[Hank]

First of all, cheating sucks!

In these discussions, it hasnt been pointed out that quite a few cheaters aren't even playing the same game we are. They are playing against the game system itself. They could care less about whether or not they win or lose a particular game, but all that matters is that they beat the system. These are the worst kind of cheaters beacause they are the actual source of cheats that become public. That is winning the game for them. Finding a loophole or hack and posting it onto the web so that everyone can defeat the game system.

One of the biggest problems with cheating is poor game design. A lot of games are designed as a standalone game and then ported to be multiplayer. This is a real problem because when this design is followed, the player is not limited to only the data that the player needs. In games designed as such, the cheater already has 95% of the information they need sitting on their computer already. All they need to do is figure out how to get it.

Proper network game architecture would solve the majority of cheating that is in existance already. Unfortunately, the customer demands of needing to release a game as both single player and multiplayer seems prevents this architecture from being profitable.