Arrests and prison sentences to be handed out to Chinese PUBG cheaters

[Mattson]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/tencent-cracks-down-on-cheats-in-world-s-top-selling-video-game?

PUBG is a game that is very dear to me.  It is the first game where I was sold on the concept alone without even seeing game footage.  100 people dropped onto an 8km x 8km map and the winner is the last one left alive.  It is the first game in over 10 years that moved me to upgrade my hardware to be able to handle it.  

 

I've had an absolute blast.  However one thing that has completely turned me off from the idea are the cheaters.  It is so infuriating to make it to 2nd place and then when you watch the replay the person who beat you is obviously cheating.  Emotionally I cannot think of another game like this... and the emotional reactions the game elicits come from your inadequacies as a player rather than faults in the code... the best kind of emotional reactions.

 

However cheaters elicit a rage with a source external from the game and they ruin the experience for everyone.

 

In PUBG about 60% of the player base is chinese and the overwhelming majority of the cheats are coming out of China.  

 

Bluehole, the creators of PUBG, are teaming up with Tencent(think Chinese Steam but 10 times as big) to pursue cheaters.  China has laws against people disrupting online networks, to quote the article:

 

"People convicted of disrupting computer networks face five years’ imprisonment or more under Chinese law. "

 

Since the partnership with Tencent 120 arrests have been made in relation to Chinese cheaters and those numbers are only going to go up in the future.  What are your thoughts on this?  Do you think 5 years of hard labor is an appropriate response to cheating in online games?

[AresKrieger]

I don't like it as it is in essence being arrested for violating a EULA, EULA's should never be legally binding. Fortunately its in China, not the west (yet).

[Canada EH]

5 minutes ago, Mattson said:

Do you think 5 years of hard labor is an appropriate response to cheating in online games?

Yup if not death by hanging!

 

Countries have laws, cant say one law in Canada is better then the next law in China, that is wrong!

[Mattson]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

I don't like it as it is in essence being arrested for violating a EULA, EULA's should never be legally binding.

It's not though... the arrests are, according to chinese law, causing disruption to online networks... which hacking certainly does.  They, as the article states, have a direct impact on new player retention and there are stats and graphs backing this up.

[AresKrieger]

Just now, Mattson said:

It's not though... the arrests are, according to chinese law, causing disruption to online networks... which hacking certainly does.  They, as the article states, have a direct impact on new player retention and there are stats and graphs backing this up.

The law is written so loosely anything could qualify, and to me sales do not matter from a criminal standpoint, hence the EULA mention.

[MegaDave91]

Great! Now, implement China region lock into the game.

[Canada EH]

4 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

sales do not matter from a criminal standpoint,

wow

lots of crimes are done to increase sales and are outright criminal just like this new chinese law.

Heck CEOs and company owners in China are put to death all the time!

 

You are looking at it from a free Canadian citizen standpoint.

Chinese law is Chinese law it needs to be enforced

Its like North Americans decrying about Islamic countries laws, yet they still drive on Islamic gas.

 

Another aspect of harsh sentencing is to deter others from committing similar offences. China is over populated so a few hundred in work farm prisons is nothing!

[suicidalfranco]

37 minutes ago, MegaDave91 said:

Great! Now, implement China region lock into the game.

Watch your mouth or else Greene will accuse you of xenophobia

[Mattson]

5 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Watch your mouth or else Greene will accuse you of xenophobia

To be fair the people who cry for region locking are extremely xenophobic in their reasoning and it becomes readily apparent when you probe them and question them.

 

EDIT:  Full disclosure, I'm all for region locking but I don't call the whole of China 'men without honor or morals' like most of the people I've engaged on the subject tend to do.

[suicidalfranco]

2 minutes ago, Mattson said:

To be fair the people who cry for region locking are extremely xenophobic in their reasoning and it becomes readily apparent when you probe them and question them.

How is high latency ruining the game for everyone a xenophobic argument? Not my fault if China is on the opposite side of the planet 

[Mattson]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

How is high latency ruining the game for everyone a xenophobic argument?

 

Read the edit I made... I realize there are valid arguments on the subject.  But my experience, after talking to my fair share of people on this subject, I find more xenophobic people than reasonable people.

[Sauron]

10 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

How is high latency ruining the game for everyone a xenophobic argument? Not my fault if China is on the opposite side of the planet 

In the case of PUBG I don't think latency is due to the Chinese, or at least not entirely... but splitting servers per region is a common practice so I don't see why not.

14 minutes ago, Mattson said:

To be fair the people who cry for region locking are extremely xenophobic in their reasoning and it becomes readily apparent when you probe them and question them.

 

EDIT:  Full disclosure, I'm all for region locking but I don't call the whole of China 'men without honor or morals' like most of the people I've engaged on the subject tend to do.

Many (if not most) multiplayer games have separate region servers to reduce connection lag and offer a smoother experience, it's nothing new and it has nothing to do with racial hate (usually).

[Energycore]

Hey @Mattson, just to fully adhere to our Tech News and Reviews format, can you put the quote from the source in quotes?

 

Like this

Quote

"People convicted of disrupting computer networks face five years’ imprisonment or more under Chinese law. "

 

[Canada EH]

Quote

xenophobic

• adj.
  Suffering from xenophobia, a fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners
• n.
  A xenophobe.

Yes I had to look it up. So that word is basically racist, xenophobia is racism!

[Mattson]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Many (if not most) multiplayer games have separate region servers to reduce connection lag

They do.

 

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

it's nothing new and it has nothing to do with racial hate

I never said it wasn't and never said they do.

[MegaDave91]

8 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Watch your mouth or else Greene will accuse you of xenophobia

3 minutes ago, Mattson said:

To be fair the people who cry for region locking are extremely xenophobic in their reasoning and it becomes readily apparent when you probe them and question them.

 

EDIT:  Full disclosure, I'm all for region locking but I don't call the whole of China 'men without honor or morals' like most of the people I've engaged on the subject tend to do.

Language barrier (this is critical in a communicative game), higher latency and higher susceptibility to cheating (60% of the game's player-base is from China; most of the cheats originate from there) are the three main reasons I would like to see a region lock put in place.

[Ginger_]

Steam should take note.. VAC bans are just a slap on the wrist

 

IDK about arresting people, but games are super laid back about cheaters and most find it pretty easy to repeat the cheat account after account if it comes to that

[Mattson]

2 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Yes I had to look it up. So that word is basically racist, xenophobia is racism!

It's actually a bit more complex than that.  Generally speaking, if the hate is due to biological factors its racism but if the reasons for the hate are due to cultural or nationalistic reasons its xenophobia.

[Mattson]

2 minutes ago, MegaDave91 said:

Language barrier (this is critical in a communicative game), higher latency and higher susceptibility to cheating (60% of the game's player-base is from China; most of the cheats originate from there) are the three main reasons I would like to see a region lock put in place.

The first reason is the reason why I'm all about the region lock... random matchmaking is basically pointless.  You get chinese people who can't speak English.  What I do in these situations is drop hot and broadcast to proximity chat that my teammate is Chinese.

[Canada EH]

1 minute ago, Mattson said:

but if the reasons for the hate are due to cultural or nationalistic reasons its xenophobia.

Based on what you typed, I would argue that point, but wont get into it here. Maybe we are both partly right, maybe Im wrong. Its my job to google the true definition if I so want to.

 

 

[Misanthrope]

Well that seems a bit hard even from China for a crime that's not really directly causing anybody to lose money (Making the game less desirable is tangentially related at best)

[Mattson]

2 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Its my job to google the true definition if I so want to.

Do whatever you want... xenophobia usually is connected with racism but there is a clear distinction.

[Canada EH]

1 minute ago, Mattson said:

Do whatever you want... xenophobia usually is connected with racism but there is a clear distinction.

 

Definition - Xenophobia refers to dislike or fearing unknown or something that is different from you.

 

Nationalism and Cultural is racism!

[Mattson]

2 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Well that seems a bit hard even from China for a crime that's not really directly causing anybody to lose money (Making the game less desirable is tangentially related at best)

What are you talking about... did you not see the graph?  The amount of owners of the game has increased but the amount of concurrent players has remained stagnant.

[Mattson]

6 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

Xenophobia refers to dislike or fearing unknown or something that is different from you.

What... that's not xenophobia... that's straight up fear.