As with everything in life, some people are trying to find shortcuts to success. In games, it’s no different. Ever since the very beginning of the gaming industry, there have been bad actors taking advantage of the game weaknesses for their own merit. Throughout the years, hacking video games grew into an entire industry, and we know all about it.

In web3, where a monetary aspect is included for some games, the dangers of fraudulent activity are larger than ever before. Join us as we scroll through the world of hacking and bot-activity in gaming, and how we target to defeat these bots.

Common practice in gaming

Suspicious activity in gaming has been around since the industry came into existence. Where cheating previously limited itself to sliding yourself an extra banknote in monopoly, in the world of video games, things can get a bit more complicated. Black hat hackers make it a sport to attack systems for their own merit. Not only do they attack game developers, but also target individual players.

Besides hacks, a rising problem is the usage of either bots using artificial intelligence or low-wage employees to sit in a call-center grinding the game. All the rewards would be sent to one central wallet so that its owner could exchange that for cash. The activities of these players in the game are solely to reap rewards, and not to increase the competitiveness, and thereby the player experience.

With an industry that’s worth north of 100 billion dollars, there are tons of bad actors on the look-out trying to take a piece of the pie.

Strong offensive is the best defense

Realizing the threat of these bad actors that operate in nearly every major game, the developers had to take matters into their own hands. The first move taken was the launch of bug bounties. Rewarding hackers and curious folks when looking around with prizes for reporting vulnerabilities, a first step was taken. All the major studios like Riot and Epic all have their respective bug bounty programs.

As VentureBeat described in their article zooming in on the issue, another approach the major studios take is simply joining the hackers. They will hire people who have been hacking games for nothing more than enjoyment, and ask them to infiltrate the grimiest places of the internet. These hackers would maneuver through the dark-web in search of fraudulent activity and counter it before the threat is utilized at scale.

Web3, even more appealing

In the web3 gaming industry, the problem of hackers and fraudulent activity is even worse when you break it down. There’s a direct monetary aspect in most games, an industry that’s momentarily run by inexperienced game developers and novel technology that has yet to be battle-tested. This year alone, billions of dollars have been hacked in various ways in the cryptocurrency industry.

As we’ve previously seen with Axie Infinity, there have been large operations with hundreds of phones using scripts to reap the in-game rewards. This practice has been repeated over and over in other games where the gameplay is simple and played at mass. The developers are found battling the attackers instead of preventing the acts in the first place.

A well known enemy

Operating in the gaming industry for nearly two decades building various games, we’ve really seen it all. In every single game that we have launched over the years, there have been bad actors trying to ruin the game for all other players for their own benefit. Analyzing each threat, acting on it and implementing new features, we’ve come to know our enemy.

In the new game that we’re launching, there will be certain features in place to battle the fraudulent activity. Naturally, we’re not revealing the tricks we have up our sleeves, but we’re doing everything we can to ensure optimized gameplay for all players. As game development progresses, so do those breaching the systems. Therefore, we will always continue the ongoing fight against incoming threats.

We’re well aware that no one can build a 100% bulletproof solution, but we’re determined to track any suspicious activity as early as possible. Now, we will always focus on building a very good game, but startups focusing on security in games are well-needed. Anyone that operates in this field is more than welcome to reach out!

To stay up to date with our journey, follow us on these channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrialXtreme

Medium: https://medium.com/@gameplaygalaxy

Discord: discord.gg/trialxtreme

Website: https://gameplaygalaxy.com/

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