The Sleep Deprived Rant of an Angry Gamer

What sets apart the MMORPG from all other games? Many things, indeed. It's a much larger time investment to play one, there are subscription fees to pay, you get access to a unique group of players that you're in almost constant contact with, and almost always a huge learning curve. The rewards of an MMO are potentially great. With time invested and knowledge of your class, you can have a damn good time playing one. You feel like you are part of a community. Community is central to the MMO. Why do you think social networking sites are so popular today? Community. You can stay in touch with practically everyone you know and love from the comfort of your own home and on your own time. MMORPG's are like any other family. They even have those annoying little cousins or siblings that follow you around and ask dumbass questions like "can u giv me sum gold". Fuck no! I won't give you any goddamn gold. "plz I need nu equipmnt im gettin pwned" Grrr.... ok here's 5 gold. Leave me alone.

World of Warcraft is probably the most popular MMO ever. It's massive. It's larger than you can fathom. 11 million unique accounts? That's more than the populations of some countries. It's a damn good game. It's not hard to get into (which is normally a hallmark of MMOs) and it's set up in such a way that you feel rewarded for what you do and the time you put into it. It keeps you coming back. Lots of people you know already have accounts and play.

However, it's apparently pretty damn easy to get hacked. I have a close friend that was recently hacked. He even shelled out the extra cash to buy an authenticator to add extra security to his account. He found out when he tried to log into his account and found out that he had been accused of robbing his guild's bank (our guild's bank, rather. I'm in the same guild). His account was frozen for three days and his reputation was ruined. Having your WoW account is just like having your identity stolen. Someone loses money (or something valuable) and your rep is trashed.

This got me to thinking. I'd heard of hackers and people exploiting WoW. However, I didn't KNOW anybody who had actually gotten hacked. Once I started looking, however, they started popping up everywhere. People I knew... all having the same problem.

Some have pointed at the wildly popular Curse client that lets players manage and use AddOns and enhance the gaming experience (I found the Auctioneer addon highly useful when I played). They say this program is infected with keyloggers that steal your password. Experts in the field also suspect that websites that have nothing to do with WoW also carry such keyloggers. It makes sense because, if you play wow, it's not a huge task to guess what other websites you frequent.

Being fucked over in World of Warcraft is as bad as having your 357 Hour save data in Final Fantasy X deleted accidentally. The five stages of grief run their course and then you find yourself back into the game, trying desperately to reach the god-like state you attained before. Any gamer worth his salt has went through something like that...

...But in an MMO it's so much harder to repair your status. It's so much harder to get back the equipment you lost, the gold you had, and even the friends you had made. Maybe an administrator can restore some of your stuff or maybe they could even fix all of it; but damage done to a players reputation almost can't be restored. My friend was forced to quit playing because his guild-mates didn't trust him anymore.

Why is hacking a problem, Blizzard? People will always come up with ingenious new ways to fuck over his fellow player... I understand that. Nevertheless, I'm paying you a pretty penny to adventure in Azeroth. For those who love them, MMOs are such wonderful things. I know that I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of playing WoW, FFXI, Ragnarok Online, and hell even Maple Story for awhile. With the money and time we give you, we expect to be taken care of.

Maybe it's getting too big for you to handle... I have a huge amount of empathy for you. It must be hard to run something so incredibly large. However, you have to get this hacking situation under control. You have to get control over this monstrous entity you have created. It's breaking from its reigns... It's like Tetsuo at the end of "Akira". If you don't, we'll leave. I left today. I bought the Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection from Steam for $7.49. I always kinda liked FFXI more anyway... but no one played it. I have at least one friend (the guy that got fucked by hackers) that wants to play with me. I wish you the best and I hope you can provide a safer environment for all your current players. They deserve it.