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Comment by cma | Hacker News Reader

After the dedicated server code is decompiled, I could see that causing more cheats.

It would also result in cheats getting identified and reported by the community.

The TF2 dedicated server mailing lists, back in the day, were filled with new cheats, crashes, and exploits being found and reported by server admins.

That's pretty cool. How is cheating in TF2 in 2024 by the way?

The increase in bots and cheaters got progressively worse as matchmaking took over and ate away at the ability of private servers to maintain a community. Also before that, TF2 becoming a giant microtransaction experiment certainly didn't help.

Still though even today I can open up TF2 and still have a few favorited servers that have been going for a decade+. I can join those servers and play bot and cheater free for the most part.

TF2, totally not currently riddled with cheaters and bots.

The increase in bots and cheaters got progressively worse as matchmaking took over and ate away at the ability of private servers to maintain a community. And before that, TF2 becoming a giant microtransaction experiment certainly didn't help.

Also the mailing list I spoke of are basically dead at this point as the number of invested server admins has dwindled.

Still though even today I can open up TF2 and still have a few favorited servers that have been going for a decade+. I can join those servers and play bot and cheater free for the most part.

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