Stop treating cheaters in online games as “the enemy”
Breaking down cheating motivations can lead to more nuanced anti-cheat approaches.
Ars Technica journalist writes a article saying cheaters in multiplayer games should not be banned
- Thread starter Mr_Alex
- Start date
I read the article and hear someone who's been banned from a lot of games trying to find excuses...
Wow. There is a LOT to unpack here. I don't mean to go off on a dissertation, but here it comes. Let's start with the title:
Ummm...yeah. Well, Mr. Nemanja Mulasmajic, you're an idiot. If they were "the best players" then they wouldn't have to resort to cheating to compete, would they?
Best customers? Yeah. I'll agree with that. Each time all the botters get banned from Diablo III they have to buy another license and that supports the company to keep making game content, so I'll agree with that.
That was written by a World of Tanks player, no doubt. They're the victim. Always.
Wrong. Cheating is born out of a sense of entitlement. It's the "If you can't beat them, download a bunch of cheats and try, try again" crowd. And reform? Yeah. Sure. Right. You permaban them and they just buy another license, create another account and start doing it all over again.
I know a guy that has bought 49 copies of Diablo III. 49 copies. Granted, it doesn't cost as much now as it did when it came out, but let's say he's paying on average about 35 dollars. The guy has spent over $1,700.00 to play a game that really doesn't require that much talent at all to play. It just requires time. I've spent a grand total of $50.00 on it and I'm still better than he is.
But he doesn't want to put in the time, see. He'd rather buy a botting program, crank it up and walk away from the game and come back later to find lots of levels added and lots of good items found.
It's outright laziness.
World of Tanks had a similar problem: people failing their way to the top. They'd simply buy Tank Leader or that other botting program, set it up, start it and walk away.
Yes, that is cheating. Yes, you benefit from it. But your teammates suffer from it because a bot typically sucks. You throw your teammates under the bus so your lazy ass doesn't have to be bothered actually playing the game you allegedly love. And that's supposed to somehow be you showing how you're a better player, community contributor and asset to the game?
See how stupid that sounds?
And "reforming" cheaters? That's like trying to reform a serial killer. You can't. They get a taste for it and that's it, that's who and what they are from here on out.
The article is so completely full of shit that it's laughable. That it was actually published is nothing short of hysterical.
In the end, cheating is born of one thing and one thing only: Laziness. They're simply too lazy to do the grind to get the levels, the XP, the gear, the whatever and the actual game experience to know how it operates, how to play it at a high level, etc., so they resort to shortcuts - or they're jealous of stats, accomplishments, scores of other players so they buy aim bots and other cheats to up their game that they allegedly love so much that they never bothered to play to actually learn first hand how to play it.
That's all there is to it. You can't reform a lazy ass. The reason they suck is because they are lazy and simply will not put in the long hours in order to learn the game, get the items, improve their stats, get the better vehicles, and all else that goes with it.
There is no reforming that. Ever. If that were possible we wouldn't have bank robbers, con artists and Ponzi schemes to this day.
Stop treating cheaters in online games as “the enemy”
Well, asshat, you ARE the enemy. The entire premise behind a "game" is that it's a "game". It's supposed to be fun. Some people are better at it than others. What a cheater does is ruin "the game" by exploiting it any way they can to change the outcome; which leads me to this line:Ummm...yeah. Well, Mr. Nemanja Mulasmajic, you're an idiot. If they were "the best players" then they wouldn't have to resort to cheating to compete, would they?
Best customers? Yeah. I'll agree with that. Each time all the botters get banned from Diablo III they have to buy another license and that supports the company to keep making game content, so I'll agree with that.
That was written by a World of Tanks player, no doubt. They're the victim. Always.
Wrong. Cheating is born out of a sense of entitlement. It's the "If you can't beat them, download a bunch of cheats and try, try again" crowd. And reform? Yeah. Sure. Right. You permaban them and they just buy another license, create another account and start doing it all over again.
I know a guy that has bought 49 copies of Diablo III. 49 copies. Granted, it doesn't cost as much now as it did when it came out, but let's say he's paying on average about 35 dollars. The guy has spent over $1,700.00 to play a game that really doesn't require that much talent at all to play. It just requires time. I've spent a grand total of $50.00 on it and I'm still better than he is.
But he doesn't want to put in the time, see. He'd rather buy a botting program, crank it up and walk away from the game and come back later to find lots of levels added and lots of good items found.
It's outright laziness.
World of Tanks had a similar problem: people failing their way to the top. They'd simply buy Tank Leader or that other botting program, set it up, start it and walk away.
Yes, that is cheating. Yes, you benefit from it. But your teammates suffer from it because a bot typically sucks. You throw your teammates under the bus so your lazy ass doesn't have to be bothered actually playing the game you allegedly love. And that's supposed to somehow be you showing how you're a better player, community contributor and asset to the game?
See how stupid that sounds?
And "reforming" cheaters? That's like trying to reform a serial killer. You can't. They get a taste for it and that's it, that's who and what they are from here on out.
The article is so completely full of shit that it's laughable. That it was actually published is nothing short of hysterical.
In the end, cheating is born of one thing and one thing only: Laziness. They're simply too lazy to do the grind to get the levels, the XP, the gear, the whatever and the actual game experience to know how it operates, how to play it at a high level, etc., so they resort to shortcuts - or they're jealous of stats, accomplishments, scores of other players so they buy aim bots and other cheats to up their game that they allegedly love so much that they never bothered to play to actually learn first hand how to play it.
That's all there is to it. You can't reform a lazy ass. The reason they suck is because they are lazy and simply will not put in the long hours in order to learn the game, get the items, improve their stats, get the better vehicles, and all else that goes with it.
There is no reforming that. Ever. If that were possible we wouldn't have bank robbers, con artists and Ponzi schemes to this day.