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I remember playing online games in the 90s and early 2000s without lots of cheaters. It was easy: if we thought they were cheating we banned them from our serve

by nkrisc 2y ago

I remember playing online games in the 90s and early 2000s without lots of cheaters. It was easy: if we thought they were cheating we banned them from our server.

jmuguy 2y ago
Rust players (the game, not the language) have discovered what CS players knew back in the day - the best anti cheat is an active admin. Although Rust has much better tools than CS server admins had back in the day - we essentially had to guess, and deal with the blowback if we were wrong.
oneshtein 2y ago
At some point, admins started to ban me pretty often, accusing me that I use wall hack (I don't), so I stopped to play online years ago. I started to play online again two weeks ago, I cap my system (I hide my cursor, I cap my framerate at 60fps, I use a submachine gun) to have more fun, but other players are trying to ban me anyway when I kill 4 enemies in 2 seconds.
oefrha 2y ago
Obvious cheats like spinbots spinning like crazy aren’t the only form of cheating, many cheats are more subtle and you may not realize as a player in the game, or an admin. Just look at the occasional streamer caught cheating — it’s not even obvious with tons of people watching their first person POV streams.
- nkrisc 2y ago
  If we couldn’t tell they were cheating, than they weren’t ruining the experience. They didn’t gain anything from cheating on our server. There was no ranking or prize for being good.
  - oefrha 2y ago
    Except lots of people like rankings and matchmaking with similarly skilled players, and people like winning too, so completely removing the incentive to cheat is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
- Nullabillity 2y ago
  So, in a matchmaking system, the cheaters filter themselves into a cohort of other cheaters and players who are on even ground without cheating. On the other hand, you have issues like smurfers who cause the same disruption without actually running any cheat software. Ultimately your problem is uneven matchmaking and the perception of cheating, not cheating itself.
cortesoft 2y ago
I really enjoy matchmaking games, though... being able to immediately find a game against someone of similar skill as you is a huge factor in enjoyment. I don't want to give that up.
ThatPlayer 2y ago
Plenty of server admins even back then thought that wouldn't scale, and it hasn't. Anti-cheats like BattlEye and Easy Anti Cheat started as community developed anti-cheats. Even Starcraft 1 ICCUP (3rd party Battle.net clone) had additional "anti-hack". Counter-Strike still has 3rd party servers with ESEA/FaceIT. They have additional anti-cheat, not less. Especially with gaming becoming mainstream compared to early 2000s. The majority of players are now casual gamers who are not interested in a job as a server admin/hoster.

by nkrisc 2y ago

I remember playing online games in the 90s and early 2000s without lots of cheaters. It was easy: if we thought they were cheating we banned them from our server.

jmuguy 2y ago

Rust players (the game, not the language) have discovered what CS players knew back in the day - the best anti cheat is an active admin. Although Rust has much better tools than CS server admins had back in the day - we essentially had to guess, and deal with the blowback if we were wrong.

oneshtein 2y ago

At some point, admins started to ban me pretty often, accusing me that I use wall hack (I don't), so I stopped to play online years ago. I started to play online again two weeks ago, I cap my system (I hide my cursor, I cap my framerate at 60fps, I use a submachine gun) to have more fun, but other players are trying to ban me anyway when I kill 4 enemies in 2 seconds.

oefrha 2y ago

Obvious cheats like spinbots spinning like crazy aren’t the only form of cheating, many cheats are more subtle and you may not realize as a player in the game, or an admin. Just look at the occasional streamer caught cheating — it’s not even obvious with tons of people watching their first person POV streams.

nkrisc 2y ago
If we couldn’t tell they were cheating, than they weren’t ruining the experience. They didn’t gain anything from cheating on our server. There was no ranking or prize for being good.
- oefrha 2y ago
  Except lots of people like rankings and matchmaking with similarly skilled players, and people like winning too, so completely removing the incentive to cheat is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Nullabillity 2y ago
So, in a matchmaking system, the cheaters filter themselves into a cohort of other cheaters and players who are on even ground without cheating. On the other hand, you have issues like smurfers who cause the same disruption without actually running any cheat software. Ultimately your problem is uneven matchmaking and the perception of cheating, not cheating itself.

cortesoft 2y ago

I really enjoy matchmaking games, though... being able to immediately find a game against someone of similar skill as you is a huge factor in enjoyment. I don't want to give that up.

ThatPlayer 2y ago

Plenty of server admins even back then thought that wouldn't scale, and it hasn't. Anti-cheats like BattlEye and Easy Anti Cheat started as community developed anti-cheats. Even Starcraft 1 ICCUP (3rd party Battle.net clone) had additional "anti-hack". Counter-Strike still has 3rd party servers with ESEA/FaceIT. They have additional anti-cheat, not less. Especially with gaming becoming mainstream compared to early 2000s. The majority of players are now casual gamers who are not interested in a job as a server admin/hoster.