TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategies for online game publishers to counter third-party cheats
AU - Jhang-Li, Jhih Hua
AU - Robert Chiang, I.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/3/1
Y1 - 2024/3/1
N2 - Some players of online games download third-party cheats to gain an unfair advantage, which frustrates regular players and lowers the publisher's revenue from in-game purchases. The publisher may respond by turning a blind eye, banning suspected accounts, or sequestering suspected players against each other on isolated servers. In this study, we apply the technique of industrial organization to investigate the dynamics between a game publisher and a cheats developer in a vertically differentiated market to figure out whether these countermeasures can effectively curb the use of cheating add-ons. Depending on the countermeasures adopted and their impacts, the cheats developer may either cater to a small but loyal customer base for avoiding further removal action or attract a large group of players to evade isolation. Particularly, this study, based on market mechanisms, explains the prevalence of cheating in massively multiplayer online games, despite the efforts to curb such behavior.
AB - Some players of online games download third-party cheats to gain an unfair advantage, which frustrates regular players and lowers the publisher's revenue from in-game purchases. The publisher may respond by turning a blind eye, banning suspected accounts, or sequestering suspected players against each other on isolated servers. In this study, we apply the technique of industrial organization to investigate the dynamics between a game publisher and a cheats developer in a vertically differentiated market to figure out whether these countermeasures can effectively curb the use of cheating add-ons. Depending on the countermeasures adopted and their impacts, the cheats developer may either cater to a small but loyal customer base for avoiding further removal action or attract a large group of players to evade isolation. Particularly, this study, based on market mechanisms, explains the prevalence of cheating in massively multiplayer online games, despite the efforts to curb such behavior.
KW - Anti-cheating software
KW - Detection accuracy rate
KW - Free-to-play
KW - In-game purchase
KW - Pay-to-win
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183452759&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101364
DO - 10.1016/j.elerap.2024.101364
M3 - 期刊論文
AN - SCOPUS:85183452759
SN - 1567-4223
VL - 64
JO - Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
JF - Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
M1 - 101364
ER -