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GDC10: En Masse's Patrick Wyatt talks MMO security
Security concerns in MMOs are nothing new. We all know the drill -- Don't share your account, avoid suspicious emails and sites, change your password regularly and so on. We go through all of that to keep our personal accounts safe, but what about the bigger picture? Patrick Wyatt from En Masse looked over this very thing at GDC this year, explaining how issues like gold farming, account theft and even plain old griefing affects the MMO community at large. He began looking at the other side of the equation: the people causing these problems in the first place and what motivates them. Money is the main motivator, of course, but there is no shortage of attackers who are just doing it for kicks. So as long as you protect your own account, it doesn't affect you, right? Wyatt addressed that false assumption as well, outlining the affect of each type of attack on the general gaming community and the game in question itself. Any event that affects the game and the community at large will of course affect every member of the community. So what's to be done? Game developers never stop working to stay ahead of "the enemy", and Wyatt illustrates quite a few possible solutions. This slideshow certainly isn't only for those in the industry. It's very informative for any MMO player, so head over to playnoevil.com and take a look at the slideshow for yourself!
Confessions of a gold scammer and identity thief
digg_url = 'http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/19/confessions-of-a-gold-scammer-and-identity-thief/'; "We have met the enemy and he is us." The player identified as "Patrick" is not the malevolent monstrosity we'd like to see. Nor is he a victim of circumstance, at that. He acts for all the world like a perfectly normal gamer, and if you didn't know he'd scammed between $10,000 and $20,000 in a year of reprehensible behavior, you certainly wouldn't be able to guess. That's what makes a video interview with him, mirrored and annotated at PlayNoEvil and originally recorded by Marcus Eikenberry, so odd on many levels. The full interview lasts thiry-eight minutes, which makes it a bit long for casual viewing. The article which mirrors the video notes some of the highlights, including when he almost breathlessly exhorts the moment he realized that there was nothing in PayPal's EULA that prevented him from not transferring his EVE Online account to a purchaser on Craigslist. His rationalizing of the actions include the loss of his job and financial instability, even as he begins the interview explaining how he would scam players in both EVE Online and World of Warcraft for fun. His words are unsettling, but what makes them all the more eerie is the fact that without the foreknowledge... there's no way to tell his voice from any of ours. When you have the time, the whole interview is well worth looking at if you're at all interested in account security and the culture of scammers.
CEO of SecurePlay discusses account security
Anyone even slightly in touch with the MMO community is aware that account security has been an even bigger concern than usual for the past few months. While it's more in the forefront of everyone's mind these days, it's important to remember that this isn't a brand new problem. It's very important for people on both sides of a game -- both the player side and the development side -- to work to make player accounts as safe as possible. Steven Davis, CEO of SecurePlay and the mind behind PlayNoEvil, has been watching the events with interest and spent some time recently talking to us about his take on the situation as well as overall account security. Follow along after the jump and see what he had to say.
Account security is your responsibility, not Blizzard's
PlayNoEvil recently published an article explaining why they think it is that hackers target gamers by stealing their passwords and other account information. While there is some truth in the premises offered, articles like this one only serve to fuel conspiracy rumors and encourage players to think of themselves as victims rather than take responsibility for their own account security. Gaming companies do place some of the blame for a compromised account on the account holder, and for good reason. The hacker certainly didn't gain access to your computer because of their actions, and their computers that store your information are as yet untouchable.The browsers you use, sites you visit, firewall settings, anti-virus software and update practices are just a few of the ways that you contribute to your own hacking experience. Sharing your account information with your lover, best friend and mother may sound safe, but you don't control the security of their computers, or their friends' computers. The majority of people I know who have been hacked signed into their accounts on their sibling's computer or a publically shared machine. In fact, NASA ended up with a keylogger targeted at gamers on the International Space Station. It traveled aboard on the laptop of one of the astronauts. You just can't trust any computer that isn't your own.It may be hard to hear, but a hacked account is because of something you did, whether it was an unfortunate stroke of luck, such as stumbling onto a redirect on a legitimate website in the small window before the site addresses it, or a serious oversight in security on your part.
China's ZT Online moves away from RMT, still earns as much as WoW
We've mentioned the Chinese MMO Zhengtu Online (ZT Online) in the past. It's one of the most controversial MMOs in existence, largely due to its focus on RMT and the hardcore extremes its players go to in order to get ahead. ZT Online, developed by Giant Interactive, is very much a blending of a virtual casino and fantasy MMO; gaming security site PlayNoEvil once described ZT Online as "EVE Online meets Las Vegas." Not surprisingly, the title frequently makes headlines in China, and occasionally in the west for the legal issues which crop up in regards to ZT Online.PlayNoEvil reports, "Giant Interactive had been running the 'crack house' of free-to-play gaming with its (once? still?) immensely popular game ZT Online. In the third quarter, the company moved away from its heavy reliance on purchased items towards steadier playing." That is to say, they're cutting back on the extent to which the game, and its gear, is monetized. It's not often that an MMO developer or publisher assesses the situation and intentionally opts to earn less money, but in terms of ZT Online's longevity, Giant Interactive Chairman and CEO Yuzhu Shi believes this is the right way to expand the title's playerbase. Despite this shift in business model, average revenue per user dropped to roughly $41, suggesting they're still earning a great deal of money from the title, years into its life. Indeed, ZT Online is enjoying profits per-user revenue comparable to World of Warcraft in China, PlayNoEvil concludes.Clarification: Comparison between ZT Online and World of Warcraft revenues in China is on a per-user basis. Updated text in bold.
Aion ascends in Korea as competitors fall
In many respects, watching the MMO industry in Asia is a litmus test of sorts for the western markets. While the preferred game mechanics of your average Korean MMO, for instance, differ markedly from what a North American MMO gamer expects from a title, the broader ideas -- in terms of business models -- represent what may yet be for those of us in North America, Europe, and Australia. So when industry leaders aren't doing well in their primary market, it may not bode well for their smaller titles running in other regions of the world.We've come across an interesting piece in The Korea Times about some sea changes in Korea's MMO industry, focusing on NCsoft as well as its competitors -- Nexon, Webzen, and Hanbitsoft. We've previously reported that the Aion: The Tower of Eternity beta has, thus far, been quite a success in Korea and is perhaps a ray of hope for NCsoft in some troubled times. NCsoft's fiscal health is a big issue for fans of City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, and Lineage II, among others. So it comes as good news that NCsoft has nearly 200,000 concurrent users playing Aion: The Tower of Eternity in beta. The Korea Times, however, describes the country's MMO industry as being in a state of flux.
Gold farmers connected with $38 million money laundering bust
We've heard about gold farmers tangling with the law before, but this is pretty extreme from initial accounts we've turned up. So while a few of the details coming out of Korea are still a bit hazy, it seems a money laundering operation (working with gold farmers and MMO account thieves) was busted this week while trying to move $38 million between Korea and China. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency stated the operation was headed by a man named Jeong who, with a number of other individuals in Korea, was caught wiring the $38 million in illicit funds. Korean news site dongA reports: "Jeong and his ring reportedly sold the game money illegally produced in China using cheap labor and virus programs. They are believed to have taken a commission of three to five percent of the money traded to purchase game money."
The debatable concept of ownership in virtual spaces
Game security news and analysis site PlayNoEvil recently looked at the concept of ownership in the virtual space, in an article called "The Quixotic Quest for Avatar Rights." It explores the question that's been around since the very beginning of virtual interactions: Does the player who invests his or her time into finding, creating, and using an item 'own' it, or is it really just server data that's company property? For most game and virtual world operations, there's little room for debate. They create the environment and everything in it, right down to a gamer's or user's avatar. However one view expressed at an Austin GDC panel is that while companies work to ensure their legal claim to virtual property, they also foster the illusion that the player has some degree of ownership. While the mindset of the industry isn't likely to change any time soon, there are those involved on the development and business end that would like to see changes regarding 'avatar rights.' Others are pushing for an improved EULA which would ensure the continued growth of virtual worlds, where users have greater control over their own created content. What's your view on this? Do companies have any responsibility to their subscribers or users to relinquish control over player-created content? Are gamers and virtual worlds users unreasonable in thinking the situation should change?
Power leveling becoming more prominent in Vietnam
When you hear the words "power leveling," which country do you usually think of? The term almost always conjures images of digital content factories in China, where teams of workers grind around the clock for the legions of gamers out there who are willing to pay to get ahead. Power leveling and gold farming are by no means limited to China though. Other countries in Asia are seeing a marked increase in these activities as internet access becomes more ubiquitous, and of course as broadband speeds increase. PlayNoEvil points out an article from Vietnam News, which reports "game addicts with talent can now indulge in their favourite pastime and be paid up to VND 2.7 million (US$ 160) a month for doing it." PlayNoEvil notes that the salary of a power-leveler is greater than that of a teacher, who only earns between US$ 60 and US$ 100 per month. Via PlayNoEvil
Runescape cheater exposes his 'black market' organization
PlayNoEvil points out an interesting blog entry on cheating in Runescape. The poster, who wishes to remain anonymous, describes himself as a retired Runescape cheater who devoted five years to the 'darker side' of the game. He states, "This article details all the intricacies of Runescape and cheating and what really goes on behind the scenes, I assure you that it will surprise you." The poster, identified only by the name ThirdEyeOpen, lays out how cheaters and buyers operated as a would-be organized crime ring. 'Welcome to the Dark Side' is his chronicle of how he began his Runescape cheating career, and how it all ended. He recounts being 'interrogated' online by Jagex Ltd. about his activities, and how the subsequent account banning led to a malevolent wish to get even. His anger eventually snowballed into the creation of an organization of similar-minded individuals, mostly other teenagers, who accumulated a fair amount of real-world currency through exploits in Runescape before cashing out altogether. It's an interesting read -- perhaps a bit disturbing in the sense that he views cheating as a kind of playstyle -- but worth checking out all the same. Via PlayNoEvil
RF Online server rollback combats cheaters and 500% inflation
RF Online in the Philippines recently had serious issues with dupe hacks, prompting an unannounced rollback of the servers. PlayNoEvil writes that the operator of RF Online for the Philippines, Level Up Games, discovered a dupe exploit and tried to purge it from the servers as well as those who used it. However due to time constraints with unraveling the intricacies of the exploit, the company decided to roll back the game to a point before the exploit was used. Level Up Games issued a statement on the problem: Based on DB evidence, numbers as well as feedback from the community, the GMs, the Vanguards and also from our field agents, there was an oversupply of in-game currency and gold - as high as 500 %. GMTristan of RF Online Philippines clarified the situation further on his blog:
MapleStory reaps over $29 million in U.S. virtual item sales
2007 proved to be a good year for Nexon in the United States, particularly with its free-to-play MapleStory. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the although the game has 85 million users worldwide, only 5.9 million of them are U.S. players. Given the relatively small percentage of its player base located in the United States, it's surprising that MapleStory made an absolute killing on in-world transactions in 2007; the WSJ reports that 'Nexon's U.S. revenue last year more than tripled to $29.3 million from $8.5 million the prior year.'Jeremy Liew provides some additional commentary on the Nexon windfall over at Lightspeed: "With $30m in US sales and 6m US registered users, assuming a 20% "active player" rate and 10% "buyer rate", that implies an ARPU of $20/mth which sounds about right and is consistent with number we've seen from games in Asia. It sounds like the US will be following very similar models of virtual goods monetization that we've seen in Asia." It's interesting that the predominantly Asian business model of legitimized RMT is already gaining some degree of acceptance in the United States, albeit a slow acceptance. Via PlayNoEvil
Who is winning the gold farming war?
The PlayNoEvil blog has obtained gold sales information from one of the multi-game gold farming services. The service provided the site with currency sales values over a period of nine months. Site author Steven Davis examined the data with an eye towards the effectiveness of banning, anti-RMT task forces, design changes, and other preventative measures. If currency values went up, then there was obviously less currency entering the marketplace; this would indicate successful campaigns against the farmers. The result is a fascinating scorecard in the war on RMT. He's got data for Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, EVE Online, Runescape, EverQuest 2, and World of Warcraft.So what does the data show? Essentially, that not a single thing done by any of the developers/publishers has had the effect of increasing currency prices. Moral outrage and crackdowns aside, prices for every currency tracked by the site have remained more or less steady. The only effort that seemed to have any effect at all was Jagex's recent trading technique patch, which temporarily spiked Runescape gold to twice its previous value. Since then, prices have returned to normal, indicating the farmers found a way around Jagex's changes. Though it's been noted elsewhere, it's also interesting to reiterate that gold prices on EverQuest 2's publisher-supported RMT servers don't vary from the norm across the game's servers. That is, even with a legitimate option people are still willing to engage in risky third-party RMT. We want to make the observation that the RMT company involved here has every reason to falsify data. It's fascinating stuff, but should be taken with a grain of salt.
Gold prices dropping in the US
PlayNoEvil is a blog that claims to do "MMO security news and analysis" -- they've got an interesting post up trying their best to track gold selling prices over time in various MMOs (the information itself seems to come from MMOBux.com). The World of Warcraft graphs (US seen above, EU on the site) show that for whatever reason, in the US at least, gold prices seem to be dropping. Of course, whether that's driven by low demand (thanks to Blizzard's daily quest implementation and other anti-gold selling mechanics), or high supply, we aren't quite sure.In the EU, things aren't so clear -- while there are still bumps around content releases, things are holding pretty steadily at a price well below the United States. Either way, no matter what price it is, we should note as well that buying gold from anywhere is against Blizzard's terms of service and will get you banned. Hopefully, these lower prices in WoW mean that Blizzard's attacks on goldsellers are working, and that low demand has driven the price down further than its been in a long time. Even so, and even assuming that these prices actually do correspond to the market (no idea where MMOBux gets their info from), there's not much concrete info we can suss out of this other than the fact that prices are dropping in the US.[Via Worldofwar.net]
China's online gaming market now worth $1.8 billion
At GDC, we considered the possibility that Asia is the "Hollywood of MMOs." The Chinese online gaming market is getting bigger and bigger. Case in point: a new report says the market is now valued at around $1.8 billion. That's up 66% since last year -- curiously exactly the same number of points leading publisher Shandra's profits went up in a similar period.And it's just getting started. The report (from a group called i Research) also predicts that the value will be more than $5 billion by 2011. These numbers are a bit more optimistic than the China View numbers we reported on a few weeks ago, but the consensus seems to be, in layman's terms: online gaming in China equals big bucks.Recently the Chinese government launched a campaign of sorts to temper the popularity of online games because addiction has become a big problem. Will that slow the growth of the industry? Probably not.[Via PlayNoEvil]
Court awards real world money for seized virtual assets
As if today's earlier report out of China wasn't enough, here's more wackiness from the wonderful world of Chinese gaming... PlayNoEvil is reporting on a story that first appeared on Pacific Epoch's website about the Chinese gaming company Shanda Interactive. All this gaming goofiness started back in November 2006, when a player (named Zhang) in the game World of Legend first noticed six of his virtual items missing. He complained to Shanda who replied that the items were taken because of a police investigation regarding the sale of stolen virtual items. Well, Shanda failed to return the items once the investigation was over. Bad Move. The player sued the company and was awarded an apology and 5,000 Yuan ($680 US). Zhang originally sued Shanda in the Hunan Qiyang People's Court. Judge Milian wasn't presiding.But it doesn't stop there. Zhang plans to take Shanda back to court for a whopping 150,000 Yuan (that's a smidgen over $20,000 US) which he claims to have spent on the game over the last five years. That's a lot of Yuan. It will be very interesting to see what - if any - global legal ramifications come out of this. The fact that virtual things have been given a real world value by a court - even if it is Chinese court - may or may not be a good thing. We'll find out soon I'm sure since we all know the good ole U.S of A. is one seriously sue happy country. I bet there's more than a few people out there just dreaming up ways to sue Blizzard or NCsoft for something.
Worst gaming hubby - ever
If you find this news item about the Chinese gaming husband who drove his wife to attempt suicide boring... blame the holiday furor for the lack of any Earth shattering MMOG news this week. That, or you're not married at the moment and could care less. But if you ever have plans to tie the knot, pay attention, and don't do what this guy did.See, I am a gaming husband, so I found the bit about it over on PlayNoEvil to be quite humorous. Well, sort of - since it had an upbeat ending (no one died). Whenever these stories (almost always coming from overseas) involving people playing until they drop dead from lack of eating, or in this case doing something equally stupid, ya gotta go... WTF? This latest off the wall news involves a newlywed husband. Guy just got married and he's more intimately involved with a video game than he is with his new wife (Bad Move #1). The new hubby goes on a gaming bender for two months (Bad Move #2) and racks up online fees to the tune of $2,700 (20,000 yuan in China) - of his new wife's money (Bad Moves #3 and #4). When the well runs dry he goes and asks for more (Bad Move #5)! She of course balks at the absurd request, a fight ensues (I wonder if he ever contemplated going the route of his fellow countryman and use WoW as an excuse for some supernatural powers). The wife goes and takes a bunch of sleeping pills in an attempt to kill herself, which fails due to the timely arrival of a healing mage, er... paramedics. As the Gaming World Turns...Do you have an equally bizzaro tale? If so, let us hear it!
