🚀 go-pugleaf

>Most of the time there's two sides to the argument -- or two ways of
>playing -- but the fact remains that some gamers feel multiplyer games
>played over the Internet can be ruined by players who don't 'play by the
>rules' as it were.
>
>What I would like to know is:
>
>* What games do you feel have been affected by this so far?


Diablo (note: the pk'ing was a nuissance, but it was the outright
cheating/hacking that made it really bad)
Ultima Online (player killing and stat macro-ing)
Most RTS games suffer from early rush tactics

>* What games do you see being affected in future?

Any RTS game
Any adventure style game containing significant rewards/penalties for
killing other players/being killed by other players (unless, of course, that
is the whole point of the game :)

>And:
>* What do you do to decrease the chance of this happening? Are there
>certain strategies, game configuration parameters, chat zones or methods
>of game hosting you use to minimise the chances of letting 'bad' players
>into or affecting your games?

* unless it is specifically the object of the game, minimize the rewards and
penalties of players killing other players.

* let the game creator allow/disallow player killing

* in RTS games, increase "peon" unit strength/armour.  or give every base
some built-in defense mechanisms.

*significant time must be spent on making the game as 'hack-proof' as
possible


-Richard Moss