Who are the real cheaters, Valve?

MezzanineMezzanine Icrontian
edited September 2009 in Team Fortress 2
It has recently been brought to my attention that Valve has taken it upon themselves to remove hats dropped to players using the external idling program. They call this "cheating" and have rewarded all non-cheaters with a shiny new halo titled "Cheater's Lament." Of course Valve has no way of telling the difference between people who have used the idle program, and people who have been sitting in regular tf2 servers in spectate mode for hours and hours on end, achieving the same results. To think, if we had just idled in the IC server when it was empty, we could have kept our hats and gotten a shiny new halo. The reason valve can't tell the difference? It's really hard to see very well from way up there on their high horses.

Here's the backpack of a typical Valve employee:
http://www.tf2items.com/profiles/76561197960563532

You'll notice that Finol somehow has just about every single hat. Given the percentage of hat drops prior to this date, he had to have won the lotto about 6 times in a row in order to be that lucky. If you rest your mouse over his stock weapons, you'll notice he has sweet upgrades to his sniper rifle, shotgun, scattergun, stickybomb launcher, rocket launcher, and revolver.
+15% damage, +150% clip size, +15% firing speed, on hit +15 health, 100% chance to crit on burning players, +50 max health on player, on kill 5 seconds of 100% critical chance, fire retardent, damage taken from fire 0.85 , speed bost when active 1.15.

He also has the cheater's lament, but I have a hard time believing he deserves it.

GG, Valve. Who's cheating now?

Comments

  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Or, you know, valve employees have items to test the system.

    If valve responded to this like you were hacking/cheating, you would have been banned through VAC.
  • pigflipperpigflipper The Forgotten Coast Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    They consider the fake idle to be an exploit, so they fixed the exploit and removed any items you may have gotten from the exploit. What their own staff has, does it matter? Do you think they play on public servers with that account?
  • MezzanineMezzanine Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    shwaip wrote:
    Or, you know, valve employees have items to test the system.

    If valve responded to this like you were hacking/cheating, you would have been banned through VAC.

    What exactly are they testing with their super sticky bomb launchers?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    The ability to create items that are similar to the originals, but with random properties. For example, steam community contributers (like map makers) are getting items that are exactly the same as normals, but glow.

    Now, have you ever seen these valve employees using the buffed weapons? Screenshots of killcams where it tells you they're wielding them? Or seen screenshots of them atop the scoreboard because they're using them in pubs, laughing at us hatless, weak underlings?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    What exactly are they testing with their super sticky bomb launchers?

    A possible demo upgrade?
  • MezzanineMezzanine Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    shwaip wrote:

    Now, have you ever seen these valve employees using the buffed weapons? Screenshots of killcams where it tells you they're wielding them?

    Yes actually I have. I've seen a screenshot of a demoman (with a medic) wielding a super sticky bomb launcher, wearing a top hat. But at the time I dismissed it as photoshopped or a joke. I'm pretty sure it was Canti who linked me to it, but I'll let you know if I ever see it again.

    Now I don't know who he was using it against... it could have been other people with super weapons. But maybe not.

    I just don't think they have the right to claim the moral high ground in this specific scenario, and find it funny that someone with EVERY SINGLE HAT was rewarded with the Cheater's Lament.

    And I think it's silly to punish people for using external idling programs, when they have no way of punishing people for using internal idling programs. Those are the main points I was trying to make. I just don't see enough of a moral difference between sitting in a fake idle server and sitting in an empty tf2 server with the intention of waiting for hats to drop when you're not actually at your computer.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    One of the equal injustices Valve has the ability and power to act against. The other they don't. Should they not fix one injustice because they can't fix both?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Yeah. I've seen one shot of a soldier too. If they were using these items often, pics of that shit would be EVERYWHERE.

    He has the lament to test for bugs. Like the halo showing up when you're a cloaked spy.

    Yeah, I'm using this external program to aim for me. I can do it in the game, it's just more convenient when I use a program. :P (hooray hyperbole) When you fired up the idler, did you really think, "Valve is not going to care at all that I'm doing this"? It was a gray area.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    I used an idling program for lulz, and I knew it was exploiting a loophole.

    "Well other people did something similar and got away with it" is an excuse we wouldn't even accept from a toddler.
  • MezzanineMezzanine Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    Snarkasm wrote:
    One of the equal injustices Valve has the ability and power to act against. The other they don't. Should they not fix one injustice because they can't fix both?

    That is a very good point. It's just a shady loophole they can't do anything about. I didn't think of it like that. I have to go ponder my alignment now.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    The larger point of it all, why does it even remotely matter one way or the next? They are hats for play army men.......

    I enjoy me some TF2, but I don't get all bent out of shape about other guys accessorizing better than I do.

    Thing is, part of me thinks what Valve did is hilarious, they knew the nerd rage it would elicit. It's genius, everyone is talking about TF2 and Valve again.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    It's E-Peen, Cliff. When you show that you have a slew of hats, you're showing that you've played more and played better than most everyone else. (regardless if a legitimate method was used).

    It's a lot like a marksman having awards/medals for accuracy and performance, or a driver in motorsport having accomplishment trophies for best lap times, or an outfielder winning the golden glove. They don't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but act as a means to show that this person is a step above the best.

    It's all bragging rights. And the internet LOVES bragging rights.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    They're Funâ„¢. When I see a pyro with a rubber glove hat, I Laughâ„¢. That is what games are for. If I get an item that makes me Happyâ„¢, that is a desirable outcome.
  • CantiCanti =/= smalltime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9K18CGEeiI&feature=related Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    I have to agree with Cliff on this. Is it lazy? Yes. But calling it cheating implies that using the idle program gives some advantage over other players and if I'm not mistaken everyone including Valve agrees that hats are for cosmetic value only. Maybe the 10 Backburners I had in my inventory gave me super pyro powers and I just never noticed but I don't think anyone I play against will know or care that they are gone. I however dearly miss them and will probably cry myself to sleep every night for the rest of my life knowing that no matter how hard all my legitimate weapons try they can never replace my excessive number of overpowered flamethrowers. Goodbye Backburners, you will never be forgotten. :(
  • TiberiusLazarusTiberiusLazarus Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    I believe part of this comes into play with the fact that Valve is planning to implement a system whereby you can convert all those backburners into new things. So maybe this is an attempt to remove things that will at some point in time give you an advantage over others?
  • KoreishKoreish I'm a penguin, deal with it. KCMO Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    All I know is I never received a Cheater's Lament. I never idled and it didn't get my good boy halo for it.
  • MyrmidonMyrmidon Baron von Puttenham California Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    I still love you, Koreish.
  • Idiot_SlayerIdiot_Slayer Member
    edited September 2009
    Maybe this is just an in house instagib version of TF2 Valve people play. That sounds really fun actually.
  • F-SteinF-Stein Canada.
    edited September 2009
    Y'know, it's funny. You never see anybody with the Lament complaining about what happened. Everybody that didn't get the Lament seems to enjoy complaining.
    I think this is really just you people being sad about, "I don't have a hat, and now those guys do." (Even though the Halo looks utterly ridiculous, and you just seem retarded to me, when you're wearing it.)
    I see both sides of the argument. I ran the program for about two minutes before deleting it off my system. I didn't get the Lament, but frankly, I don't care in the slightest.
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    edited September 2009
    F Stein wrote:
    ...Everybody that didn't get the Lament seems to enjoy complaining.
    ...the Halo looks utterly ridiculous, and you just seem retarded to me, when you're wearing it...
    ...I don't care in the slightest.

    ;D

    -Bobby
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