In Korea, not all online gamers sacrifice work and sleep for play. Most players Some cheat their way through MMOs using programs like Joy Mac reports The Korea Times. "People do not want to do such monotonous, routine things for hours," says a 28-year-old gamer. "But Joy Mac does it without complaining. It is an essential tool."

What is Joy Mac? It is a program that searchers for weak monsters, kills them, picks up dropped items and recovers strength all day long for games like RF Online. There are dozens more for MMORPGs like Lineage, Mu and Rohan.

Cheating programs come in two flavors: software macros and hardware types called "auto-mouse." The macros are cheap and easy, but are powerless against game upgrades designed to prevent their use. The hardware type looks like a portable USB drive. It can grab signals sent between the PC and the monitor and analyze them. However, neither are hacks as they do not infiltrate the game's main server and damage it in anyway. Instead, they run on the user's own PC.

What does the Korean government think? Not much apparently. It is not against the law to use a macro or an auto-mouse. "We only manufacture high-tech products within the boundary of the law, to meet the demands of the online gamers," says auto-mouse manufacturer iWarrior.com, whose products are certified by the Ministry of Information and Communication. Likewise, some game companies are overlooking the situation.

If everyone is cheating, guess that makes it fair. But really, what's the point?

Full Story Here [The Korea Times]