NCSoft Drops GameGuard From Western Launch of Aion

chalkyj writes "NCSoft has announced that they will be dropping GameGuard from the western launch of their upcoming MMORPG, Aion. The flawed Korean anti-cheat software has been heavily criticized for employing root-kit like techniques and conflicting with many hardware configurations. The final straw is thought to have been the stability issues experienced by players during open beta and the community outcry it caused. The decision makes Aion, which recently announced over 400,000 western pre-orders, a real contender in the western MMO market."

Poor Summary

[Lulfas]

Nothing about the decision to drop GameGuard makes it a competitive MMO. The preorders numbers were given before that decision was made public. While I'm very glad they are dropping the horrible DRM program (I might pick it up myself now), it really has nothing to do with it's success or failure.

Re:Poor Summary

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

It's not DRM.
It has nothing to do with DRM.

It was used previously in FreeToPlay games like 2moons to prevent cheating via game hacks.

It failed utterly in that regard and was dropped.

If Aion was relying on it as an anti hack measure - and "may introduce it later" - the game is already doomed.

Re:Rootkitting is a-okay for cheat protection

[Bieeanda]

Bullshit. It's an MMO, not some rinky-dink peer-to-peer setup like original flavour Diablo. If there's something important enough that you don't want it hacked, you don't let the client handle it.

Re:Poor Summary

[Jestrzcap]

If the program rootkits your system and prevents you from running certain software... well that sounds like DRM to me. I'd be happy to use a different term if you have something that's more accurate while conveying the same information.

Re:Rootkitting is a-okay for cheat protection

[Anonymous Coward]

Near as I can tell, EVE and WoW both don't trust the client AT ALL except for entering in commands to the UI. If there's latency between me and the server, every action in the game is delayed accordingly. Picking up items, moving them in my bags, equipping, buying & selling, any attacks and even my true position in the world is all verified on the server before it really shows up on my end.

The only thing anti cheating software does in a properly designed MMO is checking for a poor dumb human to be the one using the UI, not a bot.

Re:Poor Summary

[Anonymous Coward]

but does nothing to stop the hundreds of chinese robots from ruining the game. Gamegaurd doesn't work at all in this respect. Both Maple Story, and Mabinogi have it, and it does absolutely nothing to stop the most damaging from happening.

Here's where MMO's really need to change:
Keep a copy on the server and the client of the player state. Neighboring players also keep a copy of their own state. When anything happens, movement, battle, poses, etc, the server conducts the dice roll, and sends everyone the result. The client(s) then send back their own results, and that of their neighboring clients. If one client among dozens in an area sends back information different than the rest of the clients, that dude is cheating.

A simple generalization would be your GM and 3 people playing a Pen and Paper RPG. The GM rolls the dice, and asks each person what number they see, and what action their neighbor said they were taking. If Bob and Joe (players) both say they see a 4, and Jane says she sees a 6, then Jane is told it's a 4 by the GM. If Jane then storms off, who gives a damn.

Re:That's nice

[vikstar]

Actually, no...

We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future.

So once you've payed for the game, they'll bring it back.