I would agree, it is easy in the heat of the moment to think someone is hacking, then after quiet reflection of a demo see the mistakes you made and how they capitalised on it. But that does not change the fact that playing discretely with a WH is possible and it can be very hard for any onlooker to know if a person is using one.
It is interesting that I have heard people say the exact opposite about CoD. They didn't believe there were many hackers until they started watching the demos/kill cams. The other interesting thing about CoD is that not everyone that is using the hacks is top of the leaderboard. There are actually people out there using hacks who are still atrocious. Indeed, I didn't ban a guy from my server simply because even with his hacks he was terrible! (he was also a really nice guy).
But you kind of undermine your own point in a way, because on the one hand you are telling us you know how to hide a WH and so do most other FPS players, then you imply they are easy to spot.........
I agree, many of the hackers are easy to spot ragers who download their hacks and have no idea how to use them or even have any idea how to play the game properly. But that is not to say there are not also many other players who do have good game sense and who are competent at being discrete. They will be the guys playing comp, using their hacks to gain a subtle but significant edge which is what I alluded to in my previous post. When a player is good already, it does not take much of a hack to ensure they get the upper hand and swing the game balance in their favour. This is highlighted by the recent pro hacking scandal.
I have played comp in other games, but not in CSGO (yet). Whilst each game is different, the mechanics of FPS shooters and the hacks that are generally preferable are similar. It is why we see, for example, the preference of WH over aim bots - they are easier to hide. Initially, anyways, until the crosshair tweakable bots were being churned out, but those kind of hacks tend to be best used by half decent players to start with.
But the fundamental crux of a closet hacking mindset is that most of them do not want to be caught because they want to appear good, appear dominant and appear like it is all down to their skill.
But I do think, to some extent, that hacking has become a self fulfilling prophecy. People believe (in many cases wrongly) that someone is hacking and decide if they can't beat them, join them. There is also a certain level of anonymity in modern FPS games due to match making and the sheer number of people online. Back in the quake 3 days, you had smaller server communities and generally everyone knew eatch other quite well and provided support. I remember playing Q3 FFA in the Gifford servers and a new guy came in and he didnt know how to rocket jump. I am not kidding, the entire server stopped playing, met this guy in the mid part of the map and showed him what to do. The entire server - like 8-9 players or something just rocket jumping about and showing him where is best and giving advice on timing and technique etc. This was not an isolated incident. It happened a lot. To this day I have never seen a community as supportive as that. Now it is all "L2P noob"
I just wonder if modern games had that kind of support from players whether there would be less haxusations? I feel there would be less, personally, because in taking time to teach people you start to show them how you are achieving your advantage. But I think it is no surprise that as online gaming has become vastly more popular that the amount of people making haxusations has exploded. But, by the same logic, you could also argue that it is also not unreasonable to reach the conclusion that it has caused a huge increase in hackers too. When you have hacking websites with multi million dollar profits and thousands upon thousands of subscribers you really have to wonder just how many hackers are out there.
Personally, I dont think the numbers of people closet hacking are as high as previous posters have said. Most of the hacking numpties rage and get banned.
But the recent scandals show, that even in pro teams under the utmost scrutiny, people can and do get away with hacking. I do not think it is a giant leap of imagination to say that there could be undetected hackers in any given match. But I suppose the real questions are what benefits to their hacks give them, and what are the stakes?
Other than pro teams, the benefits of the hacks are probably not worth the cost, not without it being blatantly obvious. I think most players will understand that and avoid hacking. Others, though, are the 1% minority that will insist on spending their money on hacks. But given that peak player base in CSGO is 250k, statistically that still equates to 2,500 hackers online at peak time. I'm not sure how many servers there are in CSGO at peak times, but what would that potentially equate to? 1 in 5 servers that potentially have a hacker? 1 in 10? I dont know, but it is an interesting supposition, even based on a 1% figure.
