NARAKA: BLADEPOINT’s novel approach to hackers includes naming and shaming

The melee-focused brawls of NARAKA: BLADEPOINT provide a brutal spin on battle royale action. The methodical and up-close-and-personal combat makes it stand out in a bullet-filled genre, but the developers at 24 Entertainment are dealing with the same problem that every battle royale has grappled with: cheaters. 

Battle royales can make for an emotional gameplay experience. Players commit to long rounds, spending stretches of gameplay collecting gear, upgrading equipment, and preparing for select moments when in-game adrenaline is at an all-time high. While cheating is still a problem in other genres, the amount of defeat a dedicated player can feel when a session is ruined by an auto-parry, teleportation glitch, or other cheats known in the NARAKA: BLADEPOINT player base is heightened. But there is something they can do: report the player.

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT’s developer, 24 Entertainment, is attacking the problem from every angle it can, which leads to some novel solutions beyond what you’d normally consider “anti-cheat” measures. The most amusing is listing the names of cheaters on their website. Once a week, the team releases a public report of the players who have successfully reported an encounter with a hacker—along with the names of the cheaters themselves. The risk isn’t just getting caught, but being publicly shamed while giving the person you attempted to defeat a nice boost. 

“We have a comprehensive mechanism for dealing with cheating, and we enforce a zero-tolerance policy against cheating,” said NARAKA: BLADEPOINT lead designer Fei Hong. “Depending on the specific violation, we penalize cheaters by deducting their rank points, temporarily freezing corresponding gameplay access, and suspending their accounts. Since the launch, we have introduced new anti-cheating technologies and established a dedicated cheating reporting reward program."

Now NARAKA: BLADEPOINT players who have successfully reported a hacker will receive in-game rewards, which are listed below as well as on the game’s official site: 

1. Players who successfully reported 1 time will get [Immortal Treasure] X1.
2. Players who successfully report 10 times with low misreport rate will get [Immortal Treasure] X10. (In order to ensure the efficiency of detecting, please report reasonably.)
3. Players who have successfully reported for many times or made great contributions to anti-cheat will get the Legendary spear skin [Righteous Polearm] X1.

The Righteous Polearm weapon skin is a broom, a nod to the fact that the player has helped to “Sweep Out the Cheaters!” It’s awesome and presented in the game with a little bit of lore: “Unless they’re stamped out, the roaches of this world will remain unobstructed. This weapon is thus presented to all those heroes who strive to cleanse this world, all those with a burning righteousness and passion for justice.”

Using the Righteous Polearm showcases the player’s support in the ongoing fight against cheating, so if you see someone wielding it, give them a little bow. 

Hong says that while their player base still provides regular reports of cheating, their combination of anti-hacking programs has helped make the issue less serious. “It helped alleviate players’ negative emotions and deter cheaters.”

Alongside the anti-cheat and player-reporting systems, 24 Entertainment has gone as far as to work with local authorities to offer a reward of nearly $14,000 “to take legal action against cheating software producers and users.” 

It’s a bold gamble, but one that’s worth risking. Hong wants players to feel like they’ve had a fair fight: “We believe that fairness is the most important foundation of the game. Of course, while maintaining this foundation, the higher the degree of freedom, the richer the player’s experience will be.”

You can download and try NARAKA: BLADEPOINT for free on the Epic Games Store. And keep an eye out for suspicious players; you might end up with a nice broom.