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Active: 650 users

Why Maphack?

Blogs > needcomputer
Post a Reply
lantz
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States762 Posts
September 01 2013 03:32 GMT
#1
I really dislike maphackers so im writing this blog.

Today, I have a question for all you. Why do people maphack? Don't you think it would ruin the game for you? Previously, I had always thought high level people maphack because they like winning and getting into GM with super high records. I never expected lower league people to map hack... until today.

So today I was laddering as Z and went up against a protoss player. I am Diamond League and my opponent was Gold League. I decided to have some fun and rush muta off two base. Like super rush mutas and only make 1 queen while morphing the other base into lair as soon as I get 100 gas. The protoss did not block my hatch or scout at all. During the game, I began to suspect something when I showed up at his base with 6 or so muta and there were already cannons in place... Then my opponent proceeded to go blink stalker without scouting at all. However, even though he went blink stalkers, I ended up winning the game due to mechanics.

This got me thinking... if you don't have the mechanics, why would you maphack? It would really slow down your improvement and understanding the game. Also, what is sadder is when you use a maphack but get completely destroyed. How would that make you feel....

Basically, I really dislike people that cheat in games to win and hopefully blizzard will take a more active role in banning maphackers of ALL leagues. /rant

If you have time to watch the game:
Please excuse my intro talk BM, I like to play around with protoss opponents
http://drop.sc/356779

*
Entirety
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
1423 Posts
September 01 2013 03:39 GMT
#2
Well basically I feel that maphacking isn't actually about the winning aspect, although people definitely feel that maphacking will give them crazy winrates.

One of the most appealing features of maphack is to eliminate the unknown aspect of StarCraft II... basically, haven't you ever raged when you got 11/11ed or you lost to cloak banshees because you weren't ready? It happens to all of us, we don't properly scout and we get punished at least a few times. If you get outplayed hard, then you feel like the other player was better and you need to improve. If you get cheesed out or something, then it's natural to feel that you were the better player, you could have won in macro games, the other player is a scrub, etc.

Thus, maphacking lets you be ready for that. It eliminates the frustration of losing to cheese... Suddenly you know what to do, and if you lose, it's simply because the other player played better.

Disclaimer: I do not maphack and I've never maphacked in my life. I did consider it at some points for the reasons I listed above, but in the end, I thought I should just improve naturally and play the game the way it was meant to be played.
IMMvp (정종현) | Fan Club: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=211431
lantz
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States762 Posts
September 01 2013 03:49 GMT
#3
Yeah I understand what you are saying. But if you maphack, then you don't learn any timings and you get hooked/addicted to maphacking so you never really get better.

I don't even know how to report maphackers so I usually just let it go since it's ladder and I'll probably never face them again
Esoterikk
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Canada1256 Posts
September 01 2013 04:08 GMT
#4
There are people who don't care about improving, they only care about winning no matter how it happened, to most of these people they were be perfectly happy having invulnerable units.
FakeDouble
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Australia676 Posts
September 01 2013 04:48 GMT
#5
On September 01 2013 12:32 needcomputer wrote:
I am Diamond League and my opponent was Gold League. ...6 or so muta and there were already cannons in place... Then my opponent proceeded to go blink stalker without scouting at all.


This isn't actually proof of maphacks. Mutas are common, not scouting or just the obligatory probe scout is common in gold league. Blink stalkers are not as common I'll grant you that, but doing random non-standard stuff is common in gold league and below. Unless you can point out timings where he peers through the fog at your base or has ridiculously good reaction time/positioning despite not knowing where your mutas are, you can only suspect, not know for sure.

That said, discussion points about maphacks are still valid.

People like winning, and some people like winning over and above observing 'rules'. People use aimbots in FPS games, athletes use performance enhancing drugs like beta-blockers in shooting, EPO in cycling, steroids in weightlifting etc. If people think they can get away with it, there will always be some that will try to give themselves an unfair advantage.
Formerly known as carbonaceous
Eggi
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
478 Posts
September 01 2013 04:55 GMT
#6
Because they can. Thats as simple as that.

The reward is to high and the risk is to low.

FakeDouble
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Australia676 Posts
September 01 2013 05:09 GMT
#7
Okay, watched the replay. Most suspicious part is around 13:00 where he makes an attack command at your 3rd, which he did not have vision of, hesitates, changes it to an attack to the nat, then back to the 3rd. Guess he saw all those spines at both places through the fog.

Nexus first without probe scout is risky, but an acceptable gamble. calling your bluff re 6 pool is not suspicious at all (who trusts their opponents anyways?). 3 cannons per mineral line before seeing muta are suspicious. But if he had full vision of muta via minimap, he doesn't do a good job of moving his stalkers around to defend, you get to snipe a pylon at the main ramp. The extra cannons after seeing muta are not suspicious. The gg timing was suspicious (he probably saw the mass ling muta coming across the map).

I'm inclined to believe he maphacked that game, mainly because of the first thing i said, but in future you should state exactly what the suspicious behaviour was before accusing people of maphacks. It's a serious allegation and you should have good evidence.
Formerly known as carbonaceous
lantz
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States762 Posts
September 01 2013 05:28 GMT
#8
@FakeDouble

Trust me, I would not accuse anyone unless I at least put effort into confirming it. I watched the replay by myself then watched it with some random people who confirmed my suspicions. Also, I put this in the blog section and didn't name him.

I'm pretty sure he was maphacking because of the stuff you said. Also, there is a part where he moves his stalkers towards an ovie in the middle of the map to kill it without seeing it at all. He also starts his third base, then sees a large amount of muta and lings in the middle of the map and leaves the game. Why would he start a third base before leaving? He could of just left after he lost his army. I think he saw me incoming and knew he couldn't hold it so he left.

Anyway, this blog is more about trying to understand why people maphack/cheat. I just thought it was pretty crazy that a gold leaguer was maphacking.
Entirety
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
1423 Posts
September 01 2013 10:51 GMT
#9
On September 01 2013 12:49 needcomputer wrote:
Yeah I understand what you are saying. But if you maphack, then you don't learn any timings and you get hooked/addicted to maphacking so you never really get better.

I don't even know how to report maphackers so I usually just let it go since it's ladder and I'll probably never face them again


Who says maphackers want to get better? Who says they want to ever learn those timings?

Imagine you are someone who works all week long and then some due to overtime... you come home really stressed and you want to play a little StarCraft II. You already know you won't ever reach Gold/Diamond because you have such little time to play (1-2 hours per week). You're stuck in Bronze/Silver where all those noobs cheese you out and it's infuriating because you swear you could beat them in a macro game. Wait a second, I thought you were playing StarCraft to relax after work?

That's why you choose to maphack. Because you don't have time to learn the timings and you know you won't ever learn them anyway. All you want is a nice easy game of SC2 without worrying about if he's gonna go 11/11 or reapers or 6rax marine or marine/SCV all-in or cloakshee or widow mine drop or hellbat drop or oh shit you just lost because he went for proxy thor drop. Fuck. That's it, you're downloading the maphack.

I was trying to put you in the mindset of someone who would maphack... I know that's one very specific scenario, but I hope that helps you understand why people would maphack. Not everyone wants to improve... or rather, not everyone wants to put in the effort to improve.
IMMvp (정종현) | Fan Club: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=211431
Roqu
Profile Joined December 2004
United States26 Posts
September 02 2013 05:59 GMT
#10
They have maps in sc:2?
:O :O :O
Sejanus
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Lithuania550 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-09-03 05:32:18
September 03 2013 05:30 GMT
#11
Basically same reason why people play pay to win games. Which is many different reasons, actually. Some suck in everything in their lives and want at least some way to feel as if they are better than others. Some just for shits & giggles. Some because they can't deal with losing. List goes on. You won't find a single reason for everyone.
Friends don't let friends massacre civilians
Eggi
Profile Blog Joined December 2012
478 Posts
September 03 2013 15:01 GMT
#12
On September 01 2013 19:51 Entirety wrote:
Show nested quote +
On September 01 2013 12:49 needcomputer wrote:
Yeah I understand what you are saying. But if you maphack, then you don't learn any timings and you get hooked/addicted to maphacking so you never really get better.

I don't even know how to report maphackers so I usually just let it go since it's ladder and I'll probably never face them again


Who says maphackers want to get better? Who says they want to ever learn those timings?

Imagine you are someone who works all week long and then some due to overtime... you come home really stressed and you want to play a little StarCraft II. You already know you won't ever reach Gold/Diamond because you have such little time to play (1-2 hours per week). You're stuck in Bronze/Silver where all those noobs cheese you out and it's infuriating because you swear you could beat them in a macro game. Wait a second, I thought you were playing StarCraft to relax after work?

That's why you choose to maphack. Because you don't have time to learn the timings and you know you won't ever learn them anyway. All you want is a nice easy game of SC2 without worrying about if he's gonna go 11/11 or reapers or 6rax marine or marine/SCV all-in or cloakshee or widow mine drop or hellbat drop or oh shit you just lost because he went for proxy thor drop. Fuck. That's it, you're downloading the maphack.

I was trying to put you in the mindset of someone who would maphack... I know that's one very specific scenario, but I hope that helps you understand why people would maphack. Not everyone wants to improve... or rather, not everyone wants to put in the effort to improve.


This also pertains to higher levels.
IdrA once said somewhere that in the right conditions of using map hacks it can actually be used to TRAIN timings.

Whats better than being able to see that EXACT timing at the EXACT moment it is happening. Being able to pause the game with your (ideally) teammate and talking about what to change.

Also I heard koreans used MH to train in broodwar.

If you use it on ladder though,

fuck you
HardlyNever
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States1258 Posts
September 03 2013 15:14 GMT
#13
There is no logical reason to maphack (outside of possible "training" purposes, but I'm not really sure if that is all that worthwhile). The reality is, as soon as you maphack (or use any other hack like automation, etc.) you have broken the rules of the game, and essentially stopped playing "starcraft 2." It is sort of like playing chess, and just pretending all your pieces are queens, winning, and thinking you "won at chess." You don't actually win at chess, you stopped playing chess the second you changed all your pieces to queens. Your opponent knows you stopped playing chess when you changed the rules; you know you stopped playing chess when you changed the rules, so you didn't really "beat your opponent at chess."

That is what maphacking on ladder is like. You aren't actually beating your opponent at sc2. You aren't getting better at sc2. You are getting ladder points for the sake of getting ladder points, but generally speaking ladder points are supposed to be some reflection of skill. In this case, they aren't, though, so you really aren't even using ladder points correctly.

It takes a very special kind of stupid to know your cheating, and still think you "win." I would guess most of the time the opponent suspects being maphacked as well. So you(the cheater) knows you didn't actually win, your opponent probably at least suspects you didn't actually win, so what exactly is the point of it?

There is no tangible reward for winning on ladder; it is all a mental reward. You don't have anything to actually gain from maphacking the ladder (if you are using it in an online tournament with a reward, it is more understandable from a logic perspective, at least). I don't understand how you can still have that "mental reward" when you know you didn't actually win at sc2, but somehow they still do.

Unfortunately, most maphackers seem to be utterly stupid, so this is totally lost on them.
Out there, the Kid learned to fend for himself. Learned to build. Learned to break.
Masq
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Canada1792 Posts
September 03 2013 16:15 GMT
#14
Should rename the blog to "Why Cheat?".

Probably the same reason people cheat on tests, lie, steal, etc. Its an easy way to 'improve' without any effort.
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