alt Hacker NewsCheating is ultimately a human problem. You can have some safeguards and heuristics like the ones the article describe, to weed out 90% the most blatant cheaters, so I think anticheats like these are fundamentally a good thing. But the anti-cheat can and should err on the safe side because ultimately it should be the players and admins themselves that sort this out.
Online multiplayer games must (yes must) take place on servers with human admins. Admins should be present for a majority of the time any players are playing.
Ideally with admins the players recognize. Bonus points if players themselves can perform some moderation when no admin is present (votekick, voteban etc). There is no difference between kicking cheaters and kicking people who are abusing chat etc. Obviously this means that "private" or "community" servers are the only viable types of server for online multiplayer games.
This process of policing cheaters and other abuse can not be something that is done via a reporting system and handled asynchronously. Kicking/banning must be done by the admins of the game, and it must be handled quickly.
If you are considering buying/playing an online multiplayer game and it doesn't have this functionality (e.g. the only way to play online is via matchmaking on servers set up by the publisher, and the only way cheaters and chat abusers are policed is via some web form) then please, avoid that game. Vote with your wallet.
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> Online multiplayer games must (yes must) take place on servers with human admins. Admins should be present for a majority of the time any players are playing.
> Ideally with admins the players recognize.
Let's just make each game have a visible referee that is visible to everyone, and then after each infraction, the play can be reviewed under a video assistant. They can even have a group that does nothing but moderates the referees.
Or, we could just have games
Why do you think human admins are the only viable solution? Plenty of games thrive without them—e.g., Apex Legends uses robust reporting and anti-cheat systems, and Rocket League's moderation is largely automated yet effective.
I agree for the most part, there are other ways, like a phone number, manual verification with a photo, require players to play 10hr before they can play competitive, have a recommendation from other players, etc, or even a pay-once 5 dollars game pass on top of all those things.
Although I recommend you to watch the valve presentation of AI anti cheat if you did not already. Their work is quite interesting, and they claim they catch 99% of cheaters.
Although obviously there are also very subtle ways to cheat, too.
> Online multiplayer games must (yes must) take place on servers with human admins.
The sheer scale of this arbitrary requirement is hilarious.