Cheating in online games
Encyclopedia
Cheating in online games is an activity that modifies the game experience to give one player an advantage over others. Depending on the game, different activities constitute cheating and it is either a matter of game policy or consensus opinion as to whether a particular activity is considered to be cheating. Johan Huizinga
defines cheating as the action of pretending to obey the rules of the game, while secretly subverting them to gain advantage over an opponent.
Cheating reportedly exists in most multiplayer online games, but it is difficult to measure. The Internet and darknets can provide players with the methodology necessary to cheat in online games.
used in multiplayer first-person shooter
games to provide varying levels of target acquisition
assistance to the player. While most common in first person shooter games, they exist in other game types and are often used in combination with a TriggerBot, which shoots automatically when an opponent appears within the field-of-view or aiming reticule of the player.
Aimbotting relies on the fact that each client computer must be typically sent information about all players, whether seen or unseen. Targeting is simply a matter of finding the position difference of where the player is located and where any opponent is located, and pointing the player's weapon at the target. This targeting works regardless of whether the opponent is behind walls or too far away to be seen directly. If the game being played allows bullets to penetrate surfaces with minimal damage, the code can be manipulated to cause the bullets to penetrate an infinite amount of material and damage can be adjusted to guarantee a kill regardless of where the bullet lands. This severely magnifies the unfair advantage the aimbot would provide.
Some servers allow spectating, or seeing the game from the viewpoint of the active players. Recording of gameplay actions is also often possible. If someone was using a targeting aimbot, the bot would be plainly obvious to the spectator as unnatural exact position tracking. Some aimbots and triggerbots are blatant while others attempt to hide from spectators the fact they are being used through a number of methods. One being a delay in the firing, to hide the fact it shoots the instant an opponent is in the cheater's crosshair. Some Triggerbot programs allow the user the ability to toggle on or off depending on whether the mouse is held down or released.
The term 'lag switch' encompasses many methods of disrupting the network communication between a console and its server. One method is by attaching a physical device, called a hardware lag switch, to a standard Ethernet cable. By flipping the switch on and off, the physical connection between the console and the server is disrupted. Other methods, called a software or wireless lag switch, involve using a computer program. In this method, the cheater runs an application on a computer connected to the same network as the console. The application hogs the network bandwidth, disrupting the communication between the console and its server. An example of such an application is Laggsta.
A client can cheat using this method by acting as if it is suffering from high latency
; the outgoing packet is forged by attaching a time-stamp that is prior to the actual moment the packet is sent, thereby fooling other clients into thinking that the action was sent at the correct time, but was delayed in arrival. A partial solution is the Lockstep protocol
.
As with the aimbot, wallhacking relies on the fact that an FPS server usually sends raw positional information for all players in the game, and leaves it up to the client's 3D renderer to hide opponents behind walls, in plant foliage, or in dark shadows. If the game map rendering could be turned off completely, all players could be seen moving around in what appears to be empty space. Complete map hiding offers no advantage to a cheater as they would be unable to navigate the invisible map pathways and obstacles. However if only certain surfaces are made transparent or removed, this leaves just enough of an outline of the world to allow the cheater still to navigate it easily.
When used in conjunction with an aimbot certain wallhacks allow the player to shoot through solid objects, which is known as "opk" (One Place Killing) in such games as Combat Arms, because the killer can generally stay in one spot. A subset known as WhiteWalls removes the color/texture from objects in the surrounding environment, providing distinct contrast to opposition character models, which remain colored/textured. (See ESP for an evolution of the WallHack.) A subset of wallhacking is also called "chamming" (see Skin Cheats).
Some games implement a disconnection penalty, usually by recording the disconnect as a loss, or a loss of experience points. Other games, such as UFC 2009 Undisputed
, include a "disconnect" statistic in players' profiles, so players may select a match where the opponent will not be prone to disconnect. The later games in the Call Of Duty
give extra experience points for staying in a match, and records games in which the player leaves as a loss. Halo: Reach
gives a random "lottery" experience-point bonus to players at the end of each match, encouraging them to stay until the end.
These modifications can create an imbalance within the game. In the Call of Duty
series, having a semi-automatic pistol or rifle with a rapid fire modification could display the player as having the firing ablilities of a heavy machine gun. This exploit has not yet been prevented in most instances of first-person shooters.
and texture-climbing in Quake, as well as so-called "wave-dashing" in Super Smash Bros. Melee
. Exploits are often considered cheating when they have an unbalancing effect, or are used in an intended manner.
techniques (provided by in-game mechanics, objects or player models) are negated.
While cham-hacks are accomplished using a wallhack subset, historically, user settings (in Quakeworld, for example) or exploits in many older games allowed replacing skins arbitrarily with varying degrees of success—from pseudo-camouflage in dark areas of a map (prior to specular and other advanced lighting techniques) when using a "shadow skin"; to completely disappearing while the skin change propagated to other players; to forcing a plain-white skin on all opponents.
A more obvious skin cheat involves a person wearing a skin that makes him invisible to all players. However, this is a cheat that is easily discovered, especially if the game provides a killcam after each death.
, and most players do not consider it to be cheating unless it is used to win the game (or make it easier to win).
The term farming also refers to the practice of garnering achievements or virtual property for the purpose of real-money-trading
. With rare exception, this has no direct effect on the gaming experience of other players; instead, it is a violation of most EULAs and could devalue the virtual property being farmed.
A special type of farming that occurs in multiplayer games where multiple players join a game that is based around taking objectives, like capture the flag or domination, but instead of working to take the objective, they focus mainly on scoring kills. This is known as kill farming and is generally frowned upon. This was especially common in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where players would become angry and bitter when others would try and advance the game (e.g. planting a bomb at a target location that, if allowed to detonate, would end the game) and would discourage their team from protecting the bomb so the enemy could defuse it. This is because these players would attempt to farm kills to gain the tactical nuke ability, which would also end the game. Although this isn't considered boosting, critics of the tactical nuke cited this as a reason to exclude it from further Call of Duty games because it ruined the gameplay of objective-based games.
s -- to gain an advantage by having higher online times and/or being able to apply more manpower toward game activities such as leveling or gaining experience. In some MMOs this is not seen as cheating although others such as Nexon
's Maplestory
, Blizzard Entertainment
's World of Warcraft
or Jagex
's RuneScape
specifically forbid it.
Some systems prevent inactive players from observing the game if they are on the same IP address
as an active player, on the grounds that they are probably in close physical proximity; when all players from a single IP address are no longer active participants, they are all allowed to observe. However, this restriction can be easily evaded if there are multiple IP addresses available at one location (a common feature of broadband subscriptions), or if the observer installs remote desktop software
on their computer, thus enabling their computer screen to be viewed by select other players in real time.
s) it is considered cheating in many games, in particular when players engage in secondary communication. Using remote desktop software to observe the screens of secret "allies" while one is playing could confer considerable tactical and/or strategic advantages for all players in the "alliance", and would be considered cheating. In some RTS games, this is made difficult by replacing all player names with "unknown." This makes it to where you can't know who you are private messaging. Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 are examples of this anti-secret alliance setting.In games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sometimes when not using team battle 2 or more characters would try to attack one character and have one character win. Most of the time these people would be the same character with the same or different costume.
games, where a certain script edit known as a "Longpoke" can force all players on a certain server to use the suicide command.
gaming model, clients run equal code but are still subject to most of the same type of cheats found in the client–server multiplayer model; however, the peer-to-peer multiplayer model has depreciated in favor of the client–server model with the wider adoption of high-speed networks.
"Never trust the client" is a maxim among game developer
s that summarizes the model of client–server game design. It means that no information sent from a client should be accepted by a server if it breaks the game rules or the basic mechanics of the game, and that no information should be sent to a client unless it is "need-to-know." For example, a server with no rule enforcement or data integrity checking will synchronize all of the clients with all of the information about all of the other clients. The server will be very fast, but any wallhack program will reveal where all the players in the game are, what team they are on, and what state they're in — health, weapon, ammo etc. At the same time, altered and erroneous data from a client will allow a player to break the game rules, manipulate the server, and even manipulate other clients.
is possible. Also game data files can be edited separately from the main program and thereby circumvent protections implemented in software.
Wallhacks and maphack
s often function by modifying the software. Other cheats analyze or change the game state in memory, such as some aimbot
s and programs that give infinite ammo or health (often called trainers). Additionally, software with legitimate use outside of gaming can fulfill the role of a cheat when used inside a game. Examples include program accelerators and an auto clicker
.
s incorporate this methodology. Newer games encrypt network data at the expense of client computing resources that could be directed to make a faster, more immersive gaming experience.
, Quake, or World of Warcraft
. A few examples of anti-cheat software are DMW Anticheat
, GameGuard
, PunkBuster
, VAC
, ProtectEnviron, ShoxGuard, CleanDoD, XRay, xTrap, HackShield
or Warden.
Exploits of bugs are usually resolved/removed via a patch to the game; however, not all companies force the patches/updates on users, leaving the actual resolution to individual users.
sum) to be calculated against each game datafile on the client computer, and for these checksums to be reported to the server before the client can join the game. When a cheater has modified a datafile to give them an advantage over others, the changes will affect the calculated checksum and may result in the client being automatically denied from joining the server if an unknown checksum is detected.
Someone who is attempting to cheat and who has downloaded a cheating package from the Internet may possibly be automatically banned by game servers, if certain well-known hacked datafile checksums are detected by the server during the connection attempt.
Once a datafile has been checked, it is held in a "file open" state, so that other software on the multitasking system can not rename or copy over a file after the check has been done, and the current game session is in progress. When the game session ends, the files are closed until the next check-in.
Hackers sometimes examine these data structures to write unpackers that convert the database into a normal editable file and directory structure. The game engine may or may not use this extracted structure if it is present in the game installation directory.
Also because the actual game data in this huge file is typically not encoded or compressed, it is possible to look for common data file headers such as for JPEG
, MPEG, or WAV
and extract these individual files using a ripper, though this is done without knowing the database format or being able to write changes back to the game data structures.
It may not require much code, but when game server
s were restricted by limited available resources such as storage, memory, internal bandwidth, and computational capacity due to the technologies available and the cost of the hardware, coupled with internet connections that were slow, it was believed to be necessary to compromise on security for optimization to minimize the impact on the end-user.
Today however, with the increased speed and power of multi-core computers, lower priced hardware, and the increased availability of broadband internet, this has become less of an issue.
While game publishers are known to ban players employing cheats, the actual number of players banned is usually not revealed. Exceptions to this include Blizzard Entertainment
and Nexon, known for banning cheaters in batches, and publicising the number of banned accounts in order to discourage others from cheating.
Johan Huizinga
Johan Huizinga , was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern cultural history.-Life:Born in Groningen as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of physiology, and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth, he started out as a student of Indo-Germanic languages, earning his...
defines cheating as the action of pretending to obey the rules of the game, while secretly subverting them to gain advantage over an opponent.
Cheating reportedly exists in most multiplayer online games, but it is difficult to measure. The Internet and darknets can provide players with the methodology necessary to cheat in online games.
Aimbots and triggerbots
An aimbot (sometimes called "auto-aim") is a type of computer game botComputer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
used in multiplayer first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
games to provide varying levels of target acquisition
Target Acquisition
In the military, target acquisition denotes any process that provides detailed information about enemy forces and locates them with sufficient accuracy to permit continued monitoring or attacking it....
assistance to the player. While most common in first person shooter games, they exist in other game types and are often used in combination with a TriggerBot, which shoots automatically when an opponent appears within the field-of-view or aiming reticule of the player.
Aimbotting relies on the fact that each client computer must be typically sent information about all players, whether seen or unseen. Targeting is simply a matter of finding the position difference of where the player is located and where any opponent is located, and pointing the player's weapon at the target. This targeting works regardless of whether the opponent is behind walls or too far away to be seen directly. If the game being played allows bullets to penetrate surfaces with minimal damage, the code can be manipulated to cause the bullets to penetrate an infinite amount of material and damage can be adjusted to guarantee a kill regardless of where the bullet lands. This severely magnifies the unfair advantage the aimbot would provide.
Some servers allow spectating, or seeing the game from the viewpoint of the active players. Recording of gameplay actions is also often possible. If someone was using a targeting aimbot, the bot would be plainly obvious to the spectator as unnatural exact position tracking. Some aimbots and triggerbots are blatant while others attempt to hide from spectators the fact they are being used through a number of methods. One being a delay in the firing, to hide the fact it shoots the instant an opponent is in the cheater's crosshair. Some Triggerbot programs allow the user the ability to toggle on or off depending on whether the mouse is held down or released.
Artificial lag
In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging is what happens when the stream of data between one or more players gets slowed or interrupted, causing movement to stutter and make opponents behave erratically. By using a lag switch, a player is able to disrupt upload from the console to the server, while their own console queues up the actions performed. The goal is to gain advantage over another player without reciprocation; opponents slow down or stop moving, allowing the lag switch user to easily out-maneuver them. From the opponents' perspective, the player using the device may appear to be teleporting, invisible or invincible, while the opponents suffer delayed animations and fast-forwarded game play, delivered in bursts. Some gaming communities refer to this method as "tapping".The term 'lag switch' encompasses many methods of disrupting the network communication between a console and its server. One method is by attaching a physical device, called a hardware lag switch, to a standard Ethernet cable. By flipping the switch on and off, the physical connection between the console and the server is disrupted. Other methods, called a software or wireless lag switch, involve using a computer program. In this method, the cheater runs an application on a computer connected to the same network as the console. The application hogs the network bandwidth, disrupting the communication between the console and its server. An example of such an application is Laggsta.
Look-ahead
Look-ahead cheating is a method of cheating within a peer-to-peer multiplayer gaming architecture where the cheating client gains an unfair advantage by delaying his actions to see what other players do before announcing its own action.A client can cheat using this method by acting as if it is suffering from high latency
Latency (engineering)
Latency is a measure of time delay experienced in a system, the precise definition of which depends on the system and the time being measured. Latencies may have different meaning in different contexts.-Packet-switched networks:...
; the outgoing packet is forged by attaching a time-stamp that is prior to the actual moment the packet is sent, thereby fooling other clients into thinking that the action was sent at the correct time, but was delayed in arrival. A partial solution is the Lockstep protocol
Lockstep protocol
The lockstep protocol is a partial solution to the look-ahead cheating problem in peer-to-peer architecture multiplayer games, in which a cheating client delays his own actions to await the messages of other players...
.
Wallhacking
Wallhacking allows a player to see through solid or opaque objects and/or manipulate or remove textures, to know in advance when an opponent is about to come into targeting range from an occluded area. This can be done by making wall textures transparent, or modifying the game maps to insert polygonal holes into otherwise solid walls.As with the aimbot, wallhacking relies on the fact that an FPS server usually sends raw positional information for all players in the game, and leaves it up to the client's 3D renderer to hide opponents behind walls, in plant foliage, or in dark shadows. If the game map rendering could be turned off completely, all players could be seen moving around in what appears to be empty space. Complete map hiding offers no advantage to a cheater as they would be unable to navigate the invisible map pathways and obstacles. However if only certain surfaces are made transparent or removed, this leaves just enough of an outline of the world to allow the cheater still to navigate it easily.
When used in conjunction with an aimbot certain wallhacks allow the player to shoot through solid objects, which is known as "opk" (One Place Killing) in such games as Combat Arms, because the killer can generally stay in one spot. A subset known as WhiteWalls removes the color/texture from objects in the surrounding environment, providing distinct contrast to opposition character models, which remain colored/textured. (See ESP for an evolution of the WallHack.) A subset of wallhacking is also called "chamming" (see Skin Cheats).
ESP
Extrasensory perception (ESP) in video games displays contextual information such as the health, name, equipment, position and/or orientation of other participants as navigation/directional markers, which would normally be hidden from game players. In military parlance, this is known as Battlefield Visualization and part of a larger trend toward Information Dominance. This may be performed by reading the programs memory with an external program, or intercepting and decoding packets as they travel between the client and the server. This is difficult to detect and prove, but is definitely considered cheating.Fly hack
A fly hack is one that lets the user disable the games' collision boundaries, allowing them to jump incredibly high, and even (in many cases), through walls and buildings, giving a good place to hide, or sniping from places that would otherwise be unreachable without the cheat. This is often called noclip. Modern servers will detect players using this hack and teleport them back to their old location or kick them from the server.Removal of game elements
Removals allow the cheater to remove a game's inhibitors or annoyances. These include gun recoil, bullet spread, and visual effects. Such removals can significantly increase a user's firing accuracy, but may be noticeable to other players. Removals may also consist of removing flash bang effects, which normally make the user's screen appear a bright white and mute their sound. With that particular removal, the user can continue play without loss of audiovisual input. Smoke, sky, hands, ground, doors, and many other elements are also removed in order to cheat. A newer, more startling removal removes the ability to be kicked by a game, whether it be by a moderator or by vote-kick. This is often used in conjunction with other cheats/hacks to gain a permanent edge over the competition in a game.Disconnecting
In games where wins and losses are recorded on a player's account, a player may disconnect when he or she is about to lose, in order to prevent that loss from being recorded. A similar phenomenon occurs when a server operator boots an opponent or players who they do not support. Disconnecting is considered unsporting, as the opponent may not have his or her "win" recorded.Some games implement a disconnection penalty, usually by recording the disconnect as a loss, or a loss of experience points. Other games, such as UFC 2009 Undisputed
UFC 2009 Undisputed
UFC 2009 Undisputed is a mixed martial arts video game featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship properties and fighters developed by Yuke's Osaka and published by THQ. The game was released in the US on May 19, 2009, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3...
, include a "disconnect" statistic in players' profiles, so players may select a match where the opponent will not be prone to disconnect. The later games in the Call Of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
give extra experience points for staying in a match, and records games in which the player leaves as a loss. Halo: Reach
Halo: Reach
Halo: Reach is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console. Reach was released in North America, Australia, and Europe on September 14, 2010. The game takes place in the year 2552, where humanity is locked in a war with the...
gives a random "lottery" experience-point bonus to players at the end of each match, encouraging them to stay until the end.
Rapid Fire Modifications
In games (mostly first person shooters) weapons featured can be fired in burst fire or single shot. For some gamers, modifying their controller or console to gain the advantage of having a faster shooting weapon than the standard player can be considered as a method of cheating.These modifications can create an imbalance within the game. In the Call of Duty
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision in 2003. It is the first game in a series with the same name. The game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. The game is based on the Quake III: Team Arena engine...
series, having a semi-automatic pistol or rifle with a rapid fire modification could display the player as having the firing ablilities of a heavy machine gun. This exploit has not yet been prevented in most instances of first-person shooters.
Environmental exploits
Exploiting is the application of an unintended use or bug that gives the player an advantage. Not all gamers view exploits as cheating, some view it as another skill because certain exploits take a significant amount of time to find, or dexterity and timing to use. An example of dexterity exploits include bunny hoppingBunny hopping
Bunny hopping, or bunny jumping, is a term used in video games to describe the basic movement technique in which a player jumps repeatedly, instead of running, in order to move faster.-Concept:...
and texture-climbing in Quake, as well as so-called "wave-dashing" in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBM or simply as Melee, is a crossover fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Bros., and the predecessor to the Wii game Super Smash...
. Exploits are often considered cheating when they have an unbalancing effect, or are used in an intended manner.
Skin cheats
Chameleon skins, cham-hacks or chams, replace player model textures with brightly colored skins, often bright red/yellow or blue/green, that change color depending on whether the model is visible. For instance, an exposed part of an opponent would be shown in a different color, giving a cham-hack user an advantage over non-hack users, especially in games in which camouflageCamouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
techniques (provided by in-game mechanics, objects or player models) are negated.
While cham-hacks are accomplished using a wallhack subset, historically, user settings (in Quakeworld, for example) or exploits in many older games allowed replacing skins arbitrarily with varying degrees of success—from pseudo-camouflage in dark areas of a map (prior to specular and other advanced lighting techniques) when using a "shadow skin"; to completely disappearing while the skin change propagated to other players; to forcing a plain-white skin on all opponents.
A more obvious skin cheat involves a person wearing a skin that makes him invisible to all players. However, this is a cheat that is easily discovered, especially if the game provides a killcam after each death.
Farming and stat-padding
In games where achievements and player abilities are unlocked by defeating a number of enemies or challenges of a particular class, players may arrange to win or lose against one another in order to obtain the achievements without having to play the game linearly. This is also known as stat-padding, swapping, or boostingBoosting (video game)
In video games, boosting is the practice of playing a competitive multiplayer game against accomplices, in order to easily gain ranks or achievements which would require significant time or skill to achieve during regular play....
, and most players do not consider it to be cheating unless it is used to win the game (or make it easier to win).
The term farming also refers to the practice of garnering achievements or virtual property for the purpose of real-money-trading
Virtual economy
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an Internet game...
. With rare exception, this has no direct effect on the gaming experience of other players; instead, it is a violation of most EULAs and could devalue the virtual property being farmed.
A special type of farming that occurs in multiplayer games where multiple players join a game that is based around taking objectives, like capture the flag or domination, but instead of working to take the objective, they focus mainly on scoring kills. This is known as kill farming and is generally frowned upon. This was especially common in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where players would become angry and bitter when others would try and advance the game (e.g. planting a bomb at a target location that, if allowed to detonate, would end the game) and would discourage their team from protecting the bomb so the enemy could defuse it. This is because these players would attempt to farm kills to gain the tactical nuke ability, which would also end the game. Although this isn't considered boosting, critics of the tactical nuke cited this as a reason to exclude it from further Call of Duty games because it ruined the gameplay of objective-based games.
Character sharing
Sharing is when multiple people play using a single character—mainly in MMORPGMMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s -- to gain an advantage by having higher online times and/or being able to apply more manpower toward game activities such as leveling or gaining experience. In some MMOs this is not seen as cheating although others such as Nexon
Nexon Corporation
Nexon Co. Ltd. is a South Korean video game developer and publisher of online games and MMORPGs. Founded in Seoul in 1994, Nexon's headquarters is currently based in Tokyo. Nexon provides over 30 games which are serviced in 72 countries globally, reaching 1.14 billion players...
's Maplestory
MapleStory
MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by the South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Nexon...
, Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...
's World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
or Jagex
Jagex
Jagex Games Studio, based in Cambridge, is the UK’s largest independent developer and publisher of online games. Jagex is best known for RuneScape, the world's largest free-to-play MMORPG....
's RuneScape
RuneScape
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower, and developed and published by Jagex Games Studio. It is a graphical browser game implemented on the client-side in Java, and incorporates 3D rendering...
specifically forbid it.
Twinking
Twinking is the act of giving gear intended for higher level characters to lower level characters that would be incapable of obtaining the gear on their own. Twinked characters have a huge advantage over untwinked characters, as well as the rest of the game world. This is usually used by players who wish to create a new character, to help them level more rapidly or gain an unfair advantage in PVP. Most MMORPGs tolerate it, provided that the twinked character is not used in player versus player combat with other characters of the same level, where it would have an unfair advantage over non-twinked characters. Often limits on twinking are placed into the game, usually through strict level or stat requirements to equip the item. Circumventing these level requirements would then be further cheating.Ghosting
Most games allow other participants to observe the game as it is played from a variety of perspectives; depending on the game, perspectives allow an observer a map overview or attach a "camera" to the movement of a specific player. In doing so, the observer can communicate with an accomplice using a secondary communication methodology (in-game private message, third party communication, or even off-line) to inform friendly players of traps or the position of opponents. An observer can be an active player, using a separate computer, connection and account.Some systems prevent inactive players from observing the game if they are on the same IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
as an active player, on the grounds that they are probably in close physical proximity; when all players from a single IP address are no longer active participants, they are all allowed to observe. However, this restriction can be easily evaded if there are multiple IP addresses available at one location (a common feature of broadband subscriptions), or if the observer installs remote desktop software
Remote desktop software
In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software or an OS feature allowing applications, either command line programs or graphical applications, to be run remotely on a server, while being displayed locally. Remote desktop applications have varying features...
on their computer, thus enabling their computer screen to be viewed by select other players in real time.
Secret alliances
Similar to ghosting in some respects, if two or more players to engage secret, co-operative play while all are active (especially in MMORPGMMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s) it is considered cheating in many games, in particular when players engage in secondary communication. Using remote desktop software to observe the screens of secret "allies" while one is playing could confer considerable tactical and/or strategic advantages for all players in the "alliance", and would be considered cheating. In some RTS games, this is made difficult by replacing all player names with "unknown." This makes it to where you can't know who you are private messaging. Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 are examples of this anti-secret alliance setting.In games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sometimes when not using team battle 2 or more characters would try to attack one character and have one character win. Most of the time these people would be the same character with the same or different costume.
Stacking
Stacking involves altering game settings or team lineups to give one or more teams an unfair advantage over others. One example includes arranging a team composed of skilled or known players against a team with members of lesser skill. Although this may be a valid and accepted practice in real-life sports, in online games stacking upsets less-skilled players who feel that they aren't being given a fair chance. Less ethical rigging involves weighting the game by providing a player or team with an advantage by outfitting them with better (or more familiar) weapons or equipment, or creating a play field that caters to a certain player, team or playing style.User settings
Typically, a player can change settings within a game to suit his or her preference or play style; these alterations are considered cheating only in certain circumstances. For example, changing the keyboard layout to make it easier to use is an accepted practice and not considered cheating; however, changing player models or textures, increasing the field view,and modifying the brightness are considered cheating.Scripting
Scripting is the use of a program or game feature to automate certain actions or behaviors. The use of scripts may or may not be considered cheating, depending on the behavior involved, and whether said behavior is replicable without the use of such script. A script may give the user unusually fast firing rate, unobtainable otherwise, or may perform seemingly trivial tasks such as reloading. Scripts can also tamper with other players' command systems, such as in CrysisCrysis
Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...
games, where a certain script edit known as a "Longpoke" can force all players on a certain server to use the suicide command.
Implementation of cheats
In the client–server model, the server is responsible for information security and enforcing game rules. (See "Efficiency versus security" below for drawbacks.) In the peer-to-peerPeer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
gaming model, clients run equal code but are still subject to most of the same type of cheats found in the client–server multiplayer model; however, the peer-to-peer multiplayer model has depreciated in favor of the client–server model with the wider adoption of high-speed networks.
"Never trust the client" is a maxim among game developer
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
s that summarizes the model of client–server game design. It means that no information sent from a client should be accepted by a server if it breaks the game rules or the basic mechanics of the game, and that no information should be sent to a client unless it is "need-to-know." For example, a server with no rule enforcement or data integrity checking will synchronize all of the clients with all of the information about all of the other clients. The server will be very fast, but any wallhack program will reveal where all the players in the game are, what team they are on, and what state they're in — health, weapon, ammo etc. At the same time, altered and erroneous data from a client will allow a player to break the game rules, manipulate the server, and even manipulate other clients.
Game code modification
Many cheats are implemented by modifying game software, despite EULAs which forbid modification. While game software distributed in binary-only versions makes it harder to modify code, reverse engineeringReverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
is possible. Also game data files can be edited separately from the main program and thereby circumvent protections implemented in software.
Wallhacks and maphack
Maphack
Maphack is a generic term that refers to a method or third-party program that enables a user to see more of a level than intended by the developer...
s often function by modifying the software. Other cheats analyze or change the game state in memory, such as some aimbot
Aimbot
An aimbot is a type of computer game bot used in first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of target acquisition assistance to the player. It is sometimes incorporated as a feature of a game...
s and programs that give infinite ammo or health (often called trainers). Additionally, software with legitimate use outside of gaming can fulfill the role of a cheat when used inside a game. Examples include program accelerators and an auto clicker
Auto clicker
Auto clickers are a type of software or macro that can be used to automate clicking. They can be triggered to generate input that was recorded earlier or generated from various current settings....
.
System software modification
Rather than modifying the game code (which the game itself or a 3rd-party protection system may detect), some cheats modify underlying system components. An example of this is graphics driver modifications that ignore depth checking and draw all objects on the screen—a primitive wallhack. System or driver modification is harder to detect, as there are a large number of system drivers that differ from user to user.Packet interception, tampering & manipulation
The security of game software can be circumvented by intercepting and/or manipulating data in real-time while in transit from the client to the server or vice versa. Interception can be passive (see Ghosting and ESP) or result in active manipulation (see wallhacks); either methodology can be performed on the client machine itself or via an external communication proxy; some aimbotAimbot
An aimbot is a type of computer game bot used in first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of target acquisition assistance to the player. It is sometimes incorporated as a feature of a game...
s incorporate this methodology. Newer games encrypt network data at the expense of client computing resources that could be directed to make a faster, more immersive gaming experience.
Anti-cheating methods and limitations
There are many facets of cheating in online games which make the creation of a system to stop cheating very difficult; however, game developers and third party software developers have created or are developing technologies that attempt to prevent cheating. Anti-cheat software is commonly used in popular games such as Team Fortress 2Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, Quake, or World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
. A few examples of anti-cheat software are DMW Anticheat
DMW Anticheat
Developing Multiplayer Worlds is a third-party anti-cheat application first released in January 2002 for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault which was released without an anti-cheat application...
, GameGuard
GameGuard
nProtect GameGuard is an anti-cheating rootkit developed by INCA Internet. It is installed alongside many Asian massively multiplayer online roleplaying games such as Rohan: Blood Feud, Lineage II, 9Dragons, Cabal Online, Phantasy Star Universe, GunZ: The Duel, Flyff, Rappelz, Luna Online,...
, PunkBuster
PunkBuster
PunkBuster is a computer program that is designed to detect software used for cheating in online games. It does this by scanning the memory contents of the local machine. A computer identified as using cheats may be banned from connecting to protected servers. The aim of the program is to isolate...
, VAC
Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat, abbreviated to VAC, is an anti-cheat solution developed by Valve Corporation as a component of the Steam game development platform.-History:...
, ProtectEnviron, ShoxGuard, CleanDoD, XRay, xTrap, HackShield
Hackshield
HackShield is a set of anti-hack toolkits developed for MMOs. It is being used in games such as Combat Arms, Dragonica, MapleStory, Mabinogi, War Rock, Kal Online, Shot Online and Ace Online. Hackshield is developed by AhnLab Inc, a Korean security solutions company...
or Warden.
Exploits of bugs are usually resolved/removed via a patch to the game; however, not all companies force the patches/updates on users, leaving the actual resolution to individual users.
Client datafile checksums
One common method used to prevent cheating is for a checksum (such as an MD5MD5
The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit hash value. Specified in RFC 1321, MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications, and is also commonly used to check data integrity...
sum) to be calculated against each game datafile on the client computer, and for these checksums to be reported to the server before the client can join the game. When a cheater has modified a datafile to give them an advantage over others, the changes will affect the calculated checksum and may result in the client being automatically denied from joining the server if an unknown checksum is detected.
Someone who is attempting to cheat and who has downloaded a cheating package from the Internet may possibly be automatically banned by game servers, if certain well-known hacked datafile checksums are detected by the server during the connection attempt.
Once a datafile has been checked, it is held in a "file open" state, so that other software on the multitasking system can not rename or copy over a file after the check has been done, and the current game session is in progress. When the game session ends, the files are closed until the next check-in.
Non-standard datafile storage
Some games work to prevent hacking by storing game data in a custom-built private database format that strips file names and directory structures, but does not otherwise encrypt the file data. This is commonly visible as two files, one containing file data for all objects, textures, sounds, maps, etc. that is typically several gigabytes in size. A second file only a few megabytes in size contains the file and directory structure for the game to access data within the larger file.Hackers sometimes examine these data structures to write unpackers that convert the database into a normal editable file and directory structure. The game engine may or may not use this extracted structure if it is present in the game installation directory.
Also because the actual game data in this huge file is typically not encoded or compressed, it is possible to look for common data file headers such as for JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, MPEG, or WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and extract these individual files using a ripper, though this is done without knowing the database format or being able to write changes back to the game data structures.
Availability versus usability
Generally, the better the server is at enforcing the rules, the less of a problem cheating will be in the game.It may not require much code, but when game server
Game server
A game server is a remotely or locally run server used by game clients to play multiplayer video games. Most video games played over the Internet operate via a connection to a game server...
s were restricted by limited available resources such as storage, memory, internal bandwidth, and computational capacity due to the technologies available and the cost of the hardware, coupled with internet connections that were slow, it was believed to be necessary to compromise on security for optimization to minimize the impact on the end-user.
Today however, with the increased speed and power of multi-core computers, lower priced hardware, and the increased availability of broadband internet, this has become less of an issue.
Efficiency versus security
Server-side game code makes a trade-off between calculating and sending results for display on a just-in-time basis or trusting the client to calculate and display the results in appropriate sequence as a player progresses. It can do this by sending the parts of the world state needed for immediate display, which can result in client lag under bandwidth constraints, or sending the player the entire world state, which results in faster display for the player under the same bandwidth constraints, but exposes that data to interception or manipulation—a trade-off between security and efficiency.Ramifications
Some companies and leagues ban suspected cheaters by blacklisting specific installation or serial keys, or user accounts, meaning that the player is effectively prevented from playing the game online. In such cases, the banned player may be able to avoid the ban by purchasing an additional copy of the game which will include a new unbanned serial key.While game publishers are known to ban players employing cheats, the actual number of players banned is usually not revealed. Exceptions to this include Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...
and Nexon, known for banning cheaters in batches, and publicising the number of banned accounts in order to discourage others from cheating.
External links
- Aspects of Networking in Multiplayer Computer Games by J.Smed et al., The Electronic Library, volume 20, number 2, pages 87–97, 2002.
- Fair Online Gaming Information on Intel's anti-cheat research initiative and technology.