Time for a long needed heaping bowl of truth
This was an article I was originally going to post after reading a colum that has now since been removed. After it was removed I changed my mind about posting this but after the days events with the PunkBuster issues at hand & the seemingly inept Anti Cheat admin that has done nothing but badmouth PunkBuster in an effort to further sway a community down the wrong path, I have decided to post it after all.
First of all if you feel you were wrongfully banned you need to submit a ticket to PunkBuster here http://www.punkbuster.com/troubleticket/new_ticket.php?game=et. If the violation is found to be in error it will be removed. The more people who submit a ticket the more it's brought to PB's attention & the faster it will be resolved. Going to PBBans IRC & attacking them will get you no where as it has nothing to do with them. They simply list bans triggered by PunkBuster on servers that use their streaming service.
On to the original post I had written...
The column that has thankfully been removed ... "The cancer that is killing ET" was recently posted & it seems the author gave very little thought to the writing of an article that's intent may have been to speak out against things he felt were killing this game, but he himself was contributing to that demise simply by writing propaganda as defined below.
"Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels.
Below are some reactions to the post that was made & some other issues that stand out to me as being responsible for the gaping bleeding hole in ET that this community needs to plug fast.
The facts...
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory: This game is over 5 years old now. Please point me in the direction of a game now over 5 years old that has the same amount of people playing with the same amount of enthusiasm they did the day they loaded it up on the computer for the 1st time. Why people choose to ignore the simple & obvious fact is truly beyond me. This is simple deductive reasoning.
New Players: One thing I hear a lot of is..."New players are killing this game" & I am completely dumbfounded every time I hear it. Surely you can't be serious? Please make a more oxymoronic statement than that. As with any game people get bored & tired of it & leave on a daily basis, if nobody new replaces them, what happens?
PunkBuster: This constant claim that "PB no longer cares about ET" is ridiculous & anyone with half the sense & ability of a crack addicted paraplegic monkey can take 20 seconds to visit the punkbuster website, check the Wolf ET page http://www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=support-et.php & clearly see that updates are always being added. 2 have been made since the start of this month.......
After todays events I thinks it's safe to say that PunkBuster is atleast attempting to update for ET.
PBBans & other respectable AC originations update their checks frequently, the last one being Sept 3, 2008.
PunkBuster Lag: Has it ever occured to any of you that GV has over 1000 md5 checks in it's config which is over 10 times what PBBans currently uses? PunkBuster alone does not cause lag, bad settings do.
Blind leading the blind: http://www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=links.php please find me Games Violations on that page? Does it ever cross any of your minds why that is? GV is not even worthy of being considered a 2nd rate AntiCheat organization. Created & run by a former (as far as we know former) cheat coder & other proven deceptive people. A former cheat coder who has been quoted as saying...
This is who you're streaming to. This is who you are trusting the legitimacy of your games to. Are you serious? Who fell out of the Dumbo the Elephant ride at Disney Land, bumped their head & thought this was a good idea? Brainstorm! I know lets abandon the top proven AC organizations cause they wont allow us access to everything & force everyone to stream to some obscure AC service ran by less than desirable people. An AC service incapable of writing it's own checks that has steal them from reputable AC sites as outlined in this thread http://game-violations.ggl.com/thread.php?threadid=19927&sid=757b3af0aeafc0bcac6d0639d57d67b8
In essence what your getting is PBBans & PsB streaming methods & checks 2nd hand that have been filtered by an ex cheat coder & 2 other people that were at one time banned for security breaches & leaking sensitive info. Real smart.
Immature Inept Admins: Yes I'm saying it, I'm done playing nice after the constant bashing of PB. One of the best & spot on articles I've ever read here at crossfire was this one by Xo http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=column&mode=item&id=375
Here's an anticheat admin who openly badmouths the method (punkbuster) he currently uses to catch the cheaters he so ridiculously celebrates after catching & seemingly fully supports a project that's no secret to anyone here, also has an ex cheat coders fingerprints all over. For crying out loud how many ex cheat coders can you jump in bed with?
Let's put this into perspective.......
Kill3rboy widely known & thought to be one of the best AC admins around for his number of busts. All of which were caught by punkbuster related detections & all of which are listed on either PBBans or Punksbusted banlists. Yet he would lead you to believe that A) Punkbuster is garbage & B) Game Violations is better a better AC organization than the 2 he gets 99% of his bans from. Rather him & others would have you beleive we need to abandon these proven methods & PB all together & seek the help of ex cheatcoders. Does this not make any sense to anyone else other than me?
Furthermore he needs a lesson in professionalism. AC is not, never has been & never will be about putting another notch in your belt. Any respectable AC admin will tell you that. Quite honestly I am sickened by every ban I make. I hate it but do it none the less because I hate honest players being deceived & cheated against even more but I do it without fanfare. Posting this shit everywhere you can & jumping for joy every time you can only draws more attention to the plethora of cheaters which in turn adds to the suspicion. I've always said & I stand by it, the amount of suspicion & accusations of cheats in ET is just as much a disease as the actual cheats themselves. Every time a player is bested by another the accusations fly & the game dies a little more.
Stop drawing attention to yourself & every single ban you find. It's ridiculous & is only done for self glorification. When you celebrate every ban like that it has to call into question the integrity of those bans. Are they legit or since he gets so excited is just another notch in the belt. 17 year old flametards with what's seemingly a personality disorder should never be made admins. Nothing worse than a kid who has no understanding of the word integrity & what it means to be professional in a position of authority.
Moving on.....
Recently a person I've come to know & respect around here posted a column outlining a number reasons we all have to be positive about the state of ET at the present time. While some embraced its intent & agreed with most of what it said, most flamed it & attempted to debunk any positive claims it made. Slowly it's being pushed to the back where it will be forgotten & replaced by these "ET is dying & here's why" postings. Truly a shame.
In essence what kills ET is not the cheaters. It's not PunkBuster & it's not the lack of support. Nor is it the level of competition or lack of variation in maps played. It's not cash & prizes being offered in cups & tournaments & it's certainly not new players. Rather it's the continuation of postings of misguided information from the misinformed, the naive & those motivated by personal gain. It's the blind obedience of following those we think we can trust wherever they will go & not questioning anything.
ET lives on in those who can see through the lies & deceit.
This was an article I was originally going to post after reading a colum that has now since been removed. After it was removed I changed my mind about posting this but after the days events with the PunkBuster issues at hand & the seemingly inept Anti Cheat admin that has done nothing but badmouth PunkBuster in an effort to further sway a community down the wrong path, I have decided to post it after all.
First of all if you feel you were wrongfully banned you need to submit a ticket to PunkBuster here http://www.punkbuster.com/troubleticket/new_ticket.php?game=et. If the violation is found to be in error it will be removed. The more people who submit a ticket the more it's brought to PB's attention & the faster it will be resolved. Going to PBBans IRC & attacking them will get you no where as it has nothing to do with them. They simply list bans triggered by PunkBuster on servers that use their streaming service.
On to the original post I had written...
The column that has thankfully been removed ... "The cancer that is killing ET" was recently posted & it seems the author gave very little thought to the writing of an article that's intent may have been to speak out against things he felt were killing this game, but he himself was contributing to that demise simply by writing propaganda as defined below.
"Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified target audiences for ideological, political or commercial purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels.
Below are some reactions to the post that was made & some other issues that stand out to me as being responsible for the gaping bleeding hole in ET that this community needs to plug fast.
The facts...
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory: This game is over 5 years old now. Please point me in the direction of a game now over 5 years old that has the same amount of people playing with the same amount of enthusiasm they did the day they loaded it up on the computer for the 1st time. Why people choose to ignore the simple & obvious fact is truly beyond me. This is simple deductive reasoning.
New Players: One thing I hear a lot of is..."New players are killing this game" & I am completely dumbfounded every time I hear it. Surely you can't be serious? Please make a more oxymoronic statement than that. As with any game people get bored & tired of it & leave on a daily basis, if nobody new replaces them, what happens?
PunkBuster: This constant claim that "PB no longer cares about ET" is ridiculous & anyone with half the sense & ability of a crack addicted paraplegic monkey can take 20 seconds to visit the punkbuster website, check the Wolf ET page http://www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=support-et.php & clearly see that updates are always being added. 2 have been made since the start of this month.......
After todays events I thinks it's safe to say that PunkBuster is atleast attempting to update for ET.
PBBans & other respectable AC originations update their checks frequently, the last one being Sept 3, 2008.
PunkBuster Lag: Has it ever occured to any of you that GV has over 1000 md5 checks in it's config which is over 10 times what PBBans currently uses? PunkBuster alone does not cause lag, bad settings do.
Blind leading the blind: http://www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=links.php please find me Games Violations on that page? Does it ever cross any of your minds why that is? GV is not even worthy of being considered a 2nd rate AntiCheat organization. Created & run by a former (as far as we know former) cheat coder & other proven deceptive people. A former cheat coder who has been quoted as saying...
This is who you're streaming to. This is who you are trusting the legitimacy of your games to. Are you serious? Who fell out of the Dumbo the Elephant ride at Disney Land, bumped their head & thought this was a good idea? Brainstorm! I know lets abandon the top proven AC organizations cause they wont allow us access to everything & force everyone to stream to some obscure AC service ran by less than desirable people. An AC service incapable of writing it's own checks that has steal them from reputable AC sites as outlined in this thread http://game-violations.ggl.com/thread.php?threadid=19927&sid=757b3af0aeafc0bcac6d0639d57d67b8
In essence what your getting is PBBans & PsB streaming methods & checks 2nd hand that have been filtered by an ex cheat coder & 2 other people that were at one time banned for security breaches & leaking sensitive info. Real smart.
Immature Inept Admins: Yes I'm saying it, I'm done playing nice after the constant bashing of PB. One of the best & spot on articles I've ever read here at crossfire was this one by Xo http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=column&mode=item&id=375
Here's an anticheat admin who openly badmouths the method (punkbuster) he currently uses to catch the cheaters he so ridiculously celebrates after catching & seemingly fully supports a project that's no secret to anyone here, also has an ex cheat coders fingerprints all over. For crying out loud how many ex cheat coders can you jump in bed with?
Let's put this into perspective.......
Kill3rboy widely known & thought to be one of the best AC admins around for his number of busts. All of which were caught by punkbuster related detections & all of which are listed on either PBBans or Punksbusted banlists. Yet he would lead you to believe that A) Punkbuster is garbage & B) Game Violations is better a better AC organization than the 2 he gets 99% of his bans from. Rather him & others would have you beleive we need to abandon these proven methods & PB all together & seek the help of ex cheatcoders. Does this not make any sense to anyone else other than me?
Furthermore he needs a lesson in professionalism. AC is not, never has been & never will be about putting another notch in your belt. Any respectable AC admin will tell you that. Quite honestly I am sickened by every ban I make. I hate it but do it none the less because I hate honest players being deceived & cheated against even more but I do it without fanfare. Posting this shit everywhere you can & jumping for joy every time you can only draws more attention to the plethora of cheaters which in turn adds to the suspicion. I've always said & I stand by it, the amount of suspicion & accusations of cheats in ET is just as much a disease as the actual cheats themselves. Every time a player is bested by another the accusations fly & the game dies a little more.
Stop drawing attention to yourself & every single ban you find. It's ridiculous & is only done for self glorification. When you celebrate every ban like that it has to call into question the integrity of those bans. Are they legit or since he gets so excited is just another notch in the belt. 17 year old flametards with what's seemingly a personality disorder should never be made admins. Nothing worse than a kid who has no understanding of the word integrity & what it means to be professional in a position of authority.
Moving on.....
Recently a person I've come to know & respect around here posted a column outlining a number reasons we all have to be positive about the state of ET at the present time. While some embraced its intent & agreed with most of what it said, most flamed it & attempted to debunk any positive claims it made. Slowly it's being pushed to the back where it will be forgotten & replaced by these "ET is dying & here's why" postings. Truly a shame.
In essence what kills ET is not the cheaters. It's not PunkBuster & it's not the lack of support. Nor is it the level of competition or lack of variation in maps played. It's not cash & prizes being offered in cups & tournaments & it's certainly not new players. Rather it's the continuation of postings of misguided information from the misinformed, the naive & those motivated by personal gain. It's the blind obedience of following those we think we can trust wherever they will go & not questioning anything.
ET lives on in those who can see through the lies & deceit.
Everyone in the ET community should read this!!!!
the methods punkbuster are using are not good, tell me the last time PunkBuster caught an EC Cheater? yes,
"ridiculously celebrates after catching..."
let me prove you wrong: http://clanbase.ggl.com/cheaters.php?&ccheattype=0&ccountry=&cnick=&cemail=&cip=&cgid=25&cguidtype=0&cguid=&cinactive=ON&x=42&y=8&num=548&start=0
in these 2-3 months i have been an admin i have banned a total of ~360 ppl. Can you link me to these 360 topics i posted please? ;)
The only busts i celebrate are cheaters playing at top lever, i.e gnajda, senti ect. And who doesn't celebrate anyway?
Who was the guy who hacked into nC's database? yes fusen.
Who helped to retrieve more ips from october till june? Did you forgot the 5 nC list's we posted this year? Doesn't that count?
My reasons im sure most of the community experienced and are aware of:
Its just ridiciolous now.
Feb/March: nC expose PB, causing 3 violations which banned a total of 800 ppl, they had to stop scanning user's whole PC for cheats. (they only scan et folder now)
May: Gamehook bug 50 ppl banned
June: another Gamehook bug 666 ppl banned
Last week: PB get exposed yet again, server admins can kick ppl for valid violations.
Today: Another bug.
+ don't forget the lag & fps drops everyone is whining about. Even an EC player stated about removing PB for EC http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=journal&mode=item&id=66818
Well its quite obvious, your friends, the pbbans staff told you that they don't want to have anything to do with CB? Also did they tell you why im banned from there? I repeat i do not use their site because i am banned from there. This is the reason: they have a rule which stats they can terminate an account without any reason, and i fall in that rule.
Also i'm sure they know how many cheats i have leaked to them and how many private info i have sent to them (foxdie can confirm this) eventough we are not bests of friends for the thing i have just mentioned about the ban. If i really was a retard or a kid as you claim, i woudn't send in cheats not private info to them.
When did i ever say GV > PBBans or PBs
all i know is that PBs where ddosed for a while and they said they would be back begin december but I guess they are pretty ruined at that time.
I'm sure PunkBuster's coders created cheats/experienced (eventhough today they proved they can't distinguish between a cheat and dinput.exe)
Seems like it was written with a high amount of jelousy, could be wrong though, as i said before, please link me to every single ban i find, tell me from those 300+ bans, how many did i post here 2 maybe 3.
You are calling me a retard with a personality disorder? Didn't you say you are an A-C of some site? So back to you "Furthermore you needs a lesson in professionalism. AC is not, never has been & never will be about putting another notch in your belt. Any respectable AC admin will tell you that."
I never flamed you, but hmm i thought it would be eaiser for ppl older than me to control it, maybe not.
Thanks
I have talked to the anti3 devs and I think their intentions are good and their program could help the community. However I am not running around saying we should ditch pb for anti3. Why? Because anti3 has not done anything yet. After it has been tested well enough, I may reconsider that position. But until then PB is our best weapon against cheaters.
And now about your behavior.
The first thing you ever said to me, before you knew who I was, before I said a single word to you, before I did anything you could have had a problem with, you told me to "die of aids".
Great first impression you made. And now I am supposed to trust that person to handle all the admin tasks in an unbiased professional way?
And how about all your - omgz polaks all cheaterzz without your hackz i would kick your asses - talk? You call that professional?
If you want to behave like that then do the following:
make yourself
2 crossfire accounts
One with the official stuff, one with your flame and other immature stuff.
2 irc nicks
One with the official stuff, another one where you can go from channel to channel and insult people.
Or just stop behaving like that.
just for the info, i only flame somebody after several times of getting flamed, and afaik i cannot remember when you flamed me so hard i would say that.
wheren't you the guy that faked "busted me"? And Pansemuckl said, the topic is posted tnx to my secret friend? Could be wrong.
And when I then joined the cb channel and wnated to ask why you said that:
And no, I'm not pansemuckl's "secrect friend". Whatever you are trying to say with that.
Ronner had posted a journal on xfire and told us to post "die of aids" on your channel to get a 2 week ban. It was not any personal flame, everyone was just testing as you might have found out.
And still, why is a CB admin running around telling people to die of aids, even if it wasn't a personal flame?
anway as i already said, that wasn't direct hate, there where 10 ops if i remember so i definately didn't know who i was dealing with there, i don't think i knew any op/you clanname anyway, thats why we had a try, prolly everyone thougth you didn't know about xfire :p but with the same reason you posted a bust topic about me without a guid/ip match eventhough bulld0g said its not true, you still said it was me. :/
anyway gn
Or get 2 accounts/nicks. Then you can do all the flaming you want.
Using external software that interacts with the game used to be considered a cheat by CB as well. I've been waiting for this since the first time I heard about dinput.
and overdrive didn't post anything in this topic..
Agree on a surprising majority of your points though. The best advice is to ignore people who are doing it clearly for attention or out of ignorance. "Rather it's the continuation of postings of misguided information from the misinformed, the naive & those motivated by personal gain [that are killing ET]." This seems to be an inherent thing in the online Wolfenstein community. The only other thing that's slowing ET down you also mentioned: "This game is over 5 years old now. Please point me in the direction of a game now over 5 years old that has the same amount of people playing with the same amount of enthusiasm they did the day they loaded it up on the computer for the 1st time." None of this is likely to change though, 'life' will continue as it has for the past 5 years. This community seems to be desperately yearning for changes that will never happen, and when they realize this the game is all of a sudden 'dead'.
I must agree at one point: it's not because ET is an old game. It is because PB sucks at ALL in every game they *protect*, have played cod4 for example. It's just that they fial starts and they way of functioning - just read the interview with T. Ray from evenbalance:
ya sure, undetectable cheats aren't existing. ofc.
ya sure, they will earn less when cheats will be still detected but! 1 client less! success!
Sorry, the point is that punkbuster NEVER cared about ET, nor about any game, not that it stopped to care now. There are more cheats because there are more cheat coders, not because pb is working worse - they never worked as they should tbh. And they were paid to do so, so - in my opinion PB IS GARBAGE. Definetely. No matter that ATM this is the best anticheat, this is because it is the only one.
EDIT: Oh, and there is another point that shows how bad is PB: I used to play @ linux pretty much. There isn't any anticheat at all. Never heard of ONE SINGLE CHEAT for linux which is detectable. Even the gamehook bug doesn't exist there. And the pbscreens are black at nvidia with drivers newer than 1 year old and you know what? PB said me while I send the ticket that it is NVIDIA's fault! ya sure, ofc.
Personal opinions of AC methods we all still currently employ by an Admin should be put aside. More attention to a solution to the days PB problems & helping players should have been applied rather than trying to cease the moment for your own personal gain.
btw Kid I'm not jealous & that statement alone shows a level of vanity. Pretty sure I made it clear I hate doing AC.
great job!
and why do you take my disagreement with PunkBuster personally? afaik you are not one of their stuff, maybe you are their friends, i dunno. but ask the community what they think about PB, and its pretty clear they haven't pleased us in the last months, now that we are aware of ET's situation.
I don't take it personal but it's unethical from a person in your posistion (an admin still currently employing PB methods) to publicly & openly critique the only method any of us currently have to combat cheaters. Banning players using via PB methods & then openly badmouthing those methods is extremely hypocritical. Whats worse is your reasons for doing so are strictly to use your influence to steer the community to use something else which you don't even have yet. You guys act like you have something new & shiny that's gonna make you the saviors of ET & the fact of the matter is you don't have it yet. This all been seen before... http://game-violations.ggl.com/thread.php?threadid=6804&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&sid=867713b20c09c3abf8c344baa0dfba6e&page=1
The point I'm trying to make is until this AntiPro or whatever is released & at least proven to be somewhat effective for any amount of time I would seriously refrain from bad mouthing the only method currently in use.
you hate boats so don't sail on them!
people in the past hated boats cuz they were slow but there was no other way to get across the Atlantic... so they still used boats until air planes became proven enough to take them across...
I'm not saying everyone hated boats but I'm sure plenty of them did.(ok maybe it's not the best analogy or whatever)
it's not because we hate pb that we will stop using it since there is currently no real alternative available that is proven enough to be used. maybe in a little while there could be depending on some different situations and we might still use pb even then just in case.
I know this sounds like me protecting my fellow admin (killerboy) but everyone has to agree PB hasn't really been doing well lately with false positives and all that. They even outright deny the fact that they are running behind the facts on the cheat community out there. it's apparently just as bad in CoD as in ET, at least from what I hear from people playing it.
http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=321&Itemid=69
Anybody that thinks I would run anything on my comp that was made with the help of a (ex) cheat coder is sadly mistaken.
To me there's no gray area in cheating, it's cut & dry, black & white. Once a cheater always a cheater. When you allow cheaters back into the embraces of the community all your doing is essentially sending a message to all the current cheaters & players who may be considering it, that it's ok to do what your doing, one day we will forgive you. Now when you throw actual cheat coders into the mix your just upping the ante & saying "It's ok that you created all these cheats that have been destroying our online gaming experience for however long now, come help us with this project & all is forgiven & all is forgotten. It's a ridiculous concept at best.
AntiPro may be something this community needs & wants, I'm not here to debate that but the fact that certain undesirable people are involved casts reasonable doubt over the entire project & is therefore in my opinion taitnted & worthless.
Why shouldn't cheaters be allowed to make up for their previous mistakes? The world would come to an end if everybody were this judgemental, "you've done something wrong and there's no way we can forgive you and take you back into the community". Yes I could draw in a lot of examples where forgiving and working on from there has solved a lot of problems (South Africa?), and where not forgiving and banging heads in an old conflict created a lot of problems, but then I might end up being irrelevant in this discussion.
The argument that someone who has done something wrong shouldn't be trusted when he does something right is something I won't swallow anyways.
It is not ok that chaplja wrote cheats. It is however more than ok that he (finally) understood that what he was doing was wrong and wants to stop the disease instead. We're on the same team now. And after all, I guess he has gained invaluable knowledge about the nature of cheats which can be more than useful in the development of a complimentary anti-cheat tool.
Edit: Yes, those were your "gaming morals". These are mine ;)
Granted forgiveness is something we all grant at one time or another but just because I forgive Joe Blo for stealing my car stereo because it's the moral thing to do, doesn't mean I have to invite him over for dinner & trust him in my home.
To come closer to our issue here; Chaplja is not any random simple minded kid once using a cheat. He is a coder and therefore he should be rated higher than all those little kids who are not able to play a game without having a bot taking the aim job. Everyone gets older and in most cases you get more expirienced and you behave judiciously.
Switching from the person over to the project. AntiPro is not coded by himself, there are more persons involved and it's not that they refuse to show respected persons the code. Even bani had a look at the complete code and allowed them to use ETpro as basis for their new mod. And what should we lose? We could just not use the Mod whenever we like. Believing there is a trojan build in or something like that is nearly impsossible as there is a huge interest in their mod and any league will have a look at the code before it is used.
Saying I won't touch anything created by an ex cheater seems somehow naive as you most probably are already trusting kind of ex cheaters in some way (remember the microsoft programmer) without knowing and furthermore that attitude could destroy one of our last hopes...
My intent with the whole AntiPro issue was to expose what I saw which was a person in a position of authority telling others that one AntiCheat is bad by openly badmouthing it in an effort to pursue them into believing that a miracle AntiCheat that isn't even available yet is gonna save the day. I felt that was wrong.
There are people I know & respect on both sides of this AntiPro issue & I respect their opinions just as I respect yours & most everybody's here. We're all free to make up our own minds.
I can agree that something like this can be a good thing just wish more thought would have been given to those involved & the potential harm that does.
and btw those columns/articles etc about why ET is deing should also remove, so here is the question: Why did you write it when you are going to say people shouldn't write about it?
And while Killerboy is a bit of a douche and he does accuse innocent people/badmouths them, he hasn´t gotten them banned, so who cares.
And some random flaming is completely harmless. Killerboy is only human afterall. He´ll probably grow up some day. He has the enthusiasm and stamina to keep tracking and banning hackers, so cut him some slack. Who acts mature on the i-net anyway?
That should be viewed as a great compliment, not as an attack in any way.
I hope you read it as such and think about what he writes without jumping into defense right away.
Keep up the good work, and btw you got your hits back!
Doesn't the cb config have them off? Just throwing this in here with absolutely no proof whatsoever besides what I've heard from someone affiliated with Pbbans >.<
command "pb_sv_cvarempty" command "pb_sv_md5toolempty"
as far as I know both those are still in all clanbase configs (unless they have brought out new ones recently and if they have then excuse me :)
I find it worrying when players on my servers vote for example *cb6* then I issue via rcon: pb_sv_cvarlist and then pb_sv_md5toollist and both commands return "End of Cvar Range Check List (0 listed)" and "End of MD5Tool List (0 Entries)"
Anyway nn INSTi.
and why not use all the anticheats at once ? we dont have to banish PB to use another soft ?
answers plz :o thx
Theoratically, using both anti-cheats at once would cause a lag parade.
My servers were streaming to both PBBans and PunksBusted.
No lag at all.
Since my clan plays in CB, I had to turn off pbbans ( so gv won't ban the server ) and replace PunksBusted with GV. Since then, server lags badly. I think they should remove some made up checks. Its better to have few real checks than many made up checks which helps to increase lag.
Summary:
Streaming to PBBans and Psb does not cause lag ( except of mad admins who use every check they come by).
Streaming to GV alone causes lag.
I'm glad you did, it's one of the best columns I've ever read on this site.
Some people need to sober up.
this sentence sounds so wrong: one of the best? his "busts"? all he does is copy them from pbbans or wherever
only thing I really find very annoying and retarded about him is that's he seems to be sleeping with that nc shitface raskl recently, I mean, someone has just turned himself around completely after years of supporting cheating(and not public cheating but cheating in matches) and you fully trust him? come on, grow some brains, not everyone is in it for the same agenda, if he was truly turned against cheating now he'd tell you who was supported by nc and who all those auths and ips and passworded files on nc ftp belong to
although I don't get what do you mean by "we", are you referring to yourself in plural?
and we = cheatbusters group/CB
but I have some concerns about the killerboy part...
I must admin that I often had the same thoughts you just posted in this column. But after some time watching Killerboy's work and all the stuff over at cheatbusters my mind changed a bit. He really is doing a great job about the banning and listing and researching, nothing to complain about that.
But as you also stated his behaviour is often the worst you can put up as an admin of the biggest league in ET. I am really getting annoyed (yeye its only a game etc) by several journals/comments he posts over and over again about dumping PB , flaming people or anti3.
Dumping PB is simply shit as long as you do not have a proper tested and developed alternative (& still PB does a great job because without it a community like this could not exist at all) which brings me to anti3 which will never be available to the public, morely it will be the antipro cheatmod but he is not involved in the development and as several talks of mine returned posts like: "CB will start using this anti-cheat in the following weeks." (1 month ago) are utter bullshit becasue he did not even talk to the devs about these things...
really all he needs to do is get a bit less attentionwhore by keeping his activity & motivation without making too rash decisions. That would make a very good AC admin out of him.
Now I again posted a way too much than I really wanted but anyway flame on
If you read this Killerboy, that is what I meant with all my comments about better behavior.
You got the motivation, you are putting in the work, and if you now just started bahving a bit better a lot of people would take you a lot more serious and appreciate your work.
That would be a good indication as to why you shouldn't be writing a column about cheating in the first place.
You've make a lot of false assumptions in order to tarnish Killerboy's reputation. Which suggests you're either incredibly naive or over ambitious with your expectations. He doesn't match what you perceive to be the right way to behave, ergo he isn't right for the job.
Killerboy has a vested interest in PB's effectiveness. That means he simply has to have an opinion. If you've an issue with handling the truth then I'd question why you're struggling to deal with someone who openly criticises PB, especially when he's considered an expert on the subject.
If he isn't justifying his opinions and arguments then that's another thing entirely.
His role as an authoritative figure would be made easier if he was mature, respectful and didn't "attention whore". I agree. But, it's by no means a prerequisite. If Clanbase had an issue with Killerboy's behaviour then I assure you they would get rid of him pretty quick.
I will add, I believe he's stigmatised unnecessarily. Instead of ignoring the criticism, most of which is garbage, he often responds aggressively. This will change in time, it always does. He'll develop a thicker skin and interact less and less with the community "inappropriately". Trust me on that.
Exactly what then is flawed & contradictory? It's easy to make a generalized statement such as this while not backing it up.
Why because I posses my own set of values? Because I hold an opinion? Last time I checked every Newspaper in the world had an opinion section. Not everything written has to be done with objectivity.
That's an entirely false accusation which bares no merit. Seems to me you could stand to learn a thing or two about assumptions.Not once have I called his ability or effectiveness at catching cheaters into question rather the level of professionalism used.
I too have a vested interest in PunkBuster, a vested interest I plan on having for a long time to come.
The public display of animosity towards Punkbuster is counter productive to each & everyone of us. PunkBuster happens to be the foundation for every single ban every single one of us hold to be true. Publicly calling the integrity of PunkBuster into question coincides with calling the integrity & legitimacy of those who employ it's methods. This includes himself & the organization which he represents.
It's painfully obvious that this slandering of PunkBuster is done as a method to create & spread discontent with with PunkBuster in an effort to drum up support for an AC client that doesn't even exist yet. Answer me this, what will happen if AntiPro never comes to be or fails in it's attempt to be a better AC client? Will we then all be forced back to an AC client we've all been taught to despise & not trust? What happens to the community then?
Where I come from acting in a mature & respectful manner when representing an organization outside of yourself is a prerequisite.
Arguing how legitimate Killerboy's position in CB based on your own beliefs is fine. While you make the wrong assumption about me criticising your objectivity, you're entitled to your opinion. Objectivity a fallacy.
The problem when you argue like this is clear. I can simply reply, “who the fuck are you?”. What makes your opinion worth reading? If you're “merely” an ideas man (which you're), then justify your opinion with actual logic. There are multiple ways to achieve this;
argue by example
argue by analogy
argue from authority
argue about causes
deductive arguments
What you've been doing is backing up your original arguments (opinion) with more opinions. It's a mess, and it's ironic because you actually mention deductive arguments in the column.
You think people shouldn't publicly criticise Punkbuster and you justify this by saying it's “counter productive”, and because “PB happens to be the foundation for every single ban every single one of us hold to be true”.
The problem is you've a very weak argument (based on your own opinion). Then you choose to ignore the fact the argument could potentially be flawed. You brush off my criticism by arguing irrelevant points, reiterating your own opinions (again) to back up your initial opinion (under the pretense of it being “the facts....” or “[...] truth”), and make assumptions about why and how I was criticising you.
Counterargument – Clanbase can use demos as evidence to pass bans. Therefore Punkbuster is not “the foundation for every single ban every single one of us hold to be true”. Thus, any criticism against Punkbuster is perfectly legitimate.
Your entire column is full of poorly researched assumptions based on your own opinion. You just can't bury your head in the sand and justify yourself by saying “I've a vested interest too”, “it's a column”. I'll literally pick holes in everything you've written, if it makes you happy.
“Answer me this, what will happen if AntiPro never comes to be or fails in it's attempt to be a better AC client?” - We can stop using PB altogether, like the Quake III community has done (argue by example).
“The public display of animosity towards Punkbuster is counter productive to each & everyone of us.” - The ticket system on the PB website is used to officially complain, therefore it's not counter productive. It's actually encouraged by PB themselves.
“Publicly calling the integrity of PunkBuster into question coincides with calling the integrity & legitimacy of those who employ it's methods.” - I guess. But, CB publicly questioned the integrity of PB when CB mistakenly handed out bans (because they trust PB) to two NC players (AlexL and lio) because of flaws within the PB system. Which were exploited by cheat coders. The entire system fell apart. It led to CB introducing new policies to counter the weaknesses in PB (argue from authority).
CB did that. Killerboy is an extension of that organisation and is merely repeating, in his own opinion (which is still considered expert) what has already been said by CB.
Ignoring the whole mess. I'm actually more disappointed by the fact you deny the fact you're trying to undermine his position. If you want to flame him, then get some balls and flame him. “That's an entirely false accusation which bares no merit.” - “Immature Inept Admins”. I guess you misused inept, right?
You try to limit the damage and appear like a nice guy so no one challenges your criticism (natural reaction). This is the contradiction. I counter by saying you're stigmatising Killerboy, not to stick up for Killerboy, but merely to highlight your poor arguments.
Nothing in anything I've written insinuates or eludes to the fact that I care what opinion Clanbase holds over an admin of theirs. If you had taken the time to actually read the article rather than focusing on it's argumentative structure you would have realized it was referring to his status of being thee AC admin around Crossfire, being a neutral community.What he does & says over at CB is not of my concern but when he brings it here, well that changes things a bit.As I clearly stated I have a vested interest in PB & it's future use.
Please why didn't you?
You call my arguments opinions while you have done nothing but offer up your own. What you are doing is different how?
Didn't realize it required any amount "testicular fortitude" to spew random mindless insults via the internet but ok I'll head out to the Ball store first thing in the morning so I can be a cool internet flamer.
End of the day weather or not you agree with what I've said is entirely up to the reader.
Wrong. I put forward none of my own opinions on the subject. If you read carefully you'll notice I merely respond to arguments you yourself have made. It's called antithesis. Offering a direct contrast to arguments and opinions to test their strength and validity.
Perhaps I was a little vague with this point. This is a stylistic comment. Because you “lack the balls” to be direct with your point(s), it introduces monotony, repetition and contradiction into your column. You've an opinion but you try to say too much. You don't prove what you say adequately. And, even then, you simply can't accept the fact someone might have a differing opinion.
What you do say is hampered by your original hard line stance (and the fact you haven't done any research), and the fact you don't like being challenged and criticised.
Crossfire isn't a neutral community. But, even despite this, he has the support of CF because they allow him to continually post his busts, and they help in the process (through IP checking and endorsed his busts by banning users). So they actually support him.
I'll give an example of your argumentation.
Lack of research - “Please point me in the direction of a game now over 5 years old that has the same amount of people playing with the same amount of enthusiasm they did the day they loaded it up on the computer for the 1st time.” - Quake III, Counter Strike 1.6 and Starcraft. I could mention other Quake titles or more obscure titles as well. But, I'll stick with famous competitive titles to make a point.
Bloated arguments and poor writing - Your “The facts...” opener is 191 words. A simply rewrite using your actual points would result in a natural and believable structure/argument, as well as reducing the number of words used.
- - -
“After five years people believe Punkbuster (PB) has stopped caring about Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (ET). If you check their website, and anyone can, you'll see they've updated their software twice this month – it's only the 19th. PB isn't the problem.
After five years people believe that new players are killing the game. If nobody replaces the players who naturally leave, ET is an old game after all, then surely the game will be in a much worse situation? New players aren't the problem.”
- - -
While it's just a quickly written example (by no means perfect), and not as short and concrete as it could be. It's still 83 words; 108 less than your version. There's even some stylistic touches added as as well.
Just think about how you're writing and what you want to get across. I look forward to your next column!
Nothing wrong with respectfully disagreeing but you're just taking things to a different level with the intention's that if you make the writer appear unintelligent it reduces the value of the article. Again whats known as blowing smoke. It's obvious that what I've said as struck a personal chord with you or else you wouldn't be carrying on & on.
While sticking up for a friend is admirable, taking it to this extreme is not necessary.
Forgive me for using my voice & speaking out against things I felt were wrong & saying what I felt needed to be said. If it were so far off the map then the article would have not remained here on Crossfire.
How I write something is really none of your concern, you either agree or disagree which I think by now you have made perfectly clear you disagree. Thats fine you are entitled to & I can respect that. What I can't respect is this constant trolling & rock throwing. You say that I cannot handle criticism which is a joke. You say I lack subtly when everything you have said carries an aggressive undertone & yet you expect me to not be defensive.
You can go on & on all you want about but keep in mind these 2 undeniable facts...
* It is painfully obvious many agree with a good portion of what the article sates.
* Last time I checked submitting something to Crossfire (an online gaming community) didn't require a Masters Degree in linguistics unless I missed that checkbox.
I dont get why so many ppl are putting you on pedestal for this column
An excellent column! ET needs more likely-minded people (like the author) for it to evolve and live on!
ps. anyway do I know you? (or you me)...
ps. thanks for showing me what I never want to be!
And the whole column is an effort to keep our game alive and evolving - that's what I mean by saying "The way you put out the truth in front of everyone's eyes.."
Now the only question is - are there people who would listen and accept (or not) it and what would they do about it?
as Confucius once said
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do."
right?
Well constructed arguments, especially the ones regarding the whole Anti3 thing. While I hope it does eventually get finished and released and makes the community cheat-free (atleast for a while anyway) I can't help but doubt it. PB has done this for a long time and for a lot of games, yet people seem to believe that someone with far less experience in this field (no offence to chap or his coding skeelz) will come along and blow the competition away. It just isn't going to happen!
I am glad we've finally got someone like Ki||3rBoY around. What he and other anticheat guys do can be a thankless task, and no-one disputes the fact that he's doing a good job. But I also agree that sometimes he can forget that he represents a large organization and can let himself get dragged in to pointless flame wars.
This made the whole thing for me though :) Nice work!
and ppl need to get things right - anti3 is a simple TEMPORARY mechanism designed to catch EC players while ANTIPRO is being developed, which is intended to be a full scale server and clientside anticheat like PB.
Completely agree on this one and especially the last chapter
Yet cheating is like crime or homosexuality; you can't stop it unless killed LoL!
In my eyes, I really have no opinion on Killerboy's cheater busting activities; I have not looked in-depth into his work so I will not comment and make myself sound ignorant. However, I feel that my "distaste" of him arises from his replies. With all due respect for what he has done for ET, I feel that many members of crossfire try to undermine his findings simply because they dislike his style/attitude/whatever you want to call it. However, it is undeniably true that Killerboy has put long hours into doing good for this community and even if it is just for attentionwhoring, it should be commended because it actually benefited ET in some way.
In regards to the effectiveness of his actual work, that is hard to measure. Anti-cheat work is very much like anti-virus programs. Though Killerboy does a lot of manual work, such as tracking IPs and guids, instead of trying to match files in a player's ET folder to a standard list of known cheats, cheat creators will always be able to evade AC. Because AC is chasing down cheaters, it is nearly impossible for AC to get the jump right away. Once an AC update has been created, cheaters will merely find a way around it, and then AC will be a step behind yet again to try and follow the new technology.
Inevitably, cheaters will always exist in gaming. New cheats will constantly be made, but regardless, AC admins are the guys that are still making the game somewhat clean (at least ET isn't like amateur CS, where atrociously large numbers of players cheat blatantly) so I feel that regardless of whether or not they can keep up to the next generation nC creations, they ought to be commended for their efforts.