Anti-Cheat problem that will have ripples in the video game industry

[IroncladLandship]

I was browsing F2P games when I came across a little game known as Uberstrike. (Click here to see the game page on steam) After looking at it, I wondered if it was worth the gigabites to download, so I looked at the reviews. They all basically said that the game was fine, but it was not worth the time because it was flooded with hackers. This was the only thing that stopped me from downloading it. No reason but that. So why am I making this discussion? Well, because I thought of what could happen if any paid game had this hacker problem too. Sure, the hackers could get a few laughs, but the players would want their money back. Sales will go down from negative reviews. And even if Uberstrike developers were to add in an anti-cheat system in, it would be already too late. The damage has been done. This also leaves negative consequences for players, as you get a negative taste from the game you have just played. Players might be more reluctant to buy other games. This might lead to more money being put into creating and advertising an anti-cheat system rather than the rest of the game, which could create a mediocre experience for the player just to make sure that those pesky hackers don't touch your game. So, it seems that the solution is to turn to a great anti-cheat system that we already have and make it required to be applied to every single game that comes out, right? *facepalm* CAN'T YOU SEE ANY PROBLEM HERE? Hackers are not brainless weasels, they will find a workaround for every anti-cheat system, and if there is a universal one, viola! You have now just found a hack for every single ****ing game that game out. Why don't you just hack into valve and give yourself all the unusual hats in tf2? How about some backpack expansions? Maybe a couple of keys? Speaking of Valve, I hate to give them ****. After all, they are the developers behind TF2, CS:GO, and Half Life 2, but VAC sucks. What does it do? Protect from third party software. Uhh...♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? See guys? Putting an anti-cheat system into every game and have it be identical is a bad idea because hackers will find a way to bypass it. So? Have players report hackers, as man is much smarter than machine. VAC doesn't even have that feature. There is no way that TF2 players can report someone for hacking. Votekicking does help, but they are still painting the hillside with virtual blood, for a while. Even though I fell VAC needs updating and no doubt valve are making something much better in source 2, VAC still does it's job, and it does it's job well. For an anti-cheat system that ran CS:S, it holds up pretty well today for keeping our servers hacker clean. So it seems we need our developers have an anti-cheat system in every game they make and have them be different. I don't think so. I might be wrong on this, so don't scream out at me like a grammar nazi with a missing period, but I think making an anti-cheat system is very time consuming and expensive. If not, we still need to make the punishment effective for hacking and make sure the method for picking out hackers from normal players so that we don't punish anyone who didn't do anything. If a game you bought with hard-earned money require you to do some random stuff just to start it and it doesn't even work, and you figure out that it's because of bad DRM, you know exactly how it feels. And if the punishment is not effective, is the hacker ever going to learn his lesson? I mean, I know the punishments that can occur with a player if they hack. I had a friend who tried out some hacking software and he was banned from every tf2 server. But if he had tf2 for only a week and probably only had a...ghastly gibus, is that a good enough punishment? Looks like the solution is a little harder to find. Leave your suggestions down in the comments below.

[eram]

Your enter key is broken.

[IroncladLandship]

引用自 eram：

Your enter key is broken.

引用自 Black Blade：

I think first of all will be nice to add some spaces....

Is the enter key really neccessary here? Do you seriously only live if my post has spaces?

[eram]

If you want people to read your thread yeah. Format the post.

Use
The
Enter
Key
At
Least
This
Many
Times.

[ONe_mOMENT]

First suggestion: Paragraphs.

It's a battle that can't be won realisticly.

Anti cheat software is there to lesson the impact of cheaters on the larger community, not flat out stop it as that's not going to happen. Minimal damage is all you can hope for. Ban waves just lead them to buying the game again, IP bans don't work, hell console bans don't work.

The only true way to stop every cheater would be to have a closed system (tighter then a console), in a 2 inc thick steal casing with no inputs that was bolted to the floor and had someone behind every user ready to slap them in the back of the head if they tried to do something funny.

[Black Blade]

引用自 ZombieNubMaster：

Is the enter key really neccessary here? Do you seriously only live if my post has spaces?

I ssume you want users to read that?

To topic
VAC dose its job, and gets updated when the "Hacks" get updated, that is how it works, and i do not think that having one system is a problem, in any system you will find problems, and as for that many or one system will not matter much, and many can mean that some will not be done right

So i think it may be better to have one Super VAC that gets updated to fight them, then have many system that may be broken.. and just make sure VAC dose its job right