The average Dota 2 player count over the last 30 days was around 396,000[1] so am I correct in understanding that at least 10% of all Dota 2 players were cheating in some way?
Even for non F2P games it is usual for cheaters to use phished or hacked accounts that they buy for a few cents. There are also accounts that are tradebanned because they were used as bots for 3rd party trading websites and they are basically worthless after getting tradebanned.
The old business model of just charging a lot of money up front for the game seems like it wouldn't have this problem to the same extent. You just ban their key and they're out $20-60. But that business model is less popular now I guess.
I have seen ads for cheats where a monthly cheat subscription costs more than a new copy of the game.
Edit:. I think I get it maybe. I play games to play them, and if I cheat it is to enjoy figuring out the cheat. I kind of get how having an advantage in the game would be briefly fun for the sense of power. But in single player games that wears off quick. My guess is some people enjoy winning more than playing, or the status of gear more than playing to get it. I don't understand that, but that must be it right?
The problem with such games exists as well but challenges are different:
- cheaters still have access to phished/hacked abandoned accounts that own the game that they can buy very cheap
- another way to get new accounts for cheap is to buy the games in countries where the games are cheaper i.e. argentina or turkey
- there is very little motivation from developers to completely stop the cheaters or slow them down (every banned account is a potential sale of new copy of the game) the developer benefits financially from cheaters continuing to evade bans
- the players hurt the most (who already bought the game and paid the developer) don't generate any new income to the developer and dont pose any risk to income generation unless they quit the game en masse (discouraging potential new players from buying the game)
If your character or account was flagged for cheating, you were put into a public multiplayer pool/jail with all the other cheaters and would only match games other cheater.
It's clever because you never actually know what you did to get caught or if you have even been caught.
You can only suspect when you notice nearly everyone else you play with also cheats.
Monthly active users should be in the millions.
Million to two million would be my estimate of players. Still leading to 2-5% of player base. Which itself isn't small either.
It's also possible some of those accounts were created to be sold on on a marketplace. Online gaming marketplaces have traders with in-game items, credits, and even accounts for sale. It's especially big for online games where item duplication glitches allow some players to hoard hundreds-thousands of hot commodities. Accounts that have maxed out levels, achievements, and/or rare rewards (possibly via this cheat) can sell for hundreds of real world dollars.
And, you don’t offer any data or evidence for this.
There are thousands of businesses and million of users who don’t care about and don’t need this.
You have to fundamentally alter how you serve these experiences to customers if you really want to solve it.