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Megageth

Coud ISP's Police Hacking?

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4 Comments
by
Megageth
, 30-05-2012 at 11:15 AM (13970 Views)
There has been a lot of debate recently on the subject of hacking in SA's BF3 community.
Recent PunkBuster bans have many cheering from the sidelines, but also wondering how deep the hacking goes and how to stop it.
Sure anti-cheat software like Punkbuster catch cheating players from time to time but what is to stop them from simply buying another copy of the game and creating a new nick? Nothing. We could simply let software like PunkBuster continue its course as it has done on previous titles, but honestly, is it effective by itself?

One idea is for SA's ISP's to step in. Idealistic? Yes.
How I would envisage this happening is as follows:
Every SA player wanting to play on SA game servers would have to register a unique nick through their ISP account. This would be linked to their IP address and ID that was used for registering with the ISP. The game servers would then allow 'members' only to play. Any game bans from anti-cheat software will carry onto the actual name of the perpetrator (or their parent) and be registered on a national database supported by the ISP's. A lifetime ban would be possible.

Those who have given the previous paragraph any thought will of course see a fly or two doing the backstroke in the ointment. Firstly, to be ranked in the case of BF3, servers have to be open to the public and enforcing a membership system contradicts that. The game developers would have to be on board to overcome this. Secondly, (aside from child pornography) the ISP's focus on an indiscriminate delivery of internet service. Its not in their primary interests to police an industry that should probably have its own countermeasures.
Thirdly, first time gamers would install their games and wonder why they aren't able to connect to SA servers. How would this membership system be advertised to the growing community?

Are there any steps that we as a gaming community can realistically take to enforce gaming integrity in South Africa?
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Comments

  1. Paul's Avatar
    Nice idea but do we want a police state? You need to look at it from a cost benefit view

    Cost - Money, organisation , time, delays, problems

    Benefit - No hackers


    Now the cost would be quite high (no specifically financially) so does the current hacking situation merit this? If 5% of the gaming population hacked then I would say no, if hacking was an epidemic and 50% hacked then I would say yes
  2. SlipperyDuck's Avatar
    Realisticly all we can hope for is improvements in preventitive measures like punkbuster and other counter-measure plung-ins - ISP's simply want to provide the connectivity and not get involved in the services. Mwen seems to be the only proactive gamer-aware ISP in the country.
  3. Megageth's Avatar
    If the ISP's were behind the idea the costs would be low. Database could be developed by a volunteer (free) and hosted by an ISP (free). The gaming server scripts would then reference the database much as GSC or whatever its called does for punkbuster. I am sure there are enough developers in the gaming community to get it working. Bomber might have some good ideas. The issue for me is not the % of gamers hacking at the moment, its that there are no consequences, even when they are caught. At worst they have to shell out for another copy of the game. The DGL has a 3 year ban which is fair I think for registered players but what about those not in the league?
    IMO Players caught hacking on public servers should be stuck on single player mode for a long time. Not just buy another copy, update the hax and be back online in a matter of hours.
  4. Stu's Avatar
    As other commentators mentioned you would have to have community wide buy-in and then approach the ISP's.
    There are certainly a large amount of complaints about hacking. Could this not be more prevalent due to the limited nature of our current environment. the fewer servers that are available the higher the likelihood we will come across a hacker or three?

    ISP Policing is a touchy subject but having a reportable tool that could be leveraged maybe the answer and then subsequently banning the users from accessing the said servers.

    This situation poses many questions but through continued dialogue solutions can be found.

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