As MMOs increase in popularity, an alarming number of people are having their accounts hacked on a daily basis. The problem has become so epidemic that its overall weight is dragging down respective customer support centers as they attempt to placate irate and confused customers. In some cases, it can take weeks to retrieve your character and if you’re lucky, you may get your items back.

Now, the vast majority of these problems could be avoided if gamers used their heads, but with the increased casual appeal of your typical MMO, we’re finding more players who simply don’t know better until it’s too late. It’s a hell of a way to learn. How are hackers getting account information? A variety of ways:

1. You get an email that looks like it’s from the Customer Service department of the MMO in question, asking you to update account information. You click the supplied link and are taken to a site that looks legit. Unfortunately, it isn’t…and you have just supplied all relevant account information to a hacker.

I get these emails on a daily basis. Here’s what one looks like (DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS!):

Blizzard Entertainment -> Legal -> Terms of Use

A 3-hour probationary suspension is pending on this account, awaiting confirmation from a specialist. A

final warning has been issued. The investigation will be continued by the Account Administration team

to determine the any further suspensions. If the account in question is found in violation of the EULA

and Terms of Use, further action will be taken. Be aware that any additional inappropriate actions may

result in the permanent closure of the account.

Thank you for respecting our position on this matter.

=======================================================================================================

===========
** We request that you verify your legitimate ownership of the account here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/login/login/
Blizzard staff will verify your account information submitted in two days, please do not modify your

account information during this time . It will not affect your game uptime.

1.) WHY DID THIS HAPPEN AND HOW CAN I STOP IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?

which state that your Password is to be kept confidential at all times and you are solely responsible

for the security of your Password. You may not disclose your Password to anyone, or allow your Password

to be used by anyone other than yourself and/or your one (1) minor child. This includes, but is not

limited to, compensated third parties accessing the account to advance characters in any way.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Password, and you will be responsible

for all uses of your Password, whether or not authorized by you. Also, note that the security of the

Account is your responsibility. Furthermore, Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize the transfer of

Accounts, and any authorized transfer of the World of Warcraft software (as set forth on the

worldofwarcraft.com website) will result in the permanent deletion of the Account attached to that

software. You may not offer any Account for sale or trade, and any such offer is a violation of this

Agreement and may result in suspension or termination of the Account.

To help ensure that no viruses are present that may threaten your account, please regularly scan all

computer systems that you use to remove all viruses, including Trojan files, spy-ware and key loggers.

You can find links to scanners in our article about computer and Internet security tips at

http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0504p. Also be sure to change your account password regularly at

https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account.

2.) I SENT MY SUBMISSION, NOW WHAT?

We will contact you again once your submission is received and processed. If you do not receive a reply

within 48 hours of sending your submission, please resend it and notify us at

http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/?id=eSupport000. If you send your submission by postal mail,

please allow time for delivery. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and patience.

Only Account Administration is able to assist with account retrieval issues. To learn more about how

Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at

http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.com

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.

Sincerely,
Amanda

When you receive an email with a link, hover your mouse over the link and analyze the URL that appears in your browser. Chances are extremely high the URL points to a shady site, a site that is named in such a way that it fools you into thinking it’s legitimate.

The above example clearly illustrates that you are one-click away from having your account hacked, but you have to examine the links in that email to know better.

2. You visited a site that placed a “keylogger” on your system. The keylogger monitors every input of the keyboard and sends this information to a remote hacker, who weeds out password and account information. At this point, you have bigger worries, like protecting the sanctity of your bank account.

#1 is the most common. #2 is a worst-case-scenario, but still very common.

As for #2, you should have a virus protector installed that will prevent most keyloggers from being placed on your computer. I personally recommend Avast, as it’s free and doesn’t hog up system resources, nor does it interfere with my games like McCaffe and Norton.

Protecting yourself is YOUR responsibility, not the responsibility of MMO companies who now have to clean up your ignorance. That doesn’t mean MMO companies are not entirely to blame, however. Let’s face it: security measures for your typical MMO suck. If the same companies who run MMOs ran banks, none of us would have any money remaining in our accounts.

So both sides in this ever-growing issue need to behave better. MMO companies need to enhance their security measures and gamers need to get their head out of their ass and stop falling for lame hacker tricks.

A good website, MMOCrunch, has a fine feature up specifically about Aion and security that is worth your time.

I try out every MMO that comes along and Aion was no different. I managed to get my character, a Chanter, up to level 32 before finding myself completely bored. Gold-sellers clogging up chat channels, more automated ‘bots than actual human players, and a near total lack of cohesive content at the mid-to-high-end levels meant the game quickly degenerated into a gruelling grind-fest. Not my idea of fun.

Apparently I am not alone, evidenced by this excellent editorial at MMOCrunch.

The Grind

It seems you can’t read anywhere about Aion without reading about the grind, and this blog has been no exception to that.  That being said, it has to be mentioned because this is probably the first of several pitfalls that is going to be cause people to throw in the towel.

This is a graph that fairly accurately plots the experience points curve in Aion at each level that was made by a member of the community here.  As you can see by the graph, right around level 35 the amount of exp needed literally makes the graph look literally like a wall.  Often times when you read on various forums about people saying the grind is fine, make sure you put it into the context of what level they have made it to. Now to be fair, the amount of exp needed by itself is not necessarily the problem as you start to enter your 40’s, but the way in which questing starts to play far less of a role.

When I hit level 42, I quickly completed all of the new quests and looked down at my 60 million exp bar to see only about 10-15% of it had been filled, leaving the remaining 50 million to be obtained by pure mob grind.  Now I am well aware of an upcoming patch slated to increase the quest exp and mob exp, but I think the problem goes a bit deeper than that.  There is a real lack of quest content that becomes painfully obvious at the higher levels.  Quest content is very good at masking grind in other games, so the lack of it in Aion at this level range really only adds to the pain and tedium.

Source: MMO Crunch