10 GENIUS Ways Video Games Fought Cheaters
These games got seriously smart about taking down cheating scum.
Though there isn't a player among us who doesn't love cheat codes, cheating becomes a wholly different matter when you take your shenanigans online, using hacks, bots, and other nefarious means to get a leg up over the multiplayer competition.
Given the huge money that's in online gaming these days, it's little surprise that developers funnel considerable resources into combating cheaters, often resorting to unexpectedly creative, even ingenious means to fight back against them.
Beyond the obvious solution of simply bringing the mighty banhammer down upon mischievous players, these games came up with more novel means of dealing with them.
From making a grand, embarrassing example of hackers to effectively playing them at their own game (literally), these 10 video games all dealt with cheaters in highly inventive and unexpected ways.
After all, a mere ban isn't going to make anyone reconsider their actions, but pointing out a player's destructive behaviour in a more colourful and even shocking way? That just might.
And so, if you ever consider cheating your way to prosperity in a competitive online game, a sneaky trap just might be lying in wait...
10. Making Modded Cars Explode Upon Entry - Grand Theft Auto Online
Trust Rockstar Games to come up with a totally hilarious way to flip the bird at cheating players.
The Duke O'Death is an armoured muscle car in Grand Theft Auto V which was originally only available to those who upgraded from the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of the game to the PS4/Xbox One ones.
And more to the point, it could only be officially used in the single-player portion of the game - not Grand Theft Auto Online.
However, in 2015 players found a way to hack the Duke O'Death into GTA Online, but rather than merely ban offending players, Rockstar came up with an altogether more emphatic way to give them a telling off.
Basically, Rockstar patched GTA Online to ensure that the Duke O'Death would instantly explode the moment that any player set foot in it, killing them instantly.
On one hand it was an iron-clad way to stop players from circumventing a restriction, and on the other it sent a rather firm-yet-playful message to offending players that cheating wouldn't be tolerated.