[MUD-Dev] distributed objects

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

J C Lawrence wrote:
> I'd also note that EverQuest demonstrated the same problem in a
> different manner via ShowEQ.  They (reputedly) reverse engineered
> the EQ protocols and data structures via packet sniffing and thereby
> wrote their only rather omniscient client (taking advantages of
> glaring weaknesses in the EQ protocol design).

The funny thing is that you can expect this to happen during the
beta-testing of any promising product, so there will be cheat tools
readily available from established fan-sites by the time you launch your
product.

I guess this is rather obvious, but one should note that in these kind
of subcultures the challenge provides the reward.  That is: the respect
of your peers.  I suppose it is the same social mechanisms that you
could see in cracked games (removal of copy protection) in the 1980s.
For instance if a product with heavy duty protection was first partially
cracked by one group then it some weeks later would be fully cracked
with cheats added by a rivalling group accompanied with ridicule of the
"lameness" of the first group...

Game designers, why do they dislike meta-games? :^)

Ola.





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