"Where there is game, there is cheater."
Online Games is known as one of the biggest entertainment industry nowaday. It is very common that there are a lot of issues around this particular way of entertaining such as violence, gaming addict, etc. However, this blog post is not going to look into mass community's concern toward Online Gaming but will concern Online Gaming community itself, an issue that they have to face in their own gaming life which is called "Cheaters". This issue is not only applied to gamers but also game providers.
In every game, there are cheaters. But when the subject is not just about fun but money is involved, noone wants a cheater in their game.
ZDNet reports that Online Game is a money making industry, however the cheaters and hackers might cause the game providers to make much less money than they could have made because no one wants to pay to play a game where no matter how hard working they are, they can not win over the cheaters. It's very hard to points out who is a cheater and who is just smart at playing with good tactic (Yan and Choi) so most likely people that abuse the game rule one way or another are considered cheaters.
There are many ways to cheat in an online games. However, there are three ways that are more common and cause more damage to gamers as well as game providers than any other ways. The are Hacking, Botting and Scamming.
Gary McGraw talks about "exploiting game online in 2007
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Hack - It takes more than just some fun.
"Hack" is a very broad term to define in the world of technology. We have "hack a programme", "hack a website", "hack someone's account", etc... According to Wikipedia, "hack" refers to the action of re-configing or re-programming a system without the owner permit. In online gaming, there are many ways that a game can be attacked by hackers. However we only concern about the types of hack that is consider game cheating here, which mean the hackers attack a game to receive some illegal advantages in game.
The most serious cases would fall to "account hacking" where the hacker get a hold of the players' account information by using virus, malware of trojan to attack a the players' computer or attack directly at the database server of the game from the providers. The first case is more likely to happen than the 2nd one since most pay to play games nowaday spend a lot on security to prevent hacker from stealing the information. Yan and Choi (p5) and CNET also explain that by having player's account detail, the hacker can block players from further access or steal their items and sell them for real money. Either way, "it hurts the hell out of" the gamers that got attacked (CNET). And again, when the players are hurt, they leave and less money goes to provider.
Abusing bug to gain a power that is not supposed to exist (CNET) is another way to hack a game. "Duping items" is the most common form of this cheat. It can simply be understood as abusing a bug to multiply or summon an item in game. Once a hacker find the bug, they should have reported it to the provider to fix it, but many chose to take advantage of it. Imagine you spend 100$ on an item and later someone knocks on your door and said the item was illegally made and had to be destroyed. When you come back to the shop and complain, the shop owner had fled and no one will ever return you your money. Then this case of abusing bug start to become more serious, right? The hacker multiply or summon a rare items and sell them on let's say eBay for 100$ each and make 5000$ in total and fled. Right after that the provider of the game found out about the bug and decide to wipe all the illegal items. It doesn't only hurt ones' feeling, it hurts ones' pocket as well.
Then how could we battle those cheaters? Pritchard brings out 9 rules about online cheating and explains about them on Gamesutra:
The most serious cases would fall to "account hacking" where the hacker get a hold of the players' account information by using virus, malware of trojan to attack a the players' computer or attack directly at the database server of the game from the providers. The first case is more likely to happen than the 2nd one since most pay to play games nowaday spend a lot on security to prevent hacker from stealing the information. Yan and Choi (p5) and CNET also explain that by having player's account detail, the hacker can block players from further access or steal their items and sell them for real money. Either way, "it hurts the hell out of" the gamers that got attacked (CNET). And again, when the players are hurt, they leave and less money goes to provider.
Abusing bug to gain a power that is not supposed to exist (CNET) is another way to hack a game. "Duping items" is the most common form of this cheat. It can simply be understood as abusing a bug to multiply or summon an item in game. Once a hacker find the bug, they should have reported it to the provider to fix it, but many chose to take advantage of it. Imagine you spend 100$ on an item and later someone knocks on your door and said the item was illegally made and had to be destroyed. When you come back to the shop and complain, the shop owner had fled and no one will ever return you your money. Then this case of abusing bug start to become more serious, right? The hacker multiply or summon a rare items and sell them on let's say eBay for 100$ each and make 5000$ in total and fled. Right after that the provider of the game found out about the bug and decide to wipe all the illegal items. It doesn't only hurt ones' feeling, it hurts ones' pocket as well.
Then how could we battle those cheaters? Pritchard brings out 9 rules about online cheating and explains about them on Gamesutra:
"Rule #1: If you build it, they will come -- to hack and cheat.
Rule #2: hacking attempts increase with the success of your game.
Rule #3: cheaters actively try to keep developers from learning their cheats.
Rule #4: Your game, along with everything on the cheater's computer, is not secure. The files are not secure. Memory is not secure. Services and drivers are not secure.
Rule #5: Obscurity is not security.
Rule #6: Any communication over an open line is vulnerable to interception, analysis, and modification.
Rule #7: There is no such thing as a harmless cheat or exploit. Cheaters are incredibly inventive at figuring out how to get the most out of any loophole or exploit.
Rule #8: Trust in the server is everything in a client-server game.
Rule #9: Honest players would love for a game to tip them off to possible cheating. Cheaters want the opposite."
Monday, September 27, 2010
Bot - Controversal Cheating?
I have been working as moderator of Ragnarok Online sub-forum in a Vietnamese gamer forum for 4 years and it was fun how this arguement of "botters" vs "anti-botters" was brought up a lot of time during these 4 years and everytimes the contributors posted at least 1500 posts in one week to argue whether it is ok to bot or not.
So what is bot? It can simply be understand as a "virtual robot" that play the game for you automatically. So imagine you spent a whole year working in the garden to create a beautiful garden for a competition. Your neighbour, who also participate in the competition, however create a robot to do the work for him and finish in 1 week. And the result turn out that he win the competition. Some might say that the guy deserve it because he spent time and money on the robot, some might argue that he does not suppose to have a third party work for him and that's cheating. So that is why the arguement has been going on from year to year and hasn't settle down yet.
Of course, using third party programme is usually considered "cheating" by most gamers and game providers. Pelagato on MMOsite.com points out 4 kinds of bots and claims that game is supposed to be played with fun and enjoyable experience, not to win by all mean. A lot of providers set a rule for their games that botters will be banned from the game if caught. There are case that people was arrested or sued by the game provider for botting in game.
We could ask why some people take "auto-programme" so serious? Well, I have already mentioned in older posts that people are now making money out of "virtual items". If some people will just abuse the auto-programme to hunt rare items for them and sell for high price then could that money be considered legal? Pelagato also talks about this problem on his article with same concern.
On botters' side, they claims that they only bot because they need time for their own life, too. But of course, if you don't have time to play then why bother start the game at first place?
So what is bot? It can simply be understand as a "virtual robot" that play the game for you automatically. So imagine you spent a whole year working in the garden to create a beautiful garden for a competition. Your neighbour, who also participate in the competition, however create a robot to do the work for him and finish in 1 week. And the result turn out that he win the competition. Some might say that the guy deserve it because he spent time and money on the robot, some might argue that he does not suppose to have a third party work for him and that's cheating. So that is why the arguement has been going on from year to year and hasn't settle down yet.
Of course, using third party programme is usually considered "cheating" by most gamers and game providers. Pelagato on MMOsite.com points out 4 kinds of bots and claims that game is supposed to be played with fun and enjoyable experience, not to win by all mean. A lot of providers set a rule for their games that botters will be banned from the game if caught. There are case that people was arrested or sued by the game provider for botting in game.
We could ask why some people take "auto-programme" so serious? Well, I have already mentioned in older posts that people are now making money out of "virtual items". If some people will just abuse the auto-programme to hunt rare items for them and sell for high price then could that money be considered legal? Pelagato also talks about this problem on his article with same concern.
On botters' side, they claims that they only bot because they need time for their own life, too. But of course, if you don't have time to play then why bother start the game at first place?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
SCAM - It's not just cheating anymore.
It all starts with just thought of cheating.
What Patrick said at the start of the interview "it all started as just an in game thing where you would basicly try to trick someone into giving you something and they would think that you will give them back but you would just keep it and that was it" can be found anywhere in any online game. I still remember my little Ragnarok Online sister once ran to me and cried about a person convinced her to let them try an expensive item that she was using. And of course, once she gave the thing, the person logged out and never came back.She was lucky back then because the server we played in was a small one so the technical adminstrator brought the item back and lock the scammers' account straight away. However, in a large game with more than 10 thousands players, would the technicians really care about each scamming case?
Another scammer's trick is to trick people into giving out their account and password. And surprisingly, it works, easy trick, doesn't need to have a good knowledge about programming like hacking database. I bumped into a guy in World of Warcraft just some weeks ago who asked me if I want some gold, he could give me 10k gold. Look at the link just above. It's silly how a lot of people got tricked by their own greed. Some other common tricks would be "Hi, I am the Game Master and we are having an account checking, this would only take some minutes but we need your account and password". In every games, the real game masters have to remind gamers all the time that THEY WOULD NEVER EVER ASK FOR YOUR ACCOUNT INFO, because there are too many people fell for that trick.
In the interview with Patrick, he pointed out another trick that is no longer just an in-game thing. He sell the account to someone but after receive the money, he never send the account information. He did it so many times and still get away with it. Whether what this person Patrick said about himself in the interview was real or not, there are a lot of people out there trying to do the same tricks. Even though not many are reported, should it be safe to let your guard down just because you believe these scam are just internet rumour?
What Patrick said at the start of the interview "it all started as just an in game thing where you would basicly try to trick someone into giving you something and they would think that you will give them back but you would just keep it and that was it" can be found anywhere in any online game. I still remember my little Ragnarok Online sister once ran to me and cried about a person convinced her to let them try an expensive item that she was using. And of course, once she gave the thing, the person logged out and never came back.She was lucky back then because the server we played in was a small one so the technical adminstrator brought the item back and lock the scammers' account straight away. However, in a large game with more than 10 thousands players, would the technicians really care about each scamming case?
Another scammer's trick is to trick people into giving out their account and password. And surprisingly, it works, easy trick, doesn't need to have a good knowledge about programming like hacking database. I bumped into a guy in World of Warcraft just some weeks ago who asked me if I want some gold, he could give me 10k gold. Look at the link just above. It's silly how a lot of people got tricked by their own greed. Some other common tricks would be "Hi, I am the Game Master and we are having an account checking, this would only take some minutes but we need your account and password". In every games, the real game masters have to remind gamers all the time that THEY WOULD NEVER EVER ASK FOR YOUR ACCOUNT INFO, because there are too many people fell for that trick.
In the interview with Patrick, he pointed out another trick that is no longer just an in-game thing. He sell the account to someone but after receive the money, he never send the account information. He did it so many times and still get away with it. Whether what this person Patrick said about himself in the interview was real or not, there are a lot of people out there trying to do the same tricks. Even though not many are reported, should it be safe to let your guard down just because you believe these scam are just internet rumour?
Saturday, September 25, 2010
To conclude.
A game is an entertainment tool, even though not everyone is gamer, almost everyone has played some kind of game in your life and no one want their entertaining experience turn out to be a nightmare. However, as long as there is games, there are cheaters. None of us are sure that we have never played trick to anyone either, but does it worth to lose yourself to your own criminal mind and ruin everyone else fun? As McGawn said in his speech, there's no law to protect gamers and game providers from these kind of cheaters so if anyone you know is playing an online game, warn them about the risk. Also, whether you are playing a game online or not, you will one day encounter these cheater somewhere on the internet. Don't lose your or your family's money to them.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Reference
Becker, D. (2002). Cheaters take profits out of online gaming. Retrieved on August 17, 2010, from http://www.zdnet.com/news/cheaters-take-profits-out-of-online-gaming/123303?tag=content;search-results-rivers
Pelagato (2010, March 31). Careful, I am a BOT! Retrieved from http://my.mmosite.com/ecc3fa76e45f658b27b57693d41a9053/blog/item/7dfca8eb25070168ee2587deecfd317b.html
Pritchard, M. (2000). How to hurt the hackers: The scoop on internet cheating and how you can combat it. Retrieved on August 24, 2010, from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3149/how_to_hurt_the_hackers_the_scoop_.php
Terdiman, D. (2009). Hacking online games, a widespread problem. Retrieved on August 24, 2010, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10226485-235.html
Yan, J. J. & Choi H-J. (n.d) Security Issues in Online Games. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.99.8270&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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