Kxmode wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 19:00:

Muscular Beaver wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:35:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 03:15:
I don't think Valve is being nefarious as much as looking the other way.
"Oh! You cheated! This copy of the game is banned!" *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

MAC addresses can be changed easily, permanent IP addresses not so easily, but its possible, too. Especially since most people have a dynamic one anyway, it could hit the wrong people.

In Section 3, Subsection A of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Valve makes it abundantly clear that using any method to change an IP is grounds for account termination.

"You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account."

Not sure people that buy dozens of accounts are worried about that...

Kxmode wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 19:00:

Muscular Beaver wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:35:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 03:15:
I don't think Valve is being nefarious as much as looking the other way.
"Oh! You cheated! This copy of the game is banned!" *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

MAC addresses can be changed easily, permanent IP addresses not so easily, but its possible, too. Especially since most people have a dynamic one anyway, it could hit the wrong people.

In Section 3, Subsection A of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Valve makes it abundantly clear that using any method to change an IP is grounds for account termination.

"You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account."

And that applies here how? How should they know, when you make a new account with that new IP, what your real IP is? But in any case, only few people have a permanent IP address. Its mainly corporations with permanent ones.

Muscular Beaver wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:35:

jdreyer wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 03:15:
I don't think Valve is being nefarious as much as looking the other way.
"Oh! You cheated! This copy of the game is banned!" *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

MAC addresses can be changed easily, permanent IP addresses not so easily, but its possible, too. Especially since most people have a dynamic one anyway, it could hit the wrong people.

In Section 3, Subsection A of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, Valve makes it abundantly clear that using any method to change an IP is grounds for account termination.

"You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account."

warmbluelasers wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:39:
It was easier to keep a lid on hackers in the days of privately run dedicated servers with admins.

Funny how 1997 was way more advanced than today in some ways.

Paranoid Jack wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 10:57:

Primalchrome wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 10:12:

warmbluelasers wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:39:
The problem is too much reliance on automated & community moderation. It was easier to keep a lid on hackers in the days of privately run dedicated servers with admins.

I played CS on dedicated servers a lot years ago. You're viewing the world through rose colored glasses, because I remember cheating to be wildly rampant. Speedhacks, wallhacks, aimbots....you name it and it was everywhere. Bans against good players (who weren't cheating) were also a regular thing with ego-driven admins. Punkbuster helped somewhat...but it was still VERY prevalent. But the internet was small then....cheating today facilitated by large hacker groups for PROFIT....not for fun. It's just like the new Crypto malware/virus forks that are all over the place....it didn't seem as bad back then because there wasn't any money in it and the world was smaller, not because we were supermen and more skilled at stopping it.

I have not played competitively since the days of R6 RvS. As I remember it it was just as bad with Punkbuster than before Punkbuster. It was just that the industry and Punkbuster were promoting their anti-cheat system as the best alternative when in actuality it was the same shit different name. There were cheats out that PB could not detect that required the admin to see a screenshot of your game folder to actually see if you had a cheat file present. LoL, and of course you could hide it very easily.

My clan played in two leagues on two ladders here in NA with some members living in the UK and Italy. Not to mention spread all over the US and Canada. After a few months of competition we found that each of the top teams had members that were also admins on the league forums and PB forums. One female PB admin/player was busted for having hacks claiming her son had been using her PC and that he must have installed the hacks. LoL!

The nail in the coffin for me was a two stage implosion of the clan. First one of our members, Badger, was caught with a hack which got him banned and the whole clan suspended. Then after gaining access to compete again we were fighting our way back up the ladder trying for a spot at second rung on the ladder and two guys in the clan had an argument during the match. An asshat going by the name of Jethro threw the match giving us the loss. It was the game mode were you had to escort a VIP, he was the VIP and ran out into the open getting himself shot. Next round he shot the VIP himself. What a douche.

The anti-cheat is better, and one of the major clients is now published through the Steam Store (ESEA). Tick rates are much higher with better server registration, and compared to the standard Valve matchmaking, players are legitimately good...so don't pay to play iESEA unless you compete in leagues, the competition is ruthless.

Primalchrome wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 10:12:

warmbluelasers wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:39:
The problem is too much reliance on automated & community moderation. It was easier to keep a lid on hackers in the days of privately run dedicated servers with admins.

I played CS on dedicated servers a lot years ago. You're viewing the world through rose colored glasses, because I remember cheating to be wildly rampant. Speedhacks, wallhacks, aimbots....you name it and it was everywhere. Bans against good players (who weren't cheating) were also a regular thing with ego-driven admins. Punkbuster helped somewhat...but it was still VERY prevalent. But the internet was small then....cheating today facilitated by large hacker groups for PROFIT....not for fun. It's just like the new Crypto malware/virus forks that are all over the place....it didn't seem as bad back then because there wasn't any money in it and the world was smaller, not because we were supermen and more skilled at stopping it.

I have not played competitively since the days of R6 RvS. As I remember it it was just as bad with Punkbuster than before Punkbuster. It was just that the industry and Punkbuster were promoting their anti-cheat system as the best alternative when in actuality it was the same shit different name. There were cheats out that PB could not detect that required the admin to see a screenshot of your game folder to actually see if you had a cheat file present. LoL, and of course you could hide it very easily.

My clan played in two leagues on two ladders here in NA with some members living in the UK and Italy. Not to mention spread all over the US and Canada. After a few months of competition we found that each of the top teams had members that were also admins on the league forums and PB forums. One female PB admin/player was busted for having hacks claiming her son had been using her PC and that he must have installed the hacks. LoL!

The nail in the coffin for me was a two stage implosion of the clan. First one of our members, Badger, was caught with a hack which got him banned and the whole clan suspended. Then after gaining access to compete again we were fighting our way back up the ladder trying for a spot at second rung on the ladder and two guys in the clan had an argument during the match. An asshat going by the name of Jethro threw the match giving us the loss. It was the game mode were you had to escort a VIP, he was the VIP and ran out into the open getting himself shot. Next round he shot the VIP himself. What a douche.

warmbluelasers wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 06:39:
The problem is too much reliance on automated & community moderation. It was easier to keep a lid on hackers in the days of privately run dedicated servers with admins.

I played CS on dedicated servers a lot years ago. You're viewing the world through rose colored glasses, because I remember cheating to be wildly rampant. Speedhacks, wallhacks, aimbots....you name it and it was everywhere. Bans against good players (who weren't cheating) were also a regular thing with ego-driven admins. Punkbuster helped somewhat...but it was still VERY prevalent. But the internet was small then....cheating today facilitated by large hacker groups for PROFIT....not for fun. It's just like the new Crypto malware/virus forks that are all over the place....it didn't seem as bad back then because there wasn't any money in it and the world was smaller, not because we were supermen and more skilled at stopping it.

I know this is the Interwebz....but you really can't have it both ways and be taken seriously. "Valve are money grubbing shitheels who don't ban cheaters to keep their money/transactions moving!" != "Valve are money grubbing shitheels for banning cheaters so that they will buy another copy!" IP bans and MAC bans are a joke. They haven't worked for 10 years. 90% of users are on dynamic IPs...meaning they change regularly. MACs can be spoofed on just about any NIC. That said, I wish that Valve would spend the money to research something that delves deep into component serialization and biometrics to identify users.....but that probably has a decent chance of backfiring falsepositives with the size of the userbase we're talking about.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 03:15:
If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

As someone who used to wield the ban hammer way back, banning the steam account is "safer" than other methods. IP can be changed, and some other sucker will get stuck with the ban. MAC can be changed or spoofed. I bet HWID can too.

The problem is too much reliance on automated & community moderation. It was easier to keep a lid on hackers in the days of privately run dedicated servers with admins.

jdreyer wrote on Sep 19, 2016, 03:15:

Kxmode wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 18:42:

Squirmer wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 18:12:
I have a wild theory that CS:GO is #1 because it's a fun game that people enjoy playing. Crazy I know.

Do you guys think Valve also fake the user stats that show CS:GO had a peak playerbase today 10 times higher than the next most popular paid game (639,072 vs 64,958)?

Or do you think it might just be a popular game and there's no conspiracy or malpractice behind it?

I don't believe Valve did anything nefarious. More than likely the recent mass VAC bans led to enough people buying the game again to place it on Steam's Top 10 list.

I don't think Valve is being nefarious as much as looking the other way.
"Oh! You cheated! This copy of the game is banned!" *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

MAC addresses can be changed easily, permanent IP addresses not so easily, but its possible, too. Especially since most people have a dynamic one anyway, it could hit the wrong people.

Kxmode wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 18:42:

Squirmer wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 18:12:
I have a wild theory that CS:GO is #1 because it's a fun game that people enjoy playing. Crazy I know.

Do you guys think Valve also fake the user stats that show CS:GO had a peak playerbase today 10 times higher than the next most popular paid game (639,072 vs 64,958)?

Or do you think it might just be a popular game and there's no conspiracy or malpractice behind it?

I don't believe Valve did anything nefarious. More than likely the recent mass VAC bans led to enough people buying the game again to place it on Steam's Top 10 list.

I don't think Valve is being nefarious as much as looking the other way.
"Oh! You cheated! This copy of the game is banned!" *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*

If they really wanted to put a stop to this crap instead of reaping tens of millions of dollars from repeat buyers that get banned multiple times, they could IP ban or MAC address ban people.

Muscular Beaver wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 19:01:

egg_mcmuffin wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 13:36:
I never understood the love for shadow of mordor and im a complete tolkien junky....I played about 6 hours worth and felt like I was playing a rip off of Arkham Knight.

Really dull scenery, the main story arc was pretty meh, sort of wished they had just done the story of the fall of lindon and the creation of the rings. At least there would have been some variation in landscape.

Yep, I quit after a few hours too. Doesnt feel like Middle Earth/Tolkien at all, and you feel trapped on a tiny map.

Well it does sort of feel like Mordor, albeit a tiny Mordor, but it's also repetitive as fuck so I guess me three.

Muscular Beaver wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 19:01:

egg_mcmuffin wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 13:36:
I never understood the love for shadow of mordor and im a complete tolkien junky....I played about 6 hours worth and felt like I was playing a rip off of Arkham Knight.

Really dull scenery, the main story arc was pretty meh, sort of wished they had just done the story of the fall of lindon and the creation of the rings. At least there would have been some variation in landscape.

Yep, I quit after a few hours too. Doesnt feel like Middle Earth/Tolkien at all, and you feel trapped on a tiny map.

Really? I'm actually impressed by the game, to be honest. I started it a long time ago, shortly after release but then I stopped to finish up Far Cry4 and Dying Light. Still working on Dying Light but I went back to SoM a few weeks ago and I still enjoy the combat and the Nemesis system with the captain Orcs. If you lose to one, even a lowly grunt, they become more powerful. It's really a novel system I wish other games would use. Is it LotR? Well, I dunno, frankly. I'm not really a LotR fan. But from what I've seen in the game, I'm pretty hooked on the lore they used to flesh out the game. I have no idea how much of it is from the books and how much is original for the game itself.

I go through phases where I want to play something melee-focused in a medieval setting, to wanting to play a racing sim (or just an arcade racer) to wanting to play a roguelike like DwarfFortress to playing some sci-fi 1st person shooter like Mass Effect to wanting to play a sci-fi 4x game like GalCiv3. For a while I was on a realistic, open-world hook like GTA5 and Mercenaries2, then playing some Fallout4 and now I'm onto Dying Light, SOMA and SoM. Maybe I have a gamer-centric syndrome similar to ADD?

Anyway, I rather like SoM's combat and story and I'm surprised how much content is included in it. Of course, if I ever get back to my Witcher3 playthrough, I'll probably see how little content is actually there, from what I've heard. I've only gotten to the first large map after looking for what's-her-name? (the one with the unicorn fetish?) Who just kind of appears outside the bar after you slaughter some good ol' racist drunks, so I don't think I've even touched the story yet...ah, oh well, back to SoM and my on-going GalCiv3 game...


=-Rigs-=

DedEye wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 19:43:
I got Mad Max a while back on another sale for $20, money well spent.

Same here. I like to jump around with the games that I play for variety I guess. Mad Max I played all the way through. The combat gets a bit repetitive and I didn't understand why every boss you fought could be defeated using the EXACT same tactics but all-in-all a really good game.

Mad Max has some really good sides, but I wish there wasn't so much emphasis on on-foot combat (all the base conquers). The driving is great fun, and the game would have been so much better with more focus on that.

1. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Valve has been consistently improving core elements of the game; almost all weapons have had improvements made to gun shot sounds and animations, and they've even begun to improve recoil accuracy. This weeks update also fixed a major complaint with the game's first vs third-person inconsistencies and animations. It's been a while since the last operation (DLC co-operative missions with AI) and I assume the next one is around the corner.

Since Overwatch release, and Valve's ban on gambling with gun skins, my gun skin inventory has decreased in value by 15%, however, I've seen an 8% gain in the last 4 weeks.

I've been enjoying Mad Max too, after just a few hours. I'm playing it only with a controller because I feel like my inability to play many games with one is increasingly holding me back.

I've been a gamer for over 20 years, it's time I figured out if I prefer inverted Y axis or not on a gamepad.

I got Mad Max a while back on another sale for $20, money well spent.

IgWannA wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 18:08:
Been having a blast with Mad Max this weekend - put 10 hours in already. Really surprised by the quality of it, from the weighty driving physics to the tight fighting to the eye popping graphics and world design. Well worth getting it while 75% off.

Not to mention the engine/exhaust sound. Its a real joy to push the gas pedal in that game.
The movie was great and the game, too.

egg_mcmuffin wrote on Sep 18, 2016, 13:36:
I never understood the love for shadow of mordor and im a complete tolkien junky....I played about 6 hours worth and felt like I was playing a rip off of Arkham Knight.

Really dull scenery, the main story arc was pretty meh, sort of wished they had just done the story of the fall of lindon and the creation of the rings. At least there would have been some variation in landscape.

Yep, I quit after a few hours too. Doesnt feel like Middle Earth/Tolkien at all, and you feel trapped on a tiny map.