'Anti-Cheat Administrator' sought for Battlefield 3

Developer DICE is now looking for someone to hire into the role of an "Anti-Cheat Administrator" for Battlefield 3.

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Following recently-reported attacks on the anti-cheating service PunkBuster that resulted in innocent players being banned from Battlefield 3 multiplayer servers, developer DICE has posted a job listing for an "Anti-Cheat Administrator."

The job listing--first noticed by Eurogamer--notes that the position requires someone who's "internet-savvy," and interested in helping keep DICE's games free from cheaters.

"The administrator will compose an absolutely vital function to secure the online experience our games represent by actively be a part of the community and keep up to date with the current cheat exposure," the official job-listing reads. "The administrator will also own the analytical work with our player behavior data to keep our leaderboards and game play filled with fair play."

You can head on over and check out the job requirements yourself, if the position sounds interesting.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 30, 2012 11:30 AM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, 'Anti-Cheat Administrator' sought for Battlefield 3.

    Developer DICE is now looking for someone to hire into the role of an "Anti-Cheat Administrator" for Battlefield 3.

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      January 30, 2012 11:32 AM

      it sucks this blew up into a fiasco with concurrent anti-cheat methods running on some servers.

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      January 30, 2012 12:57 PM

      'Bout fing time that they recognized cheating as a problem. It's good that the community is actually becoming aware of it as well instead of putting it off as 'oh that guy just has no life so he can see through walls'. It really doesn't help that they don't allow first person view, demos, or observer in game. You can't tell what people are looking at or even watch them unless they kill you, even then it's just a aesthetic shot.

      Educating the masses instead of playing into ignorance is the way to go, although BF3 isn't the only game with cheating issues. A lot of google hacks work for the game (ie typing BF3 cheats in google and clicking on the first one), most of the paid ones do as well. The only people who get caught by PB are the ones using freehacks that don't update or stop using them when they should. Same goes for paid hacks, although a lot of them simply will stop you from using it if they're detected.

      Hacking in general is now a lucrative business. It's very hard to prove someone is using a wallhack or ESP unless they're blatantly looking through walls and shooting at the same time.

      Someone really needs to make a company that offers cheat protection and I'm not talking PB or VAC which is a tiny bit better; both suck royally. They actually need to invest some dollars and innovate a area. I would literally pay twice over for my games, specifically FPSs if they had good AC, that's how much it ruins the competitive element for me. I'm sure it would for other people too if they realize how easy it is to hack them and how common it is (speed hacking and lag exploiting in WoW arena play for instance).

      There was a project called HackCam at one point which had it down right, but they had their rights bought out by a nameless company and it was shelved. It's a shame.

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        January 30, 2012 1:32 PM

        Did that nameless company rhyme with spunk cluster perchance?

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          January 30, 2012 6:00 PM

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfXd-RTiQM

          I actually dug up one of the tech demo videos at one time before they went under and posted it on Youtube.

          It rates a player and analyzes their behavior. The AC doesn't look at the players system at all and instead relies on behaviorism. It was actually programmed by a psychologist who uses things like human reaction time and stimuli responses to produce scores, reliably. Like someone who can see through walls is exposed to completely different stimuli then someone who plays a game normally and they react completely different to their environment, in a predictable fashion.

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      January 30, 2012 1:38 PM

      The ultimate problem with BF3 and anti-cheats: client side hit detection. Even IF PunkBuster tries to do anything with the client, it won't matter -- the hacks will find another method to block out screenshots, etc.

      On the flip side: I'm not entirely positive that BF3s dedicated servers can handle all of the hit detection.

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        February 1, 2012 7:40 AM

        Does BF3 use authoritative client-side hit detection? I think it might only use client-side hit prediction, with authoritative server hit detection. As evidence, I've definitely seen an enemy's health go up a bit immediately after I was killed by them in a 1v1 duel. That seems like a correction came from somewhere, and it's unlikely to be from the client.

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      January 30, 2012 1:42 PM

      This is great to hear. Cheating is why I never really got into the B2k maps. Still haven't played the new wake island. Such a shame :(

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        January 30, 2012 2:49 PM

        Ok, where are all these cheaters? I've put almost 100 hours into the game now over a lot of different servers, and have yet to find a blatant cheater.

        I get the feeling that it might just be a matter of perspective; I usually get in the top 5 per round, and haven't seen a cheater. But I always see whenever someone or myself pulls off a 10-1 or 20-1 KDR, there is often someone else in the server that calls it hacks. I cant speak for others, but I've been called a hacker multiple times, and its sad, pathetic and annoying; its the equivalent of a bitchy girl crying "rape" as a last resort against some guy that she doesn't like - pathetic.

        Yes, every now and then I see blatant hacking in other games (CS, QuakeLive, ...) but way less undeserved hacking accusations. The only game that beats bf3 for hackusations is cod.

        If there are hackers in bf3, they must be really shit ones (kind of reflects the generally low skill level of the average bf/cod pub player tbh). I'm not saying that there aren't hackers, But I think that the term hacker gets abused in a lot of situations which has nothing to do with hacking, and more to do with skill denial.

        Maybe there really are heaps of hackers in bf3, and I've just been lucky enough to have always picked the right server to avoid them :)

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          January 30, 2012 2:59 PM

          You've been lucky.

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            January 30, 2012 6:08 PM

            I agree with Zacko. There are 2-3 hackers in every match I play. Not necessarily spinbots sitting in spawn knifing everyone from across the map, but wallhacks/esp and such. Part of why I play Metro 24/7 servers.

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          January 30, 2012 3:08 PM

          The other day I saw someone sit on the carrier on the Gulf of Oman map and get 50 kills in the first few minutes of the game with an M98B.

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          January 31, 2012 1:06 AM

          I put in about 50 hours in the first few weeks of the game release and I saw plenty of very blatant hackers. The type where they are getting non stop knife kills while they're sitting in spawn yet it keeps knife kill the entire side. Or just head shots non stop so their score ends up being 120-5 when everyone else has 4 kills.

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          January 31, 2012 4:10 AM

          I've seen a few, but yeah maybe 1% or less of my games have been affected.

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          January 31, 2012 4:56 AM

          They are definitely out there, but I agree with you in that the OP makes it seem like more of a problem than it is. I've only encountered about 1 or 2 servers that I noticed people blatantly hacking on, but the rest of my time in BF3 it hasn't been a problem.

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          January 31, 2012 5:06 AM

          [deleted]

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        January 30, 2012 2:50 PM

        [deleted]

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          January 30, 2012 3:00 PM

          I hate all of the grassy maps in BF3. I think its because the contrast is worst on those so it really highlights how fucking awful their lighting design is. It looks nice but kinda sucks to play in (unless all you do is camp all day, and then its awesome).

          On the sandy maps its much easier to actually see shit, at least when you arent being eye raped by HDR.

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          January 31, 2012 4:11 AM

          It was worse in BF2.

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            January 31, 2012 4:42 AM

            I disagree, I think the whole vehicle system in BF3 is all around worse then BF2. It's not even fun to fly anymore. All you can do is shoot down other flying things or blow up. It's almost like two different games are being played. You can pretty much ignore air when you're playing the ground game. I don't think I've been killed by a chopper on foot, only when I'm in a vehicle.

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        January 31, 2012 3:19 AM

        Meh, I always play on 64 player maps to ensure that if there are cheaters, I can minimize my encounters with them and still enjoy the game. If you notice someone cheating and it's obvious enough, they will be kicked promptly.

        It's not a HUGE deal, for me anwyays.

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          January 31, 2012 4:45 AM

          I actually deal with things in the opposite fashion. I play metro 32s so if I find a cheater I actually have a fighting chance of killing them, as there are minimal directions they can come from. On a 64 person server on large maps you never see them coming and end up dying from people you never see.

          Hackers can kill you from anywhere on the map, not just with being able to knife you, but they can see you and aim at you from anywhere. You can't run or hide.

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      January 30, 2012 2:57 PM

      DICE did their typical "lie through your teeth about it not being an issue in the retail game" thing for BF3 and this year it was cheaters. And like usual its been a fun adventure:

      * For BF1942 it was 3rd party server browsers being implemented (they weren't for a while, at launch it was gamespy only)

      * For BF2 it was that the server browser had been fixed after demo/beta feedback and was responsive and good in the retail game. It really wasn't.

      * For BC2, see BF2

      * For BF3 it was that they had designed the netcode to make it difficult to cheat. Stuff like making sure a kill was physically impossible. On release, people were being knifed from across the map. Even in tanks.

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      January 30, 2012 3:03 PM

      On of the few wins most consoles usually get in the debate.

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      January 30, 2012 3:08 PM

      Cheating and team stacking are why I have dropped BF3 and won't buy maps packs until they are fixed. Just takes too long to find a good pub game.

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      January 30, 2012 3:08 PM

      Aside from the decision point of whether the multiplayer part is successful enough, I don't know why online multiplayer FPS developers don't already have this position established before or at release. Multiplayer FPS games have been hacked for ages, including the Call of Duty games (even IWNet in MW2 didn't stop it), the Battlefield games, TFC and Counter-Strike (which was the genesis of Punkbuster, and later, Valve Anti-Cheat), and even Quake 2 (remember RatBot checks?). If you're launching a multiplayer game, there will be unscrupulous gamers out there who will hack it; the only question is how prevalent the hacking will be. Simply enlisting a third-party anti-hack service is never enough (as DICE now acknowledges with this news), and the console matchmaking services offer little protection (as evidenced by all the Call of Duty hacking videos uploaded after each entry in the series is released).

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        January 30, 2012 6:06 PM

        I was thinking the samething, but I think this is by in large that there is a stigma associated with anyone pointing out hackers. The person who calls someone else a hacker is usually ostricized as someone with little to no skill so they can't see who is hacking on top of being belittled for their own skill.

        Only now is it becoming apparent through community interaction and responses to hacking as well as videos popping up on youtube showing how easy it is to hack that the community is starting to realize how many hackers there actually are.

        I think they don't have a first person cam or observer to keep the community ignorant to such things as it's a lot harder to see when someone is using a aimbot if they're doing torso hits instead of headshots, putting completely aside other hits.

        I agree, there isn't enough being done. Even VAC is easily hacked around with google hacks and the community needs to start making a fuss out of this. PB and VAC both suck and are just tacked on ACs to make people feel safe in that their game is cheat free.

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      January 30, 2012 11:23 PM

      I dont understand why people use cheats. I tried it once on CS and it was utterly boring.

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      January 30, 2012 11:46 PM

      What are the most common cheats? Are wall-hacks common? I see some guys do some amazing stuff, but since I can't spectate I can't be sure.

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        January 31, 2012 1:07 AM

        It seems the most common ones I've seen are just aim bots and some sort of weird exploit where they can hit people no matter where theey are on the map.

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        January 31, 2012 4:50 AM

        There are a bunch of different hacks. Aimbots and the anywhere knifing you hear about because it's so blatant. There are plenty of people who play semi-legit so they can maintain a profile with a wallhack of ESP. Those two are very hard to detect and given BF3s setup it's easy to use a aimbot that hits at a chest because no one can see their crosshairs zooming all over.

        Do a bit of googling. There are a lot more hacks then that (white walls and texture injection for instance), but those are the main ones. ESP is exactly as it sounds. You literally can see a visual example of what the other person is doing. Where they're aiming, how much health they have, what weapon they have out at a given time, if they're reloading... It's sorta easy to pick these out, but you can't offer any real proof. People that use ESP 'always' pop out at the wrong or right moment depending on how you look at it and catch you off guard and they're impossible to sneak up on, because of the draw line from your gun.

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