Rockstar sentences Max Payne 3 cheaters to cheater's purgatory

Cheaters have to deal with cheaters

Words: Andrew Groen on June 13, 2012

Rockstar announced today via a new blog post on their community site that they are introducing a new measure designed to gracefully deal with cheaters and people who take advantage of exploits in Max Payne 3.

"Anyone found to have used hacked saves, modded games, or other exploits to gain an unfair advantage in Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, or to circumvent the leaderboards will be quarantined from all other players into a "Cheaters Pool", where they'll only be able to compete in multiplayer matches with other confirmed miscreants," reads the post on Rockstargames.com.

This is the latest in a trend of developers using their creativity to deal with bad players while leaving honest ones alone. This calls to mind the awesome method used by From Software in the weeks leading up to the release of Demon's Souls. If anyone was caught playing an unauthorized copy of the game pre-release, the devs would roll an immensely powerful character and just obliterate the offender.

That's the hatchet to Rockstar's scalpel. This method will allow Rockstar to continue serving their paying customers (cheaters are customers too) while keeping them separate from the masses who don't know how to exploit the code. In fact, we'd be interested to see some of the matches these people play together. It might actually create a bizarre meta-game if every one of the players is abusing an exploit.

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PC, PS3

Topics:

Max Payne 3

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jmzlink - June 14, 2012 6:42 a.m.

Brilliant. Now if they could just do the same for COD: Black Ops Zombies I'd be a happy man. I'm starting to think they can't actually fix any of the glitches that so many people seem so keen to exploit. It's always a depressing experience when having been paired up with what look like great players you find it's actually some idiot who's only skill is in finding a video on youtube that tells them how to undo all the programmers hard work. There will always be people who don't have either the skill or patience to become good at something and I sympathise, but the sense of satisfaction in getting a little bit further through practice and perserverence is far more rewarding than cheating.
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Cruddi - June 14, 2012 5:52 a.m.

About time, i'm sure that everyone better than me hacks... that's about 60% of the players ¬.¬
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Viron - June 14, 2012 8:55 a.m.

sure it's the cheaters
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Rub3z - June 13, 2012 10:48 p.m.

This reminds me of another thing devs did to unfavorable or sore players in some other game. A fighting game... I think it was SF or SF x Tekken... one of those ones... but anyway, players who won more would more often get matched with other winning players, and it would go the same way for not-so-great players. Makes sense, as this would ensure more balanced and fun matches. But in much the same way, players who were more prone to being sore losers and rage quitting during matches would become more likely to be matched with other sore losers. It's a neat karma sort of thing... in this way, none of the other more respectful and honest players who would lose gracefully as opposed to quitting wouldn't have to deal with those scum, and obviously those unscrupulous types would get reciprocated the same treatment they gave to others... falling into an infinite loop of matches ended because one or the other party was sore because they were losing. Such a great way to counter those players who think they would preserve their stats or win-loss ratio by cutting out of matches they weren't winning.
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robotdickens - June 13, 2012 10:17 p.m.

This only further my point that Rockstar is on the top list of best video game companies. Cheaters pool? Brilliant! Make the cheaters cheat themselves. I tip my hat to you Rockstar.
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drake-wayne - June 13, 2012 8:03 p.m.

This game looks cool. I just got a M4 like in the game http://www.airsplat.com/airsoft-video-games.htm and they have a bunch of other guns from different games.
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Travia220 - June 13, 2012 6:25 p.m.

This accomplishes absolutely nothing. The best way to handle cheaters is to remove them completely. Ban their account forever and not exceptions. You cheat, you're gone. Letting players continue to play after they cheat is just a slap on the risk.
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Divine Paladin - June 14, 2012 4:47 p.m.

First, "slap on the risk?" Second, cheaters are still a source of income for Rockstar. If they cheat, you segregate them from the fair players, but they still get to play. The cheaters are still punished, but they don't hold a grudge against Rockstar for it. It also gives those wrongly accused the ability to play. Third, why are you so against this? It doesn't affect you, and if it does, you're a cheater and should be grateful that somebody still gives you a shot. You won't see the cheaters if they're banned or in Cheater's Purgatory.
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radiodeaf - June 13, 2012 4:54 p.m.

Wouldn't this only accomplish a really laggy server for cheats? watching would be horrendous. "He blinked in....oh no, he's stutter stepping Bob. Seems someone flipped the switch on that guy! Welp, it seems someone has to once again ruin it for all and lag the server. We'll be right back in 4 minutes folks."
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RedHarlow - June 13, 2012 7:50 p.m.

That's the point.
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inkyspot - June 13, 2012 4:17 p.m.

Excellent idea, I would also love to see the cheaters go against each other, if they could manage an arena type system where normals can watch cheaters cheat each other.
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bboyd - June 13, 2012 3:49 p.m.

Haha, this is excellent. You take care of the cheaters, while also introducing some ridiculous mega-hacked zone for them to romp around in. I love it!
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space_cakes - June 13, 2012 3:38 p.m.

What if they formed supergangs for GTA5?
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dauntedhades - June 13, 2012 3:28 p.m.

yes! yes yes Yes YEs YES YES YES! omfg i love it. this is probably one of my favorite advancements in online multiplayer ever. thank you.
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EwoksTasteLikeChicken - June 13, 2012 3:08 p.m.

Wow. That's a really good idea, I'd love to see other developers do something like this.
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shadow707 - June 13, 2012 2:47 p.m.

haha thats sweet
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