[MUD-Dev] TECH: Trusting Network Clients

[brian hook]

From: Crosbie Fitch
> From: Nicolai Hansen
 
>> I would never trust any client to keep control of game sensitive
>> things.  It WILL be hacked, and someone WILL give themselves
>> unlimited hitpoints :)
 
> I'd be suspicious that players who felt slightly miffed at paying
> for a game, may feel justified in rectifying their value for money
> by cheating.
 
> If the majority of players aren't cheaters, doesn't this then
> imply that the client is not necessarily in the hands of the
> enemy?  The enemy is not the 'fair player', but the reprobate, the
> bitter, the immature, the cheater, etc.

The client isn't definitely in the hands of the enemy, but you have
to ASSUME that it is in the hands of the enemy.  The vast majority
of Everquest players are not cheaters, but that very minor
percentage of cheaters can really ruin the enjoyment for other
players by simply existing.
 
> Is there a way of creating a game (in the holistic sense) such
> that an extreme majority (90%) of players are fully inclined
> towards fair play, despite opportunities to cheat?

If it is an achievement oriented game, then this is doubtful.  But
more relevantly, even if achievement oriented players won't cheat,
it belittles their own advancement if other cheaters manage to
accomplish achievements faster and more gloriously than the legit
players.

> I'm wondering if all this talk of MMOG community building isn't
> simply a better way of exploiting the players from a profit based
> motive.

I think it's a bit of a reach to correlate "desire for fairness"
with "desire to exploit players for profit".

> players feel peeved that their work in terms of play and
> socialising (role play, guilding, etc.) is simply being sold back
> to them, i.e. they're not just being sold the infrastructure and
> environment?

You're mistaking "play" for "work".  These games are entertainment,
the players aren't "working" to build things for the people that run
these MUDs or MMOGs, they are paying for a service that _allows_
them to do these things, presumably because they enjoy it.
 
> If you can create a game in which at least 90% of players quickly
> desire, and come to cherish their identity, then you have a game
> in which the client is not in the hands of the enemy.

Assuming that your premise is that "healthy" 90% won't cheat, that
still leaves the other 10% that will.

> I find it difficult to believe that of the people who spend so
> much of their time playing a game that it's only a few who believe
> in fair play.

What percentage of people are career criminals?  Not very many, of
course, yet we have laws and procedures specifically designed to
keep criminals from ruining the days of law abiding citizens.

One criminal in a crowd of 100 can still piss off 99 other people.
If you are put in a position of authority such that the other 99
people EXPECT and DEMAND that you root out and punish/ostracize
those criminals, then you need to have policies and technology in
place to allow that.

Telling the other players "ignore the cheaters, it doesn't affect
you" isn't a solution.

> The player is not the enemy!

No, but _a_ player can be the enemy, and that is what a MUD/MMOG
operator has to be prepared to deal with.  Because it only takes one
enemy to ruin a game for everyone else.

-Hook



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