Anti-cheat should be standard in multiplayer games, not something publishers brag about

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As a gamer, there’s nothing much worse than playing a competitive multiplayer game and getting destroyed because some loser on the other team paid for a bunch of cheats.

They see you through walls, kill you instantly with perfect aim, and sometimes just become completely invincible. Playing a competitive multiplayer game without any anti-cheat software can turn into a pretty terrible experience quickly.

That being said, plenty of high-profile competitive games, mostly shooter titles, continue to be released without anti-cheat or barely-passable anti-cheat. With no protection from mass-produced cheat programs, and can become near impossible for game studios to control the bunch of neckbeards that have nothing better to do than spend hundreds of dollars to get fake wins in video games.

It’s quite amazing to think about some of the massive titles that are being produced these days with seemingly no plans to take care of cheaters. And some developers and publishes have begun bragging about anti-cheat, turning it into a selling point of sorts.

Massive AAA games have cheaters running rampant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXnC9gAVDUo

Huge titles, like Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone, have been crippled with cheaters in the past, and the response from the companies has taken way too long. Call of Duty: Warzone has been crippled with cheaters since the game came out, and it has finally begun to take a toll on the game’s popularity.

Once the consistently most popular title on Twitch, Call of Duty: Warzone has seen its numbers fall drastically over the last couple of months as a result of way too many cheaters. And this is Call of Duty we’re talking about here. It’s probably the most popular FPS franchise ever with a massive competitive scene. It was only after those players started to quit playing that Call of Duty announced its new anti-cheat efforts that will be coming alongside the new Call of Duty: Vanguard.

As for Destiny 2, its journey is even worse. This is a game that came out in 2017 with a lot of undelivered hype (I have a personal issue with the game, as I was insanely excited but disappointingly underwhelmed, but that’s a whole different story.) And it also happens to be another FPS that doesn’t have an anti-cheat.

Keep in mind Destiny 2 has many game modes where you’re playing against another team. They even have one of the coolest competitive mode concepts in Trials of Osiris, a mode where you have to win seven games in a row to reach an area with elite rewards.

What has the potential to be a really cool, really competitive game mode is ultimately spoiled by rampant hackers and cheaters looking for easy wins. Destiny 2 has also decided that now, after four years, is a good time to add a real anti-cheat system with BattlEye.

It’s time to make anti-cheat the standard in games

Now, I’m not going to claim that I’m great at any of these FPS games and I personally don’t have a lot of experience with hackers in games with skill-based matchmaking. But I spend a lot of time watching streams on YouTube and Twitch and I see how frustrating it can be for better players who just want a fair playing field.

I’m also a big Escape from Tarkov fan. Escape from Tarkov is a survival FPS game, and it also has its fair share of hackers. The maps are massive, and I can remember several times where I was killed by a gun I never heard shooting from hundreds of yards away through a wall that I know they shouldn’t be able to see through.

Experiences like this can and do take people straight out of a game. There’s nothing more frustrating than doing everything right but still getting punished because of loser hackers on the other end.

It’s time for developers to prioritize anti-cheat for any type of competitive game. Games like Valorant and Fortnite have proven that anti-cheats are possible and effective, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t exist as a standard in any AAA competitive FPS on the market.

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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.