Really need to talk to someone about my findings

[Rakanoth]

Since 6the grade of primary school (when I was like 12), I have been programming. Started with developing websites. And on high school went onto developing apps and got interested in game hacking. I studied CS and improved my knowledge a lot. For the last 2 years, I have been even more intensely interested in reverse engineering, windows internals and video game anti-cheats. I learnt a lot and developed a lot.

I hate to accept an accusation that is not true. Yes I developed cheats but I am not cheater. By the strict definition of the term cheating, I might be one as the cheat software has to be running when I am playing the game. But I act in a way that the game is not ruined.

I contacted companies countless times and explained how the 99% of bypasses work. I even documented how to detect them. Nothing has been done. Absolutely nothing. I even contacted the CEO, the devs, the anti-cheat devs etc., knowing that they'd hate be contacted for that on LinkedIn and XING. I still did. Nothing has changed for months.

It has also become an addiction to me to hack. And it is not hurting my health, IMO. This semester I had tough time with my university courses because I spent too much time on hacking and too little time on studying. I passed all of my courses but my grades were very bad.

Now, I want to release all my efforts to public. There is an unexplainable itch in me that tells me to release it to the public for the sake of ego and to kill many of the pay2cheats out there. My options:

1.) Don't do it. Combat the itch. Never ever touch the cheats again. Everyone will use the cheats and it will ruin.

2.) Follow whatever itch is in you. I might even go to jail for copyright infringement but... 

What am I to do now? Also, I need to talk to someone about my addiction. But to whom. My university has counseling service with a CS professor. But I'd feel awkward and cringe and embarrassed when explaining what I am doing. What do you suggest?

[RAS_3885]

3 hours ago, Rakanoth said:

Since 6the grade of primary school (when I was like 12), I have been programming. Started with developing websites. And on high school went onto developing apps and got interested in game hacking. I studied CS and improved my knowledge a lot. For the last 2 years, I have been even more intensely interested in reverse engineering, windows internals and video game anti-cheats. I learnt a lot and developed a lot.

I hate to accept an accusation that is not true. Yes I developed cheats but I am not cheater. By the strict definition of the term cheating, I might be one as the cheat software has to be running when I am playing the game. But I act in a way that the game is not ruined.

I contacted companies countless times and explained how the 99% of bypasses work. I even documented how to detect them. Nothing has been done. Absolutely nothing. I even contacted the CEO, the devs, the anti-cheat devs etc., knowing that they'd hate be contacted for that on LinkedIn and XING. I still did. Nothing has changed for months.

It has also become an addiction to me to hack. And it is not hurting my health, IMO. This semester I had tough time with my university courses because I spent too much time on hacking and too little time on studying. I passed all of my courses but my grades were very bad.

Now, I want to release all my efforts to public. There is an unexplainable itch in me that tells me to release it to the public for the sake of ego and to kill many of the pay2cheats out there. My options:

1.) Don't do it. Combat the itch. Never ever touch the cheats again. Everyone will use the cheats and it will ruin.

2.) Follow whatever itch is in you. I might even go to jail for copyright infringement but... 

What am I to do now? Also, I need to talk to someone about my addiction. But to whom. My university has counseling service with a CS professor. But I'd feel awkward and cringe and embarrassed when explaining what I am doing. What do you suggest?

Sounds like you've found something you have a passion for.  Find a way to make that your job.  There are plenty of instances of companies (many times BIG companies) employing people to try to expose security flaws.  Investigate that and find out how you might get in that line of work.  Clearly the companies you've tried contacting so far are either A) not interested, or B) more likely highly skeptical of a random person waving "look I broke your thing now fix it" in front of their faces.  Assuming they even got the message at all.

 

If you feel like you need to talk with a counselor then please do.  It may be embarrassing at first, but they're professionals looking to help people.  Alternatively, reach out to some close friends and talk things over.

[RAS_3885]

3 hours ago, Rakanoth said:

2.) Follow whatever itch is in you. I might even go to jail for copyright infringement but... 

I don't know anything about the types of findings you're talking about, but if you consider this even a remote possibility (which I find unlikely) then don't do it.  Jail is bad and video games are not worth jail time.

[John_Trollinski]

1 hour ago, Caroline said:

• Cheaters buy the game to access online
• Cheaters also buy cosmetics and DLCs
• There are so many of them that keep the game alive
• There are no good players in PVP games, just cheaters who haven't been caught
• Cheaters stream and make the game popular
• Multiplayer games were designed to cheat
• Cheaters act as a filter for other people the game designers don't want: kids, old people, women, casuals, if you don't cheat you're out of the game, it's as simple as that, this is valid for every PVP game out there.
• Too many cheaters will usually make the playerbase look "pro" or experienced
• Cheaters are never banned unless they reveal they're cheaters
• The best cheaters are rewarded for their service in events if the game is very popular

This is so far from the truth. I mean look at games like r6 and overwatch where they ban 1000s of accounts a week. while yes some games don't care like cs:go and other stuff. Alot of them do and are trying to prevent cheaters or scammers=.

[John_Trollinski]

59 minutes ago, Caroline said:

username checks out

What does that mean It's just a name. Like as if I'm going to use my real name online.

[Guest]

Make a YouTube channel censoring induviduals’ Names & show & explain everything. The more the information out there, the more people will figure how to protect against it. 

[harryk]

The publishing companies probably don't care because it's just a video game; there's no money at risk. I'd say go ahead and publicly share what you've found. If its actually big enough to be an issue then the companies will see the effects and address it. 

 

Hacks and cheats go hand in hand with video games. Personally I see nothing wrong with it. Be ethical and follow the rules of the community you're playing in. But if its a single player or otherwise private game then go to town. Then you have things like 2b2t, where cheats and hacks are the game which I find very entertaining.

[Kilrah]

On 9/27/2019 at 7:28 PM, Rakanoth said:

I contacted companies countless times and explained how the 99% of bypasses work. I even documented how to detect them. Nothing has been done. Absolutely nothing. I even contacted the CEO, the devs, the anti-cheat devs etc., knowing that they'd hate be contacted for that on LinkedIn and XING. I still did. Nothing has changed for months.

Nothing changes because there's no urgency that makes it worth their time and effort.

If you release and people start to cheat like mad you'll see them suddenly running like ants, becasue then there WILL be money and reputation at stake.

 

Make sure to keep very safe copies of all the messages you have sent as proof of your willingness to engage in responsible disclosure before going public should someone go after you.

 

But yeah that's how things work. As long as there isn't a raging fire nobody will move a finger.