Study: Steam Cheaters Lose Friends, Spread the Habit

A new research paper that was published by a team at the University of Tampa has shown that those who cheat in video games have a tendency to pass this habit to their friends and then lose many of the fellow players who do not share the habit.

Researchers worked with Valve to get access to the playing habits of its 12 million member base and looked at the estimated 700,000 of them who have cheated in video games.

They also had detailed activity logs from the accounts of 10,000 gamers who volunteered their Steam accounts and they have found that non-cheating friends tend to leave those who cheat but that then they build a new player network that is made up of other gamers who are ready to cheat in order to succeed.

The research from the University of Tampa tends to validate the tough stance that Valve has taken when it comes to cheating on Steam, as the simple fact of accepting some bad apples might mean that the entire basket will get rotten at one time.

Valve is not the only company who is tough on cheaters, with MMO operators regularly banning access for a number of players, especially those who exploit game mechanics to get ahead in the leveling curve or those who tend to farm and then sell gold.

Microsoft has also taken a tough stance against Xbox Live cheaters and the developers of the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 first person shooter have also handed out bans lately.

Developer and publishers have also used always on system, like the UPlay from Ubisoft or Battle.net from Blizzard, to make sure that players have no chance to tamper with the game experience.

Similar systems from other companies might lessen the impact of cheating in most video games launched during 2012.