Chapter 451: Cheating Epidemic?
Chen Mo tapped lightly on the table.
"First, do a quick sweep using the in-game mechanics. Any accounts with abnormal spikes in headshot rate, shooting accuracy, and other stats recently—freeze them first."
"The game has death replays and highlight reels. Give the customer service team the relevant permissions to manually review these reported accounts. If anything doesn't look like normal human play, freeze those too."
Su Jinyu nodded. "Okay, I'll arrange that right away."
Zheng Hongxi asked, "Is the freeze a permanent ban?"
Chen Mo shook his head. "No, it's a temporary freeze. Whether it becomes permanent depends on the follow-up situation. Also, temporarily disable the registration feature for *Overwatch*. At least for the next three days, no new accounts can be created."
Qian Kun hesitated. "Isn't that a bit much, boss? Our Thunder Game passes are all tied to ID numbers now."
Chen Mo remained firm. "Shut it down for now. There are plenty of online sources selling ID data. Anyone who wants to can buy a bunch of ID info—it's not secure."
"Alright." Qian Kun nodded. "But boss, these aren't long-term solutions. They feel like treating the symptoms, not the root cause."
Chen Mo nodded. "Yeah, I know. I've already asked the Game Committee. They said they're investigating and will get back to us soon. In the meantime, we'll use manual reviews to keep the impact under control."
Soon, everyone went off to their tasks.
This outbreak of cheating caught Chen Mo completely off guard.
In the parallel world, FPS games were a popular genre. *Wolf Soul* and *Blitz Assault* had been running for years, and there had never been reports of cheating on such a massive scale.
The parallel world was different from Chen Mo's previous life. With more advanced technology and an official body like the Game Committee regulating the market, cheating in FPS games had basically been eliminated. Even if a few players used cheats, they were quickly banned, never causing much of a stir.
In the parallel world, FPS games had moved from PC to VR platforms, but the core principles remained the same. During shooting, to ensure game performance, certain data had to be stored and processed on the client side, which gave cheaters opportunities to tamper with that data.
So, whether in his past life or this parallel world, FPS games were a hotbed for cheating. Though the specific methods and techniques differed, the underlying principles were similar.
On VR platforms, players cheated in two ways.
One was by using special programs to crack client data—reading or altering hidden game content through unconventional means to achieve effects like wallhacks or aimbots. This was essentially the same as cheats from his past life.
The other was through auxiliary devices. Since VR games relied on players' mental intent to control their view and shooting direction, certain devices could help players perform special actions.
For example, a player with clumsy hands and slow reactions might have only a 30% hit rate. With an auxiliary device, it could replace their original mental signals with more precise ones, making them react faster and hit more accurately.
This kind of device was similar to mouse macros from his past life. It didn't alter client data but corrected the player's actions, allowing them to pull off high-level moves more easily and mindlessly—essentially forcibly boosting their skill level.
In the parallel world, cheating had largely been eliminated, mainly due to technology.
On one hand, cracking games had become much harder. On the other, robust in-game detection systems had been established. If client data showed any anomalies, it would automatically trigger an alert. After verification, the problematic account would be frozen for investigation.
Game companies had always cracked down hard on cheaters. With VR games costing one to two thousand as a buy-in, getting caught cheating meant a permanent ban, and the account's linked ID number would be blacklisted by the Game Committee.
Of course, real cheaters didn't use their own IDs. But even so, the cost of cheating was relatively high.
So, while FPS games had seen some cheating before, it had never reached epidemic levels.
But after this outbreak, players were shocked to find that the old safeguards seemed useless.
The detection systems in *Overwatch*, *Wolf Soul*, and *Blitz Assault* hadn't flagged any client data anomalies. Even though the cheaters' stats clearly weren't normal, the system didn't trigger alerts, so it couldn't determine if they were cheating.
In other words, this was a brand-new type of cheat.
...
The Game Committee was also investigating the matter. After their technical team's findings came in, they informed Chen Mo immediately.
Clearly, this cheat's technology temporarily surpassed the Illusion Engine's capabilities, and it didn't modify client data.
Chen Mo understood that the parallel world was still in a technological explosion. Domestic and foreign technologies were rapidly iterating. Sometimes progress seemed to stall, but then a new breakthrough would suddenly emerge.
Obviously, this cheat was a byproduct of one such new technology.
Technological advances made anti-cheat measures more sophisticated, but cheat-making techniques also grew more refined. After a certain tech innovation, this new type of cheat quickly spread, moving from abroad into the domestic market.
According to the Game Committee's speculation, a foreign technological breakthrough had been exploited by cheat developers, leading to the creation of auxiliary devices targeting current FPS games.
These devices could partially modify players' mental signals. Due to their high technical level and lack of client data tampering, the in-game detection systems didn't trigger any alerts.
To permanently solve this cheating problem, they'd have to wait for technicians to crack it and update the in-game detection systems.
As for when that update would be ready? The Game Committee didn't have a precise timeline. This cheat was new to their tech team too, and they needed time to study it.
In the meantime, controlling the spread of these cheats fell to the game companies themselves.
Imperial Dynasty Interactive and Zen Mind Interactive were also conducting urgent manual reviews. Any players suspected of cheating were frozen.
With the system's detection mechanisms down, the only way to tell if a player was cheating was through the brute-force method of "manual review."
Of course, once confirmed, the ID numbers linked to those accounts would be blacklisted, preventing them from registering for any FPS games.
But this didn't help much, because over 90% of real cheaters didn't use their own IDs.
Online, there were plenty of gray-market channels to buy ID data. With a population of 1.3 billion in the country, and only tens of millions playing FPS games at most, cheaters could easily buy various ID info from the internet to register multiple accounts.
Some people didn't even know their ID data had been stolen.
So, using ID numbers to convict cheaters wasn't feasible. It only increased the cost for cheaters by blocking those IDs.