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xpl0its's avatar
xpl0its
6 years ago

EA - Stop Making Free Games To Deter Cheating!

I'm sure everyone will agree with the expression that there is more than one way to skin a cat, meaning there are many ways to go about things. 1. Stop making free games, charge a small fee for this...
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Aegis_Kleais's avatar
Aegis_Kleais
Rising Hotshot
6 years ago

If you're caught cheating what SHOULD happen is a 1-3 year imprisonment along with a $20,000 fine, for breaking the EULA. And I'm fine with Timmy cheating and causing his parents/guardians to get fined/jailed.

As it stands, the current penalty for getting caught cheating isn't a deterrent. It's like how kids are raised today. Barely are even scolded when they do something wrong. Without punishment, they never associate their bad behavior as being something they shouldn't do.

zeues1992's avatar
zeues1992
Rising Veteran
6 years ago
@Aegis_Kleais I have no idea about EULA rules, but that's harsh. I'm even more scared of even thinking about cheating.
  • Aegis_Kleais's avatar
    Aegis_Kleais
    Rising Hotshot
    6 years ago

    Think about it from the developers standpoint.

    Let's say you have a team of 40 devs. They average $90K/year. That means, just to pay your devs, you need to make 3.6M/year. Now think about the negative PR and the lost playerbase that accrues from people hacking this game you worked on for years. Start watching your revenue drop and threaten the actual livlihood of your employees.

    You have to be able to associate negative behavior with punishment; not just for the fact that it helps to change behavior, but because you're actually taking away monetary value from players and livlihood from the developer. Most people see things just from the cheater's perspective. In fact, that's how the public will see things; and that's why publishers don't go after cheaters; they'd just end up with negative PR. So, as always, nothing happens, the problem persists, and innocent people just have to tolerate the cheating until they finally lose full value of their investment and quit the game.

    • Koochi-Q's avatar
      Koochi-Q
      6 years ago
      @Aegis_Kleais Sound argument except for a couple of things. Almost no (indie) dev makes 90K a year. It’s way less than that depending on function, location and more variables.

      Second, most dev studios don’t publish or finance their own games. They get hired or are under contract by a publisher/company that acts as their money buffer. So devs don’t have to worry about getting paid. They only have to worry about fulfilling their job to the ‘contract drafters’ aka the company footing the bill.

      So the monetary comment, even tho it has an element of truth doesn’t weigh in as much as getting penalized by jailtime or monetary. And even if you had to pay, it wouldn’t go into the devs or company’s pocket for that matter. The damage would already be done.

      I look forward to your reply.
      • Aegis_Kleais's avatar
        Aegis_Kleais
        Rising Hotshot
        6 years ago
        @Koochi-Q As we've seen with tons of publishers, once a game isn't viable, or a rampant cheating situation causes people to flock away, they start laying off developers as if it were in fashion. Developers ABSOLUTELY have to worry about these things; the Publisher is not now nor ever going to bankroll operations on something that isn't pulling in profits.

        The fines and jailtime are restitution for damages done. Nothing can prevent something that's already occurred from happening. They are a deterrent that should be publicized. When children have no connotation of punishment associated with bad behavior, they continue that behavior, because it rewards them at the cost of something they are oblivious to; other people's enjoyment and monetary investment.

        So, Respawn had(?) 319 people as of 2019. A Google search of average salary shows $88-$120k. Yes, not all those are developers. But assuming even $70k as a average across all roles, that's 22.3M/year. If the game was sold at $60, that would mean 370,000 units need to be sold just to pay salaries. The game currently has ~9M players, all of which get the game for Free, and only some of which pay into the game.

        Any lost business is lost potential of cash. Those 9M players would have to spend just $3/year to justify just Respawn based Salaries (let alone Studio expenses) But you'd be jaw dropped to see how many of those players have not spent $1 and won't. It's more precarious than you make it out to be. Especially when the dev lets it get out of hand and can't stem an influx of cheaters.

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