Ever since we covered how Epic Games sued a Fortnite cheater and forced him to apologize on a video, I’ve been thinking again about how the games industry deals with cheaters. Epic is probably an extreme example. Most games will just quietly suspend or ban offenders. Occasionally, we’ll get a team that posts a headcount of banned cheaters, maybe even a list of anonymized names, if it’s feeling particularly salty about it and really wants to show it’s Doing Something about the cheating problem.
For example, back in February, CCP Games announced that it would be disciplining any EVE Online player caught exploiting by firing ship weapons from inside forcefields. But the punishment as laid out in the TOS is pretty vague. CCP can legally ban you. But will it? Not all studios will; Amazon, for example, is constantly dealing out suspensions for things I thought deserved a hard ban. The companies are always going to be torn on this because they don’t really want to shed more customers than necessary.
How should MMO studios punish cheaters? What level of offense deserves a flat ban vs. some other form of punishment?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
