Sorry for the lengthy AFK all. I’ve been putting in some long hours at work, but now I’m back with something that I’d like your opinion on. What’s the difference between cheating in video games and exploiting a system that’s already implemented into the game?

When it comes to video games, people will always find various ways to cheat. It’s just in our nature. Whether it be the 30-life Contra code or hacking a mmorpg to get better items, cheating and exploiting will always be around. There’s also a fine line between the two.

Everyone knows about World of Warcraft’s first expansion called the Burning Crusades, which released a few weeks ago. One of the new features is a raised level cap from 60 to 70. To a lot of casual players, that brings another month to three months of level grinding and questing to hit the new level cap. Well not everyone.

A player from France was able to reach level 70 twenty-eight hours after the release of the game. He grinded constantly without any sleep. As tales of him being the first level 70 player in the game spread, he began releasing his strategy to many curious and amazed players. He had forty of his guildies helping him out. He would hit (tag) the mob to claim ownership of the kill, and then the rest of his guild would kill the mob and keep him healed as he moved on to the next mob to repeat the process. Twenty-eight hours later **poof** level 70.

Now here’s where the controversy comes in. It seems that others are saying that he cheated. In my opinion, “cheated” is a strong word to use in this instance. He only did what Blizzard and every other mmorpg developer intends for you to do when you log in to their game and that’s interact with other players to get the most out of the game. I see it more as exploiting the system than cheating. He didn’t use a hack or mod to speed up the fight or increase the experience points. He just used and benefited from the help of some friends to get the job done.

I pose the question to all of you. Is what he did cheating or exploiting a system that’s already in motion? You want my opinion? I say, don’t hate the player. Instead, hate the player that can’t play the game.

Any thoughts?

Finish What You Start...

We’ve all heard about it. Some of us may have actually done it. Today I’m talking about MMORPG cheating and hacking and the steps being taken to prevent it. If you’ve put in some long hours and hard work on your online toon and are prone to practice a little TOS violation (Terms of Service) every now and them, you really want to pay close attention to this.

Purchasing MMORPG accounts, currency, and items is nothing new to gamers. It’s been going on for years and has only increased despite developers’ and owners’ threats and warnings. You see this awesome level 58 two-handed sword in the Auction house selling for 500 gold and you only have 150 gold which took you five months to get. What do you do? Do you go out into the beast-inhabited forest and kill for hours and hours and sell the loot for a total of 10 gold or do you take the easy route and jump on the fastest gold selling website and purchase you a little cabbage to obtain that kick-arse sword in a matter or minutes? It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

For a while now, a popular and very successful U.S. guild named Overrated in World of Warcraft has been clearing instances with ease and getting phat loot that would make almost any gamer bow down before their greatness. They are the only guild to have cleared Blizzard’s most recent dungeon, Naxxramas. One of the instances the guild successfull cleared was AQ40 (40 individuals in Ahn'Qiraj) and they were always walking out (or hearthing, if you will) with some great loot dropped by the final boss. The majority of their members were geared with some of the best items from the instance and fellow players sang songs of their exploits, yada yada yada.

Well it’s been all over the Internet that the guild Overrated has been, well, overrated. They have been exposed as using a hack that makes some of the walls in Ahn’Qiraj disappear allowing them to easily travel to the final boss without wasting time on the trash mobs and bosses in between. What was their punishment? Blizzard permabanned (permanently banned) the guild and it’s members. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, then take it from someone who’s been playing the game for years. It takes A LOT of time and preparation to get into those instances and even more to successfully clear them including taking down the final boss. All of their efforts have been snatched up by Blizzard and put into permanent limbo.

On the official WoW forums, former Overrated member, Pantaloons offer this explanation:

It's true. A few minutes ago we went from having a near-raid online to having seven. I didn't clearly, but only because my raid attendance has been remiss lately. Let me explain.

We are the only US Horde guild that clears Naxx, been like that for a few weeks. People found that the pre-C'thun trash was so painful, that they decided to install some stupid thing that deletes walls or something, and you can just run there after Skeram.

I know, we had it coming, blah blah whatever, we know we deserve it. I actually think it's hilarious because I was calling them all idiots for doing it. I'm sure they'll try and get it rescinded because it's kind of a steep punishment with no recourse or whatever.

Ok I just got banned too. Whatever seeya!

With a little digging, I was able to find a post that was made by the guild leader saying basically the same thing but he added that they only began using the hack AFTER they had already cleared the instance numerous times. They did so because the instance became tedious and many of their members already had the loot that made the dungeon worth tackling and all they received from the place was a high repair bill. He went on to say that the hack made it possible to skip all of the boring parts and go straight to the boss, which dropped items they still wanted.

Although this is definitely understandable, it’s by no means acceptable according to the Blizzard’s TOS. The guild and it’s members’ accounts have been banned and they must now repurchase the game and start from scratch. That’s right. It’s back to level 1 for all of them. What makes the permabanning suck even more is that the highly anticipated Burning Crusade expansion comes out in about a month. They can’t enjoy the new additions to game at lower levels. My advice to all of the members is to watch the South Park WoW episode and copy Cartman’s idea. If you start now, then you only have 68,745,239 boars left to kill before reaching level 60 before the expansion release. “Mom! Bathroom! Mom?!”

Finish What You Start...

After I read this article I wasn't sure if I should be pleased or pissed. Even after the clarifying of the micropayment system, I'm still on the fence.

I have to state up front that I am a huge supporter of cheating. I have a Code Breaker disc that allows me to have the coveted infinite double jump [Helmofawe that's for you baby!] in god of War which makes the Hades level MUCH easier to deal with. I have spent hours entering codes for individual characters in the Dynasty Warriors game ok? I am a big cheater. I'm proud of the lengths I'll go to in order to cheat. I feel truly American when I do successfully cheat in a game. I think it has something to do with the whole "getting over on the system" feeling that I get.

So on the face of things I should be happy with EA's micropayment unlocks content for you system. Don't have enough time unlock all the content of a game? Pony up a few bucks for points to purchase it. A mere 200pts will get you a maxed out character in a game, 100pts might get you all the alternate outfits, possibilities are endless. I should be jumping for joy. This would make many more EA titles, and other developers who adopt this kind of system playable for me. It should level the playing field for the working professional who doesn't have 60 hours to max out their player character against those that do, right? I mean, it would be great to be able to buy bad ass keyblades in Kingdom Hearts 2 or max out all of Sora's abilities so that I might stand a chance against Sephiroth. [Who am I kidding, that would be awesome as hell] But somehow the announcement and subsequent clarification of it's future implementation leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Again, I'm not adverse to the cheating, nor am I against pay for cheating. That Code Breaker disc that I have cost me money. Not that I would do it, but mod-chips are not free either. [And mod-chips are naughty naughty bad bad] I have no objection to Game Sharks or any cheat code enabling device, but I think that this "just hand me money and here's your final level availability" think is kinda cheap and degrading. It's just too easy. If I can just buy a game and then pay an extra $20 bucks and have everything unlocked that I would have to work for in the game to get, why get the game? Before you get pissy and say, "well aren't you doing the same thing buy using that Code Breaker thingie?" I'll have to disagree with you.

In order to take advantage of the Code Breaker, I have to track down the codes for the game that I want, and enter those in. Sure the discs come pre-loaded with a lot of games, but usually the game that you want cheats is a newly released game that will not be on the disc. There's a lot of trial and error involved as some codes do not work, or having too many turned on at a time will freeze you game, or you've entered a character incorrectly and have to track down the mistake and fix it. So even with the cheat disc, there is a fair amount of work you have to do in order to get your infinite ammo or infinite double jump. For me, it's just taking the up, down, up, down, up, up, left, right, start code entering to another level. But somehow the idea of just trading in points [which I have to pay money for] to immediately get the next five levels unlocked, or all characters unlocked without any effort. I guess that's why I'm on the fence.

A part of me thinks it's a move in the right direction because it proves that developers are aware that not all of the gaming audience can fully enjoy their products as they are not getting full access to it, but the lack of effort that you may be able to use in order to achieve things in a game still isn't quite sitting right with me.

What do you think?

Finish What You Start...