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posted by martyb on Friday October 19 2018, @09:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the trusting-values-sent-from-the-client-is-an-Epic-fail dept.

Royale-lly Screwed: Epic Sues YouTubers Promoting Fortnite Cheats

Part of Fortnite's appeal is that it offers a level playing field. People can't unlock new weapons, start a match with equipment, or augment their abilities by grinding for in-game upgrades. Everyone drops out of the Battle Bus with the same tools, a glider and a pickaxe so their skill will determine whether they catch the 'dub or take an L. So it may not come as a surprise that Epic Games is suing two YouTubers for upsetting that balance with cheats.

TorrentFreak has reported that Epic's lawsuit targets Brandon "Golden Modz" Lucas, a cheat distributor and content creator whose YouTube channel has 1.7 million followers, and Colton "Exentric" Contor, who has over 7,000 followers. The cheat in question combined an aimbot with ESP features that offered information that players would otherwise have no way of knowing. It reportedly cost $55 (30 days) or $300 (unlimited) from the Golden Godz website.

[...] The suit appeared to have a quick impact. Golden Modz's last video was published on October 12, and the Golden Godz website currently says that "No packages exist at this time," even though a dialog box claims that "Payment systems are back up and new packages have been added!" The site claims to offer various "services" for several Call of Duty games and Grand Theft Auto: Online; all of them appear to have been pulled.

Also at Polygon.

Fortnite.

Previously: Epic Games Sues 14-Year-Old after He Files a DMCA Counterclaim for a How-to-Cheat Video
U.S. Federal Judge Blocks Man From Selling GTA V Cheating Software

Related: Game About Net Neutrality Receives Grant from Epic Games
Epic Games (Developer of the Unreal Engine) Shows Off "Siren" Demo
Sony Faces Growing 'Fortnite' Backlash At E3
Fortnite's Android Version Bypasses Google Play to Avoid 30% "Store Tax"
Epic's first Fortnite Installer allowed hackers to download and install anything on your Android phone


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by rigrig on Friday October 19 2018, @12:50PM (1 child)

    by rigrig (5129) Subscriber Badge <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Friday October 19 2018, @12:50PM (#750884) Homepage

    You might be able to prevent this "ESP" stuff by not sending clients more information than they should know, but aimbots are fundamentally difficult to block:

    Option 1:
    Ban people that are "too good". But the aimbots can add a bit of random error, meaning that cheaters can now aim as well as top-level players, but you can't ban them without banning actual top-level players.

    Option 2:
    Take over players' computers and look for aimbot software. This leads to a never-ending game of whackabot as cheats get better at avoiding the checks, and outcry from honest players that don't like a game taking over their computer or are flagged as false positive.

    --
    No one remembers the singer.
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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday October 19 2018, @03:53PM

    by Pino P (4721) on Friday October 19 2018, @03:53PM (#750978) Journal

    You might be able to prevent this "ESP" stuff by not sending clients more information than they should know

    The server might not be able to tell with full certainty what each client should and should not know at the current game time. It especially might not know what each client should and should not know at future game times, as what each client should and should not know changes depending on the actions of the players between now and then. That's what I meant by "latency".