Hacking-cheating in Game

[xSquirtle]

The idea of requiring a text message is smart. Buying new phones is highly costly and would absolutely discourage mass hacking. Plus nearly everyone in the world has some form of cell phone with text messaging capabilities, so this would not be nearly a huge issue of discouraging players.

If anything advertising a game that's F2P, with anti-cheat, and a solid base for preventing mass hacking for new accounts; could drive sales WAY up. People like the idea of having a semi-hacker free game.

Originally Posted by Pyreal

SOE could also simply figure out what vulnerability the hack is exploiting in order to find the users of that hack in order to cull them. They wouldn't even have to close the vulnerability, just monitor it.

Because no one has ever thought of that .

Moderating a function does nothing if the programmer has modified the program to prevent their analysis capabilities.

[Tatwi]

Forcing the use of the authenticator if people want to play on some servers would help a bit. They cost $10 and you have to wait for them in the mail. I have one.

[Dubious]

There will be an free app authenticator so thats not a solution at all

[Flaropri]

I think you guys are overly worried about something that likely won't be much of a problem in the first place, honestly. Aside from hacking not being THAT prevalent, there are active mods to deal with/investigate players that cheat, 3rd party software to raise the barrier so it's not too easy (thus completely overwhelming the staff and such), and looking to resolve the holes where they can regardless as they go. And of course people not wanting to lose persistent characters.

Someone talked earlier about a group already working on a hack... and that is troublesome, but it doesn't mean that hack will still work after a patch or two into beta and then they start over again.

Certainly, if it proves to be a problem, put in some additional measures like tying accounts to a phone number via texting or something (I dislike this still, but it's better than some other alternatives), but I doubt it will actually be necessary at this point.

[DownloadFailed]

Well what do other MMOs do to prevent hacking? What does World of Warcraft do? In the little time I admittedly spent in WoW, I never once saw a hacker. Plenty of assholes and bots, sure, but no hackers. Is it because it's subscription based? If they're already paying for the game and the hacks they're using make their characters advance in level quickly, getting banned on WoW is no more a set back than getting banned on PS2. They would just start up another subscription. Didn't PS1 have a hacker influx after some update or something? Subscriptions are surely a deterrent but it won't stop everyone.

[Flaropri]

I think part of it is that hacking (for whatever reason) is generally more popular in FPS than RPGs, that said, there were reports of hacking, and certainly peoples ACCOUNTS were hacked plenty, if not necessarily many game mechanics. These days there are also private servers (pirated/emulated) so that may bleed off some of the hacking talent and drive as well.


I think GMs and active moderators do a lot to help though. Plus, I recall TB and I think Clegg or Higby talking about how they have behavioral checks for other SOE games. They were mostly talking about dealing with Boosting (a hack-free way of boosting stats/resources/xp in a less than intended fashion) but I could see it applying to some software cheats as well, for example, if someone has a much higher than average accuracy (especially if they previously had lower accuracy) they might look at them closer to try and see if they are cheating or not.

[Dubious]

WoW have hackers too and they get banned, but unlike Planetside, their hacking isnt gamebreaking

ppl will flee the game if nothing gets done with hackers on the spot in PS
in WoW they can cheat for weeks and you, the player, wont even notice them
that goes for most RPGs

[Reizod]

Originally Posted by Tatwi

Forcing the use of the authenticator if people want to play on some servers would help a bit. They cost $10 and you have to wait for them in the mail. I have one.

I like this idea very much. I too have one and think at least require people to verify something that is tied to them one way or another.

Or at least make the process of creating an PS2 account a multi step process that goes through various verification hoops.

[noodz]

Originally Posted by DownloadFailed

Well what do other MMOs do to prevent hacking? What does World of Warcraft do? In the little time I admittedly spent in WoW, I never once saw a hacker. Plenty of assholes and bots, sure, but no hackers.

Botting in wow is basically hacking. Although games like wow hacks aren't as game changing as one hacker just can't go round insta headshotting everyone cause the game is not designed like that.
I think SOE need some sort of admin monitoring system, where devs/admins spectate players who are either : reported, or getting ridiculously high k/d etc. On top of the Anti cheat software of course.

[capiqu]

Don't know if people should be forced to buy authenticators . Many people will not afford or be willing to pay for them and what Soe is trying to do is to get as many people to play the game as possible. That would drive many away. Until something new is thought of using a device that 95% of the people have( cell phone number) is probably the best.

[Mystwalker]

since the big hack of sony knocking them offline for what was it a month?
they have said they take a very dim vew of hacking and punkbuster was a tool in the toolbox and wasn't gonna be the only thing they had to encourage fair play
no telling what forgelight is tracking and blocking it has all ready been said you can't speed up bullet time or damage the coding won't let it happen as for aim botting im sure they will be tracking it as well
and this is where community comes in,if someones hacking and you see a ton of kill spam and they are standing in front of you in a spawn room.... kill them
friendly fire is ON you have the power to help stop a hacker by commincating and TK'ing them till they log
don't put this in SOE'S hands when we have the power and ability to police our own empires
word of mouth counts and not being afraid to take a lil grief for killing a hacker is a great thing for us all

[Nimx]

About requiring phone # to set up an account wont be effective to counter cheaters. I've worked for 2 cell companies, you can easily change your #. If you call a few times to get different reps and make up a good reason you can get them do it for free.

[Ivam Akorahil]

Originally Posted by Braveliltoaster

that doesn't surprise me, and the fact that the games free to play its going to be a mess. SoE said they will have GM's looking for hackers, big deal they get banned and they start a new account its a never ending cycle and that is what pisses me off. If someone gets caught hacking they should be banned from the game permanently, Like a hardware ban!

how about you gotta register and they send the "activation" code per ordinary mail ?

its certainly hard to get unlimited adresses.

Not to mention the big difference between ps2 and bf3 is that ALL servers you can play on are servers from the devs, which are monitored and also record stats and throw out alarms if abnormalities come up. i personaly think if someone would use aimbotting, it would take mere seconds untill the programms throws off an alarm and only another few seconds untill one of the gamemasters has an eye on it.

[Radant-J]

Those who want to dismiss the seriousness of hackers in Planetside probably haven't witnessed the worst moments in the game's history, where BFRs would snipe people from the flight ceiling, and hours of /reports would do nothing...

To those who were discussing the low number of hackers in WoW, Blizzard uses an in-house program called Warden, as well as a huge staff of CSRs.

In PS1, we had one CSR when we were truly lucky.
RIP DanB

Neither a CSR team, nor Punkbuster will be enough I'm afraid. PB is a joke these days.

[Otleaz]

There is no reason to go about doing weird stuff to prevent hackers. No matter what you do, hackers will be there. Competition and skill will be at most a blissful illusion for the ignorant. The only people who I will compliment or actively compare myself to will be people I have talked to and have known for years. Everyone else is unconditionally a hacker.

Stats in this game will be about as valuable as the floaters you find in public restrooms. This isn't a fault with the game at all, it is actually the same for every single shooter you have ever played. There are a LOT of hackers, you just can't tell.