Interaction: Cheaters never prosper... or do they?

Myers: Hello, and welcome once again to the programme where you get to demonstrate how smart you are, or how stupid you are, as the case may be. It's Interaction, and our topic this week is efforts to catch cheaters in online games. This is becoming more and more important as games move develop themselves and turn into ways to earn real world money. Are games going to be policed more tightly? Will players' personal freedoms be restricted? Will game operators spy on their players' computers and learn all sorts of secrets about the vast libraries of JPEGs stored therein? We'll be talking about these and more questions in this hour, but we'll begin as usual with our Interaction IQ, the Initial Question. Today it's from Jon in Commerce, CA, USA. He wants to know whether gamers resent the way servers spy on them. Joining us in Nice, France is the general secretary of the Nose Hair Fitters Players' Club, Ms Charlene Chasseau.

Chasseau: Eh? What?

Myers: The writer at gaming blog Gamewatchgirl.net, Ms Alina de Lasaridia, joins us from Tampa, FL, USA.

de Lasaridia: Many of us resent it very much. Comments on my blog have ranged from "What the hell do they think they're doing?!" to "Have they just completely lost what little traces of minds that they may have?"

Myers: Also in our Tampa studios, we have a software developer at Hochley Games, Mr Ram Polisiggia.

Polisiggia: I don't think anybody really resents it. I think most gamers recognise that it's necessary to uphold the integrity of their games.

Myers: And with us here in Warwickshire is the director of the Game Policy Centre at the University of Cyrmllulla Downs, Mr David Viszigauthe.

Viszigauthe: According to our surveys, 26% of those who play a game that examines other programs running on their computers resent it.

Myers: And I'm Debbie Myers. I resent that these people are playing games and not watching our show. Well, one of the questions about game servers examining their users' programs is whether they'll be able to extract sensitive information like credit card numbers. Ram, are these fears justified?

Polisiggia: I would say no, provided that users make sure to safeguard their personal data appropriately. That means no credit card numbers or Social Security numbers in plain text, no identifying information where it's easily accessible, and definitely no credit card numbers in title bars.

Myers: But is that a problem? Do people really put credit card numbers in their title bars?

Polisiggia: You'd be surprised. I've seen all sorts of things in title bars, even mothers' maiden names.

Myers: So has your company in fact intercepted credit card numbers of those who are playing your games?

Polisiggia: Yes. We've sold forty on the open market already.

Myers: I beg your pardon?

Polisiggia: No, I'm kidding. We don't sell them. We destroy them as soon as we get them.

Myers: Well, in that case, I believe the Tampa police department is standing down at this moment. In any case, it's time to move on to our viewer questions. As usual, you have numerous ways to get us your questions, including telephone, text message, E-mail, snail mail, facsimile, telegraph, and rubber ball. You can see the addresses and so forth on your screen now, unless of course you live in an area of the world where English text on television screens is banned. And for our first question this evening, we're going to go to Lynn in Savannah, GA, USA. Lynn, are you there?

Lynn in Savannah: Hi everyone.

Myers: Hi Lynn.

Polisiggia: Hi!

Chasseau: Hi Lynn.

Lynn in Savannah: Um, it's Lin.

Myers: Beg pardon?

Lynn in Savannah: My name. It's Lin.

Myers: Right.

Lynn in Savannah: But the screen says Lynn. It's Lin, L-I-N.

Myers: Does this have anything to do with your question?

Lin in Savannah: Absolutely.

Myers: All right then. What is your question?

Lin in Savannah: My question is, will games be able to detect my name so that games like Chemophilia use my correct name?

Myers: Ram, your company makes Chemophilia, as I recall.

Polisiggia: That's right. Our policy, as I mentioned, is to destroy anything sensitive.

Myers: But I gathered that she wanted you to find her name and fix it in your records. Is that right? [pause] Our producer doesn't know. He's a moron. In any case, that's bad news for you, Lin. We'll move on to a question from Yves in Mont Blanc, SK, Canada. He... or she? I don't know. The person named Yves asks which leading games gather information about players' computers. Well, Charlene, you're the general secretary of a club for those who play Nose Hair Fitters. For those who may not be familiar with it, could you explain how to play Nose Hair Fitters?

Chasseau: Certainly. One plays Nose Hair Fitters by accomplishing various missions. Each mission gives you a nose hair, which you can exchange with other players or assemble to make other objects in the NHF virtual world.

de Lasaridia: You know, quite a few people who comment on my blog play NHF. I haven't played it, but they say I should. But I've never liked those nose hair games that much.

Chasseau: Well, NHF is vastly different from the traditional nose hair game. This really gives you much more freedom in terms of the types of objects you can build with your nose hairs. In fact, last week I built a nonstick waffle iron, the first ever built in the NHF world.

de Lasaridia: It's still not that different from most nose hair games, though. I mean, in Silly Cilia, I was able to construct a heating plate.

Chasseau: A heating plate is worlds different from a waffle iron, though. I mean, a nonstick waffle iron! That's –

Myers: Yes, yes, but I'd like to get back to the original question about which games gather information about players' computers. Does Nose Hair Fitters?

Chasseau: I don't know.

Viszigauthe: No, it doesn't. Three of the top ten games do, though, including the high profile World of Warcraft.

Myers: All right. Well, Ram, you mentioned that your company destroys any sensitive information that it happens to see. Is that right?

Polisiggia: Yes, one part of our software that I worked on was the system that destroys sensitive things that we intercept.

de Lasaridia: Are you using one of those algorithms that rewrites the hard drive, like, twenty times? That's about the bare minimum expected, according to the comments on my blog.

Polisiggia: No, no. We don't destroy the data that we intercept. We destroy the sensitive things.

Myers: You destroy the sensitive things? Can you explain that?

Polisiggia: Yes. For example, suppose we accidentally view a user's credit card number. Our Security Enforcer software actually destroys the credit card with the number that we intercepted.

Myers: It destroys the actual credit card?

Polisiggia: Yes. It's quite revolutionary in fact.

Myers: Revolutionary indeed. Well, we'll have to wrap things up for Interaction now, but let's thank Mr David Viszigauthe, Mr Ram Polisiggia, Ms Alina de Lasaridia, and Ms Charlene Chasseau for attempting to join us this week. We'll be here next week with a programme about the continuing unrest in northern Paris, where a week's worth of riots was touched off by the deaths of two French youths. We'll be joined by experts on race relations from France and the US, as well as the authors of a new rioting game. So until then, good night.

Polisiggia: And Security Enforcer also works for other types of sensitive data.

Myers: I don't think I want to know what happens if someone's mother's maiden name is intercepted.