Hackers: Why They Hack, and How They Kill Our Game
If you've played CS, you’ve had sureley had experience with hacks. That's how it is. From aimbots to wallhacks, you've seen it somewhere in a pub, and maybe even in a match. You've been headshotted in mid-air, through the most ridiculous wall, by a terrorist running around using an AK like it's a MAC-10. It happens, sadly enough, all the time.
Counter-Strike hacks are terribly one-dimensional. Every one is designed for one purpose: to compensate for human error. If you're the kind of gamer that I am, then you've played games like WarCraft II, Diablo, SimCity, etc. Enter in "you pitiful worm" in WarCraft II and you'll lose. You won't win. You won't receive 10000 gold and lumber. You'll immediately lose. What's the point of the cheat you ask? Well, there isn't one, really. It's about having fun. Cheats are meant to broaden the experience of playing the game, so the developers just included everything they could think of. "radio free zerg" in StarCraft plays a secret song sung by the overmind. But cheats in CS aren't like this—they're malicious. They're all designed to give you a competitive edge over other players, not to let you experiment with the game. In Diablo, if I got bored, I could find an editor, and hack an item to my heart’s content. I once had a ring that did -20 light radius and -20 to all stats. It didn’t make my game easier, it was just fun and ridiculous. But wallhacks and aimbots and whatever else CS players use are all the same in one important way: they make the game less fun for a lot of other people. As one of my interviewees said, "go cheat in other games like on consoles, and play multiplayer games straight."
We all know that hackers ruin our fun, though. The real question is, why are they ultimately so harmful to the game? It's not because they have an unfair advantage. It's not because they can get the same kills, but without the skills. It's because they create such an intense atmosphere of distrust among the players. The mere fact that hacks exist gives a player who was just killed an excuse as to why he died. Few people are ready to admit that there are quite a few people out there who are much better than they are, or happened to do the right thing at the right moment.
For instance:
Here's a common scenario I've found myself in several times. I'm an admin on a server or two, and it's my job to keep the game flowing smoothly, and get rid of the riff-raff. Unfortunately, I've made some mistakes about who exactly is riff-raff, and I've probably kicked or banned people who didn't actually use hacks. Sadly, I end up having to follow the basic philosophy, "getting rid of a few innocent people to get rid of the real ones is worth it." So, I have to accuse someone of hacking, get in a brief argument, get called a "fgt," and then kick the guy—whether I’m right or not.
This is the danger of hacks. I've used them. A few of my fellow writers and I hit up a private server with some hacks, used a few, and took some screenshots, so I could get an idea of what I'm writing about. I hated them. I played worse with them. Admittedly, there are those who do better with them, but considering the effort it takes to adjust to them and learn to hide them, I'd rather spend the time doing well on my own. Regardless, they didn't make me a better player. The only thing they did was spread the disease of distrust. You probably read that paragraph and thought "yeah right…bet he h4xed up a pub, and kept them on his comp, and keeps h4xin." Believe it or not, I reinstalled Half-life just to be sure that none of my files were affected, and changed my CD key to be double-safe. But there's the rub: you probably don't believe me, because our entire community is permanently suspicious—and, sadly, with good reason.
To help figure out why the hackers who create this distrust choose to hack, I asked as many as I could get hold of. I got varied answers. There are several types of convicted hackers:
1) The repentant. This hacker has openly admitted to using them and has apologized for his stupid mistakes. Unfortunately, because of that stupid mistake, he'll never be trusted again. People like this said that they did it because they were "young and stupid" or "just trying them out" and didn’t realize the pain they were causing in cheating someone else out of a win.
2) The resentful. This hacker was caught using them. He did it to get a heads up on the competition because he wanted to win. He gets mad when he's caught, and still tries to convince the world that he didn’t use them.
3) The comical. Embodied in people like [myg0t]g0d is this hacker group. They're people who hack because it's funny, or just because they can. They want to be the best hacker, for no other reason. They keep on hacking, and try to "stick it to the man" or whatever catch phrase you choose. I personally know several people who fit into this group.
Any person in group 3, who's hacking to have FUN in Counter-Strike, will be so over the top that he's either in a server that allows hacks, or is going to go from 0 to banned in record time. Most people use hacks to get a foot up over the competition. The majority of those I spoke to fell into group 2. They were caught hacking and were pissed about it. They're maliciously using scripts or client hooks in the hope that they can shoot someone through a wall when an admin isn't looking. These people are the reason none of us can play Counter-Strike anymore without wondering if that random person who just headshotted us while running is legit or not. They are the ones who have helped to cripple online CS.
In anything competitive, there will always be those people who will go to no end in order to obtain some sort of advantage over their opponent. From the legitimate methods of getting a good connection and decent computer gear to illegitimate methods like hacking the game code, all manners exist. Because of this, hacks will always be there, and the only thing we can do about them is fight back in the only way possible: practice and own it up. My clanmates can headshot through me through walls and columns, and all they'll hear from me is "DAMN! Nice shot!" Play with people you trust, and you’ll always have a fun game.