|
Thursday, July 20, 2000, 14:04
The online gaming scene has its fair share of cheats.
Public server, as well as league admins do their best to
combat the cheaters to ensure everyone is on a level
playing field. It`s almost like a war out there where
you have the cheat creators and users on one side, and
the honest players who want to play fair on the other.
Cheating happens. Every game has its cheats, and
there are some people out there who make it their job to
use exploits in games to create these cheats. Cheating
is not a major problem, as games have their own
protections, and safe guards to stop them. New patches
are released to combat cheats, and so far the game
creators have won... most of the time. Cheating is
limited to console commands, using exploits or bugs in
the games or through extensive customisation of the
machine set up to allow the player to cheat. That`s as
far as it has gone until now...
Many of you who
know me or have read my column in the past know I am
101% against cheating. If there are ways to stop cheats
in games I go out of my way to find them, and help
others in the fight against cheats which harm the games
and most of all the games community. The large majority
of gamers feel the same way and will do their best to
ensure games remain cheat free.
Now take a look
at this:
[Quote from http://www.rivastation.com/index_e.htm
news page]
" Taiwan, Taipei
July 18, 2000: ASUSTeK Computer, Inc. announces its
new secrete weapon for AGP-V7700 and AGP-V7100 series
graphics cards the 3D SeeThrough TM technologies. ASUS
always provides the best value for our customers. Said
Jonathan Tsang, vice president of marketing and sales
division of ASUSTeK Computer Inc. The ASUS 3D
SeeThrough TM technologies are developed for users to
be a constant winner in the adventure or action 3D
games. There are three special weapons for ASUS VGA
cards` users Transparent View, Wireframe View, and
Extra Light. If you do not have an ASUS VGA card be
careful! Never compete in the 3D games with anyone who
has an ASUS VGA card. Because the only result is to
loose "
Rip away the babble
and you`ll see this:
[http://www.rivastation.com/index_e.htm
+ check top left news links. Select "ASUS for cheaters?"
for images showing the effects
below]
Transparent
view: The user presses a hot key to activate it,
which then allows them to see through walls, and other
objects.
Wire frame View:
Basically the same as the transparent view but allows
you to see through everything.
Extra
Light: Users can use Extra Light to define an
additional spotlight with self-defined direction, size,
colour, and brightness. It makes the 3D scene more
bright, clear, and colourful.
A cheat is simply
this:
" Cheat: act dishonesty
or unfairly to win profit or advantage; trick, deprive
by deceit -- person who cheats; deception
"
(Taken from the oxford
dictionary)
These drivers for the
AGP-V7700 and AGP-V7100 series graphics cards give the
user a huge advantage over the other players who will
play the games as they are meant to be played. Before I
go on the makers of these drivers released another press
statement:
[From http://www.barrysworld.com/news/www.riva3d.com]
" 1. The
Transparency Drivers are a feature that ASUS has been
exploring.
2. ASUS does not intend these drivers
to enable cheating in games, but to take advantage of
new technology and show the capabilities of the
technology.
3. If the drivers are released (and
that`s not a definite thing yet), ASUS may pursue
working with developers to ensure that this feature is
detectable so that online tournaments, etc., are not
affected in any way.
4. ASUS listens to the
feedback, and takes your feelings seriously when
considering features for their products. After all,
they ARE in the business to succeed...
"
In reply:
1. Only fair
to try new features
2. The fact is these drivers will
be used to cheat. To say they are only designed to take
advantage of new technology is plain silly. Give someone
the ability to press a button to see through walls and
obstacles in games, and they will use it. Imagine a game
of Quake3 online. Everyone is playing fair but one guy
has this card + drivers. He will have a huge advantage,
and will use it to cheat to win.
3. Nice idea,
impossible to do. I run a counter strike league (CS is
having a big problem with cheats at the moment), and I
do my best to ensure my league is cheat free. Now if a
handful of gamers had this 3d card + drivers there is no
way I could detect or stop it, nor anyway I could have a
tool to detect it`s use, no matter what the developers
claim "ASUS may pursue working with developers to ensure
that this feature is detectable".
4. If they are
truly listening then they will not release these
drivers, and forget the idea. (This column update is one
of many articles on the subject, and forums around the
world have hundreds of angry posts about these
drivers).
The bottom line is. Is this a PR stunt?
Will this sell more of their 3d cards, and make the
company more profits? Maybe, but this will defiantly
create a lot of negative feedback on the company and
damage online gaming more than any single cheat
currently out there ever could.
SAS
brought to my attention some bad news on Rivastations
web site. I like many other people play online games
and do not like people who cheat. Games like Quake3
have cheat protection built in that would stop a
newbie hacker even if not a hardcore hacker.
Cheats exist for games like Counter Strike
that make walls see-through and player models
brighter. Luckily this is considered cheating and as a
result any dedicated CS clan member would be unlikely
to consider using any cheats in case he was thrown out
of his or her clan.
However Asus the large PC
component manufacturer has come along and messed
everything up. A set of pre-release drivers written by
Asus, have appeared that allow you to see through
walls and increase the brightness of ANY game - not
just the earlier mentioned CS. This is bad news for
the online gaming scene.
Asus justifies the
drivers with there press releases, which SAS has
already quoted.
What we have here is a major PC
supplier willing to ruin all online gaming and
competitive play to ship some more of their graphics
cards. The trouble with these drivers and their press
release is that the Asus 7700 and 7100 are based on
the popular Nvidia GeForce 2 chipset. And since about
60% of us use graphics cards with Geforce chips on
them it would be extremely easy for anyone with an
Nvidia card to use these drivers.
Asus protect
their products by using a special BIOS on their cards,
but I have no doubt a hacked BIOS would appear almost
overnight allowing any Nvidia user to use these
drivers.
By Stoned
I wonder
what they think of this? Imagine all the hours John Carmack (id software) and
his team put into Quake3.
They even added a pure server option, which had the aim
of stopping players from abusing the game and cheating.
If these drivers are released all that work will be
wasted.
Other games like Tribes2, Teamfortress2 as well as the many
other games planned to be released. How would they feel
knowing there is a 3d card out there + drivers that
allow gamers to see through walls and basically cheat in
their games? They won`t be able to do a thing to stop it
if the drivers are ever released.
I just hope
someone or the mass of gamers can make the company see
there drivers are a bad idea.
If these drivers
are released or leaked I for one will boycott of ALL
asus products, as I`m sure will many honest gamers out
there.
Post your views here
on the forum.
email SAS
|
|
