Long time lurker, first time poster(on any forum for that matter). I couldn't find a topic pertaining to this subject so I found it relevant enough to be discussed. My motivation to address this 65,000+lb elephant in the room came from repeatedly being accused of "hacking" in an online match. Up until 2015 I was strictly a psn player. For obvious reasons I am now on Steam, solely for Magic purposes. My question is: What is the general opinion towards players who "hack", and why are the players who do this not kicked out, banned, etc... Please forgive me if this is a dumb question but I am far from "tech-savvy" and am new to computer-based gaming in general.

Hi there

Why do you refer to your question as the "elephant in the room"?

I don't believe hacks have been an issue that people are concerned about or ignoring.

As to your specific question: "how do you feel about hacks?"...I'm confused. If you are referring to mods that help the longevity of the game for the mutual benefit if all players, then I'm sure everyone would say its great. If you are referring to people that exploit the game design to cheat, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Anyhow, I really don't think it's an elephant, as you described it. Welcome to nogoblins

Lastly, the Steam enforcement behind the game isn't like psn or xbox live. I think the most efficient solution is just to ignore those players and move on.

Just to be clear...I haven't seen any obvious cheating like what showed up a bit in Duels 2014

What the OP is referring to are the Rankings on the Leaderboard, that are indeed hacked, to have 65,000+ points.

As far as that goes, it has been done since the first DotP in '09. It is frustrating to an extent, but it isn't anything more than someone hacking numbers for whatever lame reason. They are not hacking the game itself, the way it is played, etc.

I've been playing DotP since '09 came out and I can count on one hand how many times I have seen a deck that was actually "hacked". In the past this was a "boss" deck found only in single player and I don't think I've seen anything like that since '12 (maybe '13).

There was some hacking in '14 for the Sealed portion until they patched that up. Again, it was minor.

I wouldn't be concerned one bit and there are no hacked decks or anything like that around. If so, they are VERY little, I play constantly and haven't seen one in years.

As far as "modding" goes (Pike referred to) it is a way of "hacking" into the game to add more cards, decks, etc., but it cannot be played with or against someone who does not have the exact same mods/changing the files to support them, etc. So there is no chance of anyone being able to hack the game for unfair play.

So really there's nothing to worry about, but I could see why you may have been concerned with the leader board BS.

The leaderboard thing is a bit silly, but the way the legitimate scoring works is a bit silly as well, so I really wouldn't worry too much. You basically learn to look at the boards, subtract the number of cheaters, and get your "actual" rank.

If you really want some good numbers though, crack open a spreadsheet and track your own games. Someone made up a terrific spreadsheet in the past....it'd be a bit harder without all the precons, but it's still much nicer to see how each deck ACTUALLY performs.

Thanks for the replies. I was under the impression that hacked scores=hacked game play. I myself have never encountered anything abnormal in game play online, but after being accused myself, I assumed it must be going on on some level. Maybe the player I was competing against was just unhappy with the way the game was going.

I can see why you might get that impression, but yeah, that isn't the case. People say stupid **** all the time, lol, so I wouldn't put too much into that either. ;P

Duels 2014 had some hacking issues, mainly the 1CMC It That Betrays. I'm not sure if the patch fixed that or not, but they did patch the sealed hack so we can at least have some faith if any major hacking occurs. Haven't met a hacker on steam yet

Oh, if it's online, guarantee the game is hacked or has been attempted to be hacked.

Right now though, even the modders can't make any mods for the game..so I doubt that hacking has occurred although I've seen a few suspicious plays.

That's the problem with online play though. If you go into every single multiplayer game thinking "this may be hacked" then you'll sleep better. Thing to do, is report it(sometimes this can take a lot of work but once you know how it's no big deal), and move on, avoiding that player. It's been my experience that all hackers eventually get caught, they can't help themselves so the problem will fix itself once you report it.

You tend to see them playing at night or early morning, rarely the peak times. I reported hundreds last year, and never saw them again so I'm confident that it's merely an inconvenience.

Edit: It just occurred to me that I or anyone I know has never reported anyone for a hacked score...

Hey Shadow!!! I've been reading your posts for a good long while and applied many of your "outside the box" approach strategies in my deck building and tweaking. For that, I thank you. As far as the fake leader board scores... They don't necessarily bother me personally, but leaving them on full display is doing nothing to dissuade more players lacking in integrity to follow suit. It is what it is, I suppose.

I know, but nowadays the villains(hackers in this case) are usually either ignored or cheered. It's best to report them, forget them, and move on.

On PSN for Magic 2014 I had a friend who was listed in the 65,000 range. He didn't know what put him in there. He is a pretty relaxed guy who probably couldn't care less one way or the other so I doubt he was lied about it. I'm not entirely convinced that everyone in that65,000 range is there purposefully. I'm sure that some have found out how to do and are, but it seems like it could be a random screw up by the servers or just a sequence of random things that puts your score there.

All I'm saying is, don't judge someone that you don't know based on some arbitrary and meaningless number in a near meaningless game.

If you remember I ended up befriending a guy a gave a rough time at first because of his 65,000 plus score.
It came down to (on his part anyway) not knowing exactly how it happened.

Oh I know about those. if you report all or something(I haven't done so)I'm sure those that got it by accident will show up and those that hacked will have...something done.

Happy birthday to my favourite twink of all