Drop your mouse, and come out with your hands up!

Our good friend Sabrehawk over at the SWG.Warcry site brought an interesting article to our attention, courtesy of BBC News, concerning cybercrimes, and what's being done about it in South Korea currently. Check this article out "here."

Since the guy who writes this article works for a fairly well-known organization over in Britain, and holds the title of "Technology Correspondent," you would ordinarily be able to assume he knows what he's talking about. But I'm willing to bet that this guy probably doesn't even know what the three letters, "MMO," stands for. He certainly is not familiar with the term "griefer," because the majority of his article points to examples of "griefing," rather than actual cybercrime.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely abhor these little self-loathing, bed-wetting twerps who justify their existence in a virtual world by bullying the real MMO players because their parents locked them in the basement at night, and they were too small to be a real-world bully at school. But folks, lets get real. Griefing is not a crime. Does it annoy the hell out of people? Absolutely. What I'm telling you is this: The developers who rush half-finished games out the door to make a quick buck are the ones who empower these pukes. By not taking the time it requires to turn out a solid product, it does a disservice to themselves and all of their paying customers by granting the griefers opportunity to work, WITHIN THE SYSTEM CREATED, to exploit those who have fun with the content that was intended.

Mr. Ward of BBC News reports, "Players in some online games have had their virtual homes invaded by gangs who kick them out of the house and steal all their virtual goods. Others have been conned out of powerful magic items that, in some cases, took months of work to obtain."

The first incident, while unpleasant for the player, is only allowable by the mechanics of the game itself. The answer is simply to get a bigger gang of your own. The second reported "crime," is a crime of stupidity. Call me a capitalist pig if you want, but if you're going to work for months to get a piece of uberloot and then let some chump "con" you out of it, you're a moron and you deserve to be robbed!

Now, with all that said, if Mr. Ward had any idea about what it was that he was actually reporting on, he would have done a little bit of research on hacking and found that the REAL problem is with people who use criminal techniques to hack into your computer, or even the servers on which the game itself is being run, and virtually swipe whole accounts in order to pillage a character's possessions. It happens more than you think. Our own Nyneve, over at the AC.Warcry site, has a guide on how to protect your Asheron's Call account from theft, and you can get the scoop on that "here." While Nyneve's tips are specifically for Asheron's Call, I'm sure most of it will apply to any MMO you might find yourself in.

In most cases, griefers can be beat down, if you're determined enough. Real cybercriminals, however, are of a breed much, much darker. If the South Korean government is doing something to pry them from their underworld lairs, more power to them.