10 Creative Ways Video Games Fought Cheaters

10. Creating "Honeypot" Data Which Only Cheaters Could Read - Dota 2

Earlier this year, Valve announced that they brought the banhammer down on 40,000 Dota 2 players who had been caught using third-party software to cheat in the hugely popular MOBA game.

And Valve's method for catching them was quite genius indeed. They updated the game with a digital "honeypot" - a segment of data hidden inside the game code which could never be read by regular, honest players not using cheats, but would be read by a player using software to assist them.

This gave Valve absolute certainty that all 40,000 banned players were unambiguously guilty of cheating, while further asserting that they made their methods known to effectively act as a deterrent and assure offending players that they will be caught eventually.

While more ambitious Dota 2 cheaters will likely be looking into ways to circumvent this clever anti-cheat method, it was certainly effective in ridding the game of a large swath of ill-intentioned ne'er-do-wells.