Support NeoGAF

[Spyxos]

I realize that there have always been cheaters on the PC, but it's gotten really bad lately. I also think it's bad when you talk about it with others. It usually just comes back, well, they're just cheating. There's not much I can do about it. As if people have already given up inside and have accepted that there is a lot of cheating.

Why am I writing all this, the night before I met up with some friends on Discord and we wanted to play some games we haven't played in a while. The first disaster was Gta online. If I were to guess, there were 3-4 cheaters on the very first server, if not more. Sure ok bad luck changed server. Somehow one of the cheaters followed us to the new server and it rained rockets from the sky again.

Ok then, let's go to Red Dead Online. We meet in Valentine and there are already 2 other players there. They immediately started shooting, but were of course themselves immortal....

As a last attempt we wanted to play Warzone. The first round was cheater free. But in the second round, tadaa, someone is cheating again. With aimbot and I don't know what else hacks. Then we gave up, the evening was over and we had achieved nothing but lost time to the cheaters.

So far I've only seen a lot of cheaters in older games where there's been no support for ages and nobody gets banned anymore. But these were all current games with a lot of updates and many players. You would think that something would be done against cheaters, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[rofif]

yeah bf5 is unplayable anymore. Chinese cheaters every evening. I stopped playing some time ago.
My friends keep playing and they end up on "is this guy a cheater" website constantly

 

[AV]

It's not much better on console from where I hear from multiplayer friends.

It's only going to get worse and worse with AI and hardware advancements. Wasn't there a monitor recently that did opponent detection on a hardware level?

The best multiplayer remains, as always, in closed groups with friends / trusted players.

 

[A.Romero]

I usually play online on PC and seldom find cheaters although TBH I haven't gone to GTA since launch and I think I never tried RDR. I played Warzone once and if they were cheating I didn't notice.

It's true that the platform is very versatile and it gets way more cheating mechanics than other platforms. It's crazy that there are cheating subscription services and even hardware. Don't get why people invest into that.

I'm sorry you had that experience.

 

[Spyxos]

It's not much better on console from where I hear from multiplayer friends.

It's only going to get worse and worse with AI and hardware advancements. Wasn't there a monitor recently that did opponent detection on a hardware level?

The best multiplayer remains, as always, in closed groups with friends / trusted players.

I play quite a lot on the consoles, but I very rarely come across cheaters. At least it's not that noticeable.

 

[JimboJones]

It's not much better on console from where I hear from multiplayer friends.

It's only going to get worse and worse with AI and hardware advancements. Wasn't there a monitor recently that did opponent detection on a hardware level?

The best multiplayer remains, as always, in closed groups with friends / trusted players.

I think the ai in that monitor was exaggerated a bit but it is early days, kinda scary where the possibilities could lead too.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

It's not much better on console from where I hear from multiplayer friends.

It's only going to get worse and worse with AI and hardware advancements. Wasn't there a monitor recently that did opponent detection on a hardware level?

The best multiplayer remains, as always, in closed groups with friends / trusted players.

That monitor has not been released yet from MSI but is scheduled to at some point soon

I am afraid that monitor is just the beginning

 

[Spyxos]

yeah bf5 is unplayable anymore. Chinese cheaters every evening. I stopped playing some time ago.
My friends keep playing and they end up on "is this guy a cheater" website constantly

Exactly as you say. The last time I played bf5/bf1 there were definitely cheaters around.

 

[AV]

I play quite a lot on the consoles, but I very rarely come across cheaters. At least it's not that noticeable.

I think it's mostly old games. Hear a lot of reports of people playing the COD games that's one or two behind and it just being completely infested. All 2nd hand info though, don't take my word for it.

 

[mayham2199]

It's horrible on PC. People always try to say consoles are the same and it's not even close.

 

[Superbean]

I've given up on pc pvp, it's absolutely riddled with cheaters in every game, even coop games. It's funny too cause there's the weird die hard boot lickers who don't think there are cheaters.

 

[Laptop1991]

It has always been like that and one of the main reason's i don't like MP games, not much fun in a deathmatch game if you can't hurt the opposition and they can kill you with 1 shot.

 

[Fabieter]

The common explanations often revolve around uncertainty—whether someone is genuinely skilled or using cheats. Multiplayer gaming on PC tends to be perceived as suspicious.

The other excuse is consoles too which is ridiculous at best.

 

[cash_longfellow]

BF2042 is disgusting, especially as a console player. Since you literally have to play crossplay to even find a match on console, the amount of PC cheaters is downright sad. I’ve played Battlefield heavy since BC2, and used to be very very good at it. I understand mouse and keys are almost always going to have an advantage over controllers, but the sheer amount of Aimbot in the game is sickening. Even worse, Dice won’t do anything about it because they know player numbers are at a premium in the game right now and if they ban all the cheaters, the game is dead in the water. Just one PC game example that I’ve ran into rampant cheating recently…I completely agree OP.

 

[cormack12]

The more youngsters who see streaming and social fame as an out, the more will be drawn to cheats. Tech has got better too, and harder to detect.

When we were young it was bad on certain servers/games but today is rife.

 

[JimboJones]

That monitor has not been released yet from MSI but is scheduled to at some point soon

I am afraid that monitor is just the beginning

I wonder if it will start affecting game design, it's all visual based so will deves start creating games around no mini maps, remove sniper glint etc.
Or maybe the lean into it at actually give players more awareness indicators if it gets to a stage where there is already a substantial amount of these AI powered monitors in the wild.

 

[R6Rider]

BF2042 is disgusting, especially as a console player. Since you literally have to play crossplay to even find a match on console, the amount of PC cheaters is downright sad. I’ve played Battlefield heavy since BC2, and used to be very very good at it. I understand mouse and keys are almost always going to have an advantage over controllers, but the sheer amount of Aimbot in the game is sickening. Even worse, Dice won’t do anything about it because they know player numbers are at a premium in the game right now and if they ban all the cheaters, the game is dead in the water. Just one PC game example that I’ve ran into rampant cheating recently…I completely agree OP.

Yeah, I play on PS5 and it's becoming more and more common to see them. Luckily for 128 matches you have a lower chance of actually having to deal with them.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Games that force cross-play with PC needs to end. Games just become unplayable at that point.

 

[Skifi28]

I generally avoid MP, but it's on whole different level on pc. Even co-op is crap in something like monster hunter when you find people that just one shot the monster.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

yeah bf5 is unplayable anymore. Chinese cheaters every evening. I stopped playing some time ago.
My friends keep playing and they end up on "is this guy a cheater" website constantly

This. I’ve really wanted to play a WW2 shooter recently so I redownloaded it because sometimes I want something more casual then HLL.

I had 2 cheaters in 2 lobbies and I just gave up.

Not that cheating isn’t possible on console but this is part of the reason I still play a ton on consoles. The only downside of cross play is you still get these chucklefucks.

 

[Crayon]

The common explanations often revolve around uncertainty—whether someone is genuinely skilled or using cheats. Multiplayer gaming on PC tends to be perceived as suspicious.

The other excuse is consoles too which is ridiculous at best.

The uncertainty is worse. On t8 I loved that it was cross play. Then I caught like 2 people definitely using macros for combos. 2 people out of 100. No big deal. But the problem was the dozen others where I was doubting and it was distracting. Sadly, off went the cross play switch... S'ok it'll be great when I want to play with my friends that get it on PC. Kinda glad I didn't. I was waffling on which one to get.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

The common explanations often revolve around uncertainty—whether someone is genuinely skilled or using cheats. Multiplayer gaming on PC tends to be perceived as suspicious.

The other excuse is consoles too which is ridiculous at best.

Many times the hackers on PC don't even try to hide it and there are 100% people cheating on consoles with external devices

I wonder if it will start affecting game design, it's all visual based so will deves start creating games around no mini maps, remove sniper glint etc.
Or maybe the lean into it at actually give players more awareness indicators if it gets to a stage where there is already a substantial amount of these AI powered monitors in the wild.

Really a good question how will devs combat them, or even if they will

Reason I say that and I have said this many times here that while Mike Ybarra was still with Xbox he admitted that at Xbox they could tell when people were cheating in games with things like a Cronus

I would always get aggravated because he said Xbox would never take a stand against them and would leave it up to each game dev on how they wanted to handle it

Funny enough Acti tried taking a stand against them in COD but people write scripts faster than the detection process and they still actively work on console

 

[hououinkyouma00]

BF2042 is disgusting, especially as a console player. Since you literally have to play crossplay to even find a match on console, the amount of PC cheaters is downright sad. I’ve played Battlefield heavy since BC2, and used to be very very good at it. I understand mouse and keys are almost always going to have an advantage over controllers, but the sheer amount of Aimbot in the game is sickening. Even worse, Dice won’t do anything about it because they know player numbers are at a premium in the game right now and if they ban all the cheaters, the game is dead in the water. Just one PC game example that I’ve ran into rampant cheating recently…I completely agree OP.

I haven’t run into many cheaters on 2042 but sometimes the RPT feels like cheating but how controllable it is.

Makes me so happy to counter snipers with the 2x thermal.

 

[Sojiro]

It has been around forever, but I feel like having private servers where admins would keep an eye on this shit made it much better. I used to admin a server in TF2 and would occasionally have to boot people out, although it wasn't an everyday occurrence. At least then you could hang out in a few community servers where you know someone was keeping an eye on it. Granted any kind of ranked mode it's unfortunately always going to be a problem.

 

[Revolutionary]

Rockstar in particular just doesn't give a shit about cheaters on PC. Had to force myself into solo lobbies in both GTA and Red Dead Online in order to enjoy myself without some asshat cheater ruining the experience.

 

[kiphalfton]

It has always been like that and one of the main reason's i don't like MP games, not much fun in a deathmatch game if you can't hurt the opposition and they can kill you with 1 shot.

Conversely I don't get how it's fun when there's zero challenge.

But then again maybe the "fun" comes from depriving other people of joy...

 

[Dacvak]

With the advent of realtime AI temporal frame processing, we only have a few more years before there’s truly nothing anyone will be able to do. I think it’s really hard to wrap our heads around how much AI will impact our lives, especially in terms of entertainment.

My advice? Buy a CRT and play all those childhood games you were too poor to buy at the time.

 

[cash_longfellow]

I haven’t run into many cheaters on 2042 but sometimes the RPT feels like cheating but how controllable it is.

Makes me so happy to counter snipers with the 2x thermal.

Oh, I promise you’ve run into plenty of cheaters. Many are decent at hiding it, and many just suck at it so it’s not AS obvious. Pretty sad when someone actually sucks at cheating lol

 

[Laptop1991]

Conversely I don't get how it's fun when there's zero challenge.

But then again maybe the "fun" comes from depriving other people of joy...

Yeah must be, but that isn't much fun for me and not really the point of the game and they end up not being able to kill each other, so it never ends until one player quits the game lol.

 

[Rac3r]

I believe it. Only time I see cheaters on console is when I play multiplayer games with crossplay turned on. No surprise that it's PC players 99% of the time, using obvious hacks or macros on games like Warzone. Me and my friend play 2K PGA duos, and whenever we turn on crossplay, we'll get matched up with at least one opponent on PC who will routinely make chip-ins from 50 yards out. It's so obvious, because it never happens with crossplay disabled.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Oh, I promise you’ve run into plenty of cheaters. Many are decent at hiding it, and many just suck at it so it’s not AS obvious. Pretty sad when someone actually sucks at cheating lol

The difference between nicer higher priced hacks and free ones

 

[Solidus_T]

Depending on the game you play, cheating is prolific and you are more likely to encounter cheaters than not when you get to high Elo levels. It seems that what drives a lot of people to cheat and lie about it is their need for clips of "sweaty" gameplay. The problem is that cheating is not sweaty, rather scummy.
This documentary is a good watch:

 

[Pop]

Reason #1 to always wanting an option to turn off crossplay in competitive matches

And now a lot of devs don't let you in multiplayer

 

[Shadowstar39]

Haven't played multiplayer in years on pc, but back then bf2, tf2, counter strike. original swbf was always tons of cheaters. Even the quake 3/ut days had it. Only place where there was none on public servers was in some mmos (eq2, lotro, Conan, etc.. Never played wow so don't know). On ps3 I don't remember any cheaters on resistance 2 or motorstorm. Ps4 bf4 and cod ww2 don't recall any. Ps5 I don't player mp games anymore, so can't say.

Don't have this problem in single player games. Playing Grim dawn or Robocop.

I hope they sort it out that shit is no fun,

 

[amigastar]

I never understood the mentality of a Cheater, i mean if it's for the fame it's fake fame, i just don't get it.

 

[nemiroff]

I watched this one earlier today.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

You get what you pay for.

(PC multiplayer is free)

 

[Slimboy Fat]

It's time to quarantine China

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I watched this one earlier today.

Amazing people openly admit to it but Tarkov has been ruined by cheaters anyhow

A crazy long video on cheating there but amazing to watch none the less

 

[DryvBy]

It's why all that PCMR stuff is a joke. PC was great for decades but it's overpriced and cheater heaven.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I've mostly given up on popular multiplayer games and play stuff like Hell Let Loose or coop only games like Helldivers.

 

[Sybrix]

I play Counter Strike 2 quite often, half the games i play there's at least 1 cheater.

It's crazy how widespread it is.

 

[cash_longfellow]

The difference between nicer higher priced hacks and free ones

Exactly! I’m glad someone said it!

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

i dont understand, why even cheat?

 

[PixelatedBeast]

Oh trust me bro, you've only just scratched the surface. This is pretty much like the epidemic that plagues online gaming. One way to expose the "pros" is to watch how they perform in COD events where they cant use their software hacks. Its a much different story when you see these people play against other players who have been properly matched based on skill. The other issue is young kids and girl gamers who want to make a living off of streaming from Twitch. Crossplay has also contributed to his, because the intergration of casual console players mixed with PC has made almost every online game with PVP feel like sweaty palm lobbies that you usually only see on PC.



There is a whole lot more to this than just people using cheats to get views. The only person with a platform Ive seen speaking out against cheaters is BadBoy Beamen and to an extent Dr.Disrespect. Its wild how more people arent speaking out against it. Its like theres an unspoke rule amongst streamers not to speak about cheats if they can too benefit from it and make a living playing games.

 

[Crayon]

i dont understand, why even cheat?

 

[Soodanim]

I'll never understand the motivation to cheat. If you want to not play, watch a video.

 

[MrRibeye]

When I was a young teenager, maybe 12 to 14 years old, I downloaded all the hacks and aimbots, because The Matrix was the coolest thing on the planet at the time and doing "hacker shit" like removing the case of my PC to expose the cables and cheating in video games was mad cool.

I bet a large chunk of cheaters are foolish kids like that. When adults are cheating, I suspect its because games is how they define their personality and then being bad at them can hurt your self-worth.

 

[Krappadizzle]

When I was a young teenager, maybe 12 to 14 years old, I downloaded all the hacks and aimbots, because The Matrix was the coolest thing on the planet at the time and doing "hacker shit" like removing the case of my PC to expose the cables and cheating in video games was mad cool.

I bet a large chunk of cheaters are foolish kids like that. When adults are cheating, I suspect its because games is how they define their personality and then being bad at them can hurt your self-worth.

and yes, I feel your summation is probably pretty spot on.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

but MP Is free.