Times have changed since gaming was considered fair for everyone. A long time long ago, before the internet gave birth to online gaming, a select few would go head-to-head over the telephone via the modem (something few remember today). Besides the occasional dial-up match, things would be fair since you would be in the same room as your challenger.
Competitive gaming has taken a turn for the worse in some cases. Don’t get me wrong; I love online gaming, I’m always using things like overwatch boosting to help me progress quickly within the game. It makes it much more enjoyable to play! Nowadays people resort to lag switching and other lag paddling devices to prove they are winners when they are really the biggest losers. The sportsmanship once found in gaming is long gone, and a new breed of competition has been born. Cheating has always existed, but never to this extent.
There was a time when competitive gaming meant proving yourself by skill, not ego. It also meant both players would square off on equal turf without any tampering. When I was growing up in the city, we use to have places called Arcades (which are scarce in many areas today). The crowds that used to surround a popular coin-op – and the excitement of the competition – still exceeds the online gaming experience. Back then before online gaming, you knew your opponent didn’t have any tricks up his sleeves. I can still remember all the time I spent playing the first Mortal Kombat and the long lines I had to wait in just to have my turn. Nothing will ever beat the feeling that overwhelms you when you prove your skills as a gamer and your competitor is left eating crow.
Those days are long gone. The new age of online gaming is upon us, cheat or be cheated; you have either stooped to their level or you feel cheated. There is no real way to combat them and there is no way to completely win. We could always go with the flow and just ignore this growing problem in online competitive gaming, but why should we? This isn’t something a paying customer should have to endure, nor should any company.
Just recently Zipper Interactive decided to fight lag switching (a technique that alters your connection to guarantee wins in a FPS shooter) with their newest FPS title, Mag, for Playstation 3. The proper steps have been taken to fix the cheating with a patch. This was the right step in the right direction, and it’s about time that gamers were freed from being hostages in what appears to be an online war just to have fun. This isn’t to say that the industry at large isn’t addressing the issue because I am sure it is.
Cheating (especially in FPS) has been spreading like the plague these days, destroying the experience for every honest gamer it comes in contact with. Things don’t have to be this way; If someone can make a device to create lag in games to rack up kills then there is a way to undo it or even kick those people from the game itself.
This is not a cure-all, but there should be a Punk Buster app developed for console usage. This seems to cut down on cheating in the PC world of gaming. Not sure if it would work in this certain case, but something of this stature couldn’t hurt.
Nothing is guaranteed or fool-proof, but there is nothing wrong with having a little extra added security to help keep things under control. Something is better than nothing. At least now companies know there is a real problem on the rise and they are beginning to make headway on it. Cheating is an ever-growing problem that will never really go away, but it will always need addressing. Cheating running rampant in a game is like a company with bad customer service; nothing good ever comes from it.
