In a bold display of creativity, Ian mu wrote:
Add up all the games supporting PB and you'll find there's nowhere
near as much cheaters not sure what crack people are smoking if they
think there's more. No comparison at all. Also there's the other
features like screenshot grabbing etc which can catch many of those
that get through as not detected yet, plus the global master ban list
means its pretty effective.
I'd like to point out that gaping security holes aren't the ONLY reason
there are more viruses for Microsoft products. It's also because
they're on over 80%, some estimates say over 90% of all desktops in the
World. Working on pure numbers alone is silly. It's like denigrating
some small European country because they didn't donate as much money as
the US did for some 3rd world cause, when in reality their GDP may be
only a tiny fraction of the GDP in the US. Also, I'd advise against
falling for this false notion of security in "screenshot grabbing",
which was easily bypassed by cheats, later to be trumped, soon after to
be bypassed again, etc. This is no silver bullet. It is an ongoing
battle just like any other anti-cheat system may have. And I still am
not totally on board with any global list of bans, as the potential for
abuse is just too great.
I'm sure PB is certainly better than nothing, these days, and it
certainly is *a* way to help the symptom of "cheats" on public servers.
Is it the *best* way? I remember this argument came up a good while
back, just as the argument about an allegedly malicious file-checking
"bug" that was a fixture for so long and did a great positive service
was "fixed" (just like the server.cfg loading at ever map change was a
"bug" that was "fixed", even though everyone relied on it as SOP). Many
seemed to come out of the woodwork as fanboys, unwilling to consider any
perspective on it other than PB being a panacea to the problem of people
generally being assholes in life, at least as it applied to "cheats"
(some of which were rather subjective in nature) in their favorite
online game.
The philosophy from the game companies is interesting as well.
Evenbalance offered their services to Valve for $1 total nominal fee,
Valve turned it down. Evenbalance offered their services to Id for
free, Id said we'll take them but not for free, we'll pay you a decent
amount to do a decent job. I know which company has the best
philosophy for me.
There's a whole lot more to it than money, as I'd hope you're well
aware. It's never as simple as awarding the contract to the lowest
bidder (unless you're in government, heh). These "philosophies" are
actually business decisions being made, and neither you nor I have
enough information to make an informed judgment on each of the different
business decisions, whether good or bad either way. Regarding any of
these moves as "philosophies" is really reading very deeply into it,
probably to an unreasonable extent.
--
Eric (the Deacon remix)
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