been discovered win-trading. In the original post we also reported that Nakatoir had been very firm that these suspensions had been thoroughly investigated and would not be reverted. Bashiok posted the following today: Bashiok Earlier this week, several player accounts were given short suspensions and had their ratings wiped for being involved in Rated Battleground win-trading. Upon further review, we determined that some of the players initially identified as cheating may not have purposefully participated in the exploitive behavior, and as a result, we're in the process of lifting suspensions and restoring ratings to all but the most egregious offenders. This process should be completed following the Tuesday maintenance. As always, our goal is to identify cheaters while making sure people playing by the rules aren't inadvertently penalized. Rest assured that we'll continue to take action against players who aren't competing in the spirit of fair play. source This comes as a bit of a surprise, although WoW Insider's original post did point out the difficulties of discerning, in some cases at least, players who had involuntarily faced win-trading teams, from players who had actively engaged in win-trading. Nonetheless, the attitude that suspending innocent players is worse than letting a few guilty players get away with cheating is probably one to be applauded. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
The Firing Line: Banning aimbotters in the age of F2P
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley made headlines this week when he smacked down hackers, aimbotters, and various PlanetSide 2 ne'er-do-wells via his Twitter feed. Aside from the comedy value inherent in the CEO of a major corporation engaging in a public joust with employment-challenged neckbeards, the incident resonates because it shines a spotlight on the herculean task facing SOE and any other developer that decides to enter the skill-based competitive gaming realm.
Wings Over Atreia: Are Aion exploits ingenuity or abuse?
Exploit: an act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one or to make use of selfishly or unethically? Well, both. But as much as I wish the title of this week's Wings Over Atreia referred to my amusing (and oh-so-heroic) antics throughout the gorgeous world of Aion, it is actually about the latter. Or is it? Most likely, one of your first thoughts when you hear the word exploit is that it's a trick that takes advantage of some bug for personal gain. That thought is often followed by images of a banhammer. It makes sense; you are gamers, after all. Now, whether you regard exploits with admiration or with unbridled loathing is a matter of personal opinion. But does it have to be one or the other, or can it be both? It depends on the actual use of the word itself. Thanks to a recent foray into Lower Udas Temple, exploits have been at the forefront of my mind lately. I have noticed that we actually use both definitions of the word for a variety of situations in Aion, yet we also ascribe the negative connotation to many of them. But is this warranted -- couldn't some actions simply be ingenious examples of problem-solving, or must they all be considered ban-worthy abuse? If the former, where do you draw the line?
EVE Evolved: Impressions of the New Eden Open
If you like to watch spaceships shoot at each other with graphs and numbers all over the screen, then the New Eden Open might be right up your street. It's EVE Online's latest competitive tournament and the first one to have a cash prize, pitting teams of players against each other in a bid to win a cut of $10,000 US. Until now, EVE's only foray into the competitive gaming space has been its annual Alliance Tournament in which in-game alliances compete for billions of ISK and blueprints for rare ships. The addition of a cash-prize tournament with fewer entry restrictions is a welcome change; hopefully there are more to come. The Alliance Tournament has historically been filled with drama and politics, with some teams using spies to manipulate the outcome of matches. With real cash prizes on the table, players have worried that even more rampant spying would ruin the New Eden Open. After three weeks of great fights, however, the tournament seems to be going strong. In fact, EVE's metagame has actually helped the tournament in a way that no one expected. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give my impressions of the $10,000 New Eden Open, highlight an early match I liked, and look at the strategies players are using to win.
EVE Evolved: Three ways to break Retribution
EVE Online's upcoming Retribution expansion is set to revolutionise PvP with its brand-new criminal and bounty hunting systems. Players will be able to hunt down criminals who show their faces in highsec, and bounty hunters will track not just individuals but also entire corporations and alliances. If past expansions are any indication, however, the first thing players invariably do with any new feature is to try to break it. Some people will undoubtedly find ways to bend the new gameplay into scams, others will trick players into getting themselves killed for a few laughs, and a few will hunt for borderline exploits. We now know enough about Retribution's new features to figure out some of the ways they can be potentially abused. The ability to sell kill rights opens up a whole new scam based on tempting players with a juicy target and then pulling the rug out from under their feet. The new Suspect flag that lets players dispense justice to criminals can also be used to bait innocent players into getting themselves killed. There may even be a way to get rid of bounties for free, undermining one of the expansion's core mechanics. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at three potential pitfalls in the upcoming Retribution expansion, how they might work when the expansion goes live, and how to protect yourself from falling victim to them.
The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL's World Championship fiasco alienates fans
I'm a big fan of e-sports, but League of Legends is currently one of the worst e-sports to garner a major scene. This isn't because the game is bad, though some aspects of LoL's Classic gameplay are bad for e-sports. It is universally because most LoL tournaments are poorly run and organized. A badly run tournament can ruin everything, regardless of how good (or bad) the game being played is. I would expect more from Riot Games, which creates and publishes League of Legends and which has a vested interest in fostering competition for the game. However, the studio seems to have learned absolutely nothing from very successful e-sports tournaments such as the Evolution Fighting Championships, the GOMTV Star League, and OGN's The Champions. All of these tournaments have better seeding structure and better venues, which contribute to a better overall event. Why can't Riot learn from these very successful events?
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.
Riot apologizes for League of Legends tournament issues
If you peek, you did cheat -- or so sayeth Riot Games. The studio came forth to address several issues with this past weekend's $2 million League of Legends tournament, including allegations of cheating by participants. Viewers noted that tournament players were looking at competitors' minimaps on the large screen, and Riot admits that it didn't do enough to keep that particular temptation at bay. VP of eSports Dustin Beck apologized to LoL fans: "We're trying to deliver an extraordinary experience for viewers, and yesterday didn't live up to our goals. In hindsight, the potential visibility of minimap screens for players was a mistake." Riot is rescheduling the problematic matches and promised that the remainder of the tournament will be minimap temptation-free. Beck also mentioned that the team is looking into several disconnects that happened during the event. As an apology for what happened, Riot is granting all players double influence points for 24 hours following the finals match on October 13th.
League of Legends cheating controversy puts $2,000,000 on the line
The competitive e-sports scene has exploded in the past two years, with top MOBA teams competing for prizes of up to an incredible $1,000,000 US from a single tournament. This weekend, MOBA fans tuned in to the League of Legends World Championship tournament, streamed live from Los Angeles. The crowd attending the event got front row seats to see the game's best teams battle it out over a total of $2,000,000 US in prize money, and with so much money on the line, it's no surprise that accusations of cheating have already surfaced. A huge screen showed the match in action to event attendees, with two smaller screens showing each team's in-game map with the positions of their players. Competitors were told to face forward at all times, but controversy erupted last night when livestream viewers at home noticed players turning their heads and looking up away from the screen. It was argued that those players were cheating by looking at the opposing team's minimap to check the positions of their players. Riot Games e-sports coordinator RiotTiza was lead referee for the tournament and released the following statement: "We keep a constant watch on all the players on stage at all times. We have cameras as well as live people walking onto stage to keep tabs in everything. All players are told that they need to remain sitting, facing forward, and with headphones on at all times, including during pauses. I can personally confirm that no WE player looked at the minimap at any point during the match."
Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this!
You know that saying about never discussing religion or politics around the dinner table? I'd like to add one more to the list: RIFT macros. Some players love them, and some players hate them, to the point that the topic completely turns them off from the game. Each camp has some very valid arguments, and there doesn't seem to be too much of a middle ground on the subject. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'd like to take a look at that polarizing issue and explain why I grew to love macros.
WoW Archivist: A raid exploit compendium
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? One week after Mists of Pandaria goes live, the expansion's first raid will become available and the race to world first will officially begin. To the most dedicated progression raiders, a world-first kill is a dream come true, the ultimate achievement in raiding. Other raiders are just as excited to get a regional or a realm first. To realize those dreams, however, some guilds bend the rules. Whether you call it cheating or a "creative use of game mechanics," it's been happening throughout WoW's long raiding history. The myriad methods have been as varied and creative as the bosses themselves. Let's take a look back!
Is using addons cheating?
I was idly browsing the blue tracker this morning over at Wowhead, as you do, when I spotted a thread asking whether using addons is cheating. In the instance of this post, the writer is discussing Deadly Boss Mods' PvP functionality in battlegrounds where it calculates how quickly either faction will win if the current situation remains exactly as it is. Blue poster Taepsilum responded to the thread with the following. It's not cheating at all, don't worry, all the addon does is a calculation based on several variables to tell you when you should expect a given outcome if the variables remain constant. That's why sometimes the time on those addons isn't very accurate, because some of those variables are dependent on players behaviour and aren't just a visual aid of fixed in-game timers, making an absolutely accurate result truly unpredictable. So if for example you're in Arathi Basin, your team has 5 nodes and the addon says you're going to win in 1 minute, that's only true if you keep those 5 nodes until the end, and that's something the addon can't really be sure about, so *it will only show a pseudo-prediction based on instantaneous information, if anything changes, the prediction changes as well. source Now, the blue poster knows addons aren't cheating. The OP knows addons aren't cheating. I know addons aren't cheating; you probably do too. But that doesn't prevent them from being decried as such by those who think playing with addons is somehow cheating.
Hyperkin summons the Game Genie on PS3 today
The new "Game Genie" cheat device is shipping today, July 17. Of this year.No, Galoob hasn't returned – the new Game Genie is a USB cheat device for PS3 produced by Hyperkin. It allows users to transfer game saves to a PC, edit them using pre-programmed edits from a database, and then return the saves to PS3 – for the usual benefits of extra money, ammo, experience, etc. "Popular games that will have modifications at release are Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," the company notes.Of course, since the days of ubiquitous cheat devices, there have been some significant changes in the game landscape. During E3, a Hyperkin representative told Joystiq that none of the premade cheats would be usable in multiplayer, and that Hyperkin would routinely remove any that were, in order to avoid cheaters using the Game Genie for online play. But for your own single-player games? Go nuts!
Diablo 3 bans not based on Linux software, says Blizzard
A handful of players using Wine, a program that allows Linux users to run Windows, recently reported being suddenly and unreasonably banned from Diablo 3. These players have sent in support tickets and one in particular notes his account remains banned, posting the following response from Blizzard:"An additional review of the action taken against the Diablo 3 account has been completed. We have confirmed our initial findings, and the account action will not be reversed or changed."These players assert that they have not cheated. Blizzard community manager Bashiok has responded to these claims, saying that players are banned for cheating, not for running benevolent software. "We've extensively tested for false positive situations, including replicating system setups for those who have posted claiming they were banned unfairly," he writes. "We've not found any situations that could produce a false positive, have found that the circumstances for which they were banned were clear and accurate, and we are extremely confident in our findings."Playing the game on Linux, although not officially supported, will not get you banned – cheating will."A Reddit post (now complete with a "[Misleading Title]" preface) saw more Wine players speak up, saying that they can play with no problems. It appears the bans themselves may be more isolated than the initial thread made them appear, and they may be less scandalous, at least on Blizzard's end. The moral of the story is, as always: Don't cheat, whiners Winers.
Max Payne 3 cheaters get thrown into the miscreant quarantine
Rockstar's approach to cheaters in Max Payne 3 isn't "get rid of them" so much as it is "humiliate, punish and get rid of them, those lousy scoundrels." Any player confirmed to be using hacked saves, modded games, leaderboard circumvention tactics or other exploits in Max Payne 3's multiplayer will be ceremoniously quarantined in the "Cheaters Pool," which is kind of like jail, but all of the inmates have guns.The cheaters will only be able to play with other ne'er-do-wells in the pool, but they can be redeemed and re-enter the civilized multiplayer shooter world. However, if they step out of line again, they'll be serving life in the Cheaters Pool.
