Cheaters in the online gaming world have always been present, but the way to deal with them hasn't changed much over the years. Sometimes they would receive a cooldown, sometimes they would just be warned, and the vast majority would immediately receive a lifetime ban. However, the developers at Valve were a bit more creative this time and came up with a punishment better than a ban: shame.
Valve has updated its new multiplayer game Deadlock to allow players to turn cheaters into frogs.
Deadlock is a hero shooter that is like a mix of all of Valve's previous games, including Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and the Counter-Strike series. It is in early development, and Valve is constantly updating the game, which brings us to this week's changes.
This week's Deadlock patch added a new measure against cheating: turning a cheater into a frog in the game. If you spot a cheater in the game, you can ban them or transform them into a frog until the end of the match.
Here is a note from the patch notes:
"An initial Anti-Cheat detection system has been added. When a user is detected cheating, during the game session, opponents will have the choice between instantly banning the user and ending the match or turning the cheater into a frog until the end of the game and then banning them afterward. The system is set to conservative detection levels while we work on a more comprehensive v2 anti-cheat system. We will include user banning a few days after the update is released. When a match ends this way, the results will not count for other players."
Deadlock has not yet been fully released (it is still invite-only), but it is already a big hit on Steam, where it is usually among the top 10 most played games. This week's patch introduced a new hero for Deadlock named Mirage and made several changes to maps, heroes, and items. Valve has not yet announced an official release date.
