Let’s get one thing straight: people have always cheated in games. From macros in Runescape to AFK grinding in World of Warcraft, it’s nothing new. People will always try to bend the system if it gets them a high score, an ego boost, or just a slightly shinier sword. But when you throw actual money into the mix, like web3 gaming inevitably does, you’re not just tempting cheaters, you’re handing them a buffet menu and asking them politely not to gorge.

Stop Asking Players “Please Don’t Cheat”

“Please Don’t Cheat”

Take Maplestory Univerese right now. Over 6,000 accounts banned in a day. Maps being drained dry. Players botting their way into five-figure weekly earnings. That’s not a side issue. That’s the issue. Blockchain games want to create thriving economies. But if they don’t design systems that require human play to thrive, they’re just vending machines for anyone with a decent script and zero shame. To their credit, the Maplestory team is treating this like a frontline issue. In their words, combating hacks and macros is “just as critical as delivering new content updates.”

And instead of vague tweets, they’ve outlined a full, multi-layered defence: “Monitoring for abnormal behavior patterns such as mass logins, rapid character creation, unusual trading and leveling activity…“Security tools to detect unauthorized software, including macros, memory/client editors, and remote multi-PC control…A total of 6,503 sanctions were issued over the past 24 hours.” It’s a proper war effort. Logs, tools, human review — the lot. But is it enough?

Stop Asking Players “Please Don’t Cheat”

Cheating for Glory vs. Cheating for Cash

In traditional games, most botters are chasing leaderboards or stream clips. In web3, they’re chasing rent money. You can’t just tell people to “play fair” and expect them to listen, not when a teenager with a clicker script can farm more than a full-time job in some parts of the world.

And the typical developer response? “We’re watching closely. We don’t tolerate cheating. Please don’t exploit.” Great. Now what? Put that on a t-shirt and send it to the 6,000 wallets you just banned.

Punishment ≠ Prevention

Yes, banning accounts is necessary. And yes, it’s good to see teams doing it publicly. But by the time you’ve issued the ban hammer, the damage is done. Those tokens have already been dumped, the economy’s already tilted, and the legitimate players are left wondering why their grind got nerfed into oblivion. It’s like locking the stable after the horse has joined an exploit farm and is flipping NFTs on the side.

Game Design Should Fight for the Player

What actually works? Designing game loops that are challenging, and fundamentally hard to bot. That might mean twitch skill, real-time decisions, or meaningful randomness that punishes repetition. In idle or grind-heavy games, it might mean introducing more human-centric decision trees, or scaling rewards with mastery, not just minutes.

The core problem is this: most web3 games still reward time in far more than skill. And time is the one thing bots are better at than any of us. If your best player is a Raspberry Pi in a closet somewhere, your game loop is broken.

Stop Asking Players “Please Don’t Cheat”

We Need to Get Smarter

To be clear, solving this isn’t easy. Especially for idle games or open-world systems where bots can blend in. But it's not impossible. Skill-based mechanics. Anti-pattern detection. Making sure the fastest path to rewards involves actual play, not just presence.

And please, stop acting like asking people not to cheat is a design decision. It’s not. It’s an excuse. If your economy can be farmed by a script, it will be. So the real question isn't if people will cheat, it's how you’re making it harder for them to win. Because bots might be good at farming, but they’re absolute trash at having fun. Design for that.