Valve’s Deadlock Will Have to Take a Major Decision Right Now if They Wish to Not End up in the Same Drowning Boat as EA’s Apex Legends
Deadlock is an ambitious online multiplayer developed by Valve for the PC platform. The game has been in active development for a while and the developers formally announced it last month with no details regarding the official release date. More and more online multiplayer games are coming out of the woodwork, and the recent discovery about Valve’s project could indicate this will follow the footsteps of other games failing to combat hackers and cheaters.
Cheating can ruin a player’s experience, and to see this activity early on in the game’s development phase is not a good look. Valve should take this matter seriously and implement countermeasures to discourage cheaters from continuing this nefarious activity.
Deadlock Will Suffer the Same Fate if Cheaters Remain on Top of the Hill
Competitive online multiplayer games are dominating the gaming industry and there are too many options to choose from. Not all of these projects will succeed, let alone last a year, unless the developers do something creative and uphold player decent and ethics. Some early playtesters discovered different ways to get banned in Deadlock by abusing the pause feature which could be easily used for cheating.
The gaming community is a tough crowd to please, especially when most players are playing to unwind and relax but some revel in winning. Some are willing to break their moral compass to win by any means necessary, and this is an issue that has yet to be resolved until now. Evidence has shown a few of the early playtesters of Deadlock are using aimbots to better their chances of hitting their targets and at this rate, the game will likely be the next stomping ground for hackers.
Looks like cheaters using aimbots have started to show up in Deadlock🙁
— Deadlock Intel (@IntelDeadlock) September 4, 2024
via /linkdix pic.twitter.com/fWHCOqm7Za
Cheating is frowned upon and for good reason. Online multiplayer games that usually pit players against one another will create friction and some players would rather win a fight unfairly than accept defeat. Deadlock will likely end up in the same ditch as other popular multiplayer games like Apex Legends where cheaters and hackers inflict their will freely without thinking of how their actions may affect everyone around them.
The game is still in early development which is more than enough time for game developers of Valve to implement anti-cheating countermeasures. Games like Call of Duty are overrun with cheaters and these anti-cheating engines are barely doing any work; however, it is the thought that counts and the developers could assign moderators to observe potential suspects in-game.
Cheaters and Hackers Already Have a Strong Foothold of Deadlock
There are cheaters everywhere, in real life and in-game, but there are ways to prevent it from spreading. Valve should take this matter seriously to avoid the developers’ hard work and efforts going down the drain. It will not take long for the player base to abandon this game if cheaters are already hard to remove.
The developers recently introduced a new gameplay mechanic allowing players to jump and scale walls, it won’t take long before cheaters exploit this mechanic and use it to their advantage. Casual players will likely give up if they are constantly being bullied and targeted by cheaters in-game.
Years of hard work could likely be wasted if this game launches without fixing the present issue of cheating. Online moderation is a challenge in itself and the game developers should have a keen eye, observe how players are doing, and take a deep dive into how the player experience could be improved.
Valve is already playing a dangerous game by developing another competitive online multiplayer game amidst a gaming industry oversaturated with different games from various developers. Sony made the tough decision to pull the plug on Concord weeks after it launched and threw 8 years of hard work down the drain, and Deadlock will end up in a similar situation if the cheating problem persists when the game is live.
Are you still optimistic about Deadlock? Let us know in the comments section below!
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
