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This is an interview with Tony Ray who works for Even Balance, the company that makes Punkbuster, the anti-cheat software that is being integrated into Quake3 Arena.

PlanetQuake3: What is your affiliation with id Software?
Tony: A PunkBuster supporter knew some of the people inside id and arranged contact via email. Even Balance, Inc., the company that owns PunkBuster, is a contractor of id Software.

PlanetQuake3: Do you work closely with id Software when working on integrating your software in their game or do you work basically on your own?
Tony: id provides the game source code and answers our questions, but we do all the work on our own and then submit it back to them for testing and release. It took a couple of months to get PB integrated into RtCW but since we are now pretty familiar with the Quake III engine, I would expect it to go a bit quicker for Quake III Arena and Team Arena.

PlanetQuake3: Will there be any differences between the RTCW and Quake3 Punkbuster software?
Tony: It will be pretty much the same - the only differences will be due to the differences in the game (i.e. Q3A has server-side bots built-in). The feature set inside PB will be identical.

PlanetQuake3: Is there a way for people to report any cheats they find to you so that they can be fixed?
Tony: Yes - via email to research@evenbalance.com.

PlanetQuake3: Will there be web admin support included in the Quake3 Punkbuster software?
Tony: Yes - the PunkBuster WebTool for Quake III Arena will be very similar to the one we made for RtCW.

PlanetQuake3: From the time a new cheat is discovered and reported how long does it take your team to update the Punkbuster software and make the cheat unusable?
Tony: If the new cheat is just a variation on an existing cheat or cheat family that we have already researched and/or reverse engineered, then it usually only takes a couple of days at most to get the pattern added to our auto-update system. One time we had a detection out within one hour of a popular and highly anticipated cheat's public release. In the old days when we still supported Counter-Strike, we sometimes would wait a few days and then release the detection during heavy clan play in order to catch punks who were cheating in clan matches - it was very effective. One time, an entire clan was kicked during a clan match at the same instant - they were all using a cheat that had come out a few days prior.

If a totally new hack or cheat is released, it may take us a few days to do our due diligence before the pattern or detection algorithm gets incorporated into our system. Once we have a copy and actually have established that a new cheat works, it only takes about 10 minutes to add the pattern to our system and the auto-update usually propagates within an hour to all players who are currently online playing on PB-enabled servers. And since the auto-update occurs in the background while playing, any player who is trying to get away with using a new cheat is risking getting caught at any time because we never pre-announce when a new detection is going to be released.

PlanetQuake3: How will it affect existing pk3 files users have in there Quake3 folder. The ones we have that weren't included in the original Quake3. Will everybody have to re-install and update? How does it differentiate between pk3 files that for example are weapon skins between ones that are cheats? Does it read inside the pk3 files and test those files?
Tony: One common misconception about PB that keeps coming up is that people think PB checks pk3/pak files. PunkBuster has never to this point been concerned with pk3/pak files at all. We want the community to have total flexibility with regard to customizations. If a server admin wants to run a pure server, then he/she can use the pure mode built into the game and our job is ensuring that the pure mode has not been compromised on each player's system. The cheats that are related to pk3 files can be detected with our remote screenshot facility. Admins who want to take screenshots from players during gameplay can easily see if they are using pk3 cheats such as invisible texture replacements. By going this route, players who just like to try new skins/models/etc. don't get penalized and forced into a "no modification" mode. If ever a serious pk3/pak based cheat comes out that is not detectable via PB's screenshot facility, then we would probably build in a special detection routine for that specific cheat.

PlanetQuake3: Since the Punkbuster software is able to be turned on and off, it only works if the server admin enables it. What percent of RTCW servers usually do keep the software turned on?
Tony: Since day one, PunkBuster has been optional on a server by server and league by league basis. As far as we are concerned, it always will be - PunkBuster has always been about giving choices and power to honest players and admins. PunkBuster is not spyware nor is it any kind of trojan because what it does and how it works has been sufficiently documented to allow people to decide for themselves if they wish to subscribe to our methods. Players who, for any reason, do not want to install and/or enable PunkBuster don't have to - it's their choice. By the same token, Admins/Leagues also have the ability to decide about requiring PunkBuster for gameplay on their servers.

Right now, over 75% of decently populated (10+ players) RtCW Servers have PB enabled. As far as I know, all serious RtCW clan matches all over the world are played with PunkBuster enabled. I'm not aware of any RtCW league that currently allows play with PB disabled. PunkBuster was originally designed for league play and we have worked hard to keep good relationships in the organized clan-based communities.

PlanetQuake3: If someone connects to a server with a cheat and the person can't connect to that server, will a message come up saying you are using "such and such a cheat"?
Tony: Well, PunkBuster doesn't start looking for cheats until after a player has actually joined a server. Sometimes, a punk cheater may actually get to play for up to a few minutes before the cheat is detected. At that point, a violation is raised, the player is kicked, and an announcement is broadcast to all connected players explaining why that player was kicked. Sometimes, players are kicked for things other than external cheats, such as cvar violations, bad names, name spamming, killing teammates, etc. We get a few angry emails from people who were kicked and they just assumed PB called them a cheater without reading the message. When PB kicks someone, it tells them (and the other players) why the kick occurred whether for cheating or some other reason.

PlanetQuake3: Why don't more games have your software integrated into them? Do the companies not care or is it not worth the money for them?
Tony: That is a very good question. And trying not to sound too self-serving, the simple answer is that enough players are willing to keep buying products from developers and publishers who don't see the need to fight cheating in their multiplayer games. Cost is not an issue - I doubt any game company spends less on their internal efforts than it would cost to contract with us. Plus just about every honest player who has ever encountered cheating in online play would gladly pay an extra few cents for their copy of the game to cover the cost of fighting cheating over the game's effective lifespan. I'm not saying that developers and publishers must contract with Even Balance, but they can no longer make the excuse that there is no effective way to address the issue. When honest players discover that makers and publishers of their favorite games are not adequately addressing the cheating issue (either on their own or by contracting with us), they should write and tell them that they will quit buying their products until they do and then follow suit - many companies will do nothing unless they believe their sales will suffer as a result of doing nothing.

When I was at E3 in May, a VP of a very large well-known game company actually admitted to me that they didn't care if cheating ruined their old games because they wanted people to buy their new ones anyway. That's an entrenched attitude that I've been fighting for two years now but it's up to the consumers in the long run - dollars speak louder. Let me re-emphasize here that based on my personal and extensive experience with industry insiders that the people at id and Activision are the cream of the crop by far. If it was up to me at this point, I'd advise gamers to spend their money and their gaming hours supporting them until the rest of the industry gets the message.

PlanetQuake3: Have you been in discussion with id Software about using the Punkbuster software in their upcoming Doom3 game?
Tony: Our policy is to not talk about possible upcoming arrangements until an official announcement has been made.

PlanetQuake3: Do you know if the current 1.31 point release and upcoming point release will be compatible with each other? If so, will a client running the 1.31 point release be able to join a server running the new Point Release with Punkbuster enabled? Also do you know the # of the upcoming point release?
Tony: Any players/server admins who wish to use PunkBuster for Q3A will have to move to the new Point Release. I'm pretty sure the protocol will change with the new PR as well since id is putting more into this update than just PunkBuster. I don't know what the number will be.

PlanetQuake3: Do you have a list of the default settings that all servers with the punkbuster software enabled will use?
Tony: PunkBuster's default settings are very loose. For example, by default, PunkBuster does not check any player cvars at all. It is up to each individual Admin/League to decide what they want to require when using PunkBuster. The auto-screenshot facility is also disabled by default. I expect the default settings will be exactly the same as in PB for RtCW. Now we do offer a sample/recommended cvar configuration on our download page for Admins who are interested, but that hasn't yet been established for Q3A. I would expect it to be different from the one we provide for RtCW since they are not the same game.

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