[MUD-Dev] Re: Trusting the Client (Re: Laws of Online World

[Matthew R. Sheahan]

Vadim Tkachenko propagated a meme to the effect of:
> Here's next flamebite: okay, they cheat. So what? I remember a statement
> like "the fun is the paramount", so no matter what they do, they're
> having fun and as long as you don't lose your profits (presumed it's
> about a commercial MUD), you're fine.

cheaters have plenty of fun.  but as soon as there are cheaters, no one
else has any.  and once everyone else has left, the rush is gone for
cheaters, since there are no legit players to abuse.  (yes, there are
enough idiots in the world that battle.net Diablo survived for awhile
with nothing but twinks in "god-mode" running around trying to PK each
other.  that's not a viable target market.)

i played the aforementioned SubSpace once, and it didn't take me too long
to realize that those people i couldn't kill i COULDN'T KILL.  at which
point i uninstalled and never looked back.  it sounds like they've taken
steps to correct the problem; i'll never know for sure, though.

what happens when you allow cheating (which is what you're doing when you
treat the client as anything other than a display device) is that you're
changing your game from the one you're advertising into a game of who can
cheat better.  while this may be a fun game for those who want to play it,
those who want to play the game you advertised are out in the cold.

at this point, the consequences of trusting software that's in the hands
of the enemy are so well-illustrated that any new cases of this should be
prosecuted as wilful fraud.  WHEN YOU SAY YOU ARE PROVIDING ONE GAME AND
ACTUALLY PROVIDE A GAME OF BATTLING CHEATS, AND TAKE MONEY FOR THIS GAME,
THIS IS FRAUD.

tacit approval of cheating is at least as disgusting as cheating itself.

> And, the crackers play a positive role as well - I doubt your losses
> would be THAT bad if even you charge $20/hour, but they will definitely
> spot the weak links in your system, and ultimately you will thank them.

the people i'll thank for that are the people hired to do it.  little
scumbags who'd take their opponent's chess pieces off the board while they
weren't looking and then say "U SUK D00D I R00L!!!1!!11!!1!" can go play
in traffic.

								chiaroscuro