Digital Economy Blog – Innovation in video games: the example of anti-cheat systems

2023-07-05 19:24:46

Video games embody a playground for innovation. This is a rapidly expanding field, which can be explained by the desire of developers to push back the current limits, and to improve the player experience or even the graphics of video games with the aim of satisfying millions of players. However, the development of new technologies has made it possible to focus on anti-cheat systems which particularly concern online games called ” battle royale ».

Battle Royales: perfect targets for intensive cheating

Battle Royale type games are the perfect target when it comes to cheating system. Indeed, they have the advantage of being particularly popular, and make it possible to obtain great visibility on an international scale, where cheating would easily make it possible to stand out. Moreover, it is an extremely competitive field, where the competition is such that to be classified, it is necessary to count tens of hours of play per day. For example, on the video game Apex Legendsto be classified Predator, you must not only win enough games, but also continue to play so as not to lose the points won and maintain your level. Cheating systems then make it possible to have a particularly high level, in that these systems concretely make it possible to considerably improve everything that characterizes an excellent player, namely a vision through walls, vision from the point of view of a another player or even have a high precision shot, an improved version of theaim assisteither self-love (automatic).

Cheating systems are beneficial for those who use them: better place in the rankings, better general level, success and rapid ascent. In addition, the systems on which battle royale type games are developed are particularly complex multiplayer servers, which makes it difficult to detect any cheats. Nevertheless, major gaming institutions and major licenses have long considered the issue of cheating in the field of video games and have invested in the development of anti-cheat systems.

An intensification in terms of systems research anti-cheat

The scourge of cheating on multiplayer games is a problem that many publishers and developers have decided to address. For example, Activision has developed Ricochet, software applied to the famous video game Call of Duty, which considerably limits cheating. Early experiences with the software were promising, although methods on the cheater side soon found ways around this software. However, in April 2023, the developers updated the Ricochet software. The latter can now not only detect but also automatically ban all players who use hardware that would automatically target opponents. These cheat detection techniques come from new technologies, which not only make it possible to analyze the behavior of players, which consists of analyzing movements, reaction times, accuracy of shots, to determine whether or not there would be a cheat software, but also thanks to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Indeed, thanks to automatic learning techniques, the systems developed make it possible to analyze a large quantity of data related to the game in progress to identify any cheating pattern and to point out behaviors that seem suspicious.

At the same time, many major players in the world of gaming are developing software that would quickly counter cheaters and adapt to their evolution, such as Epic Games, which have implemented a policy of automatically banning players who use these hardware. , which was quickly followed by Ubisoft. However, the fight remains constant, in that it is a battle in terms of innovation between the developers who are invested with the mission of considerably improving the cheat detection systems, and those who have the mission of circumvent these systems.

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