Epic Games addressed reports and complaints of cheating in the first week of the Fortnite World Cup Online Open. More than 1,200 accounts got temporary bans — and one was permanently banned. Exploiting is generally considered cheating by the gaming community at large due to the unfair advantage usually gained by the exploiter. Whether an exploit is considered a cheat is a matter of widespread debate that varies between genres, games, and other factors.
- Call it cheating, hacking, or just plain pwning, using an aimbot in a First Person Shooter (FPS) undoubtedly provides a decided edge. These little tools can turn even the greenest of noobs into full-fledged fraggers in no time, but how exactly does an aimbot allow that player to completely dominate the game?
- (August 2017) Game trainers are programs made to modify memory of a computer game thereby modifying its behavior using addresses and values, in order to allow cheating.
Earlier this week, the world was introduced to a 24-year-old who is finding cheaters in video games. His name is Mohamed Al-Sharifi, an Iraqi who lives in London, and since he got laid off from his job for COVID-related reasons, he's spent his time busting hackers -- and he's very good at it. In fact, through multiple discord servers and other means, he's amassed a group of volunteers that help him snuff out the 'bad guys.'
Cheating and hacking is always a discussion in gaming, particularly in Battle Royales. Whether it's a dispute over top prize money in a competition, or top streamers lamenting the amount of hackers they experience in an eight-hour play session, the topic regularly comes up. In November, FaZe Jarvis received a lifetime ban from Epic Games for using hacks publicly in Fortnite. Jarvis is not the first and certainly not the last.
The topic of cheating has come up recently in Fortnite as well, particularly as new events such as the Fortnite Champion Series begin to ramp up again.
So how do people cheat in game? One way is collusion -- where you collude with opponents to gain points and advantage, to 'gamify' the leaderboard to advance to a tournament or receive more prize money. 'Storm Surging' is one such example, where players will deliberately wound -- but not kill -- one another in order to avoid a storm surge penalty. Famously, two Canadian players were banned for 14 days following allegations of cheating prior to the 2019 Fortnite World Cup (but still qualified and participated).
Then there are the cheat programs that are found online. This is where I decided to consult with Al-Sharifi, who was recently profiled by VICE about how this is accomplished and how it can be prevented.
'It's really easy to cheat in [Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone],' Al-Sharifi told ESPN. He explained that certain websites (that he declined to provide so as not to give them any free promotion) have one-day pass keys that cost around $5 to $20 depending on features.
'It's as simple as going to your local shop to buy snacks,' he said.
In one such example, when you download the cheat program and give it administrative access on your computer, the program loads its driver into a kernel and then allows you access to many cheat functions, including information on enemy locations, an easier-to-see color palette for weapons and enemies, enemy weapon and loadout info and aim assist.
What is a kernel? Think of it as a central nervous system of your PC, connecting software to hardware. It is the layer in between applications and your CPU, memory and devices that essentially controls a lot in your PC. If an application had control of this, it would be very powerful and able to bypass a lot, including manipulating certain programs. Cheat software essentially bypasses any anti-cheat software or detection by using the kernel on your computer.
'Warzone's anti-cheat is completely defenseless, they will never win the war against cheaters for the simple fact that they don't even have a kernel driver,' Al-Sharifi said. 'If you want to win the war against cheaters you need to have an intrusive anti-cheat or you just won't do anything.'
Al-Sharifi said that Infinity Ward, the creators of Call of Duty: Warzone, do regularly ban cheaters, particularly in waves. However, users can simply create another account and download the same cheat software.
'I can play the game right now and cheat for weeks or months and then be banned by their ban wave and it only can take me less then 10 minutes or 1 hour to come back and do the same process again,' he said.
What Is Qualified As Cheating In Video Games Online
Al-Sharifi loosely estimates that based on the information he has collected and is aware of, 10% of the Fortnite user base cheats in some way, while it's closer to 25% for Warzone. Al-Sharifi says Fortnite does make a more concerted effort to stop cheaters.
One game that Al-Sharifi compliments in the anti-cheat realm is VALORANT. The new tactical shooter from Riot Games comes with the Vanguard anti-cheat software that installs directly on your computer as a measure to prevent hacking. While privacy concerns have been raised about the Vanguard software itself, particularly its kernel-mode driver, Al-Sharifi believes this is what developers should be doing to attempt to eradicate the problem.
'(Riot) have completely gotten rid of cheat dev pasters, and public cheats,' Al-Sharifi said. 'It is extremely hard to cheat on VALORANT, and also hard to obtain private cheats for VALORANT. Sadly enough, you cannot get rid of cheaters, but what VALORANT has done with vanguard is extremely impressive since they have made it very, very hard to cheat, which should be the goal for every company.'
Al-Sharifi notes that third-party anti-cheat efforts do exist, like BattlEye and Easy Anti-Cheat, but the hackers 'are like [five] steps ahead of them' and the most effective method would be for the developers to create the measure themselves.
Is cheating truly a major problem in gaming and esports? While many will say the answer is yes, a few sources closer to Epic Games and Infinity Ward (who wish to remain anonymous) told ESPN that though it does exist, it is blown way out of proportion, particularly by public outcry on social media. One source said that often, a tilted player will publicly complain about a cheater with no evidence, which will lead to the conversation being brought up again, even though cheating wasn't necessarily the cause at all. Others have said that companies, in particular Epic Games, have dealt very well with situations like these recently. Epic didn't respond to a request for an official comment about how they deal with cheaters, while Infinity Ward pointed to a series of tweets that dealt with their response to cheating in Call of Duty.
With millions of users playing games like Warzone and Fortnite every day, and competitions like the Fortnite World Cup and the Fortnite Champion Series offering sizable prize pools, the allure to gain an advantage -- whether the reasons are monetary or, perhaps, an addiction to winning -- will always be prevalent. Competitive integrity, at least according to Al-Sharifi, should be held in the highest regard, which means shutting out the cheaters.
NEWS AND NOTES
1) Speaking of competitive Fortnite events, 14-year-old gamer Gen.G Moqii became the first female competitor to win an official Fortnite Champion Series solo event on Sunday, in the stacked European region no less.
'I'm glad I made it as far as I did, but this is just the qualifier, not the semifinals or the finals, so there's still a lot more to be done,' Moqii told ESPN. 'I am happy with my performance during the qualifiers, and I hope I can do well in the semis and finals as well.'
Her father (both Moqii and her father wished not to disclose their names) believes this was a long time coming for his daughter.
'I'm so proud of her and her achievement,' he told ESPN. 'But I'm not surprised at her top placement because we knew how capable she is and that this day was coming.'
In terms of the magnitude of her accomplishment, Moqii is focused on being the best player she can be and does not dwell on hyperbole.
What Is Qualified As Cheating In Video Games Using
'I don't really look at it as making history. I just want to be known for being a good player in Fortnite, and I try not to focus on other things right now. I practice and study the game a lot, and want to improve even more between now and finals.'
'Gender doesn't matter in this,' 14-year-old Fortnite competitor Soleil 'Ewok' Wheeler told ESPN. The important thing is to support each other while you're playing.'
Fortnite caster Arten 'BallaTW' Esa told ESPN the win was a long time coming for someone of her talents and previous results that might have been even greater. 'An opens stage is something we all already knew she could win, she's gotten close multiple times,' BallaTW said. ' But there's a lot of volatility ... in my mind her qualifying for finals of Dreamhack Anaheim and then FNCS Invitational was more important and more difficult. However, (we) can't understate the impact of seeing a 14-year-old girl at the top of a leaderboard. This will hopefully open the floodgates in making it more common for girls to compete at a high level.'
2) Warzone Season Five brings with it not just another 700-gig update (just kidding, it's only 36), but new additions to Warzone: the stadium roof is blown off (FINALLY!) and now you can drop inside, trading bullets around the concourse and different sections. I wonder if you'll get to watch a football or soccer game too? Oh, there's also a speeding train somewhere on the map that crunches vehicles. Enjoy!
3) The newest member of NRG Fortnite, Clix, won the Bugha Throwback Cup on July 31. I wrote about NRG's footprint in Fortnite a couple of columns ago.
4) One other concern about Fortnite competitive comes from CourageJD. After citing the amount of awesome personalities and undiscovered talent there is in the Fortnite scene, the popular streamer lamented about the spectator client in a tweet.
I will say that the wide shot of the builds after a game has concluded is one of the prettiest visuals in all of esports.
5) This week we also got more Marvel / Fortnite collab, with the Hulk Smashers pickaxe and bonus Hulkbuster available to users that completed the Marvel Avengers game beta on PS$/XBOX One. This is a smart way to get players to get one game and play it through so they can enjoy a unique cosmetic in another game they already play. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Epic Games' collaborations with celebrities, brands and leagues is undefeated.
Speaking of collabs......
6) I'm going to be in Fortnite this Saturday ... because of Tetris!
That is 100% factual. I am the host and one of the commentators for the Classic Tetris World Championships, one of the biggest retro esports tournaments around. Last year, the tournament was featured as part of ESPN 8: The Ocho, a yearly day at ESPN where the most bizarre but awesome sports are featured (including classic Tetris). On Aug. 8 this year, The Ocho is coming to Fortnite on the Big Screen, which includes a re-airing of a 30-minute 2018 CTWC special. So, with apologies to Game Awards creator and frequent host in Fortnite Geoff Keighley, I am now Fortnite's favorite personality from Toronto.
Call it cheating, hacking, or just plain pwning, using an aimbot in a First Person Shooter (FPS) undoubtedly provides a decided edge. These little tools can turn even the greenest of noobs into full-fledged fraggers in no time, but how exactly does an aimbot allow that player to completely dominate the game? How do they know where you are at all times? Why do they seem to shoot you square in the head with a pistol, while running and jumping no less, from across the map without even appearing on your screen? These are some of the questions I will try to answer here in this look at how aimbots work.
The first point to clarify is that there is no single and universally applicable aimbot that you simply turn on and watch play. The term is actually used to refer to software which is either created to run alongside an FPS, or any number of different modifications to game files that exploit varying aspects of the game code to a player’s advantage. Because of these advantages aimbots are generally prohibited from multiplayer gameplay on the public servers of most games, some of which actively seek out behaviour consistent with aimbotting and kick and/or ban the offending player.
The first aimbots to make their way into FPS games were known as colour aimbots. A Colour aimbot is usually a separate program that runs in the background concurrently with the game. For this type of aimbot to work, the user must assign a particular RGB colour value as the target, usually the colour value of the skin or uniform of the designated enemies. During gameplay, the colour aimbot will seek out that particular colour code on the player’s screen and snap the cursor or crosshair to that pixel location. Generally speaking, the faster the processing speed of both the CPU and graphics card of the user’s computer, the faster the aimbot will process the target and draw the cursor to it. Colour aimbots can also be configured to automatically fire the selected weapon when the cursor reaches the target, eliminating the need for the player to click the mouse. While this type of aimbot is relatively effective considering it does not require the modification of any game files, the inherent drawbacks are that it will often fire at the landscape, dead bodies, and teammates if they match the target colour code. Colour aimbots are usually much less effective in newer games where high quality graphics rendering using light and shadow constantly change the colour code of moving players making it much more difficult for the aimbot to consistently find the correct RGB value and identify a target.
In response to these developing complications, aimbots began to incorporate more sophisticated processes than simple colour recognition. One such advance was the development of what are commonly referred to as “content hacks.” Rather than simply search the screen for a specific colour, this type of aimbot is actually more of a customization of settings. The user modifies their graphics display settings so that the game will render images differently. A common employment of this type of hack is to force the game to render enemies in bright red, friends in bright blue, and walls and other objects as transparent except for small grid lines that show where they start and end. Doing so makes it impossible for enemies to hide behind walls or in shadows as the user can always track their movement provided they are looking in the right direction. Content hacks are particularly effective because since no game files are actually tampered with to create this type of interface, anti-cheat software cannot always discern whether or not this type of hack is being used.
Content hack changing the rendering of players and obstacles.
Interestingly enough, this type of content hack can actually be used in conjunction with the older colour aimbots to make a very effective combination. Because the content hack renders the enemies as a single consistent colour, a colour aimbot configured to target that RGB code will have almost no margin for error. The bot will likely attempt to shoot players that are visible through objects and walls, but otherwise it will always find the proper target.
Innovation in the field of aimbot creation also brought what are known as client hook aimbots. These aimbots provide an advantage by allowing the user to tinker with game mechanics such as the recoil on weapons or the transparency of solid objects such as walls. Unlike the colour aimbots or content hacks, client hook aimbots give the user the ability to track enemy players based on their position as recorded by the game’s memory. This eliminates the false targeting of colour aimbots. These aimbots work by modifying either the dynamic-link library (.dll) or executable (.exe) files of the game itself. They gain access using what is known as a DLL injection whereby the user forces the executable file to run a modified dll file alongside all of the standard game files. This foreign dll file is where the code is written that changes the game mechanics from their original function to give the user a decided advantage. For more information in Dll injection and a great tutorial check out this forum post. Unfortunately, because this type of aimbot modifies game files, they are usually easier for anti-cheat software such as Valve’s Anti-Cheat (VAC) or PunkBuster.
The last and perhaps most complex type of aimbots are known as graphics driver aimbots. By hickjacking information from the graphics rendering software (such as DirectX or OpenGL), this type of aimbot is able to pinpoint the three dimensional coordinates of all players on the server. In some versions of this type of aimbot the user can actually enter a player’s screen name and have the aimbot track that player until he or she comes into unobstructed view at which point the aimbot will begin firing the selected weapon. This type of aimbot can be particularly effective since it can track players well out of the user’s visible range and actually shoot targets that cannot actually be seen on the screen.
I think that it would be appropriate to close with a youtube video of what is perhaps one of the best recorded examples of aimbotting. This particular user’s aimbot combines a content hack, that renders the enemies in yellow and red while displaying friends as blue and green, a graphics driver hack that tracks players across the map, a colour aimbot that draws the cursor to the red and yellow targets and fires immediately, and a client hook that appears to reduce the gun recoil. At 2:28 we see the user open the aimbot interface indicating that it is a separate program running concurrently to the game that is modifying the gaming experience. Enjoy!
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