2002.11.08 ~09  Punkbuster Burn@g3

The inevitable has thus happened.  But a lot sooner than I expected.
Punkbuster managed to fuck itself in the ass with a short one.

Word in the grapevine is that the cheats/anticheats war is divided into
two goliaths: OGC and Punkbuster.  Apparently OGC has something to do
with aimbots or other cheats or something.  Punkbuster is... well, most
of the quakers know by now.  Seems there's a back-and-fro between these
two camps, and the fun-seeking fraggers have gotten the short end of the
stick yesterday.  Or the day before.  Something.

What I observe: being randomly kicked from a server for "technical
difficulties" in loading "pbag".  Whatever the hell that is.  The kick
period ranged anywhere from before even seeing the loading screen to 50
minutes tops.  The kick effect ranged from a graceful "disconnect" style
(with error messages el al) to a process murder so violent that the
entire computer locked up (fuct vidcard state).

I've tried whatever I could to restore playability, ranging from
restoring from backups to copying files from strange places to
reinstalling Q3 1.32.  Results are mixed.  As I write this .plan entry,
I cannot play on *any* Pb-enabled Q3 server.  For values of any
including local server (dedicated mode) on network loopback.

For fuck's sake, **LOOPBACK**!!!!

Rumor has it the Pb folks (evenbalance.com?) were so eager to push out
an anticheat update that they missed installation or propagation
validity, or somesuch.

To add to the irony further, www.evenbalance.com was unreachable as of
6pm local time.  So no manual updating/fixing.  An acquaintance
theorized (D)DoS attacks by the counter-punkbuster camp -- take down the
master while Pb updates are broken and still in flux.

I managed to peruse part of the evenbalance forums before it went
unreachable.  There was one thread where one very angry server admin was
venting over Pb's b0rk3ness (to the extent that he was getting kicked
off his own (presumably remote) server), calling for the ability to
revert to earlier (unbroken) versions (countered as being contrary to
Pb's lifestyle), or the ability to selectively choose or tweak Pb checks
(countered for similar reasons -- "all or nothing"), or announcing
significant changes in updates (countered as being a loudspeaker
announcement to cheaters).  The response from the Pb folks was basically
along the lines of "the EULA you agreed to says you agree to ride along
with whatever updates we push out as they're pushed out; if you don't
like it, don't use it".  The server admin's rebuttal was along the lines
of "we shouldn't have to put up with BROKEN updates -- this stuff is
supposed to work transparently".  Then the rest of the thread were
basically denouncing the thread starter for being hot-headed and rude,
pointing out "cheats in general", history of cheats, yadda yadda,
without really addressing the points raised.  In fact, one responder
even declared there was no point in the post.  Then the usual "if you
don't like it, don't use it" fluff.

(I think one of the funnier exchanges in the evenbalance forums was
someone establishing the correlation of punkbuster's appearance with a
lack of cheaters in RTCW as being a purely cause-effect relationship.)

What disturbs me is the "don't use it, then" part.  There is no middle
ground, no competitor, no alternative.  It either is or isn't.  Admins
would like anticheat mechanisms, but as things stand at the moment, the
choices are either Punkbuster (with all its secret agendas, benevolent
or not) or absofuckinglutely nothing at all.

I think that's what disturbs me the most about Punkbuster.  Not any
unknowable ulterior motive, not the fact that reflexive voodoo magic is
bound to fuck itself, not that all anticheat mechanisms are
fundamentally breakable.  But rather the fact that there is no other
choice, except larking out stark raving naked.  An adage from a darker
age of telecommunications comes to mind: "you have any choice of
telephone color, as long as it's black".

You have any choice of anticheat software, as long as it's Punkbuster.