Cheating and the loss of innocence

This will hopefully be my last paste about cheating in video games.

Recently I was made aware that Werster's old 1:55 Yellow run was made private on YouTube. This was arguably the most influential run in Pokemon speedrunning history, and to this day it is considered one of the best Pokemon runs ever. The run was somewhat controversial at the time, but no evidence ever surfaced that it was cheated. Most people just moved on after the time was beaten and the route was made obsolete by RNG manipulation.

I was one of the people who had suspicions about the run. My reasons were partly objective and partly biased. Those suspicions resurfaced when I checked Werster's YouTube and Twitch pages today. I saw that his other runs from around the time of his Yellow run were on YouTube, including runs done on emulator. I also saw that his Twitch VOD of the Yellow run was gone. I can't think of a good reason the run would be taken down from both YouTube and Twitch.

Normally I believe it would be unfair to publicize my suspicions on such weak evidence. However, Werster cheated another run (under the alias Sarah Hagan) soon after the Yellow run and ignored all questions about it in the months to come. He has yet to admit he cheated that run or apologize for any wrongdoing at the time.

None of this is particularly new or newsworthy information. However, it comes at a time when I've realized cheating is much more rampant in gaming communities than I once thought. Two people have been caught cheating in Kaizo IronMON recently, and both of their runs are still on the community's completed run database. One of the cheaters continues to share his runs with the IronMON community every week, and members of the community have been shamed for suspecting him. I believe many other IronMON runs have been cheated as well. Some cheated runs are worse than others -- for example, lying about a run is worse than submitting a run labeled as "Kaizo" when the rules were modified in the runner's favor. But it's all still cheating to me.

I remember arguing on my stream years ago that gaming communities shouldn't worry too much about cheating, since this can create barriers to doing runs (e.g., disqualifying emulator runs that don't display the full window, or disqualifying a WR run because of dropped frames). I believed three things then, all of which I no longer believe:

1) Cheating is infrequent
2) Communities take cheating seriously
3) We shouldn't make rules about our games as a precaution against cheaters

Cheating happens regularly. We just can't prove it regularly. Of all the runs I believe to be cheated in the past 10 years, less than half had conclusive evidence. I wonder how many more runs were cheated but never suspected.

I've spoken and written a lot about cheating over the years because I've always struggled with the question, "Why would someone cheat?" But based on the reactions I've observed from my communities, I could just as easily ask the question, "Why NOT cheat?"

The sad reality is that many people in gaming communities do not care about the integrity of gameplay. They are here for other reasons -- to make friends, to fit in, to stave off boredom, to grow their stream, to make money, to troll. Cheating helps you do all of those things if you can get away with it. And you can definitely get away with it. The active cheater in the IronMON community is just one example. I've also seen a proven cheater be allowed to continue as a series moderator on speedrun.com. I've seen Werster stream successfully for 10 years following his cheated run(s). I've seen Dream thrive as a content creator after his widely publicized cheating scandal. And I've seen community leaders discourage people from talking about cheating.

I believe people are inherently good, so any act of cheating is a sign that a person is in a bad place. But it's common for people to be in a bad place. It's especially common for people who spend a lot of time online. Even the most morally sound people slip up from time to time. And we are more prone to slip up when there are no consequences for doing so.

I don't know the best way to prevent cheating. It is extremely easy for a committed cheater to get away with it. Getting caught means you were careless. But I appreciate the people who attempt to make rules and tools that make life harder for cheaters. Beyond that, the best thing I can do is advise people, based on my 9 years of experience studying cheated runs, on how to approach a situation in your community in which a run is suspicious:

1) Defer to the experts of the game. If they are suspicious, trust them. If you are the expert, trust yourself.
2) Be aware of your own biases. Do you think this run is legit because the evidence points that way, or because you like the runner personally?
3) If the run was not streamed, it is much more likely to be cheated.
4) If you believe a run is cheated, that is not enough to make an accusation. There is a world of difference between suspicion and accusation, and a run may forever remain suspicious without ever warranting an accusation.
5) Don't discourage others from discussing cheating just because there isn't proof. Discussion is healthy; derailing it is unhealthy.

On a personal note, I feel like I've lost my innocence in the online gaming world. No longer am I critical of the phrase, "No vid, no did."