So we have williebobc, someone many of us know as a fun, respectable HoQ admin. Some of us also know him as a horrible quadrunner, sharply contested by own powerup ordeals, but thats another subject.
I, for one, would hate to see him go. There are many reasons for this. The primary one being that he's a cheerful fellow, but almost as importantly because it is based upon experiences with cheaters.
Most, if not all of us, have experienced cheaters in Quake Live, knowingly or unknowingly.
I say this without a single doubt because I'm quite sure there are more than enough of them out there. They know they can abuse it because of the lack of automated anti-cheating measures, and they know how to conceal it from the unkeen eye.
What I want to express in this column, is the concerns I have about players regrettably saying they are considering quitting the game.
So, quitting the game. You've asked yourself why you should do what they are practically enforcing on you, with their cheating, and yet in the end you come to the conclusion that the game is corrupted enough as it is.
There is no point in continuing to humor the cheaters that, undoubtedly, are a festering abscess on the face of this game.
This is not just any game. It's Quake. A game series that is supposedly dying, due to the lack of a consistent and 'large enough' playerbase.
A game series that is seemingly forlorn by the mainstream masses in favor of 'realistic' shooters, MMO's, and Angry Birds.. And some game involving crafting two stars, I think.
Quitting because of wallhackers and autoshooters and so on is in every way a cowardly move.
don't get me wrong here though, I firmly believe that leaving the trolls be, ignoring them completely is the way to go, but the last, ultimate step, which is that of quitting the game entirely, is a step too far.
I like to think of it this way:
Like back in the schoolyard where the bully(s) and the victim(s) are confronting; leaving the trolls be, ignoring them is good, making them rage more that no one wants to entertain their ego, or play seriously with them at all.
At any rate, this makes them feel even more bored and subsequently they either stop using the hacks entirely, quit the game themselves, or - worst case scenario, but quite possibly also the most common scenario - start using their cheats more obsessively in an effort to make others rage.
The latter makes them prone to being busted, which, in turn, gives us - the honest players - the opportunity to record them, report them, and have them banned. Also known in schoolyard terms as speaking with the adults.
With that said, on the other hand we have the situation where people start leaving the schoolyard(or school, whatever) giving ourselves no pleasure of playing with the other kids when the bully isn't around, because obviously the bully - cheater - is not and most definately can not be in every corner of the playground.
This ultimately gives the bullies the victory, because they successfully trolled everyone out, leaving the playground for themselves, in turn granting them the sense of power.
The saying goes "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" and such is the case of the bullies/cheaters: When they are done ridding the game of honest players, all thats left is them hacking against each other like mad, and thus they have a place in which they can dwell.
The only positive thing that potentially COULD come out of this, is that these cheaters quit the game themselves entirely, and move on to fucking up the experience for others in some other game and what not.
At this point the honest players can return to play honestly once more. This however is the approach they possibly expect, as most of the cheaters seek their unfair victories excessively, and thus will return to fuck it up in the game again.
The best possible course of action, in my opinion, is to stay with the game, provided of course that you like the game as it is, excluding the occasional experiences with cheaters.
Have you found an obvious cheater while spectating? Aimbotting is the most obvious, but tracking through walls consistently, suggesting wallhacking, is somewhat obvious as well. Record it.
Send the demo to
support@quakelive.com and have faith that they will look into it as soon as possible.
Are you playing against someone you deem suspicous but is not immediately obvious?
Don't accuse him. This can turn bad real fast. Instead, record a demo, talk to someone with editing or merely Wolfcam skills. ESR is a good place to start, but IRC on Quakenet (on channel #quakelive) has sufficient Wolfcam users that are willing to help, too.
Ask him to see if he can recognize some suspicious moments in the demo(s). Ask him for timestamped points and take a look at what he 1: re-recorded from your demo, or 2: captured to .avi, which he thought was suspicious himself.
Consider the demo or recording that this person made some more, and make sure you didn't merely act rashly because you got owned in the game.
If you're sure in your case, send the link or attach the demo/recording in an email to the above adress, have faith once again that they will look into it, and move on.
If you post the recording to youtube, it is probably best to not make the link public. Instead make it private, and when a good amount of time has passed (assuming they look at your email and deem it necessary to smash the banhammer) you can make it public.
This is because of the policy id software has on pointing players out in public.
Have you found a very highly suspicious player while spectating him? This could be concealed use of wallhacking, or even autoshooting with rail and so on, which both can be concealed in the hands of an "experienced" cheater.
Once again do not accuse, but rather record the demo, send it to the above email and move on.
To sum up in as few words as possible: Stay in the game for crying out loud. Don't let the cheaters get to you, and certainly do not turn to cheats yourself in an effort to get revenge. And most importantly, don't get paranoid.
It's easy to become paranoid with the amount of blatant cheaters out there, but don't let it get to you. Rather, enjoy the matches and /quit immediately if you are not enjoying your game.
Good day to you all.
![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
