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Neocron Cheaters Get Unexpected Surprise

Posted by simoniker on from the welcome-to-karmic-payback dept.

Thanks to Avault.com for pointing to a Neocron news posting warning users of the MMORPG against fake cheat programs. According to administrators of this PC cyberpunk MMO title, "Several third party programs containing keyloggers or other malicious spyware have shown up recently. Skill-Chart.sfx.exe was posted on the Newbie forum and has quickly been removed. NeocronHook.exe claims to make you level faster and get more items and credits, but all it does is install a keylogger that sends its findings to an IRC channel." Those hoping to escape the levelling treadmill programmatically are, no doubt, very disappointed.

9 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Here's my suggestion. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't know, sure beats wasting my life as a bitter professional programmer.

  2. Most often found keylogs.. by magsymp · · Score: 2, Funny

    +xxx +"right-click to download"

  3. Re:Speaking as someone who despises cheating onlin by johnkoer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that this is great....

    If you are cheating and not using a firewall, you are a MORON. If you have cheats, there is no need for them to go out to the internet. That is why I use open source cheats, or I write my own.

    I prefer to write my own, I get more functionality and I get what I want. For some MMORPGs, I was able to write a crafting program that did all of my mundane work for me. The program worked on a variable timer, so there was no real pattern to the automation. Since I never released the program on the net, the company had no reason to look at anything wrong in my leveling.

    --
    Johnkoerner.com
  4. Re:Speaking as someone who despises cheating onlin by fuzzybunny · · Score: 2, Insightful


    I discovered a trojan on my system; thank god it wasn't a used one.

    But seriously, a lot of people feel safe with "personal firewalls" as part of their DSL routers. These often just do a 'pass out any keep state', allowing no connections initiated from the 'outside' to your internal network, but permitting everything outbound.

    That being said, (a) it's yer own damn fault if you have nothing better to do than play a game that requires you to spend 8 months getting a decent character together, and (b) serves people right for cheating. As you said, online cheaters are turds.

    --
    Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
  5. ...Speaking as a Neocron player... by skinfitz · · Score: 3, Informative

    There has been a thread on the Neocron Forums about this. It surprises me that many people still have boxes that work - one guy today was bragging that he doesnt patch or use any form of firewall or anti virus on XP for 2 years and has had no problems.

    Talk about lucky!

    1. Re:...Speaking as a Neocron player... by skinfitz · · Score: 3, Informative

      how is neocron otherwise nowadays? i tried it in the beta for a short while, and found it, eh, rather empty back then except the cellar where everyone was killing rats, and i couldn't find the way out of the 'city'(dunno if one existed then even).. so, is there finally something worthwhile to do?

      It's pretty good - I've been playing it since November 02 and I'm still not bored. What I particularly like about it is that because its done by an independent company there is a lot of stuff in there that you just wouldnt see elsewhere - strippers for example.They have a free 10 day trial at the moment so why not check it out?

      If you want to see some other stuff try the Nema magazine:

      Nema Issue 3

      I play on server Pluto as Skinfitz.

      *hides to escape hoards of /. PK'ers*

    2. Re:...Speaking as a Neocron player... by Cecil · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's just a matter of being careful. Well, patching has to be done. But firewall or anti-virus? No, just be careful. I've had anti-virus installed for 2 years, it's never had a hit. Never hit anything before that either.

      It really disturbs me how many people just blindly stick 'products' on their computer to make it 'safe'. Safety is something you only get by being careful and taking care of your computer. Software can help, but it has to start with knowledge.

      --
      Random and weird software I've written.
  6. Why Cheat? by Neo+Bahamut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've never understood why people need cheat programs for so many of these games. Why can't they just be happy and play the games as they were meant to be played? I can see the retort now: "It makes the game more fun." But if you need to do something like cheat in order to make the game fun, what's the point in playing it? Ah, well, I'm no psychologist. And then there are those that love to capitalize on a player's "need" to cheat. They make these malicious programs to trick players by offering them the means to cheat, but only providing themselves with an advantage. Cheating, as with any game, can only result in everybody getting hurt.

    --
    Proud member of RPG Knights, a forum about RPGs by RPGers for RPGers. www.invisionfree.com/forums/rpg_knight
  7. In related news . . . by ReciprocityProject · · Score: 2, Funny

    . . . thousands of playa's were somehow surprised to discover that they had been infected with a virus after cheating on their wives.

    Guys, when you do something you're not supposed to do, you get in trouble.

    This is not a new concept.

    This is not a surprise.

    This is a natural consequence of getting involved with low-lifes and morons.

    Don't do it.

    --

    Upstairs Dog, Downstairs People.