Tech

Why do people cheat in online games? And what can we do about it?

Players selling tools like this can be hard to discourage with anything short of technical protections or legal action.

Enlarge / Players selling tools like this can be hard to discourage with anything short of technical protections or legal action.

SAN FRANCISCO—If you’re a developer of an online game, you’re probably used to treating cheaters like vermin that need to be exterminated in order to maintain the health of your game. But Clint Sereday and Nemanja Mulasmajic—Riot Games alumni and co-founders of anti-tamper company Byfron Technologies —argued in a GDC presentation that cheaters aren’t always simply the enemy; they can often be some associated with a game’s best players, customers, collectors, and content creators.

Attacking cheaters with the zero-tolerance, one-size-fits-all policy can be akin to attacking your game’s community, the pair argued. “Cheating is born out of a new love for the game a lot of times, ” Sereday said, and in those cases, seeking in order to reform or dissuade the cheaters can be more effective than trying to ban them.

In their talk, the co-founders broke down the motivations these people see driving cheaters in on the internet games. Each one requires a different approach to maintain the integrity of the game without destroying the community’s trust in the particular process.

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