tl:dr random Tarkov player's thoughts on some common The Video talking points. Close now if you don't want to read a wall of text, I don't blame you.
I see a lot of the same points about he-who-must-not-be-named's video (henceforth refereed to as The Video) being discussed endlessly and repeatedly on Reddit, Discord, Twitter, and in streamer chats, often without much in the way of an opportunity for proper discourse. I figured it would be easier to write these down and point to them whenever the topic comes up. Maybe you can take something from this to use in your own discussions, or maybe you can raise points or arguments I haven't thought of or addressed which I'd like to hear.
Full disclosure I have no affiliations to any content creator, nor to BSG, nor any mods of this subreddit (mods, please try not to nuke this post even if you disagree with my views). I had never heard of he-who-must-not-be-named until I saw the aftermath of The Video being posted and removed from this subreddit.
Points:
"He made the video for clout. It's clickbait."
"Everyone already knows how bad cheating is, this video changes nothing."
"This will encourage people to cheat."
"He's promoting cheats! He's just advertising for cheaters!"
"A cheat developer on Discord even thanked he-who-must-not-be-named for promoting their cheats!"
"He broke ToS. He should be banned."
"How can we trust what he says? Why should we take his word for it?"
"He is a cheater. He will always be known as a cheater."
"He made the video for clout. It's clickbait."
Everything a content creator does is to some extent "for clout." That's the nature of the business they are in. Countless content creators have published countless videos in their own name discussing cheating, exposing cheats by showing clips of cheat overlays, or even "interviewing" cheaters. None of this is done anonymously by the creator. The vast majority of creator will release videos discussing this video. They are chasing "clout" just as much if not more than the creator who published The Video.
Some of the streamers who criticize he-who-must-not-be-named for worthless clickbait should have a good hard look at their own videos. Making half-assed 10-min algorithmic videos regurgitating half-assed patch notes doesn't make you a good content "creator."
"Everyone already knows how bad cheating is, this video changes nothing."
Firstly, not everyone has the same awareness of or opinion on the scale and severity of cheating in Tarkov. Anyone reading the subreddit on any given day would be forgiven for thinking every death was because of a cheater. Many streamers have a chat full of people who, when the cheater dies even in the most obviously-legit circumstances, will spam "knower" in chat. At the same time, many people who play the game may find that they really don't suffer that many sus deaths, and take this to mean that the cheater problem s being massively overblown.
I am one of the latter. I've had my fair share of sus deaths, but if I thought I had died to cheaters even half as much as the community would have me believe, I'd have already quit Tarkov years ago. I "knew" cheating was apparently rampant in the same way that everyone "knows"; they see and hear people talking about it endlessly, but for every twenty claims of cheating, proof is only provided for one. I "knew" the myth that ESP users wiggle to each other at raid start, but it was a myth because I'd never seen it proven. The Video has now proven it. I "knew" there was a good chance that every raid had a cheater (which I would then doubt any time I got out of a good raid, which tbh is most of the time). The Video proved to me just how big the issue is.
The Video has provided another level of evidence above and beyond all the streamer death replays and meandering podcast discussions and clickbait videos and "interviews" with actual, scumbag playing-for-advantage-or-money cheaters. (Incidentally, how is The Video getting raked over the coals by most streamers for promoting cheats while other streamer's cheater interview videos get a round of applause?)
If you disagree that The Video provides new and novel evidence of the cheating issue, and you truly think it changes nothing and has no point, then I hope you don't try to make the next contradictory point.
"This will encourage people to cheat."
Anyone who already plays Tarkov with no desire to cheat is highly unlikely to have their mind changed by this video alone. How did you, a legitimate Tarkov enjoyer, react when you saw the first wiggle back to he-who-must-not-be-named? Did you have a sudden urge to cheat? If not, why do you assume others did?
As so many upset streamers have pointed out, pretty much everyone who plays Tarkov "knows" how bad the cheating problem is. Most upset streamers think this video shows nothing that everyone didn't already know. If that's the case, it makes no sense whatsoever to claim that The Video will have a tangible impact in creating more cheaters. If everyone knows how bad cheating is, and they haven't cheated yet, why would this pointless video change that? It wouldn't.
More than likely it will actually encourage people to stop playing the game. A mass exodus of legitimate players may have an unfortunate side effect of increasing the proportion of players who are cheaters, but that doesn't mean more new cheaters have been created. A loss of playerbase may also by extension make the game worse for streamers who rely on Tarkov having a healthy playerbase, which may be one reason why so many streamers are upset by The Video.
"He's promoting cheats! He's just advertising for cheaters!"
Very little of the focus of The Video was on the cheats themselves. He didn't name the cheat he used, nor any other cheat. He didn't show off or promote any features of any cheat beyond those necessary to demonstrate how he was identifying who was cheating. Any B-roll footage of cheats being used was only shown very briefly. He made it clear that cheating is bad for the game and that people shouldn't cheat.
If what is shown in The Video counts as advertising or promoting cheats, then you have to concede that other content creators and streamers have arguably promoted or advertised cheats in their videos, such as via cheater "interviews" where actual cheating-for-advantage cheaters are given time to present their case for cheating. Why was there not the same backlash towards these videos?
"A cheat developer on Discord even thanked he-who-must-not-be-named for promoting their cheats!
Anyone, even someone who isn't a cheat developer or user, could easily troll by claiming he-who-must-not-be-named bought, used, or promoted a cheat. There is no evidence that the "shoutout" in the screenshot in question is of an actual cheat developer or user. Even if it is a cheat dev, there is no evidence that he-who-must-not-be-named purchased their cheat.
In any case, who cares what they have to say? They are a cheat dev. Fuck what they think.
Using their statement as some kind of proof of advertising or promotion is for smooth-brainlets.
"He broke ToS. He should be banned."
Matter of opinion.
On the one hand, he clearly made the video for the purpose of exposing cheaters and not to gain advantage or play unfairly. He also laid down some reasonable conditions for him to follow to not negatively impact the experience of legitimate players. As far as we know, he followed these rules. Inarguably, people, including other content creators, break ToS in numerous ways all the time. Arguably, some of the ways other creators conduct themselves, while gray areas in terms of ToS, undoubtedly have more of a negative impact on legitimate players who end up in their lobbies, than anything he-who-must-not-be-named did in The Video. For example, streamers who take a dozen meta viewer kits a day off of their fans and use it to wipe lobbies are having a far bigger negative effect on the experience of the players they destroy than one streamer playing 125 raids with ESP, killing no-one, taking no loot, interacting meaningfully only with other confirmed ESP users.
On the other hand, he did download (and presumably paid for) cheats, installed them, and played with them. This is against any ToS ever written, as it should be. To fail to ban at least the account he used, if not his PC, could serve to encourage others to try to repeat his experiment, or even worse, to cheat for advantage and claim innocence as it was just "an experiment" or "journalism."
The most useful analogy here I think is one of the whistleblower. If a whistleblower witnesses corruption and reveals it without partaking in it themselves, in my view they should be thanked and should not be prosecuted. However if a whistleblower has partaken in the corruption they are blowing the whistle on, they should be thanked for revealing it, but they should absolutely be prosecuted for taking part in it. For me, he-who-must-not-be-named falls into the latter camp.
My view is that at the very least, the account he used should be banned to make clear to all that cheating for any reason is a bannable offence. If he does get banned, whether account or HWID, I thank he-who-must-not-be-named for taking the hit on this one.
"How can we trust what he says? Why should we take his word for it?"
Ideally, he should provide full vods of the cheated raids and some written stats of his findings so we don't have to take his word for it and can appraise his findings for ourselves.
Short of that, all we can do is trust that he-who-must-not-be-named took this hit to his reputation and possibly his ability to play Tarkov, for good and honest reason.
It seems to me that if he wanted to cheat for advantage, he wouldn't make a video showing himself using cheats.
"He is a cheater. He will always be known as a cheater."
If the only evidence of his cheating is The Video, in which he comes across as forthright and honest about his reasons and the limits he operated by, then I doubt the "cheater" label will stick in the way some may think.
