/tech/ - Technology

I know this is firstworldproblems

I don't game so this is really just a commentary from a outsider looking in, but i've recently heard that first person video game developers are thinking about using the TPM (trusted platform module) chip on the motherboard for anti-cheat, this seems like an extreme measure for video games, which got me curious about the problem.

Apparently cheating in video games has become really serious business and very technically sophisticated. Some people even use a secondary computer to run cheat software that generates fake user input signals for a simulated mouse, keyboard and or gamepads. Which means people pay big money for hacks.

Why are game devs trying to beat cheaters in a technical arms-race, instead of trying to make money off of them ?

Cheating doesn't really matter as long as cheaters and non-cheaters don't mix. Because "the experience™" matters.
To fix this, a detailed skill measuring system is needed that is really effective at matching players. The goal at this point is not to detect cheaters, but to indirectly move them to cheater arenas where they can have software robotwars. To make this work you have to do more than just give players a skill rank, you have to generate like a "data-rich" play pattern and match players according to their play patterns. This would probably also fix other issues that diminish "the experience™"

The next step is to develop your own cheat programs and sell them, that way you know who the cheaters are (at least some of them) and you can safely quarantine them in the cheater corner. To get maximum capitalistic cheater-bucks, periodically depreciate the cheat programs. (I know this is really atrocious anti consumer behavior but nobody cares about it in this specific instance).The technical experience you gather from making the cheat programs translates into making good bot-players that you can dynamically remove or add to online matches to balance out mismatched human players.

This hole problem might just be capitalism's fault because how many cheat programs would really be developed in an economy based on production for use rather than production for sale. However it is still plausible that such abuse cases could occur in socialism as well, and i think we ought to find ways to negate the abuse in a more elegant way that doesn't involve punching the donkey. Is there a way to get hack-devs interested in using their skills for a better end ?