Two Brief Programming Notes

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Scott Jennings| 108 Comments

My latest MMORPG.com column is up: this one is on RMT, which I’m sure a few have one or two opinions about. I tend to write these columns with an eye towards a reader that *doesn’t* obsessively read every MMO-focused blog and message board, as opposed to you, Dear Readers, who I assume know far more about MMO-related drama than I do.

Ironically, I've never actually watched any of the CSI shows.

Ironically, I've never actually watched any of the CSI shows.

Also, I’m employed! (At least for 3 months – after the end of which we’ll see if I move to full-time from contracting.) I’m a developer attached to NCsoft’s Customer Surveillance Unit (CSU) team, which is being put together to quash RMT, botting, and such in NCsoft’s titles. The irony of not having to ask where to go for the job interview did not escape me.

It’s not a design position – I’m still determining if I want to get back into design at some point in the future or just work on my own garage-band titles. Heading up the design for two large projects roughly one after the other which failed to make it out the door – well, I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been difficult for my ego. We’ll just have to see where things go – in the mean time this new position certainly has some interesting challenges of its own.

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  • http://www.damnedvulpine.com/ J.

    See you on Friday, duder.

  • http://www.psychochild.org/ Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green

    Congrats on landing work.

    I hear you about projects not shipping. Had one big-budget one and one smaller one fall apart on me, too. After a year of depression, I think I’m ready to get back on the horse, myself.

  • grats

    Grats on the job, but — I’m rather happy with the free time for Dragon Age!

  • Skelanth

    Grats. You are doing humanity a great service in leading the charge to rid the virtual landscape of botters and RMT. Wait. RMT? You mean I can’t farm shards, pyreals, gold, boe suits of armor etc and sell them to pay for my MMO hobby?

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    Ooh, you get to be guy who puts the hurting on those naughty cheaters? Fun. Well, in a sanitation worker sort of way. That said, a job’s a job, and that’s hella better than an indy-happy (at times arguably delusional) student such as myself has managed.

    As anyone who has read a tirade of mine could attest, I’m firmly on the side of keeping RMT out of games. This is because I tend to regard games as great sanctums of equal opportunity amongst players while pointedly ignoring the obvious “but players have differing amounts of time to play and therefore inequality exists by default” on the grounds that at least that imbalance was earned through the virtue of in-game interaction. So I basically regard gold farmers with all the charm and compassion of a diehard Wiccan facing the Spanish Inquisition for similarly religious-minded means.

    That said, it’s not that I blame gold farmers, per se. Cold, hard cash is the most powerful incentive in the modern world. My preferred solution is usually to consider the line of reasoning that if a grind is so very punishing or imbalanced that people would pay scalpers than t play, then it’s a very bad reflection on the game design. I’ve put some thought towards better models.

  • Freakazoid

    That job description sounds an awful lot like a GM, with less “help me get unstuck” and more “OMG HE STOLE MY ORE HE MUST BE A BOTTER!!1!1″.

  • http://Chrome.blogger.com Chrome

    Work is good.

  • Staarkhand

    From what I’ve seen of Aion, and heard aboug other NCSoft titles, you’ll be operating in a target-rich environment.

    Give ‘em hell.

  • Toastrider

    Nothing makes having to slog through that kind of crap more worthwhile than a steady paycheck. Congrats. :)

  • Aufero

    Glad to hear you’re employed again – and almost equally glad to hear that NCSoft is hiring more people to combat RMT and botting. If Aion (the only NCSoft game I’m playing right now) is any indication, they need the help.

  • Karns

    just run a non-profit and collect tons of cash. oh… and let’s see that diamond!

  • Blake

    Congrats on the new job Lum, here’s to hoping it either goes full-time for you or you’re offered a design job that gets your juices flowing again.

    Nice RMT article as well. People want to believe that there’s a conspiracy all the time rather than accept the cold hard truth that companies are trying their best to rid their games of the exploiters.

    I’m one who is starting to think things like the WoW authenticator should be a mandatory requirement.

  • http://heartlessgamer.com heartlessgamer

    I always thought you were a “RMT has a game design solution” type of guy? So wouldn’t this put you somewhat in as a game designer :P

  • Ark

    If your layoff was due to the “Obama Recession” does that mean that we need to credit your new job to the stimulus package?

    (Grats on landing some work, Lum)

  • http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/ Stabs

    Congratulations.

    As a player I’ve always detested the black market in gold and items and have been dismayed that the player base is becoming so comfortable with it.

    (for example: http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2009/11/16/buying-gold-is-like-sex-in-the-victorian-era/ )

    Hopefully you can not only ban accounts but also win hearts and minds in this battle.

  • http://bdadv.wordpress.com bonedead

    Man just walk around in Aion, they’re all over the place and very easy to spot, and recently they’ve begun whispering.

  • EpicSquirt

    Congratulations and good luck.

  • tannenburg

    Aion? Target-rich environment? Man, I could randomly throw a trout in some zones and hit at least two botters. My wife’s report-bot queue has been full for days.

  • Joe Friday

    Well ma’am, if you build a game that is tailor made for RMTing through static spawn, reward, and predictable “AI”, you’re going to have a lot of scripting and RMT going around.

    Just the facts, ma’am.

  • Setis

    Please come to Vaizel server in Aion, I can give you the grand tour and point out about a dozen bots in the first five minutes. Better yet, just go by the simple rule the players have figured out: “If it’s over level 30, with no legion and no title, it’s a bot”.

  • FeverDream

    Setis – there are actually Legions on Vaizel (so I assume on other servers as well) made up entirely of bots. I kid you not.

  • http://tidehorizon.blogspot.com Tide

    glad to see you will be flush with bagels again :) Cheers.

  • Mercury

    Gratz on the yob, Scott. If you want to talk to someone about software detection from a strategic or tactical perspective, I know just the guy. I hear he’s unemployed at the moment, as well.
    ;)

  • Alex

    You might be able to quash botting to a degree, but RMT will never die.

  • http://blog.weflyspitfires.com We Fly Spitfires

    Grats on the job!

  • http://www.openalpha.tv/blog Jenn

    It’s always been botting that angers me more than the money thing. It’s generally pretty obvious, too.

  • Igniferroque

    What kind of information do you need to prove someone is a bot? There are any number of people willing to gather information for you on any given server. If you provide them with the information you need and how to get it to you, you’ll have more than enough help.

  • Votan

    Grats on the job, I play Aion and played Lineage 2 for over a year and at least for Aion you do not even need software 1 GM per server going around the game world could easily identify BOTS and I mean it would be REALLY REALLY easy no software needed. I hope you are actually able to do something as NCSoft has completely ignored BOTing in all there titles to date specifically Lineage 2 and Aion so far. Aions game design is almost a BOT dream static spawns for NPC’s, static spawns on gathering nodes with almost perfectly timed respawn almost like they designed it with BOTS in mind :P

  • Count Nerfedalot

    Congratulations on the brevity of your indigent status! :)

    Data mining is one of the most intellectually interesting jobs out there. It’s a puzzle, a personal challenge/contest, and an adventure all rolled into one!

    While you’re pursuing your seekrit agent/white knight battle against the evil botters and RMTers, I hope you’re able to take some shots at the asswipe enablers on the demand side and not just be banning the accounts of guys who are thrilled to be working in sweatshop conditions for a few cents per day.

  • http://therealstupid.com Stupid

    Fewer words, better: HUZZAH!!!

  • Boanerges

    Grats on the job. Unemployment sucks. And don’t give up on making your own game. Brad McQuaid hasn’t and look where he is!

    @Ark
    According to recovery.gov, Scott’s new job created 3 stimulus based jobs in Texas congressional district 00!

  • Plastic Rat

    http://www.aionsource.com/forum/aion-discussion/89830-ncsoft-brings-nasty-against-bots-rmt.html

    The natives have sensed the coming of The Great Lum and grow restless…

  • Igniferroque

    Votan is correct. It is really easy. ‘Risk factors’:

    -Gladiators: bots have rolled so many they’ve skewed the class distribution to 18% on most servers; given 8 classes you’d expect about 12.5%

    -Names that don’t make sense

    -Less than 1000 abyss points – they never go into Reshanta and the only time they have a PvP fight is when the opposing race rifts through to farm them

    -All their gear are world drops – typically greens but some blues and some whites

    -Fewer stigma stones than their level would allow

    I did a search on Israphel of all the Asmos Gladiators that have ‘a’ in their names. Then I sorted them by level and sifted through the suspect listings. I’d be surprised if two of the following list turned out to be actual players. I have time to do all this because I’m crafting….

    Tayloer
    Alexandras
    Dasiplie
    Redmaky
    Handison
    Byakoya
    Sanxiaobao
    Lastone
    Trisana
    Turkeyteam
    Fyrinnae
    Easebaby
    Mjake
    Oliviaqz
    Lucka
    Mtaapt
    Mylovewangge
    Steam
    Thjjaks
    Minace
    Portablea
    Baois
    Castlethesky
    Hjadg
    Kslisad
    Mylovewangqiang
    Kalsg
    Artgur
    Skiaws
    Zhangying
    Makeloveyou

  • http://www.damnedvulpine.com/ J.

    Petition through help.ncsoft.com, kthx.

  • Tethyss

    I disagree. Pre-BC WoW, guildies would admit to buying gold for cash, yet their accounts remained active. Bots were rampant. It appeared a win-win for Uber-(blizz)-publisher since any gold seller account banned would result in a new one since the demand was still high.

    Today I still get spam in IF. These activities would not be present if the demand were not there. Yet it is not a priority to ban the recipients as well. They don’t talk about this issue very much either. I remember playing the LoTR beta and gold seller spam was there too. So it’s everywhere if you look around.

    There’s quite a bit more evidence, so I submit while game companies openly oppose cash for gold, as that’s good business, they don’t make it a priority to quell such behavior.

  • Mist

    At least it’s an opportunity in an interesting department. Congrats on being employed.

  • Zuzax

    Easy win: Turn off the unnecessary email system in CoH/V and you will eliminate most players’ exposure to RMT.

  • Daish

    Daish want talk lum bots smash

  • Dawn Falcon

    We’re going to have to disagree about the effectiveness of neo-prohibitionary measures for stopping RMT, as usual, but go smash botters.

  • http://wowpanda.blogspot.com/ wowpanda

    Grats to the job, but why so many people hate RMT so much? Especially in this economy.

    If you are employed: you can buy some gold, save some time in game and be more productive at work.

    If you are unemployed: You can sell gold and have fun at the same time.

    And it is the gold farmers that indirectly present a work opportunity to Lum :-)

  • Raad

    I buy gold, does this make me the son of satan yet?

  • hkedi

    Congrats on getting another job. Have fun breaking out the Salinizer on the RMT!

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    I buy gold, does this make me the son of satan yet?

    Only insofar as supporting any illegal industry would.

  • robusticus

    I had three comments on this, 2 of which were already posted.

    The third is, man, what a gig – sipping from the fountain which is virtual commerce. If it weren’t such bullshit I’d spew on profit margin and all that but yeah, it’s bullshit. The price of art was established a very long time ago, nothing really to see here.

  • http://www.loadeddie.com damijin

    Hey Scott, if you’re interested in game design as a hobby without full-time job dedication while you’re back at NCSoft, I strongly suggest looking into the world of Flash games.

    I worked for Kongregate.com for 2 years, and have left to do indie development for the last year. It’s been great, our two released games netted about 9m total plays so far, and they each took 6 weeks to develop. We have some bigger games that we’ve been working on including a multiplayer card game and a 3d shooter.

    Average project teams in flash are 1 to 3 people, and take generally between 1 and 5 months to complete depending on scale. There’s also some decent money to be made, our two 6 week games netted $10k each.

    If you’re interested at all in it, drop me a line. Oh, and my games were Pyro and Pyro II — you can play the latter here: http://www.kongregate.com/games/damijin/pyro-ii

    Cheers

  • sinij

    >>>It’s not a design position

    I 100% disagree. EVE clearly shows that cleaning out gold sellers IS a design position.

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    Provided your bosses aren’t concerned about their thralls rocking the boat, what job isn’t a design position waiting to happen?

  • Gx1080

    *Game-breaking crisis cause layoffs and make job offers happen.
    *Is nice to see you off the unemployement line.
    *Anything with the power to directly change an aspect of a game is a design position (it depends of who is hired and where)

  • Raad

    @geld so yes? Sweet, I love supporting illegal industries of things I like. Vice is good!

  • http://dsob.wordpress.com geldonyetich

    @Raad
    Well, then, it seems evidence points to the gold buyer stereotype matching the gold sellers’.

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