Our editor Jonas explains the sim racing cheating scandal in ACC and F1 Esports, why cheating is happening and how the problem will be fixed.
Image credit: Kunos Simulazioni
Two big alleged cheating scandals in Assetto Corsa Competizione and F1 Esports are currently casting a shadow on sim racing. But there is hope that things will change for the better! In our newest YouTube video, Jonas explains why sim racing is currently facing so many problems with cheating. And he tells us why he thinks the games will become better at preventing cheating!
Why so many scandals?
In competitive video gaming, there will always be cheating as long as it is possible. But why are there so many scandals popping up in sim racing at the moment?
Jonas argues that all the popular sim racing games are at least five years old. Of course, these games get updates, but their engines and foundations remain rather rusty compared to other esports titles.
The F1 games may be a yearly release but they’re still based on the same engine. Mainstream gaming titles with massive esports scenes suffer this same issue, such as Counter-Strike, League of Legends and Rainbow 6.
These FPS titles grew over the years, had their scandals and all got worked on, with anti cheat being a thing in FPS games for decades. Something that sim racing is yet to witness, nor have the sim racing titles got the budgets from these mainstream esports titles due to lacking interest.
Since the pandemic, the interest in sim racing scene has grown a lot. Now there is more attention and more players in the sport than before. This combination is what makes sim racing so vulnerable to cheating at the moment.
While other games were able to adapt their anti-cheat measures and updates slowly with a steadily growing player base, sim racing developers were faced with a significant increase in players over a short time. The result is that the games are just not up to the standard that other esports titles have when it comes to safety measures.
How sim racing will overcome the cheating issue
However, Jonas is optimistic for the future. He argues that adapting games to the new standards required does take a longer time. The first improvements are already on the horizon. For example, the new game Rennsport could be a benchmark for the industry.
Then there is also a very promising roadmap for ACC, which has been released just a few days ago, and promises updates to fix a lot of issues in the foreseeable future. And then, there is also Assetto Corsa 2 waiting to be released, which could help setting the new standard for sim racing games.
If you want to know more details about what happened in the cheating scandals and how sim racing will prevent them in the future, watch our YouTube video. Do not forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date with the latest news, livestreams and tutorials!
How bad is the cheating problem in sim racing in your opinion? Let us know by sending a tweet @OverTake_gg or leave a comment down below!
