Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2006-07-30 06:57:08 by ViscountPherget []

Public Opinion: Fargo, the GameSpy Daily Guy

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We had the great opportunity to get an opinion from Fargo, the head guy over at GameSpy Daily∞, probably the most read gaming newsletter. We are hope you enjoy his opinions, I know we did, and make sure that if you haven't subscribed to the GameSpy Daily you do so! Its probably the best e-mail you'll recieve all day (unless its from a really hot girl, or guy if your a gamer chick).

1) What is your basic gaming background For yourself?
Been playing games since I was tall enough to reach the Pac-Man joystick. A few years ago I started writing for community websites and eventually caught the eye of a guy who was starting up a gaming company, so I moved out to California and was one of the first GameSpy employees. I've been Creative Director for GameSpy for five years; I oversee all of the news, content, and hosting that we do. Mostly I focus on the editorial coverage and do some writing on my own. Among other things (daily comic, weekly column), I put together the daily and weekly GameSpy newsletters which go out to over a million gamers.

2) What do you think about people who use cheats in general?
When you play a single-player game, you can do whatever you want to make the game fun. If that means going into Godmode and killing everything in sight with superpowerful weapons you shouldn't have, then hey, whatever you want to do. It's your game. But when you play a multiplayer game, it's different. The game is a competition. The majority of people who are playing want to play because they want to test their skill and have a good time with people. When one player cheats to get an unfair advantage and it's not a part of the game, then they're "breaking" the game for everyone else. The people who cheat in multiplayer games generally treat them like single-player games - "I paid my money, I'm going to have fun my way." But the price is that they're destroying the game for everyone else. It's a hard message to get across (obviously they don't care about anyone else or don't think that anyone else cares).

3) Do you think companies, like VALVe, Blizzard, and Epic are working hard to keep on-line game play cheat free?
They are, but it's a REALLY tough issue, especially with PC gaming. It's really hard to lock down a game against cheaters. Especially if you want your game to be open for people to edit and tinker with. For instance, we wouldn't have Counter-Strike if Half-Life wasn't so easily modifyable - but this unfortunately made it easier to come up with ways of cheating.

Generally companies do what they can to combat cheating, but if you step back and look at it from a business sense, they can only spend so many resources to do it. The benefit of cleaning up cheating has to be weighed against spending those resources coming out with a new product. You know, given that, the amount of effort a company like Valve is putting into anti-cheating is pretty extraordinary.

I think if online gaming is to really prosper, though, anti-cheating has to be at the top of everyone's mind. (Microsoft in particular is very conscious of cheating and are being very forward-thinking with their Xbox live service.)

4) Do you think in the future cheating on-line will get worse or better? Why?
Hard to say. It really depends on how much value companies place in online play and how much resources they're willing to put against it. The companies who's games rely on online play seem to really be on top of things (Blizzard is a good example), so even though new cheats pop up as quickly as they're eradicated, the game community is pretty stable. It's hard to say if it'll get worse or better. If it gets much worse, online gaming as a whole will suffer and companies will shelve it in favor of single-player products where they have more control over the experience. That would SUCK. ;)

5) Would you like to add anything else?
The most frustrating thing about cheating is that, when you're really good, everyone accuses you of cheating when you're not. That sucks the fun out of it more than anything. :)

- Fargo

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CategoryPublicOpinion