Cheating at online multiplayer games is just petty. If you do, you’re an asshole. I could probably end the story right there with a universal truth, but Activision’s anti-cheat team, Team Ricochet, needs to be a little more proactive when dealing with online cheatersCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 matches. And how: the developers have implemented a new system called “hallucinations”, which will show cheaters (and only cheaters) “ghost” enemies who will waste their time and make them mere ducks for less horrific players.
The system is outlined in a patch update (spotted by PC gamer). Hallucinations are indistinguishable from real online players, because they are essentially a copy of a real player’s avatar, moving elsewhere on the map. They even present themselves as “real” to tools that hackers use to spy on other players like wallhacks. The hallucination will appear in front of the trickster forcing him to engage with it, wasting valuable time and ammo. Game managers can even use the hallucination system to detect suspected cheaters, dropping one in front of them in an active game. Since the hallucination is only visible to players using hacking tools, if the player interacts with the fake, he is cheating.
The developers have a long and storied history of bungling players who decide to either ruin the multiplayer experience for everyone else, or pirate the game and rob them of a meal or two. Detected cheaters will often be “quarantined” on servers full of other cheaters, only offering them desserts. In Runescapedetected bots have been sent to aa Penal colony “Botany Bay”. for trial and punishment by other players. GTA online players who cheat to import cars from the single player online game will be blown to smithereens the moment they jump into the driver’s seat, and those who download a pirated version of Crisis Header they will find theirs guns shoot chickens instead of bullets.
But my favorite example of developers messing with bad guys comes from Game development tycoon. If the game detects that it is a pirated copy, try selling the games as files virtual the game developer suddenly becomes much more difficult, like virtual the pirates start stealing copies of the virtual games you are developing. Ultimately your pretend company inevitably fails in an object lesson in the real-world effects of video game theft. Pure poetry.
