[yonatan8070]

The amount of effort, time, and money people put into cheating is honestly insane.

A 14 year old who installs an autoclicker to mess with friends or randoms online I can get. But there are fully grown adults who dedicate their time and substantial amounts of money (whole second computer) just to win in online video games?

What's the motivation/justification for spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on cheating hardware and software? Are these just super-rich people who have more money than sense?

[technothrasher]

I haven't paid much attention to any of it, as I don't really like multiplayer games anyway, but I always just assumed many people figure out how to cheat simply as a meta-game. I mean, how can you ask what the motivation to cheat is without asking what the motivation to even play the game in the first place is? Barring professional competition, both playing and cheating are largely meaningless activities outside the simple enjoyment.

[RugnirViking]

A bit of both. Some very clever people, often in Russia or Philippines or Venezuela etc where incomes and legal risks are low make the cheats, and sell them to idiots in the west.

[quantummagic]

> What's the motivation/justification...

No doubt there are various reasons, some more understandable than others. There are some fascinating historical cases, like the one explored in "The King of Kong" :

https://youtu.be/_4v15X8Px34

Which is well worth a watch, if you're curious.

[swagmoney1606]

You don't neeed DMA hardware btw. Just find a signed driver that's vulnerable to run whatever you want... Also, not hard at all. I guarantee you have a driver you could re-purpose on your windows machine right now.

[snickerdoodle12]

do you not have any hobbies? cheat development is insanely fun

[yonatan8070]

Of course I have hobbies, and they cost me money. I just make sure my hobbies aren't ruining the fun for everyone around me.

[snickerdoodle12]

Developing a cheat does not ruin anyone's fun. The same goes for guns, knives, anything that could be used as a weapon. It's all about how you use a tool, and in this case creating the tool is fun. Unless you think that everyone who fires a gun for fun, or creates a knife or even just a baseball bat, is a murderer?

[frollogaston]

So people develop cheats only to not use them in public games, and not distribute them to others?

[snickerdoodle12]

No idea what other people do, you'd have to ask them.

[frollogaston]

Seems like they all develop cheats to cheat