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[rpmurphy]

Saw this earlier, a good read: http://kotaku.com/5919160/one-shot-...-gamer-started-paying-to-cheat-at-video-games

Some quotes:

John lives on a 200-acre farm somewhere in Canada. He has a day-job and loves to play video games. He bought Battlefield 3 at launch last fall and played it on the PC. Then some things happened and, soon enough, John became the kind of gamer who has an arsenal of cheats at his disposal. Each was a hack that he paid for. One lets him saunter into a multiplayer match in Battlefield 3 and automatically kill the next person he sees. If he's feeling particularly destructive, John flicks on a hack called "Mass Murder" and strolls through a Battlefield battlefield while every opposing player just drops dead.

...

John from Canada used to hate hackers. All of his stats in Battlefield used to be legit, the simple tally of how good he was at a popular first-person shooter. He was part of an online gaming clan who vowed to play together. But work got in the way for John and he couldn't play as much as he wanted to. You have to play a popular first-person shooter a lot to be competitive in it; distractions that kept him from the game would hold him back.

"One day I got pissed and fed up with one of the guys in the clan cause he didn't have a job and just grinded the game 24/7 and gained 10-15 levels above us," John remembered. "I wasn't the best player in BF3. So, one of the other clan members said to me in a different teamspeak [that] he used to hack APB: Reloaded, and I'm like, ‘Really??' He sent me the link. I looked at the site, and I made an account. I saw the hacks and I'm like, damn that's a lotta hacks for games, so I was like, ‘I'll give it a go.' I bought a one week subscription to the master package, which gave me access to all the games' hacks."

John from Canada is one of an unknown number of customers of a service called Artificial Aiming, a mirthful band of entrepreneurial cheaters who hack popular and unpopular games alike. Their star hacker is someone named HelioS, a mysterious figure who is regularly outfoxing or being outfoxed by the makers of games such as Battlefield.

A couple dozen cheats have recently been available for Battlefield 3. The cheats tweak the game's frame-rate or radar and are said to be undetectable by the anti-cheating service Punk Buster. The meatiest part of a $25/month Level 3 Battlefield 3 cheat subscription from Artificial Aiming is the aimbot, which will more or less do your shooting for you. Here's a breakdown:

Aimbot :

Uberdamage (only one bullet is needed to kill a player instantly)
Auto Spot (spot everyone on the map, automatic. You'll get the spotbonus for every kill your team makes)
Massmurder (kill everybody with a single button)
NoSpread
No Recoil
No Breathing
Visibility Checks
Soldier Aimbot
Vehicle Aimbot (All land vehicles, Chopper gunner and Helo transport machine gunner Aimbot for air vehicles)
Aim Styles (Off, When firing, Full auto)
Targeting Styles (Closest Target, Closest to crosshair, Highest Threat, Lowest Health, etc.)
SlowAim (Off, On) (+ Configurable slow aim speed)
AimAngle (Off, On) (+ Configurable autoaim rotation angle)
AutoFire (Off, On)
FriendlyFire (Off, On)

"It used to be that hackers did it because it was fun and they want to show that they can," Karl Magnus-Troesddson, the director of the massive Swedish studio DICE told me a few months ago. DICE are the makers of Battlefield and have been battling hackers and cheaters for years. "It's about big money today. They want to make money off of these cheats. That's what pisses me off the most. They're not just ruining the game for others; they're actually making a profit off of it. That hurts both my gamer heart but also my dev heart, I have to say."

The folks a Artificial Aiming laugh at this kind of thing. Online, they seem as jolly a band of hackers and cheaters as there is, cackling on message boards about how they disrupt games, rejoicing when, in one instance, Artificial Aiming hackers used cheats to snag the virtual dogtags of Battlefield developers. Top Artificial Aiming personnel as well as top people at other cheating groups brushed off repeated requests by Kotaku to tell their story, to explain why they cheat and size up just how big a business it is for them to mess with games like Battlefield 3.

The anti-cheating team at DICE looks for people who pad their stats through glitches that haven't been patched out of the game. "Those are things that are easy to fix," Magnus said. "The hacks, where people aimbot and these kinds of things that are using a third-party cheat are usually a bit a harder, because it's usually an overlay using DirectX on top of that. We can't patch that out of the game. From that perspective it's easier to just look at the stats and say, ok, if they have a kill-death ratio of this or whatever the algorithm has been set up, that's probably a cheater. Let's look into that, and then we do mass-bans continuously."

In late March, with cheat services like Artificial Aiming making money selling stat-boosting cheats to gamers like John from Canada, DICE started selling perks—"shortcuts"—that level Battlefield players up. DICE isn't selling cheats but, rather, offering the kind of quick-leveling up of player rank that unlocks better gear for players who don't have time to play to earn those levels ... The shortcuts cost $7-$10. A full bundle costs $40.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

John from Canada used to hate hackers. All of his stats in Battlefield used to be legit, the simple tally of how good he was at a popular first-person shooter. He was part of an online gaming clan who vowed to play together. But work got in the way for John and he couldn't play as much as he wanted to. You have to play a popular first-person shooter a lot to be competitive in it; distractions that kept him from the game would hold him back.

"One day I got pissed and fed up with one of the guys in the clan cause he didn't have a job and just grinded the game 24/7 and gained 10-15 levels above us," John remembered. "I wasn't the best player in BF3. So, one of the other clan members said to me in a different teamspeak [that] he used to hack APB: Reloaded, and I'm like, ‘Really??' He sent me the link. I looked at the site, and I made an account. I saw the hacks and I'm like, damn that's a lotta hacks for games, so I was like, ‘I'll give it a go.' I bought a one week subscription to the master package, which gave me access to all the games' hacks."

That sure is some classic rationalization.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

This is like the prequel to a cyberpunk novel.

Next step is us paying 500 cybercreds to the black market jackhackers so we can play Tronball off the grid.

 

[alr1ght]

Maybe people shouldn't have to grind for hours so they're not at a competitive disadvantage compared to players who can play all day...That's more of an issue with today's OCD game design, though.

Either way, cheating online sucks. Taking/giving money to do it sucks even worse.

 

[rpmurphy]

That sure is some classic rationalization.

Yeah, the guy sounds like someone who can't enjoy a game unless he's the top player. Lacking the time to play, I'm not too surprised that these cheats are appealing.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

That sure is some classic rationalization.

It's why I pretty much only do co-op now when it comes to online experiences.

 

[Kelegacy]

Most of these guys seem to do it just to be disruptive. It's antisocial behaviour in a social game. How ironic.

In real life it would be so nice to meet them and land a fat blow off the bridge of their nose.

 

[Tallshortman]

This is the dumbest shit I've read in a while in terms of thought process. The fact that he doesn't have as much free time means he should be ruining the game for everyone else? Okay.

 

[GrayFoxPL]

Cheaters are pitiful tards with no skills and worse - no honor. No way around that lowest breed of gamer, fuck them.

 

[Lancehead]

Maybe people shouldn't have to grind for hours so they're not at a competitive disadvantage compared to players who can play all day...That's more of an issue with today's OCD game design, though.

Not really a design issue. Something like Quake 3 multiplayer also takes plenty of effort to gain expertise of.

 

[Joe Molotov]

I'm so busy at work these day, I hired Chinese gold farmers to beat Final Fantasy XIII-2 for me. It really makes the games more fun.

 

[DukeTogo1300]

Want...to...punch...face.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

This guy is not a gamer.

 

[Derrick01]

I just don't understand the cheater's mentality. I understand the people making money off of it as I am someone who enjoys money. But I don't understand the people actually buying the stuff. They want to be good at the game so...they let the computer do their work? How does that make you good? More importantly how is just auto killing someone fun if you're not doing anything? You may as well just stare at a wall since you're doing the same amount of effort.

 

[Nibel]

Fuck this man

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I just don't understand the cheater's mentality. I understand the people making money off of it as I am someone who enjoys money. But I don't understand the people actually buying the stuff. They want to be good at the game so...they let the computer do their work? How does that make you good? More importantly how is just auto killing someone fun if you're not doing anything? You may as well just stare at a wall since you're doing the same amount of effort.

They don't want to be good at the game. They just want to win at the game.

Huge difference.

 

[Wario64]

The multiplayer leveling system has to go.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

I just don't understand the cheater's mentality. I understand the people making money off of it as I am someone who enjoys money. But I don't understand the people actually buying the stuff. They want to be good at the game so...they let the computer do their work? How does that make you good? More importantly how is just auto killing someone fun if you're not doing anything? You may as well just stare at a wall since you're doing the same amount of effort.

"Nah brah, I won you lost, ha ha ha ha ha ha." And then the person moves On to the next match not actually thinking about the true competitive meaning of the whole thing.

 

[lorebringer]

Helios, what a fitting name. I'm gonna get worried once I find out there used to be two called Daedalus and Icarus.

On another note I find it kinda sad that "tweaking the game's frame-rate" is a hack.

It's probably just the article putting in random words that aren't related to anything but there's a chance that maybe one of them is reliant on changing the client's perspective of how much time has passed for the information it sends to to the server. Depending on how BF3 mp is implemented that might or might not have an effect serverside.

 

[Derrick01]

They don't want to be good at the game. They just want to win at the game.

Huge difference.

Yeah but if you're not doing anything to win then it's kind of a hollow feeling. You'd think they would want to contribute at least.

 

[ultron87]

The multiplayer leveling system has to go.

That's just this random person's excuse for why they started. There have always been people using aimbots in online games.

 

[iNvid02]

thankfully my multiplayer itch died out after cod4 and mw2, now its the odd 3rd person shooter like uncharted or max payne, or something like need for speed or assassins creed

these type of games dont get targeted as much

 

[Arcteryx]

haha they have subscription services for hacks now? sigh

 

[zerokoolpsx]

I don't know how much fun he's getting from cheating. After hundred of kills with aimbots and mass murder. It gets pretty stale super quick. Novelty wears off. It's not competitive when you cheat LOL.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Most of these guys seem to do it just to be disruptive. It's antisocial behaviour in a social game. How ironic.

In real life it would be so nice to meet them and land a fat blow off the bridge of their nose.

It seems to happen more recently too than I remember it before. Unless I was just lucky in my online experiences.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Yeah but if you're not doing anything to win then it's kind of a hollow feeling. You'd think they would want to contribute at least.

Good sir. Do not make the mistake of assuming your moral compass and thought processes are similar to other people. Particularly the type of people that feel the need to cheat at an online game.

I think some of it has to do with the fact that a number of people don't appreciate the games they play these days. If they appreciated them for what they are and appreciated the work that went into them...they wouldn't do things to compromise the gameplay or the experience of others playing the same game.

...I suppose that's a whole other thread however.

 

[base shagohod]

The multiplayer leveling system has to go.

Definitely, when perks and weapons are given to people who play more.

 

[MiniBossBattle]

How fun is a game if you remove the challenge? Is it the satisfaction of player killing?

 

[zerokoolpsx]

How fun is a game if you remove the challenge? Is it the satisfaction of player killing?

Its the only thing left.

 

[Sadist]

Yikes

 

[shintoki]

If you want to talk about spoiled, childish entitlement with gamers. Unlike the pass dozen cases where that word has been thrown around, here is an actual case where it does apply.

 

[R_thanatos]

i'm sure he feel good to kill people in a video game without any chance of being killed or any challenge around ...

The thrill in competitive multiplayer is to kill while avoiding being killed ..if there is no chance of being killed , it's ...pointless ?? i'm not sure how not having anough time to play a decisive factor to got cheating ..

Just stop playing online games if you don't have time to ...

 

[DeFiBkIlLeR]

Small dicks...the cause of so many problems in the world.

 

[The Boat]

Wow. So ridiculously stupid.

 

[TGMIII]

The cheats tweak the game's frame-rate or radar and are said to be undetectable by the anti-cheating service Punk Buster.

I've said it before but you can't even call punk buster an anti-cheat, it doesn't do anything and it hasn't for YEARS. If companies actually care about stopping rampant cheating then they need to look into something else because PB doesn't do anything.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Small brains...the cause of so many problems in the world.

fixed.

 

[Zabka]

Sounds like the actions of a depressed man. He doesn't even care about winning. He just has a bad day at work so he comes home and ruins other people's recreational activities.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

John from Canada
John from Canada
John from Canada...

is a fucking idiot.

 

[Rich!]

What the fuck is going on with Kotaku having some good articles all of a sudden?

 

[ScepticMatt]

The reasons for cheating are not very sound, but I'm boycotting any game with "perks".

 

[U n i o n 0015]

This is why I don't play with anyone I don't know anymore. Randoms almost always result in the worst online experiences.

 

[lethial]

I love watching myg0t videos on youtube.

 

[Bending_Unit_22]

Yeah, feel the same way about most online gaming. I don't have the time to grind with the jobless or addicted out there so there's no way for me to be competitive in those games.

Major difference, I just don't play them and found other things to play to scratch my online multi-player itch (namely World of Tanks). Seems cheaper, better since I'm not ruining other gamers' games, and more satisfying. Then again, what do I know.

 

[thetrin]

This article, at the very least, makes me feel a little better about some of my deaths in BF3.

 

[Droog]

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

 

[Enosh]

The multiplayer leveling system has to go.

yes, people never used hacks before that

Yeah, feel the same way about most online gaming. I don't have the time to grind with the jobless or addicted out there so there's no way for me to be competitive in those games.

oh please, I have often seen low level people be the nb 1 player in a match
the whole "zomg you get more stuff the longer you play, unfair!!!11" is just a bullshit excuse thrown around for why someone is bad

 

[Count Dookkake]

.

 

[Ragingbegal]

Is there any chance a developer would dissuade cheaters by including an invisible "bot" in each level that could only be detected by auto aim and had enough health to survive anything aside for the hacked one-shot kill bullet? That way, if the ghost bot is killed, the developer could detect who is cheating and instantly ban the user's account.

Or is that not feasible for some reason?

 

[Felix Lighter]

That is not what I thought motivated these guys. I just imagined they were mostly assholes that just found joy in ruining the experience for everyone else. I didn't realize someone could actually find enjoyment in winning when they cheated. That truly is much more pathetic than the stereotypical immature antisocial cheater.

 

[Bending_Unit_22]

Oh please, I have often seen low level people be the nb 1 player in a match
the whole "zomg you get more stuff the longer you play, unfair!!!11" is just a bullshit excuse thrown around for why someone is bad

You're right, I'm a terribly bad gamer. Thanks for clearing that up for me, explains everything.

I should have added to my post I do play the games nonetheless sometimes. I just accept I'm going to be beat down most of the time and relish my good results all the more (when they happen).