Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued

  1. Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Anything
  2. Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Someone
  3. Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Crazy
  4. Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Without

Technically, yuo can be sued for just about anything. If I wanted to, as a male, I could sue somebody for staring at my breasts (lol) and me finding that sexually offensive. The chances of me winning are very slim, in that case. You require virtully no grounds for a lawsuit. Cheaters never prosper.For more awesome content, check out: us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/whatculturegamingA.

Rules are meant to be broken; video games are no exception. Cheating has a long and storied history in video games, from the infamous Konami code to playing as Bill Clinton in NBA Jam. But that was back when gaming meant sitting huddled around a TV in the basement with your friends. Now, players log into online gaming platforms like Xbox Live to compete with 46 million other gamers. The adage “you’re only cheating yourself” doesn’t ring true when gamers take on millions of other people, and even the video game development companies themselves.

Can cheating on video games get you sued anything

In 2011, the online gaming industry made $19 billion, not only from the sale of the original software, but also from countless microtransactions that happen during game play. Video game expert Scott Steinberg says that a relatively small group of cheaters can chase legitimate players (and their money) away from online gaming. “It’s entirely possible to break not only the in-game economy, but the actual economics around the game.” To avoid this, Steinberg says game developers spend vast amounts of time and money policing their game servers trying to find and ban cheaters.

According to Mia Consalvo, author of the book Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames, cheating for real world profit has been going on for almost two decades, and has cost the video game industry millions of dollars. One of the more common forms of cheating involves the use of “bots,” which are small pieces of code designed to automate certain game processes and gather materials valuable in a particular game. “Instead of selling these things in the game, they’d list them on eBay, and make real money that way.” Consalvo adds.

In 2009, a player named Michael Donnelly developed a particularly effective bot called a “glider” to be used in the popular online game World of Warcraft, and began selling it to gamers through his company, MDY Industries LLC. The District Court of Arizona found Donnelly guilty of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, shutting down the operation and setting the legal precedent that cheating by rewriting or overriding the code of online games isn’t just unscrupulous — it’s illegal.

Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued

As the online gaming market expands through cell phone gaming, PC gaming and a strengthening of console games’ online offerings, space for cheaters to operate will only continue to grow. Unlike the video games being fought over, the struggle between the cheaters and game developers won’t be won with strategy and skill, it will be won with money.

Ubisoft, Inc., one of the largest video game publishers in the world, has gone to extreme measures to ensure that its games are played fairly by everyone by filing a lawsuit against makers of the cheats. But can you personally be sued for cheating?

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (“Siege”) is arguably Ubisoft’s most popular game in recent years, with the game reaching 50 million players in September. Recently, however, the Siege player base has been under assault by a wave of cheaters and hackers, those who use software to exploit and manipulate the game code in order to have an unfair advantage over other players. In a game as competitive as Siege, this software can have jarring consequences, even going so far as to force some players from ever enjoying the game again . But now Ubisoft is striking back, filing a lawsuit in the Central District of California against the founders of “MizuSoft,” a cheat provider that sells licenses to a software tool used to manipulate the code of Siege.

Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Anything

Ubisoft claims that the Defendants have 1) “trafficked in circumvention devices,” 2) “intentionally interfered with contractual relations,” and 3) engaged in unfair competition. The claim of “trafficking in circumvention devices” stems from the fact that MizuSoft’s software tool was primarily designed to circumvent the exclusive technological access Ubisoft held over Siege. It appears that the software holds no other purpose than this. As for the second claim, Ubisoft refers to its Terms of Use (“TOU”) that every new player must agree to in order to download and play Siege. Terms of Use are a legal agreement between a service provider and someone who wants to use that service. The Terms often refer to what is and is not acceptable behavior when using the service provider’s product. The TOU Ubisoft has specifically prohibits the use of game altering software, including the cheating software in question. Ubisoft claims that Defendants were aware of the TOU, and intentionally encouraged and induced Siege players into using MizuSoft’s software, effectively breaching their contract with Ubisoft.

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Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Someone

Such an intense method to prevent the use of cheating software took many by surprise, though the Siege community as a whole has responded with positivity. But the question remains, who will Ubisoft go after next?

Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Crazy

The answer is relatively simple. If you are not using any software to manipulate or change the game code, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You’re good people in the eyes of Ubisoft and the rest of the Siege community. But for those of you who do use this software, I would urge you to remove it from your computer and cancel whatever license subscription you paid for in order to obtain this software. As mentioned before, Ubisoft requires everyone to agree to their TOU before downloading and playing Siege. If you find yourself using any game altering software, then it’s likely you are breaching your contract with a multi-million-dollar company, something that can open you up to litigation. Not exactly the best place to be.

For now, Ubisoft is only going after the distributors of the cheats, though this may be because suing MizuSoft is simply the most effective way to curb the number of players using their software. The publisher has made it clear that it will protect its player base from these unscrupulous players, so we may see more lawsuits in the future. If you want to be 100% certain that you don’t have a bullseye on your back, keep your digital nose clean.

Can Cheating On Video Games Get You Sued Without

Thanks to intern, Dan Percy, for drafting this article.