Flaming / Crying / QQing

Flaming is something related to hacking as it is very common to call other players "hackers" or "noobs". First, I'l say what flaming is.

If you flame then you complain - usually without a reason - about another player. So you tell him that he's a $&/§" cheating noob that has no skill. That's it basically.

If you flame then you show the other player: "I don't respect your skill." Therefore I'd consider it as being unfair. If you feel that someone is hacking, then don't start to write it. Wait a few rounds, and if you are sure that he is cheating, then say it once. Maybe others see that as well. And always remember: The other team has better chances to see whether someone is cheating or not as they can switch into the view of that person. SO just ask whether they can have a closer look on a possible cheater.

If you feel that you have to flame now, then you should take a brake and stop playing for half hour or so. Just shut down your PC, go outside and walk with the dog or stuff like that. If you stay in-game, then your anger will just grow and you will either go mad or flame.

What to do against hackers?

There are several things you can do in almost every game to fight hackers / cheaters. First, you should ask whether someone can kick him out of the game by votekick. This works in games like CrossFire or WarRock. But be aware: don't spam or flame as this won't help and will probably result in others not to kick the hacker because they think you are just a "QQing noob".

On the other hand, if you are sure someone on your team is hacking: Kick him. You should always be sure that the person you kick is cheating for real. It is neither good to kick out a legit player just because someone else said he were cheating.

If you caught a hacker, then report him! It is best if you can take screenshots and/or video material of the cheater. In games where you can save the full game as a replay (e.g. Crossfire) you can use this and send it to the company running the game. The support team will usually check your proof and bann the cheater if possible.

You can even go beyond this: Find out where the hacker downloaded his cheat and report the source file. But you should NEVER EVER download those files! They can contain viruses and your game account might be BANNED if a hacktool is found on your PC! Anticheat software like HGW or PunkBuster checks your PC for detected hack tools!
But e-mailing the link of a possible hack tool does help to get that hack detected fast, do it if you can!

How to detect them?

Detecting hacks can be very easy - but also very difficult. Easy hacks are superjump or speed for example. It is not problem to see those hacks. Hacks regarding shooting, so for example no reload or multishooting are also quite easy to detect, although that's a little bit more tricky.

For those hacks you have to be able to hear sound. It works best if you can switch into the view of an enemy, e.g. if you play Search and Destroy and can switch the sight after death. If you don't recognize a break while shooting or hear multiple shots at once, then he's a hacker. Pretty easy, right?

Then there are those difficult hacks that are sometimes easy and sometimes impossible to detect. Aimbots or chams hacks are that kind of hack tool. If the cheater knows how to hide it, then you won't find out that he cheats. But otherwise, it'll end in the very common flame wars: "Blah you noob you use aimbot!". And those flames are very common, that's why it is so difficult to get a REAL aimbotter or chams hacker out of the room - you'd more then like kick a legit player.

Wondering what chams etc. are? http://fairplay-gaming.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-kind-of-hacks-do-exist.html

What kind of hacks do exist?

In my last post I explained what hacking is. Now I'll come to the kind of hacks that players can use and what they are good for. You will see: The possible hacks go far, far beyond the usual mentioned ones. I'll say which hacks are famous first.

• Aimbot

Probably the most famous hack. If you have this activated, then you don't need to aim anymore. The PC does that for you now. You only have to shoot if you see a target. Many aimbots feature a "only aim if press key" option so you still have a free moving camera with having aimbot active. Aimbotters are pretty annoying as you have almost no chance to win a 1on1-situation. If you know for sure that there's an aimbotter inbound, then attack him in groups. Make sure that at least one player with good aim stays far away from the cheater and kills him fast. Aimbots usually kill close targets first.

• Chams / GPS

Chams make other player visible through walls. That's a very basic hack and it is unfortunately available for almost any game. It doesn't give that great advantage either as you just know where your enemys are. Still, in the right hands it can be pretty deadly. Further, you can't do anything special against chamsers. Just relay on your aiming skill and shoot him in the head before the cheater is able to so. 

GPS is a very common expression for "chams". But GPS are much more difficult to code and almost never exist as those kind of hack doesn't help more than a simple chams hack does. You have a minimap active where enemys show up with red dots usually. It'd need the hacker to focus on both the minimap and the gameplay which makes it actually harder to use than chams. That's why almost no hack includes GPS, still, many players call others "GPS hackers".

• Superjump / Speed

That's a hacker I encounter very often. It is quite hard to code and many games successful block superjumpers and speed hackers, still, they do exist. In CrossFire's recent hack wave, many speedhackers appeared. Further, WarRock has a permanent problem with jumpers and speeders.

The hack works like it says. You can jump very high and / or run very fast. It isn't that effective if used without another hack, but compared with an aimbot it's deadly. Further, it is quite funny for players to use (as hackers claim, I asked some). 

Those were the most famous hacks actually. In my next post, I'll say something about weapon hacks. This is an interesting topic in my opinion as weapon hacks are the only illegal hacks that currently exist.

The First Theme: Game Hacking

So my first 'big' topic will be game hacking. That is a very famous problem especially in the Free-to-Play gaming scene, but also other games are effected, as example Call of Duty

First I'd like to say that hacking is literally the wrong term. You do not hack in games like you would hack a website or a network. You just do what you'd call cheating in offline games: You start flying, you have unlimited ammo or health, you see enemys through walls. You might wonder now why it's called hacking, then. The creators of the hacks bypass the anti-hack system that many games have. So they do the same as "big" hackers do when hacking a website: They look for mistakes in the system and use them to get their programm through and allow players to use it.

For the hack creators it's mainly a business: Almost all hacking websites do offer VIP hacks. You have to pay money for them. Game hacking is not illegal at the moment, unless you hack something that other players couldn't get without paying money.

And why is hacking bad? You gain an advantage. Whether it's big or not doesn't matter, by the way, that always depends on the used kind of hack - but I'll come to this later. If you use cheats, then you have higher chances to win then legit players have. Further, you destroy the game's fun usually as it is pretty annoying if you get owned by a flying superman with unlimited ammunition and health.

In the following blogposts I'll explain what functions of hacks exist and I'll also say what you - as a legit player - can do to stop hacking. Sounds interesting? Then subscribe to my blog!