Cheating like this in video games has a long and even respected tradition. Games have often slyly included ways - intentionally or not - for sophisticated players to hack into the software and then skip levels or take on supernatural powers.
But these days, the subject is getting a more serious look. Unlike older games, today’s are networked to be played with strangers over the Internet. And now, real money is at stake. Fantasy games like “World of Warcraft” and computer environs like “Second Life,” to name a few, have their own currency or other virtual valuables that can be traded for hard U.S. dollars.
In other words, hacking into a video game to cheat can be a business strategy. And so clamping down on it could be key to maintaining virtual worlds’ economies and reputations. Even chip-maker Intel Corp. is suggesting a technology for doing it.
But one huge question is: Can cheating really be stifled?
“What I’ve always said is: It’ll go away the same time crime goes away,” said Tony Ray, founder of Even Balance Inc., which makes cheating-detection software called Punkbuster. “There’s always somebody trying to get around the rules.”
Perhaps, but Gary McGraw and Greg Hoglund, authors of the new book “Exploiting Online Games,” argue that video game makers could do much more to stop it. McGraw and Hoglund contend that poor software design enables the vast majority of cheats.
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Source: Phys Org
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