Standalone Price Tags - A Solution To Cheating?

[s4pphire 45]

Assuming that the standalone version of DayZ will have significantly less problems with cheating, but persistent cheaters will still purchase additional copies to circumvent bans, would you be willing to pay a higher price to combat this issue and do you think this method could be helpful?

The lowest is set at ~$15 because that is what current assumptions of the price are.

[Druen 13]

try take a look at the forums, there are some really good threads about this. B)

[I2ejected 25]

If someone hacks and gets banned I don't see why they would continue to hack and dish out money.

~$15 For Alpha

~$20 For Beta

~$30 For Full-Game

[terex 322]

A games price should have nothing to do with it's anti cheat.. Most games come standard with it. There will always be someone making the hack or using it.

[Sticker704 121]

Are you taking the urine? Us customers who do not hack, do not cheat and will most likely be supporting the full release with our money, will have to pay MORE because of scumbags who do hack. More!?

[sausagekingofchicago 4711]

I'd pay 50 bucks and a subscription fee IF hacking was policed and a ton of content was added. 30 bucks seems appropriate if they at least get the hacking under control, no sub.

[venthos 605]

You really should've just had an option by itself of "Pricing is not the solution to this problem", as I would pay up to $60 for DayZ yet I don't feel pricing will have any effect on hacking.

The solution to hacking has already been known since the inception of DayZ mod -- control of the game engine. With standalone, they'll have that. This thread is moot.

Sure hacking won't be 100% preventable, but it will be no more hackable than any of your other favorite online games. There's only so much you can do, and right now most of those security actions can NOT be performed given its a mod and not a full game where Rocket can modify the engine.

[SillySil 295]

Overpricing the game is like the worst way to fight cheating. Shouldn't they get a good anti cheat and make the game not script friendly instead?

[venthos 605]

...make the game not script friendly instead?

That's exactly what is happening. They're removing the trusting nature of the ARMA 2 Engine, as has been explained to the community by Rocket et all for months now as the solution which required engine changes. This entire thread is moot.

[s4pphire 45]

You really should've just had an option by itself of "Pricing is not the solution to this problem", as I would pay up to $60 for DayZ yet I don't feel pricing will have any effect on hacking.

The solution to hacking has already been known since the inception of DayZ mod -- control of the game engine. With standalone, they'll have that. This thread is moot.

Sure hacking won't be 100% preventable, but it will be no more hackable than any of your other favorite online games. There's only so much you can do, and right now most of those security actions can NOT be performed given its a mod and not a full game where Rocket can modify the engine.

The 'pricing is not a solution' is covered by the first option in the poll; because that's the currently planned pricing model, I could have made that clearer, I guess.

I'm also aware that the standalone addresses the trusting nature of the Arma II engine, but as with all games, cheating will still exist. Maybe a different pricing model than the one planned would improve the situation further.

Personally I agree that non-cheating customers shouldn't have to pay extra for this feature, but if it would help fight the problem then I would be happy to do so. It's obvious that a higher price tag would improve the situation, but to what extent and at what cost is the point of this thread.

[Buffjesus 357]

CDkeys are needed to play online games

CDkeys can be stolen and sold in mass for cheap prices

cheaters will always have a cheap way to get back

[Aypoc 36]

If you've seen some of the interviews with Rocket, he stated the Alpha will be somewhere around 15$, but the full retail price will be no more than 30$. Pricing isn't the problem, and won't fix anything, ArmA's engine is the problem, so once the mod grows to a standalone that doesn't use the crap engine, the hacking/scripting problem should be resolved. No matter how much the game is, there will always be cheaters, and an anti-cheat system to thwart them. ;)

[venthos 605]

The 'pricing is not a solution' is covered by the first option in the poll; because that's the currently planned pricing model, I could have made that clearer, I guess.

Fair enough. I read the option as "Only $15, because the only reason I would pay more than $15 would be if it helped fight cheating." I'm under the camp of "I don't think a high monetary cost will help fight cheating, but I would be willing to pay in upwards of $60 for the game just based on the merits of the game and how awesome it is".

[s4pphire 45]

Fair enough. I read the option as "Only $15, because the only reason I would pay more than $15 would be if it helped fight cheating." I'm under the camp of "I don't think a high monetary cost will help fight cheating, but I would be willing to pay in upwards of $60 for the game just based on the merits of the game and how awesome it is".

I understand, I just figured I'd leave the pricing options that aren't related to cheating out because they wouldn't be relevant to the thread.

[Thadeum 103]

I will buy TheWarZ and never be bored by these stupid threads again.

[MoronToTheKore 57]

If you've seen some of the interviews with Rocket, he stated the Alpha will be somewhere around 15$, but the full retail price will be no more than 30$. Pricing isn't the problem, and won't fix anything, ArmA's engine is the problem, so once the mod grows to a standalone that doesn't use the crap engine, the hacking/scripting problem should be resolved. No matter how much the game is, there will always be cheaters, and an anti-cheat system to thwart them. ;)

Good post, basically said what I wanted to say.

I feel like 15 bucks is a fair price.

[[email protected] 68]

You have to realize that there are ways around

I will buy TheWarZ and never be bored by these stupid threads again.

Have fun throwing money away :)

[colekern 1364]

I will buy TheWarZ and never be bored by these stupid threads again.

You do realize that the Warz is a completely different game, right? I mean seriously, did you any research on it? At all?

[omgwtfbbq (DayZ) 1069]

If someone hacks and gets banned I don't see why they would continue to hack and dish out money.

~$15 For Alpha

~$20 For Beta

~$30 For Full-Game

Fuck that. How about I pay once and they update it from there?

[csharp 47]

Call of Duty is something like 60€ (if i remember right, black ops was 58,90 or something in steam, when i came out, can be less than 50 also), and they have a shit ton of hackers. Well not as much as community makes out, but there is A LOT. So price point is not the thing that scares these cheaters away.

[sostronk 334]

Call of Duty is something like 60€ (if i remember right, black ops was 58,90 or something in steam, when i came out, can be less than 50 also), and they have a shit ton of hackers. Well not as much as community makes out, but there is A LOT. So price point is not the thing that scares these cheaters away.

Comparing COD to ARMA, there are a shitload more hackers in ARMA. I played COD2 and COD4 (MW) competitively and there really weren't alot of hackers at all right up till Modern Warfare was released and the 6 months after. I dropped MW league about 6 months after release. In that 2-3 years of COD I ran into a total of 2 hackers, one who used aimbot and one who used walls. Apparently alot more walls are used in COD these days, but from my experience with the leagues there aren't many people using them and any suspect plays are analysed by the League admins.

I did play MW2 and Black OPs and there just aren't as many hackers in the game. In this game Im surprised if I last a night without being killed by a hacker, in any of the COD games Id be surprised if I was killed by a hacker and Id probably never know anyway because they aren't blatant "Im going to kill the entire server right nao" ones but wall hacks which only benefit hackers a small amount.

[adamtheheretic 106]

I don't think the price matters right now, and I think it shouldn't come out at full price but maybe $20-$30 because there may still be a reduction due to buying ARMA II for DayZ and in the end people won't mind paying that extra $5.

[RenGo 0]

I think there should be some cd-key or dayz id registration to get at least a discount on the standalone for people like myself who recently purchased arma 2 and operation arrowhead like me.

[Thasik 79]

The best protection against cheaters is a sensible, wise admin that has the tools and support they need.

Nothing beats that, no matter how much developers try to fool themselves. True many admins aren't fit for the job but then again if players flocked to the good servers with good admins there wouldn't be noticeable admin abuse.

[Digital (DayZ) 2]

The more expensive the game the less cheaters you'll find. Add in things that are tied to an account itself and a subscription fee and you're gonna make bans something to fear.

It's easy to hack in free to play games because you can just roll unlimited email addresses. If you're plunking down 50$ per ban PLUS the 15-20$ a month for a cheat and they are banning like they have been in the last few weeks that's going to be out of the price range of most people.

The idea is to keep the ban waves often to make it too expensive in money and game play time to cheat. You'll never 100% hack proof a game. You want to make it as unappealing as possible to hack.

Also hacking in a game like COD and BF is much less of a game breaker as you have essentially zero progress to lose by dying and the hacks aren't as disruptive to a server.

Popularity is a double edge sword. When a mod is small there isn't much of a customer base for the hack websites to create hacks for, thus less hackers. As a game becomes more and more popular and has a better and better anti-cheat there becomes more and more of a demand for a working hack and as we all know with demand there will be a supply.

In the current state of the game it's essentially 3$ per ban and nothing is tied to your account. No saved progress and you can completely outfit a character and gain instant access to all parts of the map in a matter of moments. If you were to make it so that CD keys were secure and a full $50+ was to be payed per game copy and then limit the ability to instantly re-arm and gain access to the entire map right from the beginning that would greatly reduce the fun and appeal in cheating, at least the massive game breaking cheating.

Another thing is saved progress. With the additions of dogs and under ground areas you can see that they are making you invest more and more time into each life. Which is good because less and less of the game becomes a rush to the fire house to arm up kill each other and more of an adventure. Any time you have to dedicate time and energy into something you're less likely to want to get it banned and lose all of that.

You'll always have the hard core cheaters with multiple accounts dedicated to cheating but you want to freeze as many of those out by making it too expensive to cheat. The average joe you discourage by threatening their game progress and items.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Digital