I still see many comments to the effect of "I don't understand why people cheat in games" and since it has emerged that DICE's anti-cheat is already actively catching people trying manipulate the game, I thought it would be interesting to explore the psychology behind the motivations of cheaters.

I think there is a misconception that there is just one or two motivators for cheating when in fact there are a good number, with many having sub-variants. First, what attributes does Battlefield have that make it a target for cheat makers?

• It's a popular franchise with a consistently large player base
• FPS is a competitive genre that taps into our primal instincts and failing in these settings is viewed as failing as man while succeeding in these inflates the ego and invites praise and respect from others
• Related to the above, Battlefield is a particularly visceral experience - highly detailed graphics coupled with realistic sounds combine to evoke palm sweating, teeth gnawing levels of intensity, amplifying the above effects

To make these more palatable, I'll list these as archetypes. Of course it is possible to have multiple motivations so these archetypes can often cross over into each other.

Defensive Cheaters

• Low Esteem - These cheaters have disadvantaged lives like, for example, being the subjects of bullying, suffering from mental disorders like depression and anxiety, suffering from physical impairments, being the victims of abuse and having chaotic living situations. They cheat to empower themselves or as a form of coping with their pain.
• Pragmatist - These players take a detached realpolitik view of cheating. They recognize that cheating is pervasive and figure they would be fools not to arm themselves appropriately and respond in kind. This type is notable for their stoic sterility and absence of strong emotions prevalent in other types.
• Hardware Bottleneck - PC players, many from developing countries, who are unable to afford equipment that will allow them to be competitive. They view cheating as a way to level the playing field.

Revenge Cheaters

• Direct Reciprocity - These players have been victims of cheaters themselves and have resorted to fighting fire with fire to avenge themselves. They may limit use of cheats to achieving their goals against specific players and then abandon them once they feel satisfied their displeasure has been adequately conveyed. Complications naturally arise if the assumed cheater was in fact playing legitimately.
• Wounded Pride - Similar to the above except that this player has been legitimately bested by their adversary. Unable to stomach the loss, they discard any notion of sportsmanship and resort to cheating to temper the self-loathing inferno burning inside themselves. Unlike the Direct Reciprocity cheater, they are unlikely to put away their cheats once the initial goal has been achieved as they wish to prevent any possibility of enduring the shame of losing again.
• Server Sanitizer - These players find the process for reporting malicious behaviors to be ineffective and the resulting actions, not punitive enough. Alternatively, sometimes the offending behavior is political in nature and not explicitly covered and punishable under the TOS. Either way, players who express what they view as deeply offensive speech become their targets and to dispense justice they make selective use of cheats with the goal of effecting the most torment upon them as possible.
• Corporate Acrimony - These player's have beef with the devs. They're mad about quality of the game as it relates to bugs and balance, the lack of or type of maps, missing features, gunplay, or maybe a recent balance patch completely upended and ruined their preferred style of play or they feel the company failed to protect them from harassment. Whatever the reason, their opinion of the game has plummeted to rock bottom and they want generate heat on the company they feel has wronged them.

Offensive Cheaters

• Entitled Aristocrat - These players enjoy lives of privilege and the thought of them having to play on the same level as the peasantry is both puzzling and a state of affairs they simply cannot abide. If they live in better homes, drive better cars and eat better food then why shouldn't the tools available to them while playing not be superior as well?
• Ego Maniac - An intense and unabating desire to be the best at everything (at any cost) propels these types. They feed off of attention and adulation and their superiority complexes often prompt them to belittle other players in vanity fueled attempts to boost their own standing. Very concerned with concealing their objectionable activities and maintaining their veneer of respectability.
• Misery Machines - This lot cares little for advancing their own standing, but rather, wants to produce as much agony as possible for any **bleep** sapien unfortunate enough to share a server with them. They will happily extend the pain to players on their own team and they do not limit themselves to cheat software i.e. they will gladly abuse in game mechanics and any exploitables.
• Jokers - These agents of chaos are primarily motivated by amusement and spectacle. They often do outlandish things that result in repetitions of "WTF!?!" in chat. Far from trying to remain below radar, they want their exploits to attract eyeballs and evoke spontaneous eruptions of laughter.
• The Technologist - Enthusiasts of technical wizardry, these players use cheat software to replicate the single player experience in multiplayer and live out their fantasies of being a James Bond/Super Soldier. The sheer coolness factor of having all these gadgets and mechanisms at their disposal makes them giddy and is too tantalizing for them to forgo. They know cheating is wrong, but they semi-rationalize it by equating it with the advantages of having the best PC hardware.

Have you cheated before and if so which category best matches you? Which categories do you feel are most populous? Do you feel cheat makers should face criminal liability? Should cheat users face civil liability or even minor criminal penalties akin to disorderly conduct?

Understanding the motivations can help companies devise strategies to reduce demand for cheating. Make no mistake, there is no magic bullet to deal with the problem, but there are small things that can be done to nibble at the edges and help cull the population. Every cheater dissuaded means a better chance of playing on a clean server!