Cheating

I think that’s my shortest title so far.

Up until now I hadn’t really let cheating/glitching/exploits bother me that much. I don’t tend to encounter it online, but obviously I know it goes on. You just have to take a look on YouTube and there are numerous videos on all the different flavours of cheating available out there.

But recent events have brought the subject of cheating to the fore. Mainly this has been a reaction to EightThought’s video on the use of a modded controller by a well known Machinima director who has previously denied using a modded controller….. It’s not something that I particularly enjoy discussing as it yields the same results as trying to discuss religion or politics. What I’m going to do is put down how I feel about cheating, and it is something that I’ve encountered over the past ten years online quite a lot.

But on to history. Donncha correctly pointed out in his comment on this post that when we were young using computers and joysticks you had rapid fire and auto fire switches on some of them. I could never really get on with them, they usually broke whatever game I was playing which, with the AmstradCPC464 at least, meant another five minutes of a flashing screen and high pitched whooshing sounds – ahhhh nostalgia.

Ah, excuse me while I wipe my misty eyes…..

Right, back to the last decade or so! Online cheating was at certains time a major problem for many PC games – probably the most famous was the Counter Strike headshot aimbot. But you also had chameleon skins that allowed you to see players through terrain, wallhacks that allowed you to see and/or shoot through walls, and OpenGL hacks that would allow you to mess with every visual effect that had been programmed in. At the time of all this I was heavily involved in a gaming community website and was basically the hack-eye. I was actively testing the validity of the hacks and exploits, reporting about them and how to spot them in an attempt to make it as difficult as possible for the hackers to remain undetected. There wasn’t much that I didn’t see, and nothing surprises me nowadays.

When I left PC gaming it was a sad time. But I had an optimism that due to the closed technology these issues would be consigned to history. The brave new world didn’t really turn out the way it was supposed to and the hackers gave way to glitchers and exploiters. Some argue that if it’s in the game then it’s legit. I disagree – if you are not playing the game in the spirit in which was intended then you’re basically cheating.

So here is my take on cheating:

Cheating is like masturbation. It should be a solo activity – if you want to turn god mode on in single player and walk through a game then that’s entirely up to you. You’re not going to actually achieve anything except get hairy palms and go blind. You’re also not hurting anyone else. But just like masturbation, it shouldn’t be done in company, unless you’re one of those wierd groups that I’ve heard about. In a public game masturbation cheating should be the last thing on your mind. I get my arse handed to me regularly online, but I’ve never thought “hmm, if only I could cheat, then I’d totally own them!”. I just don’t get it, I never have. I’ve heard just about every excuse under the sun as justification for cheating, but they all boil down to two things:
Either they’re not good enough at the game, or they do it for “fun”.

On the fun issue, I play the game for fun. I play it in the spirit in which it was intended and although I’ve been lucky so far to have avoided meeting any cheaters I’d like to remind everyone that you bought the game to play it as it was intended. If someone wants to glitch or cheat in a game in order to win then surely they are indebted to the players who are not cheating?

So here’s my plan.
Let’s make cheating legitimate. No, I’m not crazy. It’s simple. Cheats cheat because they feel they need an added advantage to win and/or pwn n00bs to have fun. I’m happy to help people have fun, it’s what the game is for, but I don’t cheat. So I propose an Advantage Tax. The cheat just has to pay every other player in the lobby who is not cheating the full purchase price of their game.

I think that would pretty much ensure that the masturbation groups kept their filthy antics behind closed lobbies and allowed us clean living peeps to play in peace.

I know it’ll never happen and is completely impractial but it’s an idea at least.

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Okay, that’s my low down on the lowlife.

Specifically how I feel about cheating in MW2 –

10th Prestige Hackers and 10th Prestige Booster Lobbies – cheats and cheating. Despite it being “just a title” – they also get an extra 5 custom classes for nothing. These extra classes give them a distinct advantage over those who only have five or six legitimate custom classes.

Modded Controllers – They are verbotten for a reason. It’s cheating! These controllers are even marketed as cheat devices by stating what glitches they can do. So if you’re glitching AND rapid firing you don’t really have any defence and deserve to have your console banned. Surely it’s obvious that when a modded controller comes with a patch cable so you can unblock it when the console patches against it that all is not well in Amsterdam!?

Lag Switching – Cheating.

Chamming – I had to actually look this up as someone on EightThoughts video comments asked me if I thought it was cheating. It’s the new version of the Chameleon Skin that I was on about in the earlier part of this post…..Cheating.

Glitching/Exploits – This actually depends on the glitch or exploit as some are just completely pointless and are of no benefit. So as far as these are concerned, if they give you no advantage then no problem. But if they give you an advantage then it’s cheating.

Out of Map – If you do it so that you cannot be killed then definitely cheating. But if you’re just….out of the map, then it’s not so much a cheat as stupid. You’ll get one or two kills before some loads up a sniper rifle and gets you – big deal, you can get more kills sitting a room with a shotgun.

Have I missed anything? I’m rusty on the whole cheating thing so let me know in the comments section if there’s anything to add, or if you have anything to say about cheating in general.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE