A new hack making the rounds in Among Us is forcing unsuspecting players to spam ads for cheat engines and pro-Trump propaganda in chat, and developer InnerSloth says it’s working on fixing it. Despite the fact that there’s not even a reward or progression system in the game to exploit by cheating, Among Us already has a hacking problem, as InnerSloth has acknowledged.
For most players, though, the key to success in Among Us isn’t ruining the game with hacks; it’s simply playing smart. Among Us relies on communication and deduction rather than twitch skill, making it unique among other top multiplayer games. Watching and playing Among Us is largely about watching the drama of a round play out and seeing who can lie their way to victory. Whether it’s for a feeling of satisfaction they can’t earn fairly or just to wreck someone else’s good time, though, cheaters have made Among Us in public lobbies a much worse experience for some players, though.
That certainly seems to be the case with the latest hack circulating in public servers. As Kotaku reports, a player named Eris Loris has taken credit for a hack that causes other players to spread messages in chat that advertise the hacker’s YouTube and Discord channels, threaten to sabotage players’ phones, and end with a pro-Trump message. In messages sent to Kotaku, Eris Loris says that they are a Trump supporter and that the point of the hack was simply to make other players angry. For InnerSloth’s part, the developer says that it’s working on a fix, but in the meantime, players should stick to private games with people they already know to avoid falling victim to the hack.
As a small developer, InnerSloth has a harder time addressing hacks like this than larger studios, making Eris Loris’ stunt seem even more unconscionable. It would be inexcusable even in a game from a much larger developer, of course, but it’s easier in this case to see how InnerSloth is being hurt by having to defer resources to cleaning up Loris’ mess rather than working on updating and maintaining the game.
Unfortunately, hacks like this are as predictable as they are pathetic. The sudden success of Among Us after two years of being available has driven a lot of attention to the game - so much so that even US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently streamed it - but it’s also caught the eye of some who want to siphon some of that attention for themselves, even if they have nothing useful to say once they have it.
Among Us is available on PC and mobile devices.
Source: Kotaku, InnerSloth