Cheating and mods on multiplayer online enabled games are nothing new to the PC realm of online gaming; however, they are not one in the same to Xbox Live. When playing online multiplayer games on the PC, a host acts as a moderator to the games and is able to kick out anyone he or she sees that are cheating or using a mods in such a way as to give them an advantage over the rest of the players. Xbox Live, however, does not work in that fashion – that luxury is only limited to custom game types. Xbox Live’s, or XBL for short, greatest strength is also its greatest downfall when it comes to cheating and mod use.

On XBL players are automatically matched up against players of similar skill; hence, no one is truly moderating the game. This style makes it easier for cheaters to ruin game play and makes it harder for the people in charge to stop them. In games such as Halo 2, cheating and mod use is seen the most. Halo 2’s 500,000+-user base, its vast popularity, and its downloadable content make it prime target for cheaters. With the impeding launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and its next iteration of XBL, we can only ask: what are the people in charge doing about this? On the developer front, Bungie continues to roll out auto-updates that aim to fix several of the system’s glitches. However, the latest trend in cheating does not involve super jumps, going through walls or the rest of the game glitch exploits. The latest trend in cheating involves game mods through the use of an Xbox with a “Mod chip” or that is “soft modified”. These determined cheaters want to turn Master Chief into a Superman wanna-be with the use of mods such as the “faster than a speeding bullet” mod, the “leap tall buildings with a single bound” mod, or the assault rifle mod that allows the rifle to shoot more than 3 shots at a time. That kind of cheating isn’t easily fixed by addressing a simple auto-update, but rather looking through various game related information for any sign of cheating. Not an easy or enjoyable task. Luckily, Bungie has openly expressed its disgust with such cheaters and aim to make playing Halo 2 on XBL and enjoyable one. They are working hard at banning people that they see are cheating by looking at the post game reports or by people submitting tips to their team as well as the Xbox Live hotline. Of course this only catches some people – that is why in the next week or so, we will be seeing another update by Bungie that will be targeted against people with modified Xboxes; be it soft modded or chipped. This will indeed stop a lot of the current cheating, however, not for long since hackers are not far behind after any sort of update. For this reason some people such as the PraetoriaGuard clan are taking matters into their own hands. Armed with a capture card and a lot of patience, these gamers will sit through a match against cheaters and record the whole match, get the post game report off bungie.net and call the Xbox Live hotline to have these internet scum banned. Seems like a slow process, however, every little bit helps and its time for everyone to stand up and say to them, “we won’t take this anymore” and take back what is rightfully ours – enjoyable online gaming. Will we be seeing this in the next iteration of Xbox Live? According to Bungie, we won’t. There aren’t many details on this as of today; however, the Xbox Live team is working hard to deliver the best online gaming experience possible. Seems to be a bold claim after seeing this issue becoming such a big concern – a claim we shall begin testing in November.

XBL Hotline: 1-800-4-my-xbox, and press 3
Bungie’s E-mail: h2cheats@microsoft.com