this isn’t about anything specific, this is just a general question.
i always assumed that multiplayer wouldn’t work on pirated copies of games, or at most you’d have to play on specially configured servers. but the other day i saw a thread about a game where online multiplayer works even with pirated copies, and now i’m curious about how often that happens.
i understand that every game is different, and i want to know: what are your experiences with online multiplayer in pirated games?
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I’d bet anything that uses p2p connections instead of a central server would work, or games where self hosting your game server is an option.
Anything that requires hitting a server owned by the studio is going to check your license
From my experience, it largely depends on how online multi-player is handled. Things that require game-specific accounts or have drm tied to an account like steam, it won’t work. But a lot of stuff on console works fine since it’s presumed that the anti-piracy has already happened. I play plenty of pirated games online on 3ds, Wii u, and psvita
oh, good point about console games. i wonder if you could use multiplayer on a pirated console game with crossplay
The big issue is that the console companies are generally more active in targeting people on more active consoles, and are incredibly strict if you’re caught cheating. Just being connected to psn on a hacked ps3 runs you a very real risk of getting an account ban. I can only imagine they’re far more active in banning ps4/ps5 users who are running hacked firmware. And Idk if there’s been any major hacks on the Xbox side of things.
As a side note, if you want to see a cluster fuck of every hack and cheat imaginable, hit up the original splatoon servers on Wii u. It’s honestly completely insane how much people have broken it
I just recently tried a Palworld “unofficial demo” since I’ve never been a survival fan. Come to find out there is a game called Spacewar that has some kind of known interface to steam works that is exploitable for multiplayer on pirated games. This let me play on official servers with a 100% illegitimate copy. Whole new world to me.
I’ve also seen “coop fixes” on p2p games like Monster Hunter that allow pirated copies to play together. So the options are there apparently.
Spacewar is the app ID for testing Steamworks integration without having an app ID yet.
I know that with Minecraft it was as simple as toggling a line in a config to tell the server to verify the copy as legit, or not. This will break your ability to whitelist and apply permissions properly though, if i recall, as people could just change their name to pretend to be you so you’d only want to use it on servers populated with people you trust completely
I play MC like that, You can use mods to implement a type of login where players have to make a password for their name and have to login with it each time they connect. this wouldn’t help with players joining with different names as ban evasion but no one could pretend to be another player without their password.
Lol sounds like /nickserv on irc
one Discord server i was on had a Minecraft server with a specific mod installed that allowed cracked copies to join, and it allowed people to lock names in with a PIN so people couldn’t impersonate each other. i can’t remember which mod it was though
I suppose if it’s a lan based game it would work fine
Anything with official servers is unlikely to work
From my experience most of the stuff that uses steamworks for multiplayer can work on a pirated copy, you can only play with other pirates tho. Then games where you can host your own servers and p2p games can be done often as well. Some games that require you to use offical servers have server emus written for already but they arent finished iirc (i kbow of BO4 and Diablo3)
Are Diablo 3 server emus any good? I haven’t looked in a long while but now I’m intrigued.
Not sure, i think there are some ai features still not done. Haven’t looked at them for a while
if they had LAN multiplayer it worked 100% of time. There was this one case with Red Alert where it would disconnect random times, but I never played official vesion so who knows maybe it would be same.
Steam games also work but you need to wait until they get hacked.
Take a look at online-fix.me website. Their games always worked cor me and my friends, just register on it, otherwise they dont show download links
ARK:SE is like this - a guy hijacked the steam stuff in the background, and the game allows unofficial self-hosted servers. The server and the client both have to have the hack, but multiplayer is available.
Generally multiplayer will not be available in games where it relies on a matchmaking service, or you’re not allowed to host 3rd party servers.
someone “hijacked the steam stuff”?! how could THAT happen without Valve crushing down hard on it
Online multiplayer can work if it supports LAN play.
You can set up a session with Hamachi. I’ve done it with Borderlands 3 and Divinity OS 2.
Yu-Gi-Oh used to be popular with Hamashi
Hamachi is the worst. better setup a proper VPN
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Its not that it wont “work” but it is anything but secure your better of port forwarding and open it straight to the internet.
That’s completely false.
Letting users in too your entire device and potently your LAN is worse then giving access to a single service.
Sometime multiplayer work in Pirated Version. You have to configure it though like I have fully working account on Geometry Dash or Minecraft
