Wednesday, July 21, 2010

VAC Forums on Steam website

Awhile back I made a post on the steampowered forums regarding the VAC category having no real reason for existing. Today I wandered into the forums again and was amused that the song remains the same. Here is what I observed awhile back and again just today:

The VAC forum category at steampowered.com is hilarious. Outside of the stickies, zero (0) of the threads in the VAC forum category has any reason for existing. The response to literally every single thread created in this forum category should be “read the stickies,” making the VAC forums utterly inane. The VAC forum category should be closed permanently as it is utterly pointless.

These are the questions and answers to EVERY single thread in this forum:

1. How can I report a cheater?

You cannot report a cheater on these forums, so do not even try. VAC is an automated system that bans people automatically; we will not listen to any hearsay about a “confirmed” cheater that you might provide.

2. I see gamer XYZ and he has obviously been cheating for two weeks, why hasn’t he been banned yet?

One of two reasons, either:

A. The hack has yet to be detected. Please understand that we are making our best effort to detect new cheats so that you can enjoy your gaming experience.

Or

B. The hack has been detected but we have yet to ban the accounts found to be using that hack.

3. Why do you do delayed banning? It’s not fair, you know someone is cheating and you let them keep cheating!

Because it makes it harder for hack developers to develop their hacks, and it allows us to catch more cheaters.

If VAC instantly banned detected hacks then the developers of cheats could make a cheat, join a VAC server, and instantly know whether or not their cheat is VAC-proof or not. If the cheat is instantly detected they can easily go “back to the drawing board” and keep working on their hack to make it VAC-proof before releasing it.
The fact that the developer of the new hack does not know whether the hack is VAC-proof or not means that EVERY site out there selling or distributing a hack that they claim to be VAC-proof is lying to you; they do not know if it is VAC-proof of not, all they know is that VAC bans have yet to be handed out on the hacks behalf.
The fact that you are using a hack means that you will eventually have your account banned. Whether the hack has yet to be detected, or the hack has already been detected and VAC is just waiting to update the ban list, you will eventually be caught. The advantage to waiting awhile is that more and more people will be using the detected hack and that means that more and more cheaters will get caught in the end.

Think about it this way, these are the two ways it could go:

Instant bans:
Hacker makes a hack, joins a VAC server, hack is detected, hacker tweaks the hack, now hack is not detected, hacker starts giving the hack to his friends, 50 people are using the hack, VAC detects it, 50 accounts are banned, hacker makes a new hack…

Delayed bans:
Hacker makes a hack, hack is not detected (as far the hacker knows), hacker gives it to his friends, 50 gamers are cheating, the hack rocks, more people use it, now 5,000 people are using the hack, VAC ban list is updated, 5,000 accounts are banned.
Only a certain number of people use hacks and delayed bans allows VAC to get more of these hackers “off the streets.”

End of story.

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