Turning the tables on chess cheating?
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On the topic of combined human/engine chess, this is something that does exist https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_chess. It hasn't really gotten any serious traction, but I think it would be something interesting to see. I suspect that chess engines are so far advanced now though that humans would add nothing.
Especially Hikaru's game where he "outsmarted" an engine.
At the very least, it shows by proof of existence that humans can augment engines in some corner cases.
I have a guess about it in online shooter video games: I've been thinking it might be mostly adolescents and teens who are still developing a sense of character, and who enjoy the "winning" part and/or the god-mode griefing of others.
With marathons you have to sneak on and off the course, with steroids you have to find a safe and reliable source of steroids and even then still train a ton, with shooter games you have to find an aimbot specifically designed for your game of choice - but here any old chess app with a bot function works as a cheat.
One thing I'd really like to see is a aimbot that uses machine learning to detect character heads from raw screen graphics.
Bonus points if it runs as a smartphone app that can interface with a (preferably off-the-shelf, to maximize the number of people who can use it) USB mouse. Because fuck anti-cheat DRM.
However, a direct memory access (DMA) card that reads player positions from the RAM is more popular as it just requires an arduino between the mouse to overwrite some of the mouse movements to aim towards a head (in addition to the DMA card). it requires a few hundred bucks in hardware and skill in firmware to make sure the DMA card cannot be detected. But in exchange you play on a semipro level mostly undetected. Search "Project EPO" and "Lohouse" on youtube for more info; he's a real skilled programmer who even sent a build to a famous youtuber in order to bring awareness to it.
I was deep into the CSGO cheating scene, and yes, it is just as toxic and cringe as it sounds, 99% 14 y/o toxic skids.
No judging, but why?
So naturally when it came to anti cheats, I spent a lot of time reverse engineering and had the same mindset. I never cheated against others in a way to benefit; sometimes to just troll, sometimes to joke around with friends, and occasionally I would be a dick to others who were being a dick as well. I started developing and contributing to other cheats and talking to other programmers as well. I still have a lot of the contacts, especially the people that sell thousands/$ cheats that get used by top 100 in country players (not pro, but tournament players)...
But I will be honest. It got really painful when I realized cheats that I contributed to were being used against my favorite youtubers. I know it sounds stupid, almost like doublethink, to watch and enjoy famous youtubers who vehemently attack cheaters while cheating myself. But in Tom Scott's words [0], "everyone draws the moral line of what's acceptable just slightly below what they're actually doing". But I've nearly entirely given up with playing the game because I have found far more enriching uses of my time, than doing something that actively harms so many people.
There’s another group of “cheaters” and that’s just people who like pushing the game to the limits. Most video game speed running nowadays involves exploits and bugs. There’s often a fine line between labeling something as “cheating” vs “a whole new way to experience media”. I wouldn’t label those people as people with character flaws, even if they use these exploits maliciously. Some people don’t see the video game as something holy and untouchable. They see it as a testing ground, like how a pen tester might see a company’s infra. And their innovations sometimes produces great benefit for the gaming society, for example advances in speed running, etc.
I think the people that cheat in online chess probably fall in the first category. But I wanted to produce the second category because they might also be labeled as “cheaters” with character flaws.
That's a misinterpretation, I believe. Nearly every story involves character development; there's no reason to believe that it's immutable.
Some elements of character may be less mutable, or at least assumed to be less mutable. But character overall is a continuous work in progress.
This is interesting. What is different about the world today than in the past?
We all grow and learn over time, and need more time and the understanding of others earlier on.
I suspect these more than age group.