In the wake of Tencent teaming up with local law enforcement to crack down on Playerunknown's Battlegrounds cheaters AND publishing photos of offenders, it would seem that fellow Chinese games firm NetEase has some, um, interesting plans to deter bad actors in Eve Online.

According to data mined from the Eve Online test server by Hoboleaks, it appears that cheaters could be forced into menial labour in order to claim their freedom. Furthermore, data miners have found a new kind of material in the game that has no use other than being mined.

So, instead of being banned bad actors could be tasked to bad times.

Speaking to Kotaku, Eve developer and publisher CCP said that this change was only coming to the Chinese market. Not only that - this is a punishment mechanism used in other games by NetEase.

"After the new EVE Online China beta is launched later this year, it will be synchronized with NetEase’s Guardhouse System," the Chinese firm said.

"This system draws on the punishment mechanism of other titles by NetEase Games."

It's certainly a novel way for dealing with cheaters as opposed to outright banning them only for them to make a new account. That comment isn't directed at any one game in particular. Cough.

Speaking of cheating in video games, Chinese players are reportedly responsible for 99 per cent of the activity in battle royale title Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. Developer and publisher PUBG Corp has teamed up with Tencent to launch in China, which has led the aforementioned collaboration with local law enforcement.