Multiplayer games

[Sammy]

Just a question of opinions for people here.

Countless articles have been written about the problem of hackers. Based on how the MP gaming ecosystem has been going the last 10+ years, with no sign of getting better, is the writing on the wall for multiplayer in the future? Especially now that money is involved and hackers have a big financial incentive to develop and 'upgrade' hacks and sell them?

In some cases the hacks are not to give unfair advantages (PvP) but to steal from players in-game (WoW money/items etc) and resell them. Of course those that buy them are just as much part of the problem. It now seems the gaming community has taken the 'if you cant beat em, join em' solution. And will pay for it. With some of the more modern hardware based things out there, that have no need for installing software, even consoles are no longer immune. Myself, I will likely never buy or play, free or not, a multiplayer game again since its getting ever harder to find one without a hacker problem. When you get to a point where friends have to call out friends for hacking, its kind of a death knell.

I think I made this topic after reading someone that uses such hacks describing himself as a 'modder'. I mean, fuck you and die for your attempt at trying to justify yourself. Probably some fool that has never written a single line of code, created a 3D model of a soup can or made a sound that went 'beep'. I read this article and one of my first thoughts was what happened to MP gamers? Including here? But maybe its a symptom of the 'its all about me and what I want' society in general... and the rest can go fuck themselves... that only seems to be going nowhere but down. Ugh.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/surprise-console-gamers-cheat-more-than-those-on-pc

I dont know what a solution would be. Whack-a-mole isnt working. Especially when you have to keep developing new hammers when the old ones no longer work. Past ideas of 'cracking down' on developers/distributors when it comes to the internet in the end dont work. All it takes is suing one wrong person to become the bad guy on the news. And what do you do when said distributors are in China/Russia (which they often are)? I suppose you could simply make a game so expensive to buy and subscribe that your typical cheater, while someone willing to spend a one-time $10 to get a single hack, isnt willing or able to spend $250 up front and $100 a month for a single game. Surely doing so, for a developer, would cut your unit sales and subscribers drastically. The usual economic balance of volume vs price. But if it dealt with the hacker problem a lot of people might find it worth it. It would also get rid of the obnoxious kiddies. Mommy and daddy isnt going to pay for it.

*IF* it was a fucking good game continually expanded and updated over a long term. But I have never seen one that would come close to qualifying for that kind of money.

[RobMc]

Great observation Sammy, and a sad reflection of our society (worldwide), the fact that there is a vast market for hacks that people are willing to pay for says a lot. We have all experienced it, some are blindingly obvious and are ruining clans and honest players, as I know only too well. 

I have often wondered if there was a programme that could detect 100% of cheats how many players would there be left on servers, what would be their new scores and of course would they still be playing, unlikely we will ever know.

I agree the future of multiplayer is bleak, but so is the future when people think this is acceptable, and they do.

[Sammy]

Final Fantasy XIV Online looks interesting. I sorta like WoW but it just doesnt hold my interest. Seems the only significant problem in FF is farming bots. Also, since its subscription, after a certain point (because the trial runs out) there isnt as much of a bot problem as you advance. Those that run the bots dont want to pay. However I would need to get win10. My system is not compatible with win11's security requirements for the processor/mb.

edit: Guess I will bite the bullet and see if the ms installer tool will still accept a win7 license for an upgrade to 10. Things I read seem to suggest it still does. So downloading it to a usb drive.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Sammy