I mean I get why its a thing but like ew , very uncomfy , ugh

As someone who is currently inside of mental hospital grounds , reminding people to take their meds isnt bad I’d say . /hj

On a serious side I feel like this isn’t that bad , as it is more general than using a specific issue as an insult

BTW, normal online credit/debit card purchases can require 2fa. I got automatically enrolled, but I’m not about people who don’t use the mobile app, but SMS 2fa may be used as a fallback :/

I don’t as there is a service called blik in my country which seems private enough and is way more hassle free to use. It generates one time use codes for payment and requires user confirmation for each payment. Not sure how private it is on the back end, but it pretty much gets rid of the same risks virtual credit cards target. It’s also pretty well supported, both by banks and payment processors.

Again not sure how private it is on the back end, but, at least for me, its more user friendly than using a credit card so I cant be bothered.

Edit: the privacy policy for both blik and their website (I think?) is 13 pages, 9 of which give a detailed description of how they use cookies. Also the privacy regulations here are quite strict and they actually follow them, so you can not opt into cookies with as much effort as it takes to opt in. It is also a service made by banks, so I feel its quite trust wordy.

Also OP, if the banks web extention doesn’t require access to all websites, it probably won’t track you, at least more than your bank tracks you already.

Honestly I use both on my phone via RethinkDNS, which also can act as a firewall.

On a serious note, if I’m not mistaken, most cases of Tor users identity being uncovered is via information the user either unintentionally leaving information public, or privately told another user, which was made public due to a betrayal or a security breach.

In most other cases involve security flaws in Tor clients not the network, again if I’m not mistaken.

Good point! I honestly only have experience with Minecraft where the vanilla anti cheat is so bad it is often disabled and there are quite a few interesting ways to cheat (Cristal PvP, baritone, etc), so my perspective is limited by that.

However, I feel like if a game has mechanics with enough depth and achieving TAS like gameplay gave a significant advantage, I think, at least for those wanting to develop cheats, it could be fun.

Also, I’m not saying this would prevent cheating in competitive play, but it could give developers more insight into how cheats can be used (like with your example). Cheaters are not a monolith, but I don’t want to repeat my other comment :P

It wouldn’t get rid of the issue, I agree. But it would divert some of the cheating community away from fighting against the developers to playing by the developers rules.

Treating all cheaters as a monolith is really limiting which is kinda my point haha

Cheating via a lua script integrated into a game is waaaay different to cheating via external software, though mainly from the cheat developers side, less so from the users side, as you need to “fight” the anti-cheat.

Also, I think that considering all cheaters selfish (what is what I think you meant by calling cheaters sociopaths, see below) and bad at the game, really limits ones perspective, as not everyone hacks for the same reason. These reasons include:

1. Believing one needs cheats to stay competitive (either because one believes others are cheating or because, as you mentioned, due to lack of abilities)
2. For profit (to produce accounts with high value / tradable items/currency or to develop and sell cheats)
3. Due to frustration with progress towards a goal (often overlaps with #1, especially for players which are good at the game)
4. Enjoyment in breaking the games limits (note that this doesn’t decrease much in HvH)
5. The feeling of being more powerful than other players (often overlaps with #1, but also overlaps with smurfing)
6. For a sense of community (among other hackers, overlap with #2 or among mainstream players, overlap with #1 & #3)

Full disclosure, for me #4 and #5 are the most appealing, with the first two not being that appealing.‌ Note that #1 and #3, are as applicable, if not more sometimes, to high skill players as to low skill players. Two examples I can give of the top of my head are the 2021 trackmania cheating scandal and the Hypixel skyblock dungeon speedruning scene. In both cases there were competitive scenes that (at least from an outsiders point of view) seem legitimate, but a lot of top players all use cheats.‌‌ Also note that players motivated by #2 are less affected with a pay wall, which could even make them cheat more.

Why one cheats can also impact how one cheats. A player motivated by #1 and #3 is likely to hide their cheats (aka silent cheating I think?) while a player motivated by #2 or #5 may cheat in a way which is obvious to other players and they might not mind getting banned.

Also also, players who are more skilled at the game, can not only take a fuller advantage of cheats but also be more difficult to detect, as they know what they can get away with.

As for your usage of the word sociopath, which I don’t think is accurate, though I don’t blame you for it, mind you: antisocial personality disorder (the formal diagnosis for someone referred to as a sociopath), is an actual mental condition and using it because someone does not show empathy and/or seeks attention (which is not even a symptom of ASPD, I think you may be confusing it with narcissistic personality disorder?), not only flattens your understanding of the disorder but also raises a bad assumption: while a person with ASPD may find it harder to understand why certain actions are considered bad by others, that’s not an excuse for them to be abusive etc. The same applies to the common usage of narcissist/narcissistic.

TL;DR: IMHO what you said is an oversimplification which may make reducing the number of cheaters in competitive spaces more difficult.

Honestly something I’m surprised no game is doing is embrace the hackers.

For example, create a HvH gamemode where users can use lua scripts to aid them. I bet this would turn a lot of people away from the actual cheating scene.

I actually saw a sticker recently placed on a bus stop saying “save Poland, use cash” and I was very perplexed by it. I suspected it was some far-right/alt-right bs, but wasn’t sure.