It’s no secret that the wide world of multiplayer gaming is suffering from a cheating-based plague. No game is safe from cheaters if it has an online component, regardless of how niche that game might be. In recent years, some titles have been ruined by cheaters and malicious operators.
That was a theme touched on by Minh Le, one of the co-creators of Counter-Strike, in a recent interview with Gaming World Media. He expressed his critical concerns about the shape of the industry, stating quite clearly that cheating in multiplayer games is an epidemic.
‘It’s Like 40 or 50% of the Time’
In a recent interview hosted by Gaming World Media’s Jake Lucky, Minh Le took a deep dive into all things Counter-Strike, competitive gaming, and more, dishing his innermost thoughts about the state of the industry.
More than an hour into the conversation, the talk turned to cheating and how malicious behaviour in modern games is ruining the landscape for players worldwide.
Minh Le, who co-created the Half-Life Counter-Strike mod and started the iconic series way back in 1999 with Jess Cliffe, had some damning words for the issue:
It’s an epidemic, because 20 years ago, when Counter-Strike was first out, cheating was a bit of an issue, but it never reached the levels that it is right now.
Back when I was working on Counter-Strike, I would probably encounter a cheater maybe 5% of the time, maybe 10%, but these games when I’m jumping on a multiplayer game, it’s like maybe 40% or 50% of the time I’m running into some dubious shit going on.
As a player, you don’t want to play games that have that — and as a developer, you don’t want to make a game that’s being ruined by this. It’s a really big challenge, and it’s a challenge that we’ve been trying to address for 20 years.
He went on to explain that when he was at Valve two decades ago, they were hard at work trying to combat cheaters, hiring ‘a lot of intelligent, great people’, but he felt that it was always a case of ‘playing catch-up’. The unfortunate side of this is that, by today, some anti-cheat engines are just so disruptive.
That’s how things function today – developers are trying to match the cadence of cheat providers, but it’s like taking down a multi-headed hydra. When you shut down one cheat provider through legal action, another one inevitably surfaces.
It’s why so many games have succeeded with a PvE model.
Minh Le explained that in countries like South Korea, cheating in a video game is punished much more harshly, with players needing to verify their ID before playing a multiplayer game. That means if they’re discovered cheating, they’re blacklisted on a universal level. In his words, ‘If you get caught cheating in Korea, it’s a big deal.’
Do you agree with Minh Le’s words? Should we have harsher punishments for cheating? Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that iLLeY has retired from esports
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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