Considering the average age of today’s gamer is approximately 37, you’d think inappropriate online behavior would be a relatively minor issue.
Unfortunately, as we all have experienced, this just simply isn’t the case.
And while the saying goes that cheaters never prosper, in the online gaming community it can definitely feel like cheaters certainly aren’t held accountable for their actions.
It’s a curious thing, the concept of behavior in online gaming communities. Time and time again I have heard the same opinion; that having purchased the game itself a gamer should be allowed to treat any other player online in the manner they see fit. After all, they paid for the experience-shouldn’t they be allowed to interpret and determine that experience in any way they want?
In a word, no.
In two words, absolutely no.
In multiple words- if you believe this you have serious anti-social tendencies and should probably volunteer somewhere- you are possibly a sociopath capable of murdering a neighbor because their dog pooped on your lawn once. You’re lacking empathy, a necessary emotion of the human experience, and as such are probably suffering socially and emotionally and I promise getting help or at least trying to understand another’s experience and sympathize with them will greatly improve your life.
But moving on.
This idea, that because you have purchased a game that you can do whatever you choose justifies cheating, bulling, and harassment and is not only morally detestable but incredibly logically flawed.
Apply this idea, that your personal investment justifies cruel irresponsible behavior, to any other situation and you will find why it rings false.
I bought a car, does that mean I should flip birds and honk and scream at any person I don’t like for random reasons (that they are attractive, that they are a different sexual orientation, that they have a nicer car).
I bought a gym membership, does this mean that if someone’s on the treadmill I want to run on that I get to stand next to them and verbally berate and antagonize them until they give me what I want?
No it doesn’t. Yes, you are capable of acting like a complete ass, but it isn’t socially acceptable and while there are those who participate in this kind of behavior (I got stalked off a treadmill just yesterday) we all recognize that these actions are rude and unacceptable- that if we all acted in such a way the world would be a miserable place full of even more road rage accidents and overly-competitive athletic dudes than it already is (and who wants to live in that world?)
Not to say that a person’s free will and speech will always be limited in as so far as it encroaches upon another individual’s free will and speech; in other words, once your positive experience becomes someone else’s unfair negative experience you have crossed the naughty line.
Which is why Rockstar Games‘ new “Cheaters Pool” is being celebrated by practically every non-cheating gamer out there. For the first time (since online gaming became a reality) cheaters will be offered up their own frustrating, infuriating medicine.
Just as a repeated offender of treadmill hogging will eventually get a talking to by the staff (if you can’t tell I’m still not over the treadmill incident) now those who cheat while playing Max Payne 3 online will face a delightfully appropriate form of punishment.
Not the first to take a stand against cheaters in the multiplayer midst, Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3 will be the first online multiplayer game that will weed out any player caught cheating and place them in a “Cheater’s Pool,” where a cheater will find themselves only able to play against other cheaters.
Of course Max Payne 3 is being diligently cautious about who gets placed in the “Cheaters Pool;” players must be confirmed as cheaters (“confirmed miscreants” as the developers call them) by actual evidence. And while Rockstar Games is encouraging players to report cheaters, a report must be made by email and include the gaming platform, the cheater’s Gamertag, description of the cheater’s violation and screenshot if available (according to games.yahoo/pluggedin).
To many this process appears potentially problematic, the idea that gamers will be moderating their peers can be a frightening thought. Considering that the “Cheaters Pool” has been created because the gaming community cannot moderate itself does little to recommend that we are capable of objectively weeding out cheaters.
However considering the criteria required for a cheater to be reported, I find it highly unlikely a large number of trolls would go so out of their way to destroy a competitor’s gaming experience (but then again I tend to be optimistic about the gaming community in general).
It’s certainly the greatest step forward towards self-sufficiency in the gaming community, considering the usual actions taken towards dealing with gaming cheaters.
Legal action, that is.
Until recently the only way video game developers and moderators dealt with repeat cheaters was through either banning small time cheaters or legal battles with those who were profiting financially from cheating schemes. In other words, going after the top dog cheaters who made cheating easier for everyone else and leaving the average cheating gamer (which make up the vast majority of online cheaters) relatively alone and unpunished.
Perhaps the most famous case of such a legal case was Michael Donneley v. Blizzard Entertainment.
In 2008 it was ruled that Michael Donneley’s bot, which allowed players to level up their World of Warcraft characters without ever actually having to play, was illegal and a case of copyright infringement. By selling a product that breached the Blizzard User agreement Donneley was not only cheating at World of Warcraft, but helping thousands of other players to cheat while lining his own pockets with upwards of 3.5 millions dollars.
Donneley was ordered to stop selling the software and pay World of Warcraft 6 million in damages.
But this is only one case of many. A quick Google search provides several cases in which a gaming company had put a stop a top-level cheaters, however in almost all of these cases it’s clear money was the ultimate instigator (the exception being World of Warcraft, famous for it’s thorough and determined usage of banning to discourage cheating).
Making Rockstar Games “Cheaters Pool” a lot of firsts in the gaming community; the first legitimately moderated way to report cheaters, the first that actively encourages gamers to take a hand in reporting repeat offenders, and the first to appropriately punish online cheaters with no promise of monetary compensation (not banning players, simply giving them a taste of what they do to others).
In short, this “Cheaters Pool” can hardly be viewed as anything but an innovative and excellent mode of dealing with cheaters.
It provides a level of punishment that can hardly be called severe. After all, the “Cheaters Pool” only forces established cheaters to play one another and experience the very frustrations they force on others- a fair form of justice if I do say so myself.
Here’s hoping that this drop of justice in the terrible sea of harassment that is the online gaming experience instigates a real change. I can only look forward to how successful (I hope!) Rockstar Games’ efforts will be, and how these achievements will prompt other gaming companies to follow suit in their dealings with cheating, bulling and harassment across all multiplayer games.
What do you think about Rockstar Games’ creative new way of dealing with cheaters? Or about cheaters in the gaming community? Let us know!
