[Vicious_2003]

A Recent episode with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tommorow has led me to question online gaming as a whole. Many in the gaming industry see online gaming as the future of the industry, the proverbial direction that its undoubtably heading in. Untill now I saw myself as on this boat. I can specifically recall myself saying the very same things.

But now..after playing many online console and computer games I find myself becoming a bit more sceptical. I know what your thinking "How can a network that connects thousands upon thousands of gamers together that would otherwise never play together be a bad thing ?" .And im not neccisarily saying its a "bad" thing. But lets concider the pros and cons..well..hell we all know the pros, thier obvious enough. Im here to focus on the cons

Lets take, for instance, perhaps the most driving force behind online gaming. That being...the ability to be able to say..that "Out of the 80,000 registered online gamers playing said game, im better than 50,000 of them ! Woot Woot !". Thats right..people love online gaming because it enables them to be more competative then ever. Both satisfying and crushing egos all over the globe. And heres where my doubts come in

Anyone who's logged on to X Box Live or played a game of Socom online knows that PEOPLE ARE CHEATERS !. If there's a way to gain an unfair advantage or pad the stats, there are plenty of croocked people out there that will take advantage of such opportunities. Now im not pointing out tha most obvious fact that many people have no dignity. The moral decline of civilization is a whole other story. My question to you is this. As more and more cheaters flood into online games...will it hamper the success of online gaming as a whole. Will the predicitons of online gaming grangure on consoles be shattered due to this epidemic of cheating ? I mean,..how can I be expected to put my time and effort into trying to become the best I can be online when a large precentage of the people ahead of me are almost certainly cheating to get an edge ? Should I return the favor and cheat myself ? Is there anything that can be done by developers to prevent online unfairness ?. What do you think ?