Difference between revisions of "Online Cheating"

Revision as of 01:43, 11 September 2011

Online Cheating can be defined as the act of “pretending to obey the rules of the game but secretly subvert them to gain advantage over another player."[1]

Although there are many forms of online cheating, this article describes cheating specifically in the context of online word games where players can play against the computer or against other players either live on the site or through “asynchronous games” where the players do not need to be online at the same time.[2]

See Also: Cheating

Online Game Helpers

Online Game Helpers are used to gain an advantage over the opposing player while playing an online word game. Scrabble solvers and other “game helpers” are readily available online and easy to use. Scrabble solvers for example, take the set of letters and produce a list of words that can be made with those letters and all you have to do is have the helper open in another window.

According to its website, A2zwordfinder (another online game helper) is used for “quickly finding words while you’re solving word puzzles and games of all kinds.”[3] A2zwordfinder.com offers a free online dictionary for crosswords, a Scrabble dictionary, Literati helper, Jumble solver, WordOx helper, and anagram generator.

The website wineverygame.com is a helper site used for games such as Scrabble, Anagrams, Jumble Words, Text Twist, Word Whomp, Chicktionary, Scrabulous, Wordscraper, and Lexulous.

Example Word Games with Online Helpers

• Acrophobia
  
• Anagrams
  
• Crosswords
  
• Hangman
  
• Scrabble-like games
  
• Vocabulary quizzes
  

Getting Away With It

It’s almost impossible to ensure that the person you are playing against is not cheating, and proving that someone is cheating online is also difficult to do. One of the appeals of playing an online game is that your identity is hidden. The anonymity makes it much easier to cheat and makes people feel more comfortable about doing it since it is almost guaranteed that they will never be found out. According to an article written about cheating on the internet, “the anonymity and artificiality of the Internet seems to encourage a moral vacuum where otherwise nice people often behave in the worst possible way.”[4]

Consalvo Study

It is often subjective as to what actions constitute cheating. There have been debates over whether cheating in an online game in which you are playing against yourself is actually considered cheating.[5]

Mia Consalvo, an Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Ohio University conducted a study in which 24 self-identified game players ranging from ages 14 to 41 were interviewed. During the interviews, participants were asked to define cheating in their own terms. In every definition given by the participants, there seemed to be a general feeling which was that “cheating creates an unfair advantage for the cheater." This feeling, many times, was in reference to multiplayer games, however, it was also brought up in the context of single-player games as being just an “unfair advantage in general.” In the article, a purist is seen as the player that believes “anything other than a solo effort in completing a game is cheating. Those players define cheating to be when “you use external sources to complete a game.” Even some of the participants who were considered purists, maintained that it is only acceptable to use outside resources if “the player has already tried repeatedly and is stuck.”

At the complete opposite end of the spectrum are those who believe cheating can only exist if there is another player involved. In this case, players believe that “someone has to be worse off because someone else took unfair advantage.”

For some, cheating ruins the experience and for others it is what keeps the game exciting.

Prevention

See also Punishments in Virtual Environments

Without prevention (anti-cheat) players would have to simply avoid the cheaters in order to get a fair, fulfilling, playing experience. This however is not a very feasible option, as there are a large number of players who choose to cheat in the online environment.

One way to police online environment is for server's to have admins who monitor the actions of games on their specific server. Admins could immediately kick and/or ban the cheaters. However, if the admin was not present, these cheaters could get away with their actions.

Another method would be to implement a vote-kick feature, which allows the players to vote if a certain player should be removed from the server. Most likely, if that specific player was cheating, then all the other players would to remove them. However, kicked players could most likely re-join the server immediately. Also the vote-kick feature could be used to ill-intent, used against players that did not deserve to be kicked.

In-order to get past the shortcomings of admin policing, and vote-kicking, programs have been developed that look for players who cheat. These programs can tell if game code has been altered and automatically kick/ban the cheaters who cheated. These programs can be implemented in the game or on the server.

One such system is the Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC), which will ban a player who connects to a VAC protected server with a known cheat, which will ban that player from playing on any server that is VAC protected. VAC bans are non-reversible. [6]

References

Consalvo, M. (2007). Cheating: gaining advantage in videogames. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; annotated edition edition.

External Links

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/games/2007/04/gamesfrontiers_0423
http://lexulous.com/about_lexulous.php
http://a2zwordfinder.com/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3149/how_to_hurt_the_hackers_the_scoop_.php
http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/commentary/games/2007/04/gamesfrontiers_0423
http://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7849-RADZ-6869