Motivation
Not gonna dwell on this. If you play ranked games long enough, you know what is happening!!
Background
Every game company, publisher, game, ... has a "system" to fight cheaters. And none of them is perfect. It is almost impossible to PREVENT unwanted software in competitive game play. Unless you visualise the gameplay itself, or analyse the machine and software running in it. But that may break client/player confidentiality and privacy!
In other words, Nothing!! There is NOTHING that is flawless in shooters. The players who are actually trying to compete have their experience ruined.
Discussion
Mainly, I just play PvP games. Yes, there is a problem in cheating and the inability to prevent them, but there is another problem: Digital accountability!! Yes, in video games, you can do what ever you want, and you get no punishment (Sorry, but a ban is not a punishment, they can just cycle threw accounts).
If one account gets some kind of "problem" cheaters merely create a new one... It is so fast to progress, that it is worth it for them! And because you don't delete those accounts, they probably return to those accounts later on, or cycle threw them!
EA and Easy Anti-cheat, you will NEVER fix this problem with the strategy you are implementing right now!! You cannot fix this, with software. They will always find a away around. You need to reinvent yourselves if you ever want to create a healthy competitive environment.
Possible solution(s)
EA, be the first company to push the need for a "digital ID", associated with the real "ID of a person". This "digital ID" is a unique, shared by more gaming companies, and maintained by a trusted third party, specialized in security and privacy (our privacy comes first, CANNOT be used to any kind of advertisement). The "digital ID" should contain "digital print", "face recognition", "ID card", "phone number", "social security", "full name", "birth", "address" and a "UNIQUE cell phone authenticator". Depending on their strategy, players may need to acquire some hardware to properly login and authenticate.
This digital ID IS NOT A REQUIREMENT TO PLAY APEX!! It is a requirement to play competitive ranked games, or any kind of ranked games that joined this movement. This is the change, those who do not want to give their information, cannot play this new type of competitive ranked games!!
Those players who do create the "digital ID", cannot, ever, create a second "digital ID". The trusted third party is enforcing a verification to see if there is already a "similar" digital print, face, phone number, or authenticator...
Why is this important?! imagine a cheater gets banned for one to two years. If he chooses to go around and try to create a second "digital ID", he will need: to ask another person his phone number (or have a second number and phone because the phone has a unique ID), install another authenticator in it, always carry that other phone, ask for another legal person name, address, social security, birth, digital print, and face (I have no idea how are they gonna fake the digital print and face....) Before he knows it, there is a lot of work and time to replicate another "digital ID", which, can be denied by the trusted third party!
Conclusion
Every time we make a payment, we give half of this information to them (address, name, phone, etc). The other half, the operating system (Windows 10) can have access to it (digital print and face recognition). Also, our cell phone can have ALL of this information because it became our "digital wallet", with a camera and digital print reader. If fighting this unhealthy overall game state (and people incapability of playing by the rules) is truly your intent, you need to start somewhere!! I suggest you start with people who is wiling to compete, in a "semi-professional" way (or ranked, competitive, what ever you want call it, since we don't get payed to play). Because, for me, that is what PvP games are all about. I go to work, make my contribute to society, and at the end of the day I want to compete with other people in equal ground. I don't want get shot threw a wall, or get dropped down instantly because of gaming industry inability to fix this problem with software! Fix it with a legal bound between people, the gaming industry and a chosen "trusted third party".
Future Work.
We all (players and game industry) need to find this third party specialized in privacy and security who is willing to do this step. This is not going to happen if the community and industry does not make any kind of pressure. I hope we all can make this happen.
NOTES
- All data you give to create the "digital ID" is not used by the gaming industries, it is used by the trusted third party!! When you log in into this "third party app", you are allowed to play "ranked games". If you screw up (use any kind of cheats and get caught), you go into a black list of ALL GAMES where you play (or want to start playing) RANKED GAMES. For example, if you play ranked league of legends, APEX, DOTA, WOW RBGs and arenas, etc... you get banned/deleted/prevented from playing in all of those games that have implemented this system!!
- I have left out the "multiple squads playing together" problem to another day... But I am aware this is growing as a possible issue :\ It is not as big, or noticeable, but it exists!! They just pinch the enemies.
