I'd just like to say that about 99% of the time I hear someone called a cheater, they're not. They really aren't. I've dealt with people rage quitting and leaving matches angry because someone is "too good" and is "hacking" so many times my head hurts.
When I spectate or really watch these people carefully, no, they're just good. But no one will believe you; they don't want their ego bruised. It's easier to scream about hacks than it is to admit you're just worse than the other guy.
Not to say I've never seen actual hacks. The thing with them, though, is they are generally terrible at disguising what they are. Vision hacks result in consistently abusive behavior (not many people are subtle about it, because what's the point of a vision hack if you're going to ignore it?) and aim hacks are generally
extremely obvious - you can see their aim "snapping" to things, "scanning" inhumanly fast or other tells. While a lot of people look at a good player that's not missing shots in games and goes "hacker!" a real cheat generally doesn't look like a good player, it looks like a fast moving script that's breaking the normal aiming rules in a game. Because it is.
Case in point, in the last year I've encountered 2-3 people out of hundreds I can honestly say were cheating. In the same time I've heard at least 500 cries of cheating. Amusingly, I've even been
accused of cheating dozens of times in that period in a few games, because I know how to get the most out of "inferior" weapons or detect people based on audio cues regularly. Even if I try to explain how I knew where someone was based on sound / an educated guess from knowing the map, it won't change anyone's mind.. and now their encounter with me will spawn more "hacking" stories.
... that said, some games
are far worse than others. There have been games rendered utterly unplayable by hacks (Diablo 1, Modern Warfare 2 at times) and that's something that needs to be addressed. I'm just saying it's not nearly as common in most games as people like to think.
PS: I beg of you, PGI - and I mean beg - for the love of God
do not use PunkBuster. It's a placebo of a program that punishes legitimate users more than it does hackers, kicking and banning for next to no reason while totally failing to stop even the most blatant hacking. I really wish MWO was Steam integrated because VAC is a
league better, but since it's not, I know PunkBuster is on the table. For the love of all things holy, don't do it. You're just punishing your player base so a few people can feel "safer" knowing it exists.
I honestly bet that PunkBuster is
designed to boot legitimate players for minor offenses purely so the server sees people getting kicked and believe it's doing something. I cannot express how much I think this program is terrible.
00dlez, on 09 April 2012 - 06:48 AM, said:
Those folks who "abuse" the blacklist, by excluding any one the deem too good, too bad, cheating, etc etc will have longer wait times. Those who use it more sparingly (obvious hackers, intentional TK/TWing, etc) won't have much of a problem. Especially if there is a report/account ban process that will eventually eliminate these accounts anyway.
This happens in L4D since Steam enabled the list but not as rampantly as I feared.
MGA121285, on 09 April 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:
Come on, community! 3 reply, less then 50 vievs ?! What's wrong with You ?! Do You realy think that making balance is much more important then get rid of cheaters and other bad boys!?...
P.S. When I see most of You discuss about what mech' they want to see in this game instead how whole game will works I realise that there is something wrong on this planet. Car must be able to ride, not just got a good looking. Wake up please.
I think it's because other people realize what I was saying - the majority of those "persecuted" by "hackers" are generally calling anyone that's a magnitude better than them a cheater.
I'm not saying it's unimportant at all - if exploits and cheats are available they
will be abused and it
has wrecked games where it's caught on - but it's definitely something they can deal with as the issue arises rather than panic about now. Honestly exploits scare me more than cheating sometimes, because once those get widely known they get abused
far, far more since anybody that's read Gamefaqs or saw a youtube video can do it.
Edited by Victor Morson, 11 April 2012 - 08:14 AM.