The Infestation

 

Lately, I've gotten back into gaming. After my drought of playing video games, I decided why not give it another try? So of course I throw myself in headfirst, without thinking of the consequences. My first game was Starcraft, which is an extremely enjoyable battle-sim. . . when played properly. I began to go to a few games, and things work out fine. About my fifth game, I got a short, albeit quick, reminder of why I quit in the first place. Just as I'm wiping out a colony of the enemy, they (for reasons still unknown to me) reveal they were hacking. Enraged, I decided to just give up that day.

Lately, I've gotten back into gaming. After my drought of playing video games, I decided why not give it another try? So of course I throw myself in headfirst, without thinking of the consequences. My first game was Starcraft, which is an extremely enjoyable battle-sim. . . when played properly. I began to go to a few games, and things work out fine. About my fifth game, I got a short, albeit quick, reminder of why I quit in the first place. Just as I'm wiping out a colony of the enemy, they (for reasons still unknown to me) reveal they were hacking. Enraged, I decided to just give up that day.

To me, there is only one scourge worse than the so-dubbed 'newbs.' This evil, so vile and hated, forced me out of the realm of multiplayer gaming, into my RPG exile. I deem them 'hackers,' not to be confused with the real thing, they are faux-hackers. Spawned from pirates of the computer age, they have found their way to every level of gamer, from professional to the newest of players. Using programs, they 'hack' the game into giving them something previously unachievable. They are usually the kind that snivel when they lose, and gloat and demand rematches when they win.

After this little sabbatical, I took a few days off just to calm down. After about half a week I got back into the system, blowing off some steam worked up earlier that day. I go into another bout of Starcraft, this time a multiplayer free for all face-off. After about fifteen minutes I am attacked by one person, whom I defend myself from easily, and then by another. Mysterious that these two attacks were so close in succession. I decide to investigate. Sending out a scout, I do indeed find the two are allied. Not only that, a third party is also in this treasonous offense. Utterly disgusted by their show of total dishonor, I decide to just wipe them out quickly, and do so in the next five minutes. After finishing the game, I'm messaged that I somehow cheated in the game.

Let me make something clear. After playing certain maps a certain number of times, you get used to the layout, and when you scout for other bases, you are more easily able to pinpoint where they are. Once in a while you get lucky and find them on your first scouting. This was what happened that time. So in short order, I told them they could each play me alone if they decided this was the case. I wiped the floor with them all.

What is wrong with this scenario? What happened to the good ole' days where you went in, you played some games, kicked some alien butt, and had a thoroughly fulfilling day? I'll tell you what happened to it. Hacks. I despise them, and would eradicate them in a minute if at all possible. Even if they were originally used only in pointless mini-games termed UMS (or Use Map Settings), they now infest every shape and form of the game. How could this kind of disease spread so quickly, I don't know. All I know is I realize now why I quit, and am on the verge of it once more. At least, I was, until Blizzard (thankfully) released a new version of the multiplayer version of Starcraft. This voided all past programs associated with it. Perhaps I'll stay, and continue on my gaming ways, and perhaps I'll move on, who knows? Hopefully, I won't see you with this scourge tainting your computer. If I do, I might just have to bash it, or myself, to oblivion.

This is exactly why I don't play online games. Everytime I tell someone that Diablo II is one of my favorite games, they ask me what server I play on. After a moment of befuddlement and they look at me like I broke the Holy Grail over their head. Between hackers and the level 80 people who come in and want you to imbue an item, only making the fallens in the first area higher level than you; I cannot stand online gaming. If people would be fair and supportive in an online environment, we would all be a lot happier.

Online gaming, why bother?

I only play with people I know, I've had too many bad experiences with Starcraft and Diablo II. One in a while though, I do like to get with a few friends and "invade" a large free for all. We don't play cooperatively but we do know each others' tactics so we recognize one another by race and troop deployment (after a few skirmishes).

Well those were my 2 cents. Death to the cheaters, may zergs disembowel them all!

I played Starcraft A LOT back in the day, with a few records over 1000 wins. I tried it a while ago, and the vast majority of games were bgh, so I played a few. ALL of the 10 games my team got zealot rushed, and lost most of them.
The game is actually a bit boring to play now, and the interface issues are noticable after playing warcraft 3(it is so ugly and not very functionable). The game has some nice unit balance, and great tactics however, so I can see why people still play the real maps.
I didn't notice many hackers, although the ladder is a joke, and has been one for a long long time. 300-0 people do exist on it.
Cheating in games is pretty low, not to mention pointless. It is a sign of immaturity to need to rely on a program to win, rather than on your skills. I have known people who hack, and make them remove the program, or I won't play with them. I think that hacks are a scourge on the gaming world, and make it far less fun for many people. Losing to someone because he knew exactly what you are doing sucks. Winning, and being called a hacker because you were lucky a few times is just plain annoying. I applaud companies that ban cd-keys permanently, to get rid of the morons who hack. I mostly hope they grow up and realize what a waste it is to hack.

Yeah, I know just what you mean. Hacks are an extremely irritating face of online gaming... but thankfully it's not the main one. While StarCraft, Diablo, and other such games of Blizzard origin have a long history of being hacked, they're not alone. First-Person Shooters like Half-Life and Quake also have their share of the villainous scum...

I'll admit to using a "h4x," as we call them, in an online game. Dubbed the "Spec Hack," this would allow you to float around as though in Spectator mode (for those of you not knowledgable of the term, a Spectator floats around the map and views the players with no influence on the game itself), though you would actually be playing. This gave you massive speed, the ability to move through walls, and, done properly, the capacity to simply float around someone, blasting them to smithereens. Now, before I used this, I announced I'd be using the spec hack. Since it was a "fun" server, no one minded. I used it, had a little fun, but once someone said "Hey, cut that out," it was off in an instant. I had no intention of spoiling anyone's fun just so I could have some of my own.

Unfortunately some folks aren't as decent as me.

But what can be done about it? New measures are being added to games of TFC (a team-based Half-Life mod I frequently play) that supposedly "sniff out" cheaters in all their forms, and if Admins on a server watch constantly, they're more likely to catch and then ban cheaters before they become a real nuisance. This is where FPS's have a leg up over statregy games like Blizzard's - users control the servers, and hacking is easier to catch.

Yoshmaista's right, it's not really hacking. You're actually just using a program someone else created by looking at the source code for the game, which is given out now for mod-makers and regular Joes alike. It's just a matter of finding what to manipulate and how. Hackers are nothing special, and if it's what they rely on to win, then, well, that's pretty sad. If they just use it to have fun, they ought to be more considerate of other people and not just focus on themselves... or go to a hackers' server.

This rant of Yoshmaista's, or of mine here, isn't going to make hacking go away. We know that. Nothing we can do will make hacking go away - it's a fact of online life. All we can hope for is that they won't decide to bother us, and if they do, they'll be caught and subsequently removed from play for some very lengthy period of time, or worse still, ACTUALLY hacked... teach them what the word means. =)

"ACTUALLY hacked..."
I'm glad someone agrees with me. Only if the person isn't your average shmoe, they probably can counteract a hack fairly easily, or have a dataphage on their computer, which won't feel too good on the receiving end.

My advice: Make your own firewalls, your own programs, your own LANGUAGE if you know enough. I am thoroughly pissed off at 'map hackers', as they are now dubbed, and make them pay at every turn. Learn HTML and some unknown lnaguage like Ccal or CORE, even D works. On the other hand, let the punishment fit the crime.

See the map? Black screen. Booted off the server? Internet bust. Virus to your computer? Dataphage the one they own. Ruin vision? Melt the monitor (power changes, be careful not to explode it). These people should learn a lesson from what they do, not jsut think some other so-called 'map hacker' as hacked them.

Lettin' the punishment fit the crime sounds like a great idea to me... My friends and I used to idly build viruses way back when. They only worked on older systems (this was '97 or so), but when they worked they were effective. One replaced your monitor, one 60x60 pixel square at a time, with blackness, which, in the end, we couldn't repair... heh. But anyways, those were the old days, there are better ways now. Take a lesson from PingRing. Get a bunch of friends together, open your 'ping' programs, and just ping the hell out of the offender. It's surprisingly effective!

Enough about that, I need to be working on my own articles right now. Adios. =D

"Take a lesson from PingRing. Get a bunch of friends together, open your 'ping' programs, and just ping the hell out of the offender. It's surprisingly effective!"

That's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. I've got to try that.

It can drag even the fastest internet connection to nothing if done often enough by enough people. And that's all well and good, but let's hope this info doesn't get into the wrong hands. Not many people are as upright about this ability as PingRing is.

Yes, yes, but remember, this sort of thing shouldn't fall into the "wrong hands." Not everyone can be as upright about using this as PingRing has been.

On a lighter note: Helium.

Bye now.

Thanks for the posts and support guys ^__^ new article's been submitted, hope ya like it!

Preview: BAN MAYONAISSE!

I also have a problem with the number of game mods and custom weapons that exist. Are these things bad in themselves? Not is done properly. But when someone makes a weapon that instantly kills or is just like the old weapons but infinitely better, any hope of game balance is destroyed. It's almost impossible to find a regular Unreal Tourney server anymore.

Gah. For me, hacks are fine as long as you use them in single player, that's what I used to do with Diablo II. Only because I had already played a good way through the game and disliked that long period between just starting and really kicking ass. But on B.net...practiaclly everyone uses hack. It sometimes seems like I'm the only one who doesn't. One of my friends has a level 92 Amazon, supposedly non-hacked. Riiiiight. Another friend keeps trying to get me to download a map hack, but when trying got a virus on my comp...the chances of me downloading more hacks are like the chances of people not using them. Lantern archon's chance in the Nine Hells.

Thanks guys, for your support! Can't believe my article's still going strong now...maybe that's a sign to start a new one...hrmm.

by the way, that comment above's me. Just realized my mistake, stupid forums chiseling reflexes into me. Sorry.

why can't youse all form a group that exiles hackers from the online game, why don't you become friends with them and tthen ask them why they hack and then tell them to stopp and the reasons why....