Novaworld Gaming Community Plagued With Cheating & Misconduct

[jex]

Popular online gaming service faces an uphill battle.

(PRWEB) February 24, 2005 -- Recently entertainment software developer NovaLogic, Inc. has reportedly been inundated with complaints of cheating and misconduct by members of its popular Novaworld online gamming service. An unnamed source from NovaLogic claims the company seldom investigates reports of cheating and in most cases players can effectively cheat on public servers without restriction. “Cheating is an ongoing occurrence and we do not have the necessary resources or manpower to effectively combat the problem” says the NovaLogic employee.

After doing a search on Google for Delta Force and Joint Operation cheats, I was able to find dozens of discussion boards that are actively distributing software that give players a significant unfair advantage over honest players. I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. S. Parker the developer of the widely distributed Parker Hack. Parker claims he has supplied thousands of players with public builds of his hacks, and dozens of select players with custom hacks that cannot be detected by the company’s anti-cheat system.

“Nova is a big joke, I could go into any public server right now and cheat and they can’t stop me. Nova makes it so easy to keep coding cheats and I am going to keep doing it. Some of the top players use my custom hacks and Nova administrators know all about it. I even supplied a forum moderator and members of his squad with cheats for free, in return he would delete or lock posts of players I did not like.” says Parker.

Hopefully NovaLogic will find a solution to combat the latest exploits, and make playing their various titles on public servers an enjoyable experience again. If NovaLogic can succeed in largely eliminating cheating on public servers, we may even see other developers pursue similar measures with their online titles.

Well that's just great! Thousands of hack, custom hacks and Nova scumsuckers will do absolutely nothing about it.

[jex]

This should be the sole reason NOT to play on nova public servers. Every game they have ever made just results in masses of cheats descending on the pubby servers. It is perfectly clear in this report and over on the NW forums that nova are doing nothing and therefore it is up to us, the community, to keep our eyes open for suspicious play.

We should not start wildly calling 'cheat' without first getting proof. Either screen shots, Fraps footage or witnesses would normally do the trick. If a cheat is suspected, report to the server admins for that game, do not take action yourself.

I'm not sure what problems will be caused in private servers; typically cheaters do not frequent private servers because they know they are pretty easily spotted. But a community should be looking to police itself in the way they expect to have the game played. If not, the community becomes diluted and looses it's focus and uniqueness.

[luna]

Something tells me that this article is a fake. I mean, look at the spelling and gramatical errors! I don't think any Associated Press writer worth their salt would base their facts on a statement like "I googled JO cheats and that proves it! They're everywhere!" Not to mention, the site it is posted on allows anyone to post an article- and why wouldn't an Associated Press writer release their story to, well, you know, the Associated Press? Why would they release it to a competing news distributor? I smell something funny here.

I'm not saying JO *isn't* plagued with cheats- it definitely has some issues. But I for one think this article is very likely a load of horsesh*t.

[USN_Squid]

There's definitely a problem with cheating that thankfully we haven't been plagued with too much. But that article is a fake. No reporter would say "Hopefully NovaLogic will find a solution to combat the latest exploits." That's a gamer talking.

And this one just sounds like BS to me:
"I even supplied a forum moderator and members of his squad with cheats for free, in return he would delete or lock posts of players I did not like"

[luna]

Just did a little research and posted this over on Novaworld- I looked up writers and editors for the AP. There is no one by the name of Jennifer Miller on staff there. See for youself: http://www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact.html .

[Wyzcrak]

Yeah, but...

... if you were the author of that article, would you really use your real name??

I mean... if you expose all those 13 year olds they might |-|4x0r -/|Vr p33s33!?!?@@11

heh.

[CingularDuality]

Has the original post been edited? I don't see any reference to the AP or Jennifer Miller in it..

[=Sarc=]

We might not be exposed to cheaters often or maybe we don't know it but the cheats do exist. With a little time it wouldn't be hard to bypass PB and create all sorts of little tricks. Last I checked, PB doesn't really do much because of the way NL programmed JO. The biggest problem is overriding textures, sounds, etc. without actually altering the original files. It's just the way JO was designed and I doubt NL will go to the trouble of fixing the potential exploit.

Whether the article is real or not, we don't have to rely on NL to fix their problems. The players populating the server is something we can control. It's just a matter of keeping the players with high integrity and filtering out the scumbags. Easier said than done but it's something we have to do regardless of how well a game's anti-cheat system is implemented.

[leejo]

I don't think any Associated Press writer worth their salt would base their facts on a statement like "I googled JO cheats and that proves it! They're everywhere!"

Good enough for CBS. What makes you think AP writers ARE worth their salt?

[VET72]

PRWEB, where the release was posted, is a free press release distribution service on which ANYONE can post ANYTHING. It is NOT a media outlet, it is not a newspaper or wire service. It is simply a place from which to distribute free press releases. Most of them are legit -- I've used it for my business -- but not all.

[VET72]

PRWEB, where the release was posted, is a free press release distribution service on which ANYONE can post ANYTHING. It is NOT a media outlet, it is not a newspaper or wire service. It is simply a place from which to distribute free press releases. Most of them are legit -- I've used it for my business -- but not all.

Since I happen to run a crisis management PR biz, I called Novalogic's PR department. They confirmed that the release was fake, that it has been pulled from PR Web, and that both they and AP are looking into who did this. He also stressed that while no game is cheat-free, JO's anti-cheat measures are better than any comparable game now played on the Internet.

So while we all have our gripes about Novalogic, be careful not to jump to conclusions!

[Wyzcrak]

lol we need a jump.....


TO CONCLUSIONS MAT!

[/ Office Space reference ]

[J-Rod]

That's why I play on your server

But then again... I'm such a bad player I woudn't be able to tell the difference between being killed by a cheater or being killed by your average VET....

[=Sarc=]

That's why I play on your server

But then again... I'm such a bad player I woudn't be able to tell the difference between being killed by a cheater or being killed by your average VET....

That's also a good point too even if you're a seasoned player. Just because you get killed again and again it doesn't mean the other player is cheating. Sometimes it's easier for one to say the other player is cheating than to admit being a crappy player.

[Wyzcrak]

Sometimes it's easier for one to say the other player is cheating than to admit being a crappy player.

So true.

Some of the best players in the game have been regulars on our NS server. We have a rule on the server: no one makes public cheating accusations. Period. It helps make skilled players feel welcomed. When you're one of the best players in the game, it gets REALLY OLD being told server after server after server after server after server after server that you're cheating.

I'm not saying "let's let cheaters run wild on the servers", but if most players who cry "cheat" would just spend that energy focusing on the game and the mistakes and poor decisions they make playing it, the really skilled players would love the server it happens on and the gameplay will only improve for everyone. I've seen it happen on the NS server.