Path of Exile developer revealed how Grinding Gear Games trolled dataminers by adding fake files to the game
It's simply impossible to completely hide files.
Chris Wilson, creator and former development lead of Path of Exile, spoke about the difficult struggle developers face with dataminers. According to him, it's almost impossible to completely prevent the study of game files, so studios have to find ways to at least minimize the amount of information players can discover in advance.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Wilson shared his experience gained while working on the original Path of Exile at Grinding Gear Games. Joking, he even attributed his gray hair to his years-long battle with datamining.
According to the developer, one way to protect against datamining is to automatically remove everything not directly required for the game's operation from the game files. Additionally, developers should ensure that no unused assets, cut content, or elements of future updates remain in the client.
However, in the past, Wilson himself resorted to a much more unusual method — adding fake files to the game.
Some developers, including myself in a past life, would add fake assets so players wouldn't know what to believe. But it's quite a wasteful process. However, it's great for trolling.
Another option Wilson mentioned was encrypting game data. This can indeed help hide information before release, but its effectiveness sharply declines after the game is out. The client ultimately has to decrypt the necessary data for the player to run the game, meaning they can be studied if desired.
According to Wilson, it's almost impossible to completely eliminate datamining, especially when it comes to large and popular games. Developers can only limit the amount of available information and hope that players will critically evaluate the data they find.
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