why it is hard to make F2P game hackfree

R4MM3R wrote: »

you my sir are narrow minded
trowing with random numbers you made up, sure there are brazillians that hack, but the same goes for americ**ts, the dutch, germans and all the other players

you think all the brazillians are bad, this is not true
think damn it, think

R4MM3R wrote: »

>insert my post on absentmindedness <

L0LSmilyFace wrote: »

>.>
Why not? Its the place to relax and have fun. Clans wars aren't 100% hacker free neither.

[MOD]Giggletron wrote: »

Theres no fun playing a bunch of try hards trying to prove theyre better than everyone else and trash talking... but thats just me

anyway stop taking this thread OT

Tahlyn wrote: »

Punkbuster can be just as easily bypassed as the next anti-cheat. There isn't an anti-cheat that exists that can't be bypassed to some degree. Unfortunately, these companies are a business and that means they are here to make a profit.

Anti-cheat companies make income off of the license fee they charge companies to use the platform and then their recurring income on having to maintain the database, programming, etc. Companies such as G4Box pay for these services so that the anti-cheat can stay up to date, functioning correctly and so on. It's unfortunate because no business is going to make a 100% all-the-time 24/7 working, unable to be bypassed anti-cheat. They would never make enough money that would make it worth their while if they just sold a one-time license fee and that was the end of it. Never going to happen.

Keep in mind that everything I'm about to say is compared to a pay-for-game:
That's one good explanation, but it only explains part of the reasoning why Crossfire and it's developers utilize X-Trap (I'll use it as a jumping off point, so I presume people will read the above quote). ZP, advertisements, ect, help pay for the server costs and the anti-cheat software. Very little of the overall income the F2P game goes to the developers themselves, most of it is spent on upkeep of the game. And caffeine for the programmers who do the patches. That is if G4BOX is using a typical business model for a free product/service. Z8Games also effects the upkeep costs because they are not a part of G4Box, Z8Games is a portal/middleman to provide services to the NA/UK for G4Box product.
Overall, I'd be quite confident that if an auditor would take a look at the companies financial, there's little profit making it's way back around to the developers.

Moving on, a few points to use as an example of why X-Trap isn't super-fast and G4Box doesn't use other anti-cheat programs:
If the developer decided to switch to a cost-per-game and gave individual users an individual key code instead of accounts, then the business model would be drastically different and there would be legitimate cause for people being extremely mad at the developers for not utilizing a more efficient anti-cheat program, because:
1: G4Box would have the money to pay for the anti-cheat program license required to utilize a frequently updated anti-cheat program (Updates in a timely fashion; I.E. per-day like Punkbuster and a per-hour worldwide ban-list which utilizes administration-based reviews for the bans, requiring employees).
2: G4Box would have the money to recode the game so that it is not a program which is account-based, but an individual licensee-based program (Key codes). To note, without a pay-for-model, this method is easily circumvent by a dynamic IP, multiple-email accounts, or a randomized algorithm based key code generator for the alpha-numeric characters and the amount utilized for the game's key code (which anyone who produces the current hacks can also probably program an application such as a key code generator).
3: Pay-for-game models are slightly easier to ban users thanks to the single key code, but they also typically do not have free servers (with channels and rooms, nonetheless; ignoring MMO's in this statement) such as Crossfire does.
4: Pay-for-game models are just as easy to hack. As soon as the source code is acquired, hackers can simply manipulate the code as much as they want to create new hacks. At this point, it is completely up to the anti-cheat program to counter-act these hacks.
5: Issue 4 requires the anti-cheat developers to be up-to-date on hacking techniques, hacking websites, consulting with hackers (believe it or not), and many other things (the coding of the heuristic engine which scans the memory for said hacks, for example) which requires manpower, thus money.
6: Crossfire does not provide enough money currently for G4Box to use an effective anti-cheat program because only a small amount of the user-base actually buys ZP. Not only would a majority of the user-base need to buy ZP for G4Box to receive the needed funds, but users would need to acquire ZP in large amounts. Every CF player would need to buy around 62,000ZP to provide the amount of money (typically $50) a pay-for-game's developers receive. This means that the overall income Crossfire gains for its developers is relatively small compared to a pay-for-game.

Overall, let's review and summarize.
- X-Trap doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot for a pay-for-game model if a company decided to choose it over PunkBuster, nProtect, DWM, VAC2, ect.
- X-Trap is more effective then many other anti-cheat programs being used by F2P games. They aren't payed like they would be if Crossfire was a pay-for-game. So they do not have the same incentive to provide daily updates, micro-updates, or be working 24/7.
- Crossfire doesn't provide a huge amount of revenue for G4Box to work with.
- Crossfire's current anti-cheat software probably takes up a majority of the companies relatively small income along with server upkeep costs.
- The rest of the income goes to the developers to pay coding and a small amount of self-payment. Can't blame them for wanting to feed their wives and kids. It's a job to run a company, for everyone out there who doesn't own one and can't understand this.

This can and will be edited in the future, if I remember something or I am reminded of something I've forgotten. There's plenty of other reasons which can be listed here, so don't take it as an the mean-to-an-end conclusive argument of why X-Trap is not a omnipotent god like [MOD]Rex.;)

Also, 92%:

Respectfully,
PROACEX1

FF8_Squall wrote: »

Yeah, well z8games is BAD!!