A debate I keep myself usually quite far away from has plagued my mind recently whilst reading xfire. A couple of days go by and a new allegation is thrown at someone for cheating. Is cheating really as bad as the xfire journal section suggests?
Heres something to get your mind thinking. Some 3 or more years ago, Jolt's head RTCW admin contacted me whilst I was in a practice for void. He left me a message to make sure I grabbed the PB logs from the server. At the time we were either playing, idle or de*nvidia, I forget which. They were Estonian for the main part, so in RTCW they lagged, but they weren't cheating...
After the match I sent the logs to him and he confirmed that one of their players matched the guid that was PB banned from all Jolt RTCW servers at that time. PB Banned from a Jolt public at that time meant alot, Jolt are a company with an image to protect, they dont just let anyone admin and they take their positions very seriously, so in those days that match of PB Ban was enough. In RTCW a GUID was stronger than in ET also, hense why the Yawn program worked so well in RTCW.
Nothing ever happened to that player, and in the practice we lost, and there was nothing suspicious about the defeat. Throw in the thought were they cheating and one's mind never rests.
(I'll reveal the players identity at the end of the column)
Cheating and hacking has plagued all online games forever. Its something that can never be escaped as a possibility and never will be. I played ET many moons ago now, and when I see people that I used to beat suddenly rise to Eurocup glory, what do I think? What is there to think?
Over time in ET, cheating allegations have been thrown in many directions. I'm not talking about just allegations, but allegations that you'd probably believe if they were put in front of you.
Remember SSR? This was the team that became DSky, they were plagued by cheating allegations, did it stop them? Would you say Juhan cheated? (no you wouldnt)
So why do you believe and why do you take action? Cheats have plagued every game, yet you've got to continue playing. Does a cheater ruin the games fun? But what if you didn't know they were cheating and you still had fun? Lets take the example of the UK and RazZ.
When I played ET all those moons ago, I played practically every UK player that has been about in whatever name or clan they were under at that point. Being at the top of the pile in the UK was not difficult, when I played competitively my teams all made it to UK #1, and yet baring dh, we couldn't make an impact on the european scene at all. So why suddenly during the summer of 2005 did the UK finally become able to offer top notch players.
Are you telling me that in the 12/18 months that I played competitive ET that the people who are now good, were bad when I played against them and yet magically some 12 months later were good? Because these players were nowhere in the competitive scene, none of the UK's EC crop (apart from SoF) ever competed at a high level within the UK. And yet in the summer of 2005 the UK could some how magically offer up about 10 players who could compete in Eurocup and make 3rd in NC?
No way.
Not a hope in hell.
For the most part, SoF have represented the average learning curve of British ET, they've improved gradually but on the whole with the same squad. So how did a team like 141/uQ somehow dodge the SoF learning curve?
Well its already been revealed that one of them hacked. Are there more? Where do you draw the line, how many of them cheat? Would you say Squirrel cheats? I certainly wouldn't, I've seen his progression over 4 years or more through RTCW, and I think he is a great example for someone to follow. But what about Mztik what about syK? Are there genuine NC and EC talents hiding in clans like iLogiK and EE? Or did these two illegally jump the UK's average learning curve? You could watch and be suspicious about each and every one of them, because of where they've come from, but that would kill you through paranoia. And I know some dutch people who could and have argued the same exact same story for their community and members of them.
The point I'm trying to make is that there could be a cheater anywhere. How do you applaud success when cheating is nothing new. If SSR cheated and they went on to become one of the greatest teams in ET history, what does that tell you about ET? When is it right to take action and make an example of someone?
Chaplja is never afraid to show you examples of the ease of cheating in ET, so why now does the subject of cheating somehow reach a fever pitch, it shouldn't bother you.
You should continue playing the same game you've always played and ignore the rumours and the speculation and you know why?
...
The player I was referring to in the opening paragraph won Quakecon in 2005. Yes, the player that I had near perfect evidence had cheated, was none other than
d0zer.
Heres something to get your mind thinking. Some 3 or more years ago, Jolt's head RTCW admin contacted me whilst I was in a practice for void. He left me a message to make sure I grabbed the PB logs from the server. At the time we were either playing, idle or de*nvidia, I forget which. They were Estonian for the main part, so in RTCW they lagged, but they weren't cheating...
After the match I sent the logs to him and he confirmed that one of their players matched the guid that was PB banned from all Jolt RTCW servers at that time. PB Banned from a Jolt public at that time meant alot, Jolt are a company with an image to protect, they dont just let anyone admin and they take their positions very seriously, so in those days that match of PB Ban was enough. In RTCW a GUID was stronger than in ET also, hense why the Yawn program worked so well in RTCW.
Nothing ever happened to that player, and in the practice we lost, and there was nothing suspicious about the defeat. Throw in the thought were they cheating and one's mind never rests.
(I'll reveal the players identity at the end of the column)
Cheating and hacking has plagued all online games forever. Its something that can never be escaped as a possibility and never will be. I played ET many moons ago now, and when I see people that I used to beat suddenly rise to Eurocup glory, what do I think? What is there to think?
Over time in ET, cheating allegations have been thrown in many directions. I'm not talking about just allegations, but allegations that you'd probably believe if they were put in front of you.
Remember SSR? This was the team that became DSky, they were plagued by cheating allegations, did it stop them? Would you say Juhan cheated? (no you wouldnt)
So why do you believe and why do you take action? Cheats have plagued every game, yet you've got to continue playing. Does a cheater ruin the games fun? But what if you didn't know they were cheating and you still had fun? Lets take the example of the UK and RazZ.
When I played ET all those moons ago, I played practically every UK player that has been about in whatever name or clan they were under at that point. Being at the top of the pile in the UK was not difficult, when I played competitively my teams all made it to UK #1, and yet baring dh, we couldn't make an impact on the european scene at all. So why suddenly during the summer of 2005 did the UK finally become able to offer top notch players.
Are you telling me that in the 12/18 months that I played competitive ET that the people who are now good, were bad when I played against them and yet magically some 12 months later were good? Because these players were nowhere in the competitive scene, none of the UK's EC crop (apart from SoF) ever competed at a high level within the UK. And yet in the summer of 2005 the UK could some how magically offer up about 10 players who could compete in Eurocup and make 3rd in NC?
No way.
Not a hope in hell.
For the most part, SoF have represented the average learning curve of British ET, they've improved gradually but on the whole with the same squad. So how did a team like 141/uQ somehow dodge the SoF learning curve?
Well its already been revealed that one of them hacked. Are there more? Where do you draw the line, how many of them cheat? Would you say Squirrel cheats? I certainly wouldn't, I've seen his progression over 4 years or more through RTCW, and I think he is a great example for someone to follow. But what about Mztik what about syK? Are there genuine NC and EC talents hiding in clans like iLogiK and EE? Or did these two illegally jump the UK's average learning curve? You could watch and be suspicious about each and every one of them, because of where they've come from, but that would kill you through paranoia. And I know some dutch people who could and have argued the same exact same story for their community and members of them.
The point I'm trying to make is that there could be a cheater anywhere. How do you applaud success when cheating is nothing new. If SSR cheated and they went on to become one of the greatest teams in ET history, what does that tell you about ET? When is it right to take action and make an example of someone?
Chaplja is never afraid to show you examples of the ease of cheating in ET, so why now does the subject of cheating somehow reach a fever pitch, it shouldn't bother you.
You should continue playing the same game you've always played and ignore the rumours and the speculation and you know why?
...
The player I was referring to in the opening paragraph won Quakecon in 2005. Yes, the player that I had near perfect evidence had cheated, was none other than
d0zer.
