Multiplayer Cheating

Cheating in multiplayer gaming is just not the done thing. It is frowned upon, as it should be, because it creats an unfair playing advantage for those players who use hacks (haxxors) in what, should be, a level playing field. Fortunately the use of software such as Punkbuster gamers can play in an environment which they consider to be relatively fair and cheat free. However, this is not always the case.

An incident occured at the end of last week which not much of the Australian gaming world will know about. It is alleged that four clan (team based) players were given life time bans from the OGN network for either using hacks which provided an unfair advantage or using software which disabled Punkbuster from being able to take ingame screenshots while playing Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising either in public servers or during tournie practice matches. An easy analogy for how these cheats work is by looking at drugs in sport. Some hacks provide you with an ingame "performance" boost like taking steroids. Whereas other hacks act as a "masking type agent" which prevents the punkbuster server from being able to take screenshots from that particular PC and therefore not allowing admins to be able to check if that gamer is using a hack of some sort. Much in the way a masking drug will not allow a drug test to check if steroids have been taken. To continue the drugs in sport analogy, of which, all four players accused of cheating have been alleged to have provided "positive" drug tests for either using hacks which improved performance of their game play or using software which masked the results.

Obviously, when these incidents occur and there are only two other incidents in the last couple of years that come to my mind where team (clan) players have been alleged of cheating there is a lot of bad blood spilled in the process of identifying and banning the players. Unfortunately, there seems to be no easy way to do this. Unfortunately, the incidents seem to bring out the worst in people not the best. It is quite natural for those players who play honestly to want to let off some steam at those who have been accused as they feel betrayed by people that they may have trusted. Also, those players who are a part of the team, unfortunately, tar their team mates (who have been playing honestly) with the same brush through their dishonest actions. The other difficult aspect of this process is that the entire process is self governed. There is no over ruling body who controls this and there probably never will be. It would be too difficult to manage. So, it is up to the gaming fraternity to govern this area of gaming and this does not make the job any easier.

How do we treat these people who may have once been our friends? Do we follow the group mentality and public humiliate these people for being dishonest? At what point in time do our actions in putting these people down and riding them in to the ground make us no better than the cheaters themselves? Forums are a funny thing. I don't think they bring out the best in people. They are a faceless, humanless way to converse. It completely looses the subtlty of speech and face-to-face relationships which we experience every day. Forums also seem to give people the opportunity to say things that they would not say in every day life. While there may be some satisfaction in riding these people in to the ground, there also needs to be some moderation on what we say and how we say it. No one will ever understand the reasons why someone cheated, or, what they have been going through in their lives to make the decision to do this. Ultimately, I end up feeling sorry for these people because they have lost more than just the multiplayer game play through their actions. They have lost friends and acquaintances which they may have had over years. These players are going to loose far more than the honest players in the long run. After having said all of this I wouldn't suggest that anything less than a life time ban from that game and those servers is appropriate. These people, no matter what they are going through in the real world, have made a conscious decision to cheat. They have downloaded and installed the hacks in the first place. What I would say is that those who stand on the higher moral ground is that they take the time to consider that those people who have been caught cheating are going to loose a whole lot more than just the game. What is the use of standing on the higher moral ground if you stoop to the cheaters level to beat them senseless as they pass out the door?