There s been quite a strong response to NCsoft s decision to require anti-cheat software Gameguard to run for access to their massively multiplayer online game Lineage II.

I ve been pointed to a number of forum postings, polls and websites that are discussing the issue. Many players there complain about lag and claim that the software doesn t actually stop people from using bots. NCsoft spokesman Mike Crouch has this to say about people finding ways to use bots despite the software:

Our response to that is that there are a lot of clever people out there who will create new hacks that will need to be identified. This is an ongoing effort for NCsoft to remain vigilant, but as we identify new hacks, they will be blocked.

He went on to say that the GameGuard system put in place in Lineage II does not cause security vulnerabilities.

Here s an email from a self-proclaimed "regular Lineage II player" that sort of summarizes the concerns about GameGuard.

I've just went through your article about Lineage 2 and hackers and I've seen a few factual errors in it. Big ones.

1 : Bots don't target players. It is not in their interest, it's dangerous and unproductive. They usually try to stay the more unnoticed as possible. Their goal is to get XP points, experience or money. If they happen to kill a player, they will go red and then become an easy target and expose themselves to lose their gear and experience. Mr Rigby must make a confusion between bots and PKers which are a part of the game as it is open PvP. There are two kinds of bots : the one occasionally used by players to gain time and experience faster and the one used by people "farming" money to be sent on platforms like IGE. These persons usually run several accounts at a time on different computers and check them from time to time.

2 : No one of these bots type will ever be a terminator. The first ones don't have an interest to use bots once they hit say 35-40. The detrimental effect on their image and the places they have to hunt make that really difficult. The second ones usually delevel to get better stats compared to the area they farm so they can't be uber. Moreover, bots AI is quite ridiculous. They can be tricked by a 3 years boy - by a tree (...) In fact, when another player comes and target the mop (machine operated player, the monsters) they are targetting, they usually switch target to avoid trouble. Which is an easy way to spot them. And most log out when someone comes near as it is very easy to heal their mop and have them killed.

3 : As they have to be unnoticed they don't stay on crossroads where they'd be killed in minutes.

4 : At the very moment where the servers were made accessible again I went to see and found the usual botters/farmers in the same spots as usual.

5 : It s about making sure that players are going to run Lineage II without a hacking program running in the background. This quote is almost funny. The real botters don't even use the LineageII client. There is a well know bot/client that represents about 90% in market share if you browse underground sites. It has an interface with all the ingame controls, chat and even a map. It even has a proxy to go through firewalls. I've seen it. I've never used it as I find it more interesting and rewarding to level by myself. I've been playing since closed beta and my character is only lvl 47. That client don't need gameguard to connect. It still works.

So Gameguard is a very strange marketing decision for NA market which can probably explained by the fact that so many Koreans play in internet cafes and that we are mostly only getting a translated version. Adapted to the NA market it is a very questionable choice which led many people to leave the game due to security and privacy concerns. The uproar on the lineage 2 Official Boards led to a major accounts ban and many people lost their forum account because they were protesting against gameguard. One must admit that the official boards are a place with heavy censorship and a major lack of communication. Corporate image and decisions are putting a heavy load on the community.

In fact Gameguard has all the features of a spyware/adware software and it can scan your computer at a very low level with admin rights. It is also probably against the US law as being forced to install a third party software to access a service without the possibility to opt out to access to a service has been said so. Moreover it gathers a lot information on your computer and don't give you the opportunity to review the information nor to decide what to do with it.

As you see there may be more to say than the few quotes you're making. In fact it even is scary to see Mr Rigby so badly informed about Lineage.

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