1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And in the last 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: episode on this topic, I talked about the early days 6 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: of cheating in video games and the two really big 7 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:33,320 Speaker 1: subdivisions of cheats in games in the early to mid 8 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: eras of video games. So, on the one hand, you 9 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:40,559 Speaker 1: have cheats that were inserted into games by developers. These 10 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: were intentionally included, not at first. This was primarily to 11 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: allow developers to navigate through games quickly during the development 12 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: process in order to check code and make sure the 13 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: game is working properly without having to worry about actually being, 14 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: you know, an expert at the game yourself, Like you 15 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: want to make sure that stuff was posible, but you 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: might not want to have to manually try and make 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: your way through a game in order to test the 18 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 1: specific part you wanted to look at. So developers would 19 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: often you know, create these codes that would let them cheat, 20 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: essentially to to bypass a lot of the stuff in 21 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: the game, and often they would leave these cheats in 22 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 1: the finished game rather than go in and clear out 23 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,200 Speaker 1: all that code, essentially thinking well, who's going to find 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,399 Speaker 1: this anyway, and eventually that information made its way out 25 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 1: to the game playing public. This later evolved into cheats 26 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: that developers would include in order to actually reward players 27 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: with easter eggs or funny effects. At that point, developers 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 1: knew that gamers were going to find out about the cheats, 29 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: and so they experimented a bit to broaden the results 30 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: of inserting these cheats. Some games even created cheats that 31 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: would make games harder for people as a way to 32 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: challenge the most hardcore of players, like not to trick them. 33 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: Although there were those two I remember, I want to 34 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: say it was heretic that if you were playing Heretic 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: and you put in a Doom cheat, it would actually 36 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,639 Speaker 1: make the game harder for you instead of easier, as 37 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: kind of a uh high, I see what you're doing there. 38 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: But anyway, in some cases it was more like, hey, 39 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:21,679 Speaker 1: your hardcore, let's see how hardcore you could be. Also, 40 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: I should point out that we're primarily talking about single 41 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: player experiences here, stuff that was played natively on a 42 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:32,320 Speaker 1: single machine, and it was the player versus the computer. 43 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:35,320 Speaker 1: The other major type of cheat that I talked about 44 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: came courtesy of game enhancement devices like the game Genie 45 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: or the game Shark. These devices took the peak and 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: poke approach to cheating, meaning they would examine the code 47 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 1: that was being run in the computer's memory, and they 48 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 1: would identify which lines of code were responsible for specific 49 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: outcomes in the game, and then intercept requests from the 50 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: machine to the media and inject new code in its place. So, 51 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,359 Speaker 1: for example, a game system might look to see how 52 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: many lives a player has at the start of a game, 53 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: and the device replaces the standard three lives with lives 54 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: or whatever. Game enhancement devices had their heyday in the nineties, 55 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: but they had faded significantly by the mid two thousand's. Now, 56 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: with single player games, cheats usually aren't that big a deal, 57 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: at least not until things like the achievement systems were 58 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: introduced by Xbox and the Trophy system from Sony, because 59 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: the only person affected usually is the cheater themselves, and 60 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: they might have a good reason to cheat. For example, 61 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,600 Speaker 1: some games just aren't easily accessible to people who might 62 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: have disabilities, for example, and cheats could make it possible 63 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: for those people to actually experience a game that otherwise 64 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: they would never really be able to experience. That's a 65 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,240 Speaker 1: good thing. Or maybe you and joy a specific game, 66 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: but you're only able to get to a certain point 67 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: before it just becomes too difficult for you to progress 68 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: any further, and you just want to see how the 69 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: heart hold thing ends, and cheats can really help out 70 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: in those cases too. But even if a person is 71 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: just cheating in order to get a dopamine rush of 72 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 1: feeling like, you know, like they're an unstoppable tank, typically 73 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: the only person affected is the cheater, unless again we're 74 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,720 Speaker 1: talking about something that relates to things like achievement points 75 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: or whatever. Uh. Also, if the person is participating in 76 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,800 Speaker 1: something like a high score competition, that's different too. It's 77 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: another matter entirely so. One of the most famous instances 78 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: of alleged cheating, or at the very least misrepresentation is 79 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 1: the story of Billy Mitchell, who had set records for 80 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: high scores in classic arcade games like pac Man and 81 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: Donkey Kong, and organization called Twin Galaxies maintained leaderboards for 82 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,280 Speaker 1: high scores for those classic games, but in Twin Galaxies 83 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: chose to strike Mitchell's score off the list. For Donkey Kong. 84 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:11,839 Speaker 1: So what was going on? Well, according to Twin Galaxies, 85 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:16,239 Speaker 1: upon investigating the video of Mitchell setting that Donkey Kong 86 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: high score, they determined that he had not been using 87 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: a standard Donkey Kong arcade game or an official Donkey 88 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: Kong printed circuit board or PCB. You gotta remember these 89 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,279 Speaker 1: old arcade games, they were hard coded onto circuit boards, 90 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 1: and so the allegation was that Mitchell was relying upon 91 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 1: some sort of emulated version of the game, which therefore 92 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: would not behave exactly like the classic arcade game. And 93 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: the organization said that the transitions in the game in 94 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 1: the video that Mitchell sent didn't match the official version 95 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: of Donkey Kong, and therefore Mitchell's record could not count 96 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:01,840 Speaker 1: toward that because it wasn't on a standardized version of 97 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,359 Speaker 1: the arcade game. Mitchell disputed that, and the whole matter 98 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: is currently wrapped up in a court case between Mitchell 99 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:11,159 Speaker 1: and Twin Galaxies. Now, I have no idea if Mitchell 100 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: circumvented the rules of the competition. I do know that 101 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:18,160 Speaker 1: Twin Galaxies was careful not to actually refer to Mitchell 102 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 1: as a cheater. Instead, they alleged that Mitchell failed to 103 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: follow the official rules, and therefore a score doesn't count. 104 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: I also find it somewhat amusing that this whole thing 105 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: is going through the legal system, and that there have 106 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 1: already been lawsuits and countersuits related to this matter. I 107 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: guess my point is that there are folks who take 108 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: these things very, very seriously, and I can understand why. 109 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,359 Speaker 1: I mean, if it turns out you're the best in 110 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,480 Speaker 1: the world, it's something it would probably chease you off 111 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: if someone else topped your performance, but it turned out 112 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: they had done so by breaking the rules in some way, 113 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: or that your score was invalidated because someone was claiming 114 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: that you it do it correctly. But for someone to 115 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: go on and get credit for something without having put 116 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: in the actual work to develop those skills, that would 117 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:10,800 Speaker 1: be really upsetting. If if that were the case now, 118 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,960 Speaker 1: I could confidently say I will never experience that, because 119 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: I am at best mediocre at pretty much everything. I 120 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: should also add that Twin Galaxies itself has something of 121 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: a tarnished reputation among some gamers, who alleged that the 122 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: organization has failed to apply any sort of rigor into 123 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: investigating high score claims. There's another series of scores that 124 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: were posted by a guy named Todd Rogers, the self 125 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: proclaimed first professional gamer, and some of those scores were 126 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: later disputed by other folks. For example, there was an 127 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: incredible score for an old Atari game called Dragster. Uh. Dragster, 128 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: as the name suggests, is a game in which the 129 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 1: player controls a drag racing car. So there's this really 130 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: quick countdown, and then the player has to ans hitting 131 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: the accelerate button and switching gears against the cars tendency 132 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: to have its engine blowout or to pop a wheelie 133 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: and slow down. So your goal is to get to 134 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: the finish line and as little time as possible. Way 135 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:20,280 Speaker 1: back in, Rogers posted an insane time of just five 136 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,480 Speaker 1: point five one seconds, which was a record that stood 137 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: in Twin Galaxies books until two thousand eighteen. Now, the 138 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:30,680 Speaker 1: reason why I said it was an insane time is because, 139 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: at least according to people who tried to look into this, 140 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:40,640 Speaker 1: the theoretical perfect score, if you were absolutely timed perfectly right, 141 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: would be five point five second seven seconds, so five 142 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: point five seven, whereas Rogers posted five point five one. 143 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: They said, there's just no way to get a score 144 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:56,160 Speaker 1: that's better than five point five seven, and twin galaxies 145 00:08:56,160 --> 00:09:00,840 Speaker 1: would subsequently strike Rogers posted score from their records and 146 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: they banned him. And Rogers also held records that were 147 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:09,040 Speaker 1: likewise purged, including some that showed him scoring truly ludicrous 148 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,679 Speaker 1: high scores above like the second best showing like millions 149 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:15,439 Speaker 1: more in some cases, like there was one I want 150 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,240 Speaker 1: to say where his score was somewhere around fifteen million 151 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:21,439 Speaker 1: and second place was in the tens of thousands, which 152 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:24,440 Speaker 1: does seem to say something he is going on here 153 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: if there's that big gap between second place and first place. 154 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,880 Speaker 1: But I don't know what the realities are here, whether 155 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,760 Speaker 1: Rogers cheated or not. Again, I don't know. But his 156 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: story is another in the world of high score scandals, 157 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 1: and there are other scandals in single player games. Let's 158 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,840 Speaker 1: switch gears a little bit to the world of speed runs, 159 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,960 Speaker 1: which you know kind of relates back to Dragster actually, now, 160 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:50,080 Speaker 1: in case you've never heard of that term, a speed 161 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,960 Speaker 1: run is when someone makes an attempt to complete a 162 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: game at a record time, and you could argue that 163 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,960 Speaker 1: the Dragster case was kind of an early speed run 164 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: in many ways, but these days we typically think of 165 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 1: it as a way to post the fastest time to 166 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: complete longer games. Usually, so like you, you look at 167 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,800 Speaker 1: a game like maybe Super Mario Brothers, and you say, well, 168 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: what's the least amount of time it would take for 169 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: me to complete this game. So speed runs all have 170 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:21,880 Speaker 1: their own subclassifications, and we'll go through a few of 171 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: those really quickly. So there's something called a glitchless run. 172 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 1: This means the player is completing the game as quickly 173 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:33,080 Speaker 1: as they can without relying upon glitches in that game. 174 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: So a glitch in this case is something in the 175 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:38,920 Speaker 1: game that lets a player, you know, bypass stuff in 176 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,559 Speaker 1: a way that developers didn't intend. A common example is 177 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 1: that you might discover in a map in a game world, 178 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: if you stand in a particular spot and you do 179 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:51,920 Speaker 1: a particular action, you can pass through that part of 180 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 1: the map and then navigate quickly to some other part 181 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: of the map without having to travel that physical distance, 182 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,560 Speaker 1: and that this can save you huge amounts of time. 183 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,240 Speaker 1: That's one version of a glitch or exploit. Now, glitch 184 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:09,960 Speaker 1: less runs ideally avoid those kinds of exploits, although sometimes 185 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: some types of exploits are allowed and others aren't. It 186 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: gets a bit subjective then you've got any percent games 187 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,560 Speaker 1: that's any percent run it's typically a n Y and 188 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,320 Speaker 1: then the percent sign that means that you get to 189 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:27,199 Speaker 1: the conclusion of the game, but you don't necessarily complete 190 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:29,920 Speaker 1: the whole game, like you don't have to do say, 191 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:33,959 Speaker 1: all the side quests or whatever, all the optional you know, content, 192 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 1: you can bypass that. You're just interested in going from 193 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: the very beginning of the game and getting to the 194 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,160 Speaker 1: very end of the game as quickly as you possibly can. 195 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:44,880 Speaker 1: So this style of speed run can also rely heavily 196 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 1: on exploits and glitches. Now you can do in any 197 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 1: percent glitchless run, which means that you don't really rely 198 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:53,679 Speaker 1: on the glitches. You're still just trying to get to 199 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:56,719 Speaker 1: the end as fast as you possibly can. And if 200 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: you watch these on YouTube, you might end up seeing 201 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,680 Speaker 1: a game that looks very different from a normal run through, right, Like, 202 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: if there's any percent glitch run, uh, it can be 203 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:10,120 Speaker 1: that the game starts, you're like, yeah, I recognize this, 204 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: and then immediately you're like, wait, what what happened? What 205 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: did they do? And it could be pretty incredible. Then 206 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: you have completion, which is what it sounds like a 207 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: player has to try and complete every aspect of a 208 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:26,680 Speaker 1: game within the shortest amount of time possible. So for 209 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: some games like Elder Scrolls five Skyrim, that would involve 210 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,720 Speaker 1: a ton of stock just because there's so much content 211 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,680 Speaker 1: in that game, and a speed run could still require 212 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: several hours of play in order to actually complete everything. 213 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: There are lots of other subcategories as well, including ones 214 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,800 Speaker 1: that are restricted to specific games. For example, in the 215 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,080 Speaker 1: Hitman series, you play as a hit Man who must 216 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: eliminate specific targets, and these games are fairly open ended. 217 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: They allow the player to don different disguises, come from 218 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,360 Speaker 1: different directions, use all sorts of various methods in order 219 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: to eliminate targets. But maybe you're doing a specific type 220 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: of speed run where you want to do suit only 221 00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: silent assassin. That means you never change disguise and you 222 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:13,319 Speaker 1: have to do it in a way where no one 223 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,320 Speaker 1: ever discovers any of the kills you make before you 224 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,079 Speaker 1: escape the level. Uh. It adds another level of challenge 225 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:22,000 Speaker 1: to it, and you're also doing it in the least 226 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: amount of time you possibly can now. For years, speed 227 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: runs were a niche within a niche within a niche, 228 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,640 Speaker 1: you might break a record, and you might end up 229 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:34,320 Speaker 1: submitting it and having it posted in a hard print 230 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: magazine that no one other than other speed runners would 231 00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:41,680 Speaker 1: ever pay attention to. But over the last several years, 232 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: the speed run community has grown thanks to stuff like 233 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:49,000 Speaker 1: YouTube and twitch, gamers can post attempts at setting a 234 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 1: speed run, either to beat their own personal best or 235 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: maybe even to establish a new world record. And while 236 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: speed runs don't typically have big rewards associated with them, 237 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,320 Speaker 1: at least not directly, someone who's known for speed running 238 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,559 Speaker 1: can end up accumulating a really large community of fans 239 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:08,760 Speaker 1: and they might be able to monetize through that. So 240 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: there are speed runners who have Patreon pages, or they 241 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: have YouTube channels or twitch a channels, or a combination 242 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: of all three, and they can make money from their work. Well, 243 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,560 Speaker 1: the speed run community is incredibly competitive. There's always people 244 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:24,880 Speaker 1: looking to see if they can shave even a fraction 245 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 1: of a second off a run, and there are no 246 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,440 Speaker 1: shortage of scandals in the speed run community, surrounding players 247 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,120 Speaker 1: who have used various tricks outside of the accepted ones 248 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: in order to post speed run scores. And that kind 249 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: of sounds a little bit of weird, right Like within 250 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: speed running. It could be okay to leverage an exploit 251 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 1: that allows you to get an unintended advantage in a game, 252 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: as long as that exploit really already existed within the game, 253 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: like if the developers had accidentally left something there, that 254 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 1: would be okay. But it would be against the rules 255 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 1: to say, alter a games code in some way to 256 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: give you an advantage, to hack the game to change 257 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,720 Speaker 1: the game. That would be against the rules. So you 258 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: can sort of cheat under certain circumstances, but you can't 259 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,080 Speaker 1: cheat in other's I guess let's talk about an example 260 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:17,880 Speaker 1: of a speed run cheat. A Minecraft player who uses 261 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 1: the handled Dream, one of the most popular Minecraft streamers 262 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 1: out there, completed a speed run and Minecraft in that 263 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: broke records, And you might wonder how the heck you 264 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: speed run a game like Minecraft if you're only kind 265 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: of familiar with Minecraft. I mean, most people think of 266 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,160 Speaker 1: that as a crafting game that really doesn't have an 267 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,880 Speaker 1: end to it. Well, there is a quote unquote end 268 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: to Minecraft, which involves confronting a monster called the nether 269 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,200 Speaker 1: Dragon and defeating it. But in order to even do that, 270 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: you first have to craft some special items, and you 271 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:55,320 Speaker 1: do that using some really rare raw materials, and so 272 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:59,200 Speaker 1: speed runs hinge on how quickly you can accumulate those 273 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,400 Speaker 1: raw materials so that you can journey to the nether 274 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:07,400 Speaker 1: Dragon and then hopefully defeat it. Now, those rare items, 275 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:12,120 Speaker 1: their appearance depends upon r n G or random number generation. 276 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,360 Speaker 1: That is, there's a a certain percentage chance for those 277 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: items to appear under certain circumstances, but it's not a guarantee. 278 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:23,840 Speaker 1: It's just a chance, and a random number generator, which 279 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:27,440 Speaker 1: is essentially the equivalent of rolling dice, determines if the 280 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,360 Speaker 1: item drops or not. So one of the items that 281 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: Dream needed to complete the speed run had just a 282 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,640 Speaker 1: four point seven percent chance to drop under a specific 283 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,600 Speaker 1: set of circumstances. I'm not going to go into all 284 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,160 Speaker 1: the details. They're not important. Dream, however, was incredibly lucky, 285 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:49,880 Speaker 1: like unbelievably lucky, because ultimately Dreams you know, results were 286 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:55,000 Speaker 1: more like a fift drop return instead of four point seven. Now, 287 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,360 Speaker 1: that raised concerns that Dream was playing Minecraft on an 288 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:02,320 Speaker 1: altered or customized game that boosted the drop rate of 289 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 1: those specific items, and that conclusion seemed pretty certain because 290 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,919 Speaker 1: the drop frequency was just way too high to be 291 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:12,120 Speaker 1: up to chance. It would be like winning the lottery 292 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: three times in a row. But Dreams said that he 293 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: wasn't aware that there was any sort of modified game, 294 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: and that actually could be true. You see, Dream was 295 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,639 Speaker 1: playing on a shared server. Now, in Minecraft, there are 296 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,560 Speaker 1: two different ways you could play a game. You can 297 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: play a local game which runs on your machine, like 298 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:37,520 Speaker 1: your PC, and this is a client side style of gaming. 299 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: Everything's running on the client, that being your machine. If 300 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: you install mods on your client based Minecraft game, well 301 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: then the mods you install they will affect your client 302 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: based gaming sessions. However, let's say you log into a 303 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: shared Minecraft world, one that other people can log into 304 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,359 Speaker 1: as well. This is on a server, not on your client, 305 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: not on your PC. So your client based mods would 306 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,159 Speaker 1: never apply to a server based game. Uh. You know, 307 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,400 Speaker 1: you could have modified your game all you want when 308 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:12,920 Speaker 1: you play privately on your computer, but when you play 309 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:15,679 Speaker 1: on the server, you're playing by the server rules. The 310 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,639 Speaker 1: only mods that could apply to the server would be 311 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: server side modifications. So what Dream was saying was that 312 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: the people who set up the game server that he 313 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,200 Speaker 1: played on had boosted the drop rates and he didn't 314 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: know about it at the time, so it was still 315 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: kind of an instance of cheating, but not necessarily intentional cheating. Well, 316 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll talk about a few more 317 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:43,960 Speaker 1: famous instances of cheating in video games, but first, let's 318 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:54,600 Speaker 1: take this quick break. All right, let's talk about online 319 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:58,640 Speaker 1: games and cheating. You can pretty much bet that if 320 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 1: a game games pop pularity, and if there's any sort 321 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,280 Speaker 1: of competition in that game, hackers will try to create 322 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:08,240 Speaker 1: tools that will change that game in some way, including 323 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:12,600 Speaker 1: ways that can give players certain advantages. UH. There are 324 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:16,520 Speaker 1: a lot of common examples of this. Uh, for example, 325 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:19,960 Speaker 1: in the first person or a third person shooter genres. 326 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: There are some very common ones like aim bot and 327 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 1: wall hacks and recoil elimination. So aim bot cheats are 328 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: pretty self explanatory. These are cheats that assist players in 329 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:36,920 Speaker 1: locking onto an opponent to aim at someone. Some aim 330 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,640 Speaker 1: bots are less obvious than others, but if you've ever 331 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:44,679 Speaker 1: watched gameplay that showed someone just instantly locking onto opponents heads, 332 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,679 Speaker 1: even if those opponents are obscured by stuff like smoke 333 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,920 Speaker 1: or cover, or they're so far away that you can't 334 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: even really see them on the screen, there's a good 335 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: chance that an aim bot played a part in that. 336 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 1: Now this does get a little muddy because we are 337 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,920 Speaker 1: now in the era of cross platform play, and this 338 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,359 Speaker 1: changes things. See, if you have a really skilled player 339 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: who uses a keyboard and mouse to play first person shooters, 340 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,920 Speaker 1: they might refine their skills and be able to hit 341 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:18,680 Speaker 1: headshots way more frequently than your average player can, and 342 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,640 Speaker 1: they could just be relying on legit skills. They're they're 343 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 1: just that good. It doesn't mean they've got to hit 344 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,040 Speaker 1: every single shot. But their precision that they have with 345 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,560 Speaker 1: a mouse, particularly when they've dialed in the mouse sensitivity 346 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,240 Speaker 1: to their preference, they can zero in on targets really 347 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 1: accurately and quickly. But contrast that with someone who's playing 348 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,439 Speaker 1: the same video game but on a console, not on 349 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:47,000 Speaker 1: a PC, and they're using a game pad of some sort. 350 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:51,840 Speaker 1: Game pads typically are far less precise. Some games allow 351 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 1: players to change controller sensitivity, but you're still left with 352 00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: the fact that you're using a pair of thumbsticks or 353 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: maybe a thumbstick in a direction pad or whatever. It's 354 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,440 Speaker 1: just not going to give the player the same level 355 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,840 Speaker 1: of responsiveness and precision as a mouse would. And if 356 00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:13,320 Speaker 1: the game supports cross platform play, in which console players 357 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,719 Speaker 1: and PC players can be matched up in the same match. 358 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:20,639 Speaker 1: That creates a skilled gap. You might have someone who's 359 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:24,080 Speaker 1: really good at console gaming and they're having trouble against 360 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,440 Speaker 1: you know, moderately skilled PC gamers. But it's not because 361 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: the PC gamers are necessarily better at the game. It 362 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,919 Speaker 1: might be because their control scheme just natively gives them 363 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:38,720 Speaker 1: a slight advantage, and that's all it takes. To that end, 364 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,960 Speaker 1: a lot of console games include an aim assist feature, 365 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: so it's kind of like driver assist with cars. The 366 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:50,400 Speaker 1: aim assist doesn't totally take over for players the way 367 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,680 Speaker 1: an aim bot program could. Instead, it helps dial in 368 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: aim a little bit. So if you were direct your 369 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,000 Speaker 1: sites toward an opponent, the game assist might do the 370 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:03,560 Speaker 1: last five or ten percent to help you lock on 371 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:06,760 Speaker 1: for your shot, because otherwise your control mechanism of the 372 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,120 Speaker 1: game pad would put you at a disadvantage against people 373 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,040 Speaker 1: who are playing with mouse and keyboard. Now, I've actually 374 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,920 Speaker 1: followed some pro gamers who use controllers with certain FPS 375 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,200 Speaker 1: titles like Call of Duty war Zone, and I've seen 376 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,919 Speaker 1: some of those players get banned, and they weren't banned 377 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:25,720 Speaker 1: for well, they were banned for cheating, but it turned 378 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 1: out they weren't cheating, and after an investigation, they had 379 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,640 Speaker 1: their accounts restored because it turned out, you know, they 380 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,720 Speaker 1: weren't relying on aim bots. Instead, they were just really 381 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,959 Speaker 1: skilled players, and their style of play also incorporated a 382 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,119 Speaker 1: little bit of aim assist because they were using a 383 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,360 Speaker 1: game pad, so they weren't cheating. They were pairing game 384 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: systems with their skill level at to play at the 385 00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,560 Speaker 1: top of their capability, and they were just really darn good. 386 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: But there are cases in which it's no question that 387 00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:57,400 Speaker 1: a player is using an aim bot, and this extends 388 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:01,280 Speaker 1: even to professional e sports level. In famous instance of 389 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,640 Speaker 1: this happened in two thousand eighteen in a counter Strike tournament. 390 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: Counter Strike is a multiplayer shooter game in which you've 391 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,439 Speaker 1: got two teams of players competing against each other. It 392 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,040 Speaker 1: has its own fascinating history. I may have to do 393 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:16,680 Speaker 1: episodes about counter Strike at some point. It started off 394 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 1: as a mod for Half Life way back in two 395 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: thousand and people still compete in counter Strike tournaments to 396 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:26,600 Speaker 1: this day now. In one two thousand eighteen tournament, there 397 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: was a player who used the handle Forsaken. He was 398 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,040 Speaker 1: performing at a level that was truly astounding. He was 399 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:37,480 Speaker 1: zeroing in on opponents, particularly with headshots, with an almost 400 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: inhuman like precision. In fact, not not almost. The tournament 401 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:45,280 Speaker 1: admins stopped the play fairly early on in order to 402 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: investigate Forsaken's PC because they thought something hinky was going on, 403 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:51,600 Speaker 1: and they found he was running an aim bought hack 404 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,840 Speaker 1: program that gave him the uncanny ability to lock onto 405 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,800 Speaker 1: opponents and wipe them out. Forsaken had named the files 406 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:03,119 Speaker 1: word e x E in his cheap folder kind of 407 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: as a way to throw people off the scent of 408 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,439 Speaker 1: what he was doing. It did not work. He was 409 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,160 Speaker 1: caught anyway, and later the whole work e XC thing 410 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,399 Speaker 1: became a meme. You would hear streamers say stuff like, 411 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:16,919 Speaker 1: I guess I should have turned on work e x 412 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,040 Speaker 1: C after getting eliminated to that kind of thing. Anyway, 413 00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: four seconds team was disqualified as a result of that. 414 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,480 Speaker 1: Wall hacks are a little bit different. A wall hack 415 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:30,159 Speaker 1: is any sort of cheat that allows a player to 416 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: see opponents, uh or maybe just other players, not just opponents, 417 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,359 Speaker 1: even if those players are otherwise obscured behind something that 418 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,200 Speaker 1: you would not be able to see through. So imagine 419 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:42,919 Speaker 1: that you're able to see if someone is on the 420 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,640 Speaker 1: other side of a wall, or on the other side 421 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:47,840 Speaker 1: of a hill, or right around a corner or whatever. 422 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: Obviously that would give you a huge advantage. One of 423 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: the giveaways that someone is using wall hacks is when 424 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: they start doing what's called pre firing. That is, they 425 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:03,399 Speaker 1: start airing their weapon towards you before you're even in view, 426 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: So they're firing at where you're going to be, but 427 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,680 Speaker 1: at least theoretically, there's no way they would have known 428 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 1: that that's where you are going to be. So if 429 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,239 Speaker 1: someone starts firing down the hallway before you even come 430 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:17,080 Speaker 1: around the corner, that could be a case of them 431 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: using wall hacks. Now, this is also not always clear cut. 432 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,600 Speaker 1: A lot of games incorporate stuff like three D audio, 433 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,920 Speaker 1: So if your opponent is just really observant and they 434 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,679 Speaker 1: have a really good pair of headphones, they might be 435 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:32,040 Speaker 1: able to hear that someone is coming down the hall 436 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:34,119 Speaker 1: and they anticipate you coming around the corner and they 437 00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: just start firing, and you know, it can look like 438 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,240 Speaker 1: they're cheating, but in reality, they're just relying upon information 439 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: within the game. But a lot of these games also 440 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,359 Speaker 1: include the ability for players who have been eliminated to 441 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,879 Speaker 1: view a cam of their opponent, which is really useful. 442 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:50,960 Speaker 1: I mean, you might just use it in order to 443 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 1: get you know, a better at a game, Like you 444 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 1: can see what you did wrong because you're looking at 445 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,160 Speaker 1: it from your opponent's point of view. But you can 446 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,040 Speaker 1: also sometimes tell if someone is cheating. So let's say 447 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,199 Speaker 1: you're watching a deathcam after you've been eliminated, and you 448 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,359 Speaker 1: notice that the player was tracking you before they could 449 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: even possibly see you, Like their radical is right where 450 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,960 Speaker 1: you were the whole time before you come around the corner. 451 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,160 Speaker 1: That pretty much tells you that that person is probably 452 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,520 Speaker 1: using a wall hack. And there's been some pretty notable 453 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,359 Speaker 1: cases in which players were seen to have relied on 454 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,560 Speaker 1: these kinds of hacks and they gave themselves away. Sometimes 455 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,840 Speaker 1: this pops up and streaming and again, streaming like e sports, 456 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,200 Speaker 1: can be a way to potentially make money by playing 457 00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: video games, so obviously there is something valuable at stake here. 458 00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:44,639 Speaker 1: It's not just you know, bragging rights. Artificially boosting your 459 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: bragging rights at a game. There can be real money involved. 460 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,679 Speaker 1: So there are streamers who gain a following because they 461 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,280 Speaker 1: seem to be amazing at certain games, and sometimes these 462 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:57,119 Speaker 1: streamers get exposed for using hacks, and sometimes they do 463 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,440 Speaker 1: it to themselves. In fact, this is true for all 464 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,639 Speaker 1: sorts of hack. Typically, the process for using hacks is, 465 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: you know, whatever game you're playing, you go searching to 466 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: see what kind of hack engines are available for that 467 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: particular build of the game. There's some hack engines that 468 00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:18,359 Speaker 1: cover multiple titles, and you would download that and install 469 00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,399 Speaker 1: it on your machine. Sometimes they're freely distributed. Sometimes you 470 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,080 Speaker 1: actually have to pay to use those hacks. Sometimes it's 471 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: a subscription service. So you install the hack on your 472 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:31,160 Speaker 1: machine and you run the hack at the same time 473 00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,719 Speaker 1: as you're running your game, and the hack typically has 474 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 1: a window that has a menu in it and allows 475 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: you to choose which features you turn on and which 476 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: ones you don't. The more you turn on, the more 477 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,719 Speaker 1: likely your activities are going to come across as hacking. 478 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,399 Speaker 1: Right Like if you if you said everything to on, 479 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,600 Speaker 1: it's gonna be pretty obvious that you are not playing 480 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,840 Speaker 1: in a normal way. So a lot of hackers are 481 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:56,399 Speaker 1: a lot of cheaters. Rather will only select certain ones 482 00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,439 Speaker 1: under certain conditions in order to kind of screw below 483 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,720 Speaker 1: the radar and not get detected for for cheating and UH. 484 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:06,720 Speaker 1: The other important part is you want to make sure 485 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,920 Speaker 1: that you're only if you're streaming, you're only sending out 486 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,320 Speaker 1: the game view of what's going on, because you don't 487 00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,879 Speaker 1: want to show people that you've got a hack engine running. 488 00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 1: But several times streamers have accidentally revealed that they were 489 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,440 Speaker 1: using hacks as they were playing. For example, if the 490 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 1: streamers using wall hacks and they forget to send out 491 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 1: the version of their stream that doesn't show the wall 492 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:35,439 Speaker 1: hack exposed players, that's dead giveaway. Viewers will see that 493 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,680 Speaker 1: indicators that should not be there are up in view 494 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,720 Speaker 1: and they'll know right away that that person is cheating. 495 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,280 Speaker 1: For that reason, most wall hacks include options that allow 496 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:49,160 Speaker 1: streamers to send out a feed there's a different view 497 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: for audiences so that they don't see the outlined opponents. 498 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,680 Speaker 1: But you gotta remember to select that stuff first, and 499 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,320 Speaker 1: not everyone does UH. In other cases, streamers have acts 500 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: the screen shared a screen that had their hack menu up. 501 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: Some hacks for games include multiple options, like maybe you 502 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,160 Speaker 1: don't want to have aimbot on, but you do want 503 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: to reduce the recoil for your guns so that you 504 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,240 Speaker 1: know once you walk onto someone and you start firing, 505 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,880 Speaker 1: you can keep your gun trained on them without worrying 506 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:22,320 Speaker 1: about the gun recoiling out of the way. Now, skilled gamers, 507 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,720 Speaker 1: they learn how each weapon in a game will handle. 508 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: They will learn that recoil pattern so that they can 509 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: counteract it with their own skill. So like if a 510 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 1: machine gun tends to recoil so that moves up into 511 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:40,360 Speaker 1: the left, they will automatically control the gun and and 512 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: move it sort of down into the right to counteract 513 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: that tendency. Or you know, you could just install hacks 514 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 1: and use a cheat code to do it for you. Well, 515 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,680 Speaker 1: there's been a few cases where players have done this 516 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:54,240 Speaker 1: and they've forgotten to hide it. For example, a streamer 517 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,520 Speaker 1: who used the handle Mr Gold's got caught when he 518 00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 1: was playing a first person shooter. It was it was 519 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 1: Call of Duty war Zone, and he was running hacks 520 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,160 Speaker 1: at the time. He forgot to hide the hacks window 521 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: before he started streaming, and soon his audience was clipping 522 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,719 Speaker 1: that stream and then sharing those clips on social media, 523 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: and Mr Gold's ultimately received a ban from Twitch as 524 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,280 Speaker 1: a result. And that's a big deal when you're a 525 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:21,920 Speaker 1: pro gamer. I mean, that's where your money is coming. 526 00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:24,160 Speaker 1: From and it's not like you're likely to land a 527 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:28,000 Speaker 1: sponsorship deal if your rep happens to be associated with cheating. 528 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,520 Speaker 1: Another example was with a streamer who used the handle 529 00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 1: miss q Jemini. She had been playing in a game 530 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,600 Speaker 1: of Counterstrike and revealed accidentally that she was using cheats. 531 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,720 Speaker 1: She activated the cheats in the middle of the stream. 532 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,000 Speaker 1: She was unaware that her stream could actually see it, 533 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: and she tried to cover it up and explain it away, 534 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: saying like, oh, this is why you don't give people 535 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,560 Speaker 1: access to your PC, but you know, she still had 536 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,000 Speaker 1: her channel banned as a result. Now, to counteract hacks, 537 00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:57,960 Speaker 1: companies have created software designed to detect the presence of 538 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,360 Speaker 1: stuff like aim bots and that kind of thing, and 539 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,800 Speaker 1: some of them are client based, meaning that the software 540 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: runs on your computer locally. Uh. The anti cheat software 541 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,920 Speaker 1: is usually bundled with the game itself, and it's kind 542 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: of like anti virus software. It's typically looking for examples 543 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,800 Speaker 1: of well known identified cheat hacks and it blocks them 544 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 1: from working or just doesn't allow you to even play 545 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,120 Speaker 1: the game and launch it at all. But there are 546 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,720 Speaker 1: also server side anti cheap programs. Fair Fight is an 547 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,360 Speaker 1: example of this, and as the name says. Server side 548 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,760 Speaker 1: anti cheap programs sit on the server you log into 549 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,080 Speaker 1: for online multiplayer games, so it's not on your PC, 550 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: it's on the server that is hosting the game. So 551 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,440 Speaker 1: every gamer who logs into that server has the same 552 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: anti cheat software that's scanning for examples of hacks. Both 553 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,600 Speaker 1: client and server side anti cheap programs are not perfect. 554 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: Hackers are always looking for new ways to exploit a 555 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,400 Speaker 1: game and create advantages, and it's not like anti cheat 556 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 1: software has some sort of magic way to stay up 557 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:01,120 Speaker 1: to date and know what's going on. Some games like 558 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: war Zone, which you know, as I said, was as 559 00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:05,720 Speaker 1: a variant of Call of Duty. It's a free to 560 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,880 Speaker 1: play version of it, they go through cycles in which 561 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,320 Speaker 1: cheaters will start to flood servers. It will just be 562 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:16,000 Speaker 1: rampant cheating in various ways, and then you'll see a 563 00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,760 Speaker 1: big purge where thousands of accounts get banned and new 564 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,920 Speaker 1: anti cheat methods are put into place, and then the 565 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:27,200 Speaker 1: whole cycle slowly repeats itself. Now, clearly playing against cheaters 566 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: is frustrating. It can lead to people quitting a game, 567 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,959 Speaker 1: so companies have a vested interest in cutting back on cheating, 568 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,560 Speaker 1: but sometimes that's just easier said than done. And of 569 00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:39,680 Speaker 1: course there are other types of cheating that don't involve 570 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,400 Speaker 1: direct hacking either. We'll talk about those a bit more 571 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: when we come back. Before the break I talked about 572 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,880 Speaker 1: there are types of cheating that don't involve hacking. Uh. 573 00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:59,440 Speaker 1: This is just simple stuff. I'm talking about stuff like 574 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: streams sniping. Uh. This is when you've got someone who's 575 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:05,920 Speaker 1: streaming their gameplay of a multiplayer game. Maybe it's a 576 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: pro gamer, you know, and the fact that they're streaming 577 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: live means other people can see what game they're playing, 578 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,520 Speaker 1: what server they're on, and where they might be within 579 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,440 Speaker 1: the game. So that means they could potentially jump into 580 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 1: a game with that player and target them because they 581 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,080 Speaker 1: have more information about the streamer than the streamer has 582 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: about them. So in a game like pub G, which 583 00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,440 Speaker 1: begins with everyone deciding where on this massive game map 584 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:36,960 Speaker 1: they're going to start, this could be a really harmful 585 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,280 Speaker 1: tool for at least harmful to the streamer, because if 586 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,240 Speaker 1: people are watching the streamer and they know where the 587 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,120 Speaker 1: streamer is headed at the beginning of a match, they 588 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,600 Speaker 1: can try and head there too and potentially take the 589 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,640 Speaker 1: streamer out before they can get any momentum going, so 590 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:54,440 Speaker 1: that's stream sniping. But another common type of cheating is 591 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,440 Speaker 1: when cheaters are collaborating or teaming up in games that 592 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: are meant for solo play. So this is particularly bad 593 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: in games like pub G where you might be playing 594 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,360 Speaker 1: in solo mode, which is an everyone for themselves mode, 595 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,200 Speaker 1: so it's solo Battle Royale. You start off with like 596 00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:14,480 Speaker 1: a hundred players and it comes down to the last 597 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,719 Speaker 1: surviving player. You're supposed to treat it like it's you 598 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,319 Speaker 1: against everybody else, But sometimes players will collude with one 599 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: another and they'll work together to help eliminate opponents and 600 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,919 Speaker 1: thus reduce the risk of themselves losing until they get 601 00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: down to the last couple. That sort of thing is 602 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: looked down upon. Usually it requires a moderator to look 603 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 1: into it to actually see that that's what's going on, 604 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:40,520 Speaker 1: but it can result in moderators banning players if they 605 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:43,759 Speaker 1: find it. But let's talk about a few instances of 606 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 1: how various people have dealt with cheaters in the past. 607 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,520 Speaker 1: One game that has a hefty online presence is Grand 608 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,080 Speaker 1: Theft Auto five, or g t A five as it 609 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,880 Speaker 1: is otherwise known. G T A five has been a 610 00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:59,000 Speaker 1: real money maker for rock Star Games. The single player 611 00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: version pub in two thousand thirteen, but eight years later 612 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,760 Speaker 1: people are still pouring money into playing the online version, 613 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,640 Speaker 1: so they're using real world money to buy in game 614 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,680 Speaker 1: currency and then use that to purchase stuff within the game, 615 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:19,279 Speaker 1: arranging from real estate to submarines, to aircraft and all 616 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: sorts of stuff. Well back in two thousand fifteen, a 617 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,040 Speaker 1: gamer with a handle plucks Are uploaded a video showing 618 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:29,840 Speaker 1: how he dealt with a particularly obnoxious hacker. The hacker, 619 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 1: who was using the handle Zamma Rath, had turned on 620 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,600 Speaker 1: god mode, had a hack that was making this this 621 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:41,320 Speaker 1: character immune to damage. You could not kill this character. However, 622 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 1: g T A five has rag doll physics, and as 623 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: that name suggests, these physics make characters go limp or 624 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: like a rag doll under certain conditions, which typically revolves 625 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,239 Speaker 1: around getting knocked down or you know, getting killed, So 626 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,040 Speaker 1: they flop around and players lose all control of the 627 00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:04,160 Speaker 1: characters until that animation stops. So Plucks are heard about. 628 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,919 Speaker 1: This hacker got into an armored vehicle and tracked down 629 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,360 Speaker 1: the hacker who was blasting other players with a rocket 630 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: launcher and then essentially just kept on running into the 631 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 1: player and using explosives to activate rag Doll over and 632 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,040 Speaker 1: over again, so they he wasn't doing any damage to 633 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,600 Speaker 1: Zama Wrath. Because of that god mode, Zama Wrath was unhurt, 634 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,520 Speaker 1: but every single time an explosion or collision happened, it 635 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,200 Speaker 1: would make Zama Wath go into Doll mode rag Doll mode. 636 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,840 Speaker 1: So plucks Are just kept on doing that and trolled 637 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:38,640 Speaker 1: Zama Wrath over and over and over again until the 638 00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,400 Speaker 1: hacker finally quit the game. What that kind of vigilante 639 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:44,840 Speaker 1: justice has its own sort of element of satisfaction, but 640 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,279 Speaker 1: obviously it's not a real solution to hackers. It just 641 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,719 Speaker 1: means that a troll kind of gets a little taste 642 00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,480 Speaker 1: of their own medicine on occasion. Another example, and I've 643 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:56,480 Speaker 1: actually seen versions of this happen in person, is when 644 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,960 Speaker 1: a group of players will take it upon themselves to 645 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:02,760 Speaker 1: punish a cheap or even if it means they lose 646 00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: the game in the process. So there's a game that 647 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,280 Speaker 1: had a really big popular boost in twenty called Fall Guys. 648 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,280 Speaker 1: In this game, if you're not familiar with it, players 649 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:16,760 Speaker 1: assume the role of these cute little jellybean looking critters 650 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,759 Speaker 1: and they compete in a series of games as a 651 00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,879 Speaker 1: Battle Royal Finish. So you start with a large number 652 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: of players and each round that number gets whittled down 653 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,040 Speaker 1: until you have one winner. So the goal is to 654 00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,799 Speaker 1: reach the end of the series of competitions and be 655 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,560 Speaker 1: the soul winner. And while the game isn't exactly a 656 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: cutthroat style competition, you you still see cheaters on there 657 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: on occasion. These are folks who have downloaded hacks to 658 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:45,640 Speaker 1: let them do stuff like float over a map. And 659 00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:49,160 Speaker 1: since a lot of the competitions involved navigating obstacle courses, 660 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 1: that means the characters have kind of a shortcut to 661 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,919 Speaker 1: the finish line. Well, some of the competitions and fall 662 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:59,840 Speaker 1: guys actually divide players up into temporary teams. So it 663 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: one case, and this was a version that was captured 664 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,840 Speaker 1: on a stream by a player with a handle h 665 00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:09,440 Speaker 1: so so S Game or TIOS game, who, by the way, 666 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: was not the cheater, he was just capturing this The 667 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,640 Speaker 1: players had collectively decided that they had had enough of 668 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:20,360 Speaker 1: this hacker who had been just coasting through the earlier rounds. 669 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:25,120 Speaker 1: So after the cheater had blatantly been breaking the rules, 670 00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:27,959 Speaker 1: it came down to a team based game in which 671 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,719 Speaker 1: the remaining players divided up into three teams, and the 672 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:34,719 Speaker 1: cheater was on the Red team, and the goal of 673 00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,640 Speaker 1: this particular mini game was to collect eggs on a 674 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:41,520 Speaker 1: level and throw them into your team's collection point. Meanwhile 675 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,920 Speaker 1: other teams are trying to steal your eggs and protect 676 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,399 Speaker 1: their own eggs. Well, the other players in the Red 677 00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,080 Speaker 1: team didn't want to see the cheater get any further 678 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,000 Speaker 1: in the game, so they worked against their own self 679 00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:55,480 Speaker 1: interest and they helped the other two teams. They ended 680 00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:57,959 Speaker 1: up grabbing their own eggs out of their collection point 681 00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,960 Speaker 1: and chucking them out, And I meant everyone on the 682 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,920 Speaker 1: Red team got eliminated, but that also meant the hacker 683 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,360 Speaker 1: would not be able to go any further in that game. 684 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: It was essentially a collective message of hey, stop trying 685 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,520 Speaker 1: to ruin this for other people to that hacker. Another 686 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,520 Speaker 1: famous example of a hacker getting pooned was someone who 687 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,760 Speaker 1: was going by the unlikely handle of Okay Savings Bank. 688 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,120 Speaker 1: They were playing the fighting game Teken, in which players 689 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,680 Speaker 1: can select from a roster of fighters and they compete 690 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:28,839 Speaker 1: against each other. So Tekens kind of in the same 691 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,800 Speaker 1: category of games as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Okay 692 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:35,839 Speaker 1: Savings Bank was clearly up to no good because the 693 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,279 Speaker 1: fighter they were using was called double Kazumi. And here's 694 00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:41,880 Speaker 1: the thing that that character was not a selectable character 695 00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 1: for multiplayer. You had to cheat to be able to 696 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:48,640 Speaker 1: use this character and multiplayer, so something was hanky. Anyway, 697 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:53,880 Speaker 1: Double Kazumi is a particularly powerful character, and so this 698 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:58,080 Speaker 1: this player was just breezing through the competition until by 699 00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:02,560 Speaker 1: random chance, they paired against a guy named Jay men By, 700 00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:07,920 Speaker 1: better known as the his pro gamer handle Knee. Knee 701 00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:12,040 Speaker 1: is an incredibly skilled the Teken player like championship level 702 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,560 Speaker 1: tech in player, and it took a little bit of 703 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,560 Speaker 1: time for him to get his groove against you know, 704 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:21,160 Speaker 1: the hacker. But Knee totally schooled Okay Savings Bank to 705 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,359 Speaker 1: the point that the cheater actually quit midway through the 706 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:28,160 Speaker 1: match because it was clear that even with their unfair advantage, 707 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: they just could not put up a fight against a 708 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:34,480 Speaker 1: truly skilled player. And uh, while we're talking about cheaters 709 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,560 Speaker 1: and hackers, we should also talk about scammers and thieves, 710 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:40,959 Speaker 1: because sometimes a cheater's worst enemy is a bad guy 711 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:44,680 Speaker 1: who is, you know, even badder than a cheater is 712 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,799 Speaker 1: so back in, some malware designers created a piece of 713 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,640 Speaker 1: malware called Balder b a L d R and one 714 00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: of the groups they were specifically targeting were video game cheaters. 715 00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,719 Speaker 1: So the malware could all information from users and clading 716 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:04,279 Speaker 1: stuff like credit card info and passwords and that kind 717 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:08,600 Speaker 1: of stuff. So the designers paired this malware with a 718 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,720 Speaker 1: cheat engine, which was supposed to give you know, cheaters 719 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,800 Speaker 1: an edge in the game. Apex legends it included stuff 720 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,760 Speaker 1: like an aim bot and wall hacks and speed hacks 721 00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:22,640 Speaker 1: and more. But the cheaters who downloaded and installed the 722 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:27,400 Speaker 1: cheat engine, we're also unknowingly installing the Balder malware on 723 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:32,400 Speaker 1: their computers and potentially losing their information and their money. Also, 724 00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:36,520 Speaker 1: the the hacks software was a subscription based software, so 725 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,400 Speaker 1: they were paying to get robbed. So the malware designers 726 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,120 Speaker 1: had hit on a classic tactic. You target a population 727 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,919 Speaker 1: that's most likely to fall victim to your scheme. Now, 728 00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:49,360 Speaker 1: typically I talk about this in terms of malware designers 729 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:53,520 Speaker 1: attacking really vulnerable populations, such as people who are looking 730 00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:56,000 Speaker 1: to get a job. In fact, I got a phishing 731 00:41:56,160 --> 00:42:00,319 Speaker 1: attempt an email that used this approach this morning. I'm 732 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,640 Speaker 1: not looking for a job, but all the blue I 733 00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,600 Speaker 1: got an email directed to me saying, Hey, we found 734 00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:07,800 Speaker 1: this perfect job for you. We just need you to 735 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:09,440 Speaker 1: fill out all these forms that will give us all 736 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:13,000 Speaker 1: your personal information. Um, it was a total scam. Well, 737 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:15,080 Speaker 1: people who are looking for a job are really eager 738 00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 1: to jump on an opportunity, and sometimes they might even 739 00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:20,640 Speaker 1: do that if the opportunity seems to come out of 740 00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:24,160 Speaker 1: nowhere and it's too good to be true. And that's 741 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,600 Speaker 1: a pretty nasty thing to see, right, It's it's mean 742 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: to see malware designers go after people who are already 743 00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:34,720 Speaker 1: presumably in a pretty rough position. However, when it comes 744 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,200 Speaker 1: to them targeting cheaters, it becomes a little harder to 745 00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:42,239 Speaker 1: feel sympathy towards cheaters, right. Balder also popped up in 746 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:46,040 Speaker 1: other types of downloads, most notably in pirated copies of games, 747 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,360 Speaker 1: So in that case, the malware designers weren't targeting cheaters, 748 00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:53,800 Speaker 1: they were targeting thieves, though of course the hackers themselves 749 00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:57,360 Speaker 1: were also thieves. Also, I guess it's a good target 750 00:42:57,360 --> 00:42:59,799 Speaker 1: to go for because it's far less likely that someone 751 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,439 Speaker 1: who is cheating or stealing is going to complain when 752 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:08,040 Speaker 1: they themselves get targeted by hackers because if you come forward, 753 00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:10,120 Speaker 1: it means you also have to admit that you were 754 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:15,560 Speaker 1: engaged in questionable behavior yourself. So it's like blackmailing someone 755 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:18,879 Speaker 1: who's really doing something terrible. They're not likely to call 756 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,400 Speaker 1: you out on blackmailing because it would mean having to 757 00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:23,319 Speaker 1: admit that they were doing the terrible thing in the 758 00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:26,280 Speaker 1: first place. Same sort of thing, and you know, cheaters 759 00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:29,439 Speaker 1: typically really hate coming forward even when they're caught out. 760 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:33,520 Speaker 1: It's pretty common to see cheaters deny or deflect or 761 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,840 Speaker 1: even attack in response to folks pointing out when something 762 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:39,640 Speaker 1: hinky is going on. And as we wrap up, I 763 00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:43,360 Speaker 1: want to say something else. Do not cheat in multiplayer games. 764 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,480 Speaker 1: It just doesn't end well. You're more likely to get 765 00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:50,200 Speaker 1: banned than anything else. Even if you're able to succeed 766 00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:52,759 Speaker 1: in the short term. Over the long term, it's not 767 00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:56,359 Speaker 1: likely to work out well for you. And moreover, if 768 00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:01,200 Speaker 1: you're playing against me in anything, don't eat because you 769 00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:04,760 Speaker 1: don't have to. Because I'm telling you, I love video games, 770 00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,600 Speaker 1: but I am not good at them. I've had cheaters 771 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:10,160 Speaker 1: take me out in games. I think I mentioned pub 772 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:14,960 Speaker 1: G in the last episode because that was undeniably cheating. 773 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:17,839 Speaker 1: But seriously, that's just a waste of time for you. 774 00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:20,359 Speaker 1: I mean, you could probably take me out on your 775 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 1: own without much trouble. I've made it to the final 776 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:27,439 Speaker 1: two in pub G maybe three times. Every single time. 777 00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,000 Speaker 1: It was not because I was wrecking shop. It was 778 00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,440 Speaker 1: because I would play an entire match and I wouldn't 779 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,080 Speaker 1: run into anyone until the end, and then I would just, 780 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:39,280 Speaker 1: you know, fold over. When I finally came across somebody 781 00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:40,880 Speaker 1: and I was like, oh wow, I made it all 782 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,040 Speaker 1: the way the second place, and I never saw anyone, 783 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:48,359 Speaker 1: including the last player who was clearly skilled. So just 784 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,440 Speaker 1: give me a fighting chance and then you can riddle 785 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: me with bullets. All right. That wraps up these episodes 786 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:59,719 Speaker 1: about cheating in video games. Obviously it goes well beyond that. 787 00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,719 Speaker 1: They're some other notable examples that I didn't really touch on, 788 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:08,680 Speaker 1: Like there was a FIFA uh crime ring that that 789 00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,120 Speaker 1: was active last year. That was kind of an interesting story, 790 00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:15,239 Speaker 1: but we'll save that for some other episode. I hope 791 00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:17,560 Speaker 1: you enjoyed this. For those of you in the United States, 792 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:20,840 Speaker 1: I hope you have a great Thanksgiving break. Remember tomorrow's 793 00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,520 Speaker 1: episode is a rerun about how cyber Monday got started. 794 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,799 Speaker 1: So if you're curious about that, make sure you tune 795 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:30,319 Speaker 1: in and we'll be back next week with all new episodes. 796 00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:33,360 Speaker 1: And remember, if you want to send me anything to 797 00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:36,879 Speaker 1: you know, talk about, maybe there's a company or technology 798 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:40,080 Speaker 1: or trend in tech that you'd really like an episode about, 799 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:42,560 Speaker 1: send me a message on Twitter. The handle for the 800 00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:46,239 Speaker 1: show is tech Stuff hs W, and I'll talk to 801 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:54,600 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an I Heart 802 00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:58,439 Speaker 1: Radio production. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit 803 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:01,520 Speaker 1: the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 804 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:07,160 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. M