Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “What Counts as Cheating?”.
Game devs are cracking down on Hardware. Cheating, we’ve talked a fair bit about Hardware cheating in the past, but what’s funny is this particular method of Hardware? Cheating is not really what we focused on. No, so we had talked about things like um. You know a robot arm that would move your mouse for you to point at an enemy, so a type of Aimbot. That would be pretty much impossible for software to detect because there are no additional processes running alongside the game, but this this still actually wouldn’t stop.
That, because a lot of those use normal mice right, but the thing is that this kind of Hardware – cheating, isn’t something that I ever really thought about. In spite of the fact that I’m a bit of a keyboard mouse supremacist, I still didn’t think of it. Activision, Bungie and Ubisoft are evidently cracking down on cheating via Hardware modules that allow the user to bypass standard software, anti-cheat detection. So the kind of anti-cheat that they’re detecting is users who are disguising their keyboard and mouse as a game. Controller.
Yes and then competing in game controller lobbies with like obviously Superior keyboard and mouse Plus the like auto aim and aim lock that you get with the controller unbeatable. Because now you can snap onto people way faster. You can switch targets way faster than other kind of stuff, but it will hold your aimer on the person yeah. It’S three skip. 360.
No scope aim lock, yeah right, like it’s, it’s a huge advantage yeah. So after Activision announced a new hardware pass through. So that’s what it’s called a hardware passthrough detection system for Call of Duty. A few weeks ago, a large glut of these devices apparently flooded the secondhand Market.
This is a cool um, maybe unintentional, positive side effect of like gotcha mechanics is that it actually punishes people for cheating, because when you lose your account yeah, you actually lose in-game items that have your deal value anyway. This is very, very much a side discussion. I still wish we’d go back to you, buy the game and just have the game, but as far as my understanding goes a lot of them just don’t care and they’ll just buy the Skins. Again, I mean okay because, like the the tarkov people that cheat a huge percentage of them, buy the most expensive possible version of the game which is like over two times, the normal price and just has like more like inventory, space and stuff because they just don’t They’Re paying for the cheat too they just money is they’re whales right, I always sit down with my kids and I’m like okay. Is that real? No! Do we pay for that? No all right good! We can continue now. An obvious solution to these issues would simply be to ban all pass-through devices.
However, and that’s why this is here yeah, you would also be catching folks who rely on things like the Adaptive controller. The crossfire controller is insanely powerful. This is actually like one of the coolest devices that is released in a really long time, because if you see all these little like kind of dots at the top, those are all extensible, yeah they’re there things like, I think it’s in here, we could take it Out if we wanted, but there’s a huge rack of plugs on the back, that you can plug more things into the adaptable controller, I had a friend recently who uh, I think they like Yeah.
So basically, every every function of the controller has its own three and a half millimeter Jack that can be used to plug in some kind of of device. That is uh. That is more more usable to so, if you, if you’re, if your arm is like locked to your side for some reason, uh, you could have a joystick that presses up into your palm and you move it around like this using your whole Palm.
Instead of just your thumb, yeah, the joystick connectors are USB and they’re on the side. You could have a button, that’s near your head and if you have mobility in your neck, so you could like lean into it. You could press a button using your head. I had a buddy recently who severely damaged one of their wrists, and I had suggested that they use one of these and it’ll in in order to gain input into a game that they could use while having their hand in a cast. These things are actually amazing and essential.
Yes, so I was so proud of Microsoft when they released that and I still think, that’s extremely cool that they’re supporting it. And so, if we were to ban pass-through devices, it would be really hard to tell the difference between a bad pass-through device for cheaters and a pass-through device for people who just want to play. The game. Yeah Bungie in particular, has emphasized they’re focused on players who use these devices to gain an unfair competitive advantage and has explicitly reassured players who require adaptive tools to participate that they will not be banned. I mean I’d, be surprised if the odd would get accidentals yeah.
I there’s gon na be there’s probably going to be some collateral damage here, but hopefully, if we can avoid too much of that, because that is the last thing that people who rely on their adaptive controller to play need to deal with agreed. In addition to device detection, the Bungie security team will be monitoring gameplay for unusual patterns of player Behavior to indicate cheating. However, it is still possible and even likely that these systems yeah we’ll sometimes flag players with a legitimate need, um discussion question here: Bungie specifically defines cheating as using an outside tool to change the intended experience of the game in this case. By removing a challenge.
Is this a good understanding of cheating and how would you define it see, I wouldn’t just say changing the intended experience of a game, I would say changing the intended experience of the game for another player, because changing the intended experience of the game for myself is Modding changing the experience for someone else is screwing them over, and you know what I had wanted to talk about this. Actually, when we were discussing the Gary Bowser verdict, where I basically was going to say like time, equals money and in a sense that 14 and a half million dollar sentence is is, is basically like handing down multiple lifetime sentences. If that’s all that this person could ever earn, you kind of get what I mean, and so so to me, it’s it’s the proportionality of the sentence that just makes absolutely no sense here, yeah um, so in this in this same way um, you know the way That I Define um wrong is in the way that it affects someone else now. Obviously there are limitations.
If someone were to um, you know follow me around and just sit there being upset and offended every time I used the word. The I would kind of go well then, leave a goodbye also enjoy life as someone who’s just perpetually offended by everything um bye. He never said the sentence yeah. I was careful respectful, very good. It wasn’t on purpose. I was trying to catch you, but in this case there is a reasonable expectation from that other player that they should be able to play the game without somebody impeding them in a way that was not expected nor intended by the game developer. So in our mutually understood definition of what this experience is supposed to be you’re affecting not only your own but you’re, affecting someone else’s and in a way that is detrimental and it’s clearly the definition of cheating. To me, it’s clearly trying to break rules because, like with the with the keyboard, masks as a controller thing that we’re talking about you can play with a controller or you can play with a keyboard, you’re screwing with things to make. It think that you’re doing something that you’re not so, if there’s clear intention here yeah, I think the intent is another really. I think I think the intent is important, even if it’s difficult to prove yeah um either way I mean, I’m, I’m generally pretty receptive to anything that makes the gaming playing field More Level and that rewards people who play the game properly and punishes cheaters um in This case, all I hope is that we don’t see too many innocent users caught. Yes, in the crossfire, .