Cheating in Online Games

Whilst cheat codes and cartridges are often used to make standalone player games easier to play, developers usually take great pains to prevent this from happening in online games, as the actions of a cheat may seriously affect other players. However, online gamers have often found ways around this, and use a number of techniques to give themselves or other players an unfair advantage.

Aimbots

An aimbot (also known as auto-aim) is a type of software that may be used in online multiplayer first-person shooter games to help the player to aim at a target more accurately, thus giving them an advantage over unaided players.

Aimbots can vary in their level of effectiveness, with some carrying out all the aiming and firing, simply requiring the player to move into a position where they can see opponents. However, this high level of automation usually makes it difficult for the player to hide an aimbot, as they will be seen to be making inhumanly fast targeting and firing actions. However, in some cases, highly-skilled players may be accused of using such programs, so the developers employ a number of anti-cheat mechanisms to prevent the use of aimbots use and thus avoid such accusations.

Twinking

Twinking is the practice of passing on valuable weapons, clothing and other items to a low level or new character, so that they are equipped with items or other resources that are not normally available to other players of that level. In other words, a twink is a character that possesses better equipment than they could have acquired on their own.

Twinking is usually carried out to make the process of levelling faster and easier, allowing the character stronger and more powerful weapons and more effective armour. It is often carried out by a high level player who wishes to give one of their lower level characters items that are no longer useful for them, or it may be carried out when a new player joins a guild and the guild outfits them with basic equipment and cash to help them get over the newbie levels.

Even at its most innocent level, twinking is seen as cheating as it enables the character to progress through the game faster; however, the practice can be even more damaging when a low level twink takes part in PvP (player versus player) combat, as they have a seriously unfair advantage over their competitor.

To combat twinking, some games have introduced item restrictions that prevent low level characters from using high-level items, for example by implementing minimum ability score and level requirements.

Macroing

Macroing is a technique of writing a script called a macro in order to automate player actions, automatically find items or defeat enemies for the player's advantage. For example, a macro could be written to target the next enemy automatically, trigger a power to immobilise the enemy, followed by the firing of a particular weapon.

Sale of Online Currency

The prevalence of massively multiplayer online games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest has resulted in the trading of in-game currency for real word currency. This has led to companies who employ people to play the games to 'farm' for items and gold, which they may then be traded online for real money. For example, 1,000 pieces of gold for World of Warcraft can sell online for approximately £15-20.