Why do people cheat?

[Paddy]

Howdey all,

My mate has just got a 128/256kbps connection, so me and a few others went round for a online game of CounterStrike.

I have never played the game before, but I was instantly hooked. Its fantastic. Fast paced, and a sharp learning curve. Its barely playable on my v.90.

[rant]
Anyway, a lot of people were accused of cheating… for example, on the Assault level, I was outside by the back door and I kept getting shot by people inside. They new where to hit me… I hadn’t even seen them….

I saw another guy perform miraculous headshots with a moments notice… he had a kill:death ration of ~ 40:2… I am sure there are good players out there…. But this sounds a bit dodgy to me.

I am new to online gaming and I was quite surprised how much these people can ruin a game… Is there any way to stop them cheating? I think I voted to kick a few people, but it didn’t seem to have much effect.

What programs are they using to cheat? Can they really see through walls???

Why do people always try to ruin a good thing…
[/rant]

[Jon P. Inghram]

I don't play CS anymore because of all the cheaters, and there's basicly no way to keep 'em out. Punkbuster doesn't work anymore because they just hack it. Can't ban their WON #/CD key anymore because they can just generate a new one. And yes, they can see though walls, before I quit I found a wallhack and saw for myself what it was like. Then there's the autoaim hacks, those are the ones that are really annoying. The new ones patch into the OpenGL interface and aim directly at the coordinates of heads on the opposing team, and can aim and shoot instantly, even at targets behind them and though walls and such. And don't forget the spectator bug/hack where you can respawn after dying. And skin hacks that make you look like the other team... and the team switch hack which really makes you the other team. You name it and it's probably been hacked or is bugged in CS.

[Wombat]

I stopped playing CounterStrike. It is absolutely my favorite game, but it stopped being fun with so many cheaters.

Yes, they can see through walls.
Yes, they have aimbots.
Yes, they can be immune to smoke and flash.
No, the latest cheat programs are not detectable.

I'm pretty good myself, and would often get accused of cheating. When I was playing my best, I could get scores of 62-6. People move in patterns, and there are places to predict where they are. Also, people get much better when they learn how to listen for enemies. If the game ever gets cleaned of the cheaters, I'll play again.

But now cheating is so rampant, I doubt almost every time I am killed. It stopped being worth it. I won't buy another Valve product until they work with/hire Punkbuster to fix HL. People may say "Why should they support such an old game?" but Valve put out a CounterStrike edition, and they just released the Blue Force expansion pack (which I was going to buy, but will not anymore).

[Jon P. Inghram]

But now cheating is so rampant, I doubt almost every time I am killed.

That's the thing that bugged me the most. And knowing when I was doing good that people would wonder if I was cheating (I've actaully been banned from servers for "cheating" when I was just doing too good! ).

[Liquid Snake]

Yep, this is why I haven't played CS in some time (well my DSL's acting up, but the cheating too). It's really stupid, when my friend kills a cheater, the cheater accuses my friend of cheating Probably because my friend is the only one in the server good enough to kill him. The guy was using that cheat Jon mentioned about automatically aiming and shooting at enemies.

[Pneumatic]

They are in Unreal Tournament too. Obviously not as bad as Counter Strike, but they are there none the less.

What irritates me is when the punk is OBVIOUSLY cheating. Using the AimBot will make you move erratically. They stand there with the sniper rifle and "pop" from target to target. One frame of the game they are facing one direction and the next frame they are facing the opposite direction getting one headshot after another. I go into spectator mode and tell everyone where they are and what they are doing. Another thing I have done is tell them that I have their IP (even thought I don't) and they usually leave

What I have done is find servers that have the latest anti cheat patches and play there until some punk comes in. When they do I leave and go to the next one. I can honestly say I haven't seen a cheater in quite some time in UT.

The thing that bugs me the most is when they are obviously cheating then they talk trash at t he end of the game. It ruins it for everyone.

[Wombat]

Kindness, I know a few people that just can't play UT anymore either. A friend of mine was ranked #12 in the world when the first UT cheat came out. He couldn't go anywhere without being accused of cheating, even when he was using weapons that the aimbot didn't work well for.

[Hunsow]

I don't think that there are that many cheaters, some people are just very good, they play for hours every day and get very skilled. Some people just don't realize how good you can get. Cheaters are usually not that good, that's why they cheat. To prevent playing with cheaters simply join a clan, and play with other friendly clans.

[Wombat]

No, there really are that many cheaters. Especially in CS. There's no way that many people became that good overnight. The latest hack program just makes it too easy for them. I know the hitbox changes made the head too big, but these guys are shooting through walls. I do it too, but these fellows are immediately behind a wall, shooting at me (200ft away in open space) and getting headshots. And there are plenty of people using the respawn hack. I once had to kill a guy 5 times to end the round.

[Pneumatic]

Oh I know they are out there and I have NEVER accused someone of cheating that was just a really good player. People that have been playing for a while can tell the difference.

I can take a good ol' country whoopin' as well as anyone (ask Ace)

Ace and I were playing on a server one time and there was a guy that suddenly hit Godlike right after he popped out and back into the game. I couldn't figure out why I could hit him with a full 6 pack of rockets, TWICE and he wouldn't even lose the shield belt. He really kind of sucked but he had ops on the server and gave himself "God Mode". It's THOSE guys that tick me off. We left and found another server.


As long as there are online games there will be those that will ruin it by cheating. The trick is to not let it bother you and go find a place where there are honest players. Someplace like the MGI server............DOH ! That doesn't exist any more .

[Snake-Eyes]

Yep. That guy couldn't play worth squat, so he changed to God mode and followed everyone around til he finally got the kills. That's just plain lame (I assume he was trying to up his ranking in the ngWorldStats, but we didn't give him the chance to explain it).