Valve has come up with a rather creative and highly amusing solution to deal with players suspected of cheating in Deadlock, a MOBA-style third-person shooter that is currently in the process of development but playable. As of Thursday, those cheaters will be transformed into helpless frogs, and whether they turn into frogs or not is determined by the opposing team.
According to an update posted on the official Deadlock forums, the game’s new (and still incomplete) anti-cheat detection system functions as follows: when a user is detected to be cheating during a game session, the opponents are given the option to either immediately ban the user and end the match or turn the cheater into a frog for the remainder of the game and then ban them later. The system is set to conservative detection levels as we work on a more extensive v2 anti-cheat system. We will activate the banning of users a couple of days after the update is released. When a match is ended in this way, the results will not count for other players.
When a user is detected as cheating, during the game session the opponents will be given a choice between banning the user immediately and ending the match or turning the cheater into a frog for the rest of the game and then banning them afterwards. The system is set to conservative detection levels as we work on a v2 anti-cheat system that is more extensive. We will turn on the banning of users in a couple of days after the update is out. When a match is ended this way, the results will not count for other players.
Here’s what it looks like in practice when someone is punitively transmogrified into a frog in Deadlock:
Valve is no stranger to this anti-cheat endeavor, and has devised similarly creative solutions in the past to combat cheaters in games like Dota 2. They have lured cheaters into exposing themselves, and then imposed tens of thousands of account bans. Sometimes those bans are even presented in a rather humiliating way, aiming to both shame the cheaters and delight the honest players. Valve has also rewarded players for playing fairly; Team Fortress 2 players who didn’t take advantage of idle programs to unlock hats in the game were rewarded with a special hat, the Cheater’s Lament.
Other developers have also pursued creative ways to punish and shame cheaters. In Call of Duty: Warzone, the anti-cheat measures caused cheaters to experience hallucinations and had their parachutes disabled, sending them plummeting to their deaths as they landed on the battle royale game’s island. Fall Guys developer Mediatonic took a more traditional approach by segregating cheaters to their own island, allowing them to interact only with their dishonest counterparts.
Apparently, Valve’s approach of dehumanizing Deadlock cheaters is a long-standing anti-cheat measure within the company. According to former developer Burton Johnsey, Valve developed a similar system for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that would transform cheaters into one of the game’s infamous chickens.