News Valve to punish TF2 cheaters, reward others

Haha, Team Fortress 2 is really popular, I miss it, havn't been able to play it for 2 months, on holiday!

I think the fundamental problem here is that valve didn't bother to mention anything about the idling problem until now and just dropped a label on them and by doing so have created some sort of divide it seems.

To be honest I think everything has been blown out of proportion both by Valve and the community. Hats are nice to have sure, valve have made it rare hence desireable (still a little illogical why rarer are more valuble, but that's OT). They don't give you any advantage against the other players but it just says that you play a lot of TF2! Clearly they care a lot of about the people who play a lot to react like this but I think it's a over reaction. More people will have a hat... it's just a hat... will the people who genuinely play a lot care if people who don't also have hats? Common sense please, no need to brand people cheaters for idling for a hat.

As for the people who did use the idling system, are these things really that important? If they are to you I think you should ask yourelf why. Can you stil have fun (the reason why most people play games) on TF2 without hats? I hope that's a yes.

 

I agree with this, as mentioned if it was a VAC ban then fair enough to be pissed.

 

I love it when cheaters/evaders/or other scum get punished so severely by a company, it doesnt happen often, but the tears of Lamers are Ambrosia to Real Hard Core PC Gamers.

Yet another, of millions, reason to love Valve! I hope they shut down achievement servers next, that is a much worse offence!

Play the fracking game, it is so simple. Play it the way it is meant to be and STFU!!

Yours in Elite Hardcore PC Gaming Plasma,
Star*Dagger

P.S. Yes, idlers, I am laughing at you! Take that hat OFF you didn't earn it!!!

 

to be honest, i really dislike the way TF2 is headed. i was liked the idea of the class updates added a little more customization to how you wanted to play. But the way of unlocking them was silly. I feel it got steadily worse from then on


and why the hell do i get multiple item drops? i do not need 3 kritzeigers. I need 1. After i have an item, just stop that item dropping for me?

 

There is a dozen things that Valve could have done better, and they are substantially guilty of allowing this situation to develop. They could been quicker to react, and offered an early amnesty perhaps.

However the reaction of the cheaters is amazing.

Let's be clear - they are cheaters because they circumvented the built-in mechanisms to gain something that they wouldn't otherwise have gained at that point. There may be no competitive advantage to a hat, but didn't the idlers also gain other unlocks? It's academic; they broke the original EULA by using 3rd Party software to gain something - Valve have the right to pull the plug on their accounts, according to the T&Cs - though it would be astronomically stupid and unfair to do so.

Yes, that's right - it was in the EULA all along! But nobody ever reads those things, do they? True, but they should. Perhaps you wouldn't have seen Valves earlier statements explaining that these idlers were breaking the rules? After all, you never got a personalised email from Gabe or Doug explaining it all. But admit it... you all knew you were pulling a fast one...

I don't really care about the Halo, and TBH I didn't really care about the idlers, but their reaction means I will wear my Halo with no pride but a little amusement.

But as I said, the reaction of the idlers is fascinating - the 'punishment' is the loss of gains earned by idling, which sounds fair to me. But the salt in the wound is that non-cheaters get a hat - inconsequential other than that it highlights other players who can never earn that hat. Big Deal.

But more worrying are groups like Healers Against Halos - 'we wont heal people who didn't cheat like us'. Why? Why spoil the fun of people who have never done you any harm? For goodness sake, grow some balls and swallow the (slightly) bitter pill.

 

Would you consider running your own server and idling on that to be cheating?

Most people who were idling (judging by my friends list) already had all the the unlocks available and left their computers running the fake idle when they weren't playing in the hope of getting a hat. Arguing that the fake idle was giving an unfair advantage is ridiculous.

I've idled in the hope of getting a hat as despite a lot of gameplay since the update I only have the one Pyro Beanie hat which I don't really want. I would have preferred to see Valve release the hats with a trading system already in place that would have meant a lot of people would not feel the need to idle.

 

um why? why are hats such a big deal, bunch of idiots looking for a reason to whip out their e-peens if you ask me. I don't mind that the drops are extremely rare, and is there a reason a player needs to have all their has now?

 

It was set up as a troll group, they don't actually care about players in game with or without a halo. They're just trying to make a point at the same time.

 

So, people are mad because they started using a 3rd Party program to gain an item in a game, and the developers didn't like it?

Sounds like some people need to take a look at Steams TOS, if I remember correctly, isn't any 3rd party program used to gain an advantage in a game considered a hack/cheat? Be glad you got a slap on the wrist instead of being banned by Valve for hacking/cheating.

 

hehe http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20090904

 

umm just to be a stick in the mud you realise the link isnt going to be relevant on monday.

 

In the end you went against game mechanics of NOT playing the game whilst being connected!

You were not cheats, but it's what is called 'Stat Padding' where it's fake stat's against your account!

 

Technically it is cheating. They were using a third party program to gain themselves an advantage over legit players. This is considered cheating.

 

gurboura - people are mainly mad that valve has come down on people and labelled them cheaters when they never said (even when people asked them) that there was anything wrong with it. People should remember despite it being a third party programme, it was as borderline as you could get - simply simulating you sitting on a server doing absolutely nothing. No aimhacks, wallhacks, etc. etc.. but perhaps that is too far none the less. Still, with 10,000 people using it, Valve could have said something before calling us all dirty cheats (it was going for 4 months without intervention, people thought it was a case where Valve weren't officially condoning it but didn't have a problem with it either).

Either way, it's just a game. I would just prefer the rules to be more transparent in future. It wasn't so 'obvious' to me that it was cheating, since it didn't really do anything you couldn't do legitimately anyway (sit on a server and just spectate all day while at work), and the other 9,999 people doing it hadn't been given so much as a warning let alone a punishment.

 

Also - I never once got a hat from it anyway I already had all the unlockable weapons, just wanted those damn hats.

They're like rare pokemon. Stupid, but you still really really want one.

 

I don't think Valve had to say anything, I'm 99% sure it's against TOS, which players agree'd to when they installed Steam and the game.

They are cheaters. They used a third party program, how much more of a cheater can you get?

I'm sure using a third party program to put you in a server is also against the TOS.

It might have taken 4 months, but it was probably time they used to consult lawyers, discuss amongst themselves on what to do. As I've said before, they are lucky Valve decided to take their ingame items and not completely ban the users, which is standard practice for Valve on something that involves cheating/hacking.

Dreaming - Please do not take anything I say as disrespectful, I do not mean it that way, just voicing my opinion

 

No offence taken gouruba, as I said the main vice me and other 'cheaters' have had is that we don't want to hack or cheat, we thought what we doing was the equivilent of powergaming / grinding, and now we have been called cheaters and have this hanging over our heads really. Yea, it is in the TOS pretty obviously if you read through it, but I'm one of those people who doesn't tend to read it much and gloss over it, and just follows other people in what they're doing . It was discussed so openly on the steam user forums in particular that nobody guessed it was something Valve was so vehemently apposed to. Some people have even said it's a bit like a honey trap - they've spent the time devising a system to catch people, delete their items, and reward everyone else - when they could have just put a public notice up (they have done this before for more explicit cheats, programs that actually forcibly unlocked items by manipulating the servers or something).

For now though my idling days are over whose to say if Valve cracks down on just spectating in games excessively in the future? If there isn't going to be a very clear cut line, then the only sensible course of action is to err on the side of caution.

 

I always thought Spectating was rather boring

 

I've already seen a huge amount of Nerd Rage on forums and in-Game because of this.
Good for me i wasn't cheating

 

got mine the other day, didnt know what it was for. at the end of the day ITS A HAT, and a virtual one at that - why worry about it?