> I honestly don't know how multiplayer will even work in a year's time or maybe even less!

It's easy, IMO: remove the incentives for cheating. If this is the only way forward, I might be more likely to actually participate in the industry, because it'll put the focus back on intrinsically-fun games, instead of treating games as merely a vehicle for chasing status/rankings/items/etc.

Multiplayer FPS (PvP) games are my favorite - could you explain how they can remove the incentives therein? Almost the entire incentive behind PvP games is beating the other person in any given battle/arena/skirmish. Even if ranks/bonuses/items were detached from "skill", most of the incentive still remains for PvP. Having encountered a number of cheaters over the years, I know they still get joy out of winning the objective of the game with no obvious side benefit.

I used to love playing multiplayer FPS games, without worrying about collecting rare items or my global ranking, because they were fun (e.g. Quake 3). Yeah there's still a "local" ranking (within a game), but the incentive to cheat is a lot lower since it's so localized. Yes people will still cheat, but some of these insane cheating methods won't be worth the effort.

I stopped playing most modern games because they stopped being intrinsically fun. I'd like to enjoy them again.

Often they get enjoyment from ruining other people’s fun, too.

It's easy, just destroy the entire esports industry?

It's an easy concept. A lot of people might not like it. But I would like it.

Just play the games you like then and stop commenting how other types of games that you don't even play need to change

Some people will cheat in any multiplayer game, even when there are no persistent "rewards" for winning. They are just maladjusted losers who get off on being the center of attention at everybody else's expense.

Competitiveness is never going away its as human as breathing.

The way to defeat cheating is giving users exaustive options to watch and monitor other players and report them effectively. Half the damn games dont even have this sorted out.

You have a report system that weights users honesty based on usefulness of previous reports - so people.who just report good players get downweighted and their reports count for less, then its just a statistics exercise. Combine this with easily identifiable data for things like headshot % to help highlight players for closer review.

I don't have insider info and it's been a long time since I've played, so I apologize if my info is wrong, but my understanding is Riot Games tried to do this with League of Legends and ended up implementing a kernel mode anti-cheat system instead. Presumably, the reporting system either wasn't very effective or it was too expensive to run.

I would hate playing a game like this.

Millions do play games like this. But if you don't want to, then just... Don't

Is that really a way forward for the people who play games most affected by cheating? I can’t imagine CS:GO players flocking to Animal Crossing just because there aren’t aimbots in that game.

I get there are a lot of people who care about that, and that "remove the incentives" might be unpalatable for them. But it's definitely desirable for me, because I don't enjoy chasing social statuses in a gaming universe.

bring back lans

You know, the Steam Deck might be good for that.

I bet at some point in the next 20 years we will be going back to game rooms, so you go to a place where you pay to sit in a fixed PC with no available USB ports or any way to use cheats, including cameras to catch anyone whose hands movements don't match his digital input, and there you play against other people in the same network/brand of game rooms (not necessarily the same physical location).

» "I bet at some point in the next 20 years we will be going back to game rooms" …

I bet at some point in the next 20 years we will all have much more important concerns than anything related to gaming.

Just some of us, meanwhile the wealthy ones will live in semi-closed environments free of most damage made by climate change and other environmental issues.