Why Anonymity Makes Players Cheat

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I always thought the term "anonymous coward" said it all. Seriously, would the same people cheat with you standing over their shoulder or at a LAN party? Ummm, no.

In a recently published study into the effects of player anonymity on cheating in online games, Vivian Hsueh-hua Chen and Yuehua Wu found that players cheat because the online gaming groups they belong to view cheating as an acceptable behavior. More importantly, the study found that because players were anonymous in these groups, the influence that the groups' views of certain behaviors had on its members was very powerful.
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Didn't need a study for that. The same applies to trolling and general ass hat behavior online.
 
Lol this guy just figured it out ? Wow lol ya would be funny if you could teleport to whomever the little nerd kid is that talks a lot of bs and cheats etc and beat the snot out of him :) Won't happen in our lifetime sadly hehe
 
Amaroth said:
Didn't need a study for that. The same applies to trolling and general ass hat behavior online.
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Hey, piss off man. :D

Very true. There are times when I've gone overboard (why? I don't know) that I would have easily gotten a beat down if I was in a bar or something in that argument. For most things, we're all pretty cool. But, when opinions start getting a bit different, people start getting mouthy. Look at Soapbox.
 
greaterinternetfuckwadtheory.jpg
 
I don't understand the point of cheating in games. If you're cheating, you're not really playing a game.
 
Aluisious said:
I don't understand the point of cheating in games. If you're cheating, you're not really playing a game.
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It depends on what your game is. If its fun picking on other people to get a reaction out of them, then cheating is the best way to achieve that goal.
 
Its the same reason people get on the phone with tech support and treat them like shit. They feel like these people are being paid to take their shit, they don't realize these people are there to help them.
It makes the little person feel big if they can upset someone else. It empowers them, just like a big, stupid kid feels empowered beating up the smaller, smarter kids.
 
found that players cheat because the online gaming groups they belong to view cheating as an acceptable behavior.
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Fucking shitty online gaming groups, I basically got away from online gaming way back in Diablo 1 days because I was fucking tired of cheating... although now I just need to hear a video of trash talkers playing (insert any game here where you shoot shit) and I don't want to be part of that group either.
 
Some people are more prone to being herd-minded than others, especially when it allows them to indulge in things they wouldn't get away with in "Real Life".
 
Aluisious said:
I don't understand the point of cheating in games. If you're cheating, you're not really playing a game.
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Not everyone plays games for the same reason. Some play for challenge. Some play for the experience. Some even play just to kill time. But there are some that just enjoy pissing on people.

If there was ever a dark spot in gaming, it comes from those people. Those are the people that destroy things in Minecraft, and use cheats in Counter Strike.
 
Aluisious said:
I don't understand the point of cheating in games. If you're cheating, you're not really playing a game.
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I think before everyone knew what auto-aim looked like, cheaters actually cheated like anyone else does, to gain a fake sense of accomplishment and self-worth. Something they cant achieve without cheating. Sure it's not as good as actually being skilled at something, but at least it kinda sorta feels like it.

These days it seems like every cheater is just there to troll the server and make everyone quit. They use 360 autoaim, wallhack, speedhack, server exploits to kill everyone instantly, etc. Their goal is to just make people miserable, which is usually the desire of someone who is already miserable themselves. They are unhappy about something and want to bring you down to their level.
 
I would say that their headline is more targeted for shock value than accuracy on the gist of their article. There are a couple of key elements in their study that the title doesn't convey:

- They studied teenagers ... modern brain studies have indicated that the cognitive decision making centers of teenagers aren't fully developed until later (in their 20s) and that teenagers (in general) are much more susceptible to peer pressure than adults

- They were studying the effect of gaming communities that condoned or actively encouraged cheating and not the effects of being anonymous in communities that condemned that behavior

A more accurate headline (but less shocking) would be: Why Anonymity in gaming communities that encourage or endorse cheating can make teenagers cheat

Also, even though teenagers can be a special case due to their unique susceptibility to peer pressure, I dislike the words "Make someone" when applied to voluntary behaviors (what the heck happened to choice and freewill :eek: ) ... if someone puts a gun to your head and tells you to do something then they "MADE" you do it ... if someone says, "Dude it would be so cool if you cheated" you still have a choice (but since I am not a teenager maybe that is the same as putting a gun to your head) ... as the old joke about the "accidental" nature of the other kind of adult cheating goes, "One doesn't just trip and fall into a vagina" :p
 
Steve, that title MADE me come here and say that's one stupid fucking title.
 
I call BS. Didn't read the article this is just targeting Anon. Thats why you have sign names and invitation only games.
 
The title does, but the article doesn't...

points out that her study doesn't link anonymity to cheating, rather it shows that when a person removes their identity online, the are more likely to embrace the social norms of the group they belong to anonymously.
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I, however, still disagree. I don't think gamers think "cheating" is a social norm. It's more like the idea that they can get away with it, that gets people to cheating, anonymity is one way that provides a way to get away with it.
 
Also, it doesn't make you cheat, just makes it more attractive.
 
pothb said:
I, however, still disagree. I don't think gamers think "cheating" is a social norm. It's more like the idea that they can get away with it, that gets people to cheating, anonymity is one way that provides a way to get away with it.
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I think they confounded too many variables in this study to make conclusions about anonymity being the most significant factor:

- they surveyed only teenagers (who are uniquely susceptible to peer pressure)
- they studied the behavior of people who were in groups that encouraged the behavior in question (is anonymity the factor or is the peer pressure of the group)
- they weren't looking at situations that involve consequences (if your behavior would get you banned from the game would you still cheat, regardless of whether you are anonymous or not)

They had a catchy title to an incomplete and meaningless study :cool:
 
Wow, i must be tired, I completely missed the teen part of it.
 
If they retitled the study properly ..Some will cheat if they think they can get away with it...people will wonder why it was funded and who was silly enough to let it through.
 
The solution is to continue the work of the NSA in ensuring no players are anonymous. Think about how much better your life will be when your pic is what a person sees after the 10th time you jihad jeep'ed someone.

It's so simple! Decrease cowardly anonymity and decrease cheating!
 
Aluisious said:
I don't understand the point of cheating in games. If you're cheating, you're not really playing a game.
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Agreed 100%. What's the point? I have buddies that are..........very loose with their scoring when we play golf. That's fine and all, but how do you tell if you actually are getting better if you're already fudging your upcoming improvements in your current score?

I just don't get how that can be fun.
 
jflail2 said:
I just don't get how that can be fun.
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Winning is more fun than losing, even with a handicap. Game developers have done plenty of research on this. People like to be challenged, but only to the point that they are "winning" the majority of the time. If they have to cheat to achieve that difficulty/reward ratio, so be it.
 
Any "game" that rewards cheating over cooperative behaviors encourages, well, cheating. Vice versa for any game that rewards cooperative over cheating behaviors. This link is only stronger for communities that are strongly exclusive or selective (that is, there is an opportunity cost to enter/leave the group)

(My definition of "game" is quite broad, btw -- from actual games, to forum meta-gaming, "simulations" such as minecraft, modding communities, etc). It's the reason that most Minecraft servers usually see less "trash" than most FPS servers. Why the tone of forum posts in professional 3D modeling forums is totally different than, say, Blizzard's official forums.
 
jimhsu said:
Any "game" that rewards cheating over cooperative behaviors encourages, well, cheating. Vice versa for any game that rewards cooperative over cheating behaviors. This link is only stronger for communities that are strongly exclusive or selective (that is, there is an opportunity cost to enter/leave the group)

(My definition of "game" is quite broad, btw -- from actual games, to forum meta-gaming, "simulations" such as minecraft, modding communities, etc). It's the reason that most Minecraft servers usually see less "trash" than most FPS servers. Why the tone of forum posts in professional 3D modeling forums is totally different than, say, Blizzard's official forums.
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jflail2 said:
Agreed 100%. What's the point? I have buddies that are..........very loose with their scoring when we play golf. That's fine and all, but how do you tell if you actually are getting better if you're already fudging your upcoming improvements in your current score?

I just don't get how that can be fun.
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"Everyone has a different utility function." What is one man's trash/n00b mode is another's gold/"well-balanced RTS".
 
I don't think anonymity really changes anything, it just lets people who would cheat anyway get away with it with impunity. It's the Greater Internet F@#kwad Theory in action.

Some of us oldschoolers still go by a code of honor. I'll use cheat codes in a single player game for giggles because that's not hurting anyone. I have never cheated and never will cheat in a multiplayer game, and if someone I play with gets caught cheating at any time I'm done with them and they're off my friends list. Every clan I've been with has had zero tolerance for cheaters. My definition of fun doesn't include ruining it for someone else unfairly. I'll ruin you with skill if I can, that's how you're supposed to do it. The exception is if someone is obviously cheating. If someone's definitely cheating, such as using a speed hack or aimbot that's extremely noticeable then I'm going to do everything I can to ruin that person's day for being a good-for-nothing lamer, though I won't employ a cheat to do it - I'll employ my fellow gamers. It's real fun watching a whole server full of players turn around and gang up on one spawn-camping aimbot loser, or migrate to another server and leave his ass alone. "Oh look, now you have nobody to play with! Guess you'll have to play with yourself loser. Stop cheating and you'll make more friends".

We'll never get rid of cheaters but we can shun them, scorn them, and make it harder for them.
 
Ducman69 said:
Winning is more fun than losing, even with a handicap. Game developers have done plenty of research on this. People like to be challenged, but only to the point that they are "winning" the majority of the time. If they have to cheat to achieve that difficulty/reward ratio, so be it.
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*ahem*

up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, (Select for 2 players) Start!!!!

Games were insane hard when I was a kid, most of the time we won with "cheat codes" so maybe cheating being ok kind of got ingrained into us.
 
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