Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

Security is a lot like the human immune system — the longer you are exposed to the dangers of security intrusion and attacks against you, the easier it is to learn how to defend against new attacks. The video game industry has been the target of hackers of all types since its inception, with hacks and leaks dotting the gaming landscape. Gold farmers and gold hackers are the relatively new kids on the block, but have been fighting a long battle with Blizzard as both sides push and pull to achieve their goals. Blizzard is in a unique position where they have the knowledge of years of attacks behind them. What happens when the new guy enters the genre and has no such immunity or experience behind them, despite hackers knowing exactly what to do?

Have you ever read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel? No? Well, it’s a pretty darn good read, and you already like to read (as evidenced by your eyes’ sliding back and forth across the screen at this very moment), so pick up this Pulitzer Prize-winning look at the ascension of western civilization. The very basic (and I mean, extremely distilled version) thesis of the book is that western civilization achieved dominance over the world through serendipitous geographic factors and weaponry, diseases to which many were not immune, and central, powerful organization. I’m concerned with the germs part of the equation.

What does any of this have to do with the massively multiplayer genre and WoW in particular? Well, a lot, in fact.Continue reading The Lawbringer: WoW’s immune system and the gold selling virusFiled under: Analysis / Opinion, The LawbringerThe Lawbringer: WoW’s immune system and the gold selling virus originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play?

Security is a lot like the human immune system — the longer you are exposed to the dangers of security intrusion and attacks against you, the easier it is to learn how to defend against new attacks. The video game industry has been the target of hackers of all types since its inception, with hacks and leaks dotting the gaming landscape. Gold farmers and gold hackers are the relatively new kids on the block, but have been fighting a long battle with Blizzard as both sides push and pull to achieve their goals. Blizzard is in a unique position where they have the knowledge of years of attacks behind them. What happens when the new guy enters the genre and has no such immunity or experience behind them, despite hackers knowing exactly what to do?

Have you ever read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel? No? Well, it’s a pretty darn good read, and you already like to read (as evidenced by your eyes’ sliding back and forth across the screen at this very moment), so pick up this Pulitzer Prize-winning look at the ascension of western civilization. The very basic (and I mean, extremely distilled version) thesis of the book is that western civilization achieved dominance over the world through serendipitous geographic factors and weaponry, diseases to which many were not immune, and central, powerful organization. I’m concerned with the germs part of the equation.

What does any of this have to do with the massively multiplayer genre and WoW in particular? Well, a lot, in fact.Continue reading The Lawbringer: WoW’s immune system and the gold selling virusFiled under: Analysis / Opinion, The LawbringerThe Lawbringer: WoW’s immune system and the gold selling virus originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments