Cheating in online games are activities that modify the game experience to give one player an advantage over another player(s); depending on the game, different activities constitute cheating and it is often a matter of consensus opinion as to which particular activity or activities actually constitute cheating. Clive Thompson writes that "Johan Huizinga, one of the first big philosophers of ludology -- the study of play -- defined cheating as when you pretend to obey the rules of the game but secretly subvert them to gain advantage over another player."
Cheating reportedly exists in most multiplayer online games but is difficult to prove. The Internet provides players opportunity, means and methodology—through anonymity and resources—necessary to cheat in online games; however, darknets also provide access to cheat tools and methods.
Types of cheats
Lagging
By attaching a physical device (called a lag switch) to a standard Ethernet cable, a player is able to disrupt updates/communication from the server with the intent of tricking the game server into continuing to accept client-side updates (which remain unimpeded). 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 opponent-perspective, the player using the device may appear to be teleporting, invincible, have delayed animations or fast-forwarded game play (delivered in bursts), or simply find themselves losing to an invisible opponent. Some gaming communities refer to this method as tapping .
In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging refers to a player with a faster connection flooding an opponent(s) using a basic denial-of-service attack outside the game structure.
User settings
Typically, a player can change settings within a game to suit his or her preference, play-style and/or system; these alterations are considered cheating 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 and/or textures, increasing the field-of-view, turning off or limiting particle effects, modifying the brightness and/or gamma are considered cheating when set to extremes. Players may also create screen names consisting entirely of symbols, making it impossible to call a vote to kick or ban the player if the need arises, unless at least one of the key codes for the symbols is known.
Exploits
Main article: Exploit (online gaming)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 and/or dexterity/timing to use. Example dexterity/timing exploits include bunny hopping and texture-climbing in Quake. Even an official part of the series such as "skiing" in Tribes is considered an exploit by some, despite the fact that the developers embraced it. However, exploits are often considered cheating when they have an unbalancing effect, are used in an unintended manner or not intended to be feature.
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, 3rd-party 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 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.
Binding
Binding involves reassigning a key to the mouse wheel or any other key (CAPS-LOCK) or combination of keys that allows a player to issue commands at a faster rate than the expected physical limitation of the player pressing the default key configuration sequentially. For example, assigning the "fire" command to the mouse wheel allows a player to shoot faster (generally with weapons that fire at the same rate at which the user clicks) when compared to the default "fire" key configuration. This is a subset of the user setting cheat.
Aimbotting and Triggerbot
Main article: AimbotAn aimbot (sometimes called " auto-aim ", not to be confused with the built in auto aim in games like Metal Gear Online, which allows the user to only get body shots) is a type of computer game bot 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 and/or aim of the player. Some TriggerBots are blatant while others attempt to hide 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 second an opponent is in the cheaters crosshair.
Wallhacking
Main article: WallhackWallhacking allows a player to see through solid or opaque objects and/or manipulate or remove textures; when used in conjunction with an aimbot certain wallhacks allow the player to shoot through solid objects. 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.)
Removals
Removals allow the cheater to remove a game's inhibitors or annoyances. These include gun recoil, bullet spread, and visual effects. Such removals can severely 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 his 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.
Skin Cheats
Chameleon skins, cham-hacks or chams, replace player model textures with brightly colored skins, often neon 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 camouflage 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.
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. In military parlance, this is known as Battlefield Visualization and part of a larger trend toward Information Dominance .
Sharing
Sharing is when multiple people play using a singular character—mainly in MMORPGs -- 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 Maplestory, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft or Jagex's RuneScape specifically forbid it.
Spinbots
Spinbots alter the game so that play occurs on a rotated screen—upside down, sideways, diagonal, etc. Spinbots that cause the player to have more difficulty playing are rare; spinbots that present the user a normal view are more common but may still cause the player in-game model to spin extremely fast, disrupting the character model's hitbox and distracting other players. A different version of spinbot appeared in the Source Engine, called "Anti-Aim" which was used to move around and hinder the in-game hitbox of the player making him even more difficult to be hit.
Disconnecting
In games where wins and losses are recorded on a player's account, a player may disconnect when he or she has lost in order to prevent the loss from being recorded. A similar phenomenon is when a server operator boots an opponent or players who they do not support. Disconnecting is considered immoral, 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
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