Network Game Data Validation via Metric Deviation Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
In networked gaming environments, cheating by users who manipulate game data or employ external hardware and software to gain unfair advantages leads to a disadvantage for honest players, decreasing user enjoyment and affecting game developers and service providers by reducing sales and user engagement.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for validating devices in a gaming network by monitoring game data against a library of metrics, sending queries to devices that deviate from these metrics, and determining device validity through responses, utilizing a monitoring module, analysis engine, and query engine to detect and address cheating behavior.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users are allowed to play network games without validation, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to cheating
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of game data before processing it further. The monitoring module continuously checks incoming game data against expected parameters and patterns, preventing cheating data from being processed. This preliminary action maintains ease of play for legitimate users while ensuring game integrity through pre-emptive detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring module acts as an intermediary between game data sources and the game processing system. It intercepts and validates data packets, comparing them against known legitimate patterns. This intermediary layer transparently validates data without requiring changes to game logic, maintaining ease of operation while ensuring reliability.
2Reliability
If a monitoring module continuously validates game data, then reliability is improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring module uses quick pattern-matching algorithms that can rapidly validate common legitimate data patterns without deep analysis. Only data that deviates from expected patterns triggers more intensive validation. This skipping approach allows continuous monitoring with minimal energy consumption for legitimate traffic while maintaining high detection accuracy for cheating.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts validation intensity based on detected anomalies. When legitimate game data patterns are recognized, validation operates at low intensity. When suspicious patterns emerge, the system increases validation depth and frequency. This parameter adjustment optimizes the balance between detection accuracy and network bandwidth consumption.
3Reliability
If the system sends multiple queries to validate a device, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs a baseline level of validation on all incoming data without additional queries. Only when this partial validation detects anomalies does the system initiate additional targeted queries. This partial action approach ensures that most legitimate connections are validated quickly while maintaining the option to perform excessive validation when needed for suspected cheating.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of querying all devices extensively by default, the system inverts the approach by assuming legitimacy and only querying when anomalies are detected. The monitoring module compares incoming data against expected patterns, and only deviant data triggers additional validation queries. This inversion reduces average validation time while maintaining detection capability.
Data Source
AI summary
Various metrics as may be deployed in an active, passive, or hybrid validation architecture are disclosed. A computing device configured to monitor network game activity may identify an inconsistency between user game data and a particular game metric governing a particular aspect of the network gaming environment. Upon identification of an inconsistency between game data and a game metric, which may indicative of illicit game play, a validation process (e.g., active, passive, and/or hybrid) may be implemented to further confirm the existence of illicit game. Alternatively, an action to maintain integrity of the gaming community may be executed without further confirmation whereby a purportedly illicit game device may be ejected from the network.