A recent Reddit comment has me thinking about the signal from the future arising in the crisis of gamer cheating:

2023 Red Dead Online hackers are insane
Posted by Simple-Interview-690 ·
in
r/RedDeadOnline

3 days ago
I started playing Red Dead Online about a month ago. I swear to god I have seen hackers in every server, every day. I didn’t really care as much until I got teleported to jail with a bunch of other players, couldn’t escape. Another one was doing story mission and a hacker thought it was a good idea to turn us all into UFO’s. I couldn’t see anything, aim at anything but I eventually left.

I know this is a tired, old complaint, but I study cybersecurity and I actually want to do something about this. It’s not just about Red Dead Online, it’s about all online games at this point. What’s the point of playing video games online if people can spam treasure chests, have godmode and other advantages?

Basically what I’m trying to say is does anyone know if there is a way to find the root cause of the hacking? Maybe the websites where they get the mods and report it to Rockstar? I know I can put myself in an only player lobby, but the whole point of online is that you are playing with other players.

I just don’t see why we should just sit down and let it happen. If they can figure out a way to hack, we can figure out a way to counteract it. It’s all code at the end of the day. If I could get paid by Rockstar for the sole purpose of eliminating hackers, suing mod creators etc. I would totally do it.

Does anyone have any information on how to bring the hackers down?

Cheating for no reason.  Cheating for some reason.  It is all of a piece–the game ends even as the players want to keep on.  Is “gaming” a symbol and signal from the future, larger than life and frightening?  Some people view war as a game, finance as a casino, and lobbying as a way to play the system.  Cheating is rampant in these games.  I worry what signal we receive from the future if this is so.