Don't be a snarky ass, especially when you are wrong.
The community HAS figured it out. If you want cheating reduced you do server side cheat detection not just client side and/or you release real dedicated servers.
Neither of which shitty game companies are interested in, because it either cost more money to implement or means a minor loss of control.
The increase in bots and cheaters got progressively worse as matchmaking took over and ate away at the ability of private servers to maintain a community. Also before that, TF2 becoming a giant microtransaction experiment certainly didn't help.
Still though even today I can open up TF2 and still have a few favorited servers that have been going for a decade+. I can join those servers and play bot and cheater free for the most part.
The increase in bots and cheaters got progressively worse as matchmaking took over and ate away at the ability of private servers to maintain a community. And before that, TF2 becoming a giant microtransaction experiment certainly didn't help.
Also the mailing list I spoke of are basically dead at this point as the number of invested server admins has dwindled.
Still though even today I can open up TF2 and still have a few favorited servers that have been going for a decade+. I can join those servers and play bot and cheater free for the most part.
The community HAS figured it out. If you want cheating reduced you do server side cheat detection not just client side and/or you release real dedicated servers.
Neither of which shitty game companies are interested in, because it either cost more money to implement or means a minor loss of control.