Mirsad Capric - Group C
Article – The War on Cheating
Inside Punkbuster
With the boom of the technology age at its peak all subsidiaries of it also are at an all time high. For example, high-speed internet and with high-speed internet game the boom on online gaming. However, this is not your ordinary gaming community. These are serious players, or gamers, who take the game they play very serious since it showcases their skill in a game that is wildly popular. If you asked one of these gamers what is the number one problem in online gaming you will most likely get the response, “Cheating.” Ask a technology insider what the solution is he will probably respond with “Punkbuster”[1]
How does Punkbuster curb cheating? Quite simply, it uses both the client and server methods. When you play an online game in which Punkbuster is in use Punkbuster will monitor your game settings to assure that they have not been tampered with in order to produce cheating. They also have server administrators who set-up suitable gaming settings and if players are in breach of the settings then they can be removed from the server. In order to properly monitor online gaming communities for cheats Punkbusters staff researches cheats in cheat communities so that they can scan for those cheats that will be coming out. Of course with new technology there always comes a disadvantage. The disadvantages that are known in Punkbuster are its lag time that it adds to online gaming and the false reports that Punkbuster may put out an innocent user. In defense, the company says that lag time is only a problem in modem connections, which will always happen at a slow speed. Also, false reports are only hardly known to happen and get taken care of with relative quickness.
So how effective has Punkbuster been in the fight against online cheaters? Tony Ray, founder of Even Balance, which distributes Punkbuster, says that it is as effective as it can be since the internet is full of anonymity. Ray also adds, “Once players can no longer ‘hide’ on the Internet and just change their playing identities at will, then we will see another jump in effectiveness.”[2] Will this be the end of online cheating? Probably not; however, it will curb online cheating severely.
Works Cited
GFO Feature: The War on Cheaters –
Punkbuster.
2004. <http://www.gameforceone.com/fp/pb.shtml?