This Seems Like Something You Guys Would Do

Site with more details http://kotaku.com/#!5784320/a-hacker-didnt-break-this-game-he-helped-fix-it

 

yay for white hats hehehe ^.^

 

I love Kotaku... Been reading that site for years... Not a fan of their current layout though :/

 

heres the thing, if we did that we would be banned and arested.

its against the EULA to tamper with the game client, the game clients assets on the local computer, and for surely not to tamper with the remote server data, or any SQL servers housing any data.

i for one commend the guy for thinking about the people and helping to fix the issue, but current laws in most countrys prohibit black hat tactics to fix securty issues, aswell as local game laws.

 

Most game platforms dont mind if someone helps out with a problem. He's surely not the first person to crack the client side code on a product and help out a community. Ultima Online and UO Assist paved the way. Asheron's Call and Decal continued the trend. And both World of Warcraft and LOTRO allow for the UI to be skinned and for mods to be written. There are many other products that allow it.

The unique problem with MindArks product is the intrinsic (declared) real value. Although not the first RCE it is the first RCE to publicly peg its financial health to the financial health of a real life economy (to my knowledge). By eschewing the interration commonly declared (if not enforced) by other game companies and applying a fixed value to anything in their product MindArk has opened the door for real world laws to be applied to anything done within the spectrum of the game. As we know from experience in US law the good samaritan is not always protected -- tampering is tampering. While MA might not sue for an appreciated assist with a hypothetical problem, another player sensing an opportunity may.