The article is from MMOsite Writer Club member Splices

Relevant: Community Focus: Are We Friends...or Enemies?

Community Focus: Hackers vs Players

A topic that comes up in every game and every era of MMOGs is the neverending supply of Hackers and their onslaught against the game(s) that we hold so dear to us. These are the people who seem to make our gaming experiences that much more problematic and difficult to endure. But how do they seperate the community even more so than ourselves? If the "legit" players of the community weren't problematic enough, what about those who exploit the system that runs and maintains our most cherished games? Our adversities are actually our fellow players, and the types that jump up in levels or kill us in two attacks at level 1 make things much more complicated than they should be. Jealousy runs through our veins because we see these people out level us in the most immoral kind of ways. 

These hackers end up using memory and/or packet editors to manipulate the client that we, the normal players, have been using for ages in ways that are completely illogical. Everything from gravity modifications to damage modifiers are found in the most under-played games on the Internet. Even when you least expect it, that silly little Flash-based game you play when you're bored gets 'hacked' by someone who is too lazy to actually try to get the "Top Score" - instead, they manipulate it so that they have an unfathomable score that nobody can beat. There isn't anything that we can do to stop these people from disturbing our gameplay except to wait for the company to work out the client-side exploits ... if even possible at all.

Now the problem is, is that we've become so paranoid about potential hackers in our games that it's causing a stronger reason for us to distrust one another. The last community focus was about how we're our own worse enemies; and this one is about another strong enemy that is forcing us to be at war with each other. We get to the stage that when we haven't been able to thwart out all of the 'hackers' around us, that we reach out and try to find them ourselves. With a self-righteous ego thinking we can fight these 'invincible' hackers ourselves, the assumptions start flying around. Guilds sometimes disband out of mistrust between us, worry that we may get banned for another person's 'hacking' attempts in-game.

The first Community Focus only led to this one, inevitably. Why you ask? Because it follows the fact that we no longer trust each other as players. Not all of us are hackers, nor are all of us scammers. But it is that easy for us to stray away from any of the possiblities if there's some type of reason to believe otherwise? Of course not, that's how our nature is as humans. But where does it end? When will there be a time that we all can get together and play a game that we're all meant to enjoy? The questions are always the same, but the reasons get deeper the further we go into this discussion. Are we afraid that our closest warrior friend is capable of being a botter or a hacker? Are we worried that we'll end up getting banned for simply associating with these 'players'? This is most likely the case, as companies are getting more and more strict as to how botters, hackers, and their so-called 'associations' tie into the community itself.

Seem Familiar?..Yep!

With all of us looking around wondering who's the next hacker and who's the next scammer, we're blind-sighted by the fact that there are players in the same game, with the same intentions as we have. Each and every one of us is guilty of insulting a fellow player for some reason or another; but, regardless of the reasoning, it was wrong. Hackers are just that, those who try to benefit theirselves by exploiting the system. Why should we give them the satisfaction of actually infiltrating our community of gamers? They're just those who want to feel better about their character without putting forth all the effort that's normally required to go through in order to reach their 'status'. The people who deserve our attention are those who are willing to create a community within the community; those who are trying to salvage any and all hope to enjoy their game with a bunch of like-minded players.

That's what this article is about, finding those within our own communities that are unphased by the overhype of hackers, scammers, phishers, and all of the other horrible things we encounter as players. Hackers are just there to try to make sure they enjoy the game by theirselves. What do we have to do with them? Nothing, essentially. What should we do about them? You want the honest answer? Can you handle it? It's simple - ignore them completely. You can report them to the right "authorities"; but why allow them to phase your opinion of those who are within your community? This is where we always go wrong. We're losing trust in each other because we're so worried about things that are out of our control, as players at least. We aren't the GameMasters, nor are we the Administrators. We are just the little people trying to enjoy the game that they offer to us, either for a price or for free.