Is PS3 online gaming dead?

[Ohio Joe]

No, not completely but it is seriously screwed. Here is the problem as best I can figure it out. Sony had this security plan for online gaming/piracy prevention, they would use a root key that would check/be checked by any software that tried to run. If the software did not match, it would not be allowed to run. Copies of games would not have it, so theres the piracy prevention and hacks would not have it so that "protected" online games. I put protected in quotes because it was not perfect. Any game information stored on your PS3 could be copied to a flash drive, edited on a PC and copied back so cheating still existed but it was fairly limited in scope. Developers, like Infinity Ward, used a combination of this security and storing most of your online characters data on their servers, in order for anyone to do anything with it they would have to be able to run a hack and without the root key they could not do that.

Enter the douchebags, George Hotz and the group that calls themselves fail0verflow (real neat name they got there). When Sony first released the PS3 they allowed a version of Linux to run on it so that people could buy the PS3 keyboard and use it like a computer. This was a bad plan as hackers promptly went to work using this to hack/pirate games. Sony decided to simply get rid of the ability to run Linux, getting rid of a functionality that some people really wanted. In particular, the hacking community really wanted it. The newly pissed off weenie boys then went to work trying to get at the root key. Their claim is that they only wanted it for honest uses and that they are anti-piracy and very much anti-hacking, so they released it to the world. They are now completely shocked and amazed that anyone would be using their hard work for such bad things. Douchebags, the lot of them, Sony, fail0verflow, Hotz as well as any developer trying to claim they can't do anything about it (and I'm looking straight at you Infinity Ward).

What does all this mean for PS3 online gaming? Well, a few things...

Sony - They are pretty screwed. As far as I can tell, a firmware upgrade is not going to fix this but even if it can, all games previously screwed would still be screwed and all new games would be screwed in short order now that the douchebags that released the root key have also released how to get at it. A hardware upgrade could be done to fix it but again, all old... still screwed, plus since the cost would be massive for Sony, I see this as having zero chance of happening. To make matters worse, they will lock down the PS4 like fort knox and online will almost certainly go the pay-to-play route.

The Developers - On their existing games, they can either throw up their hands and claim it's Sony's fault (like the douchebags at Infinity Ward) or they can get their programmers to work on a server side patch that would use their own security instead of relying on the now broken Sony security. Will they do this? I'm betting most of them, no. Though several are already claiming that you can look forward to it when you buy their next game... yeah... right.

fail0verflow and Hotz - Nothing, they will simply remain douchebags. Oh, Sony is suing them but they won't win, fair use and all that.

The Gamers - I'm betting most online games will be fine. You look at something like Sacred 2 that has online, it kept all of your player information on the PS3 and could have been hacked easily but it never had a huge base so no one bothered to make any hacks for it. The games that will be hurt the most will be the popular games that most of you really want to play online. In short order all of the most popular online games will have the hacks that have destroyed MW, MW2 and Black ops (though some are saying Black Ops has been fixed and some are saying it is not, it appears they are trying though). Gran Turismo 5, Sacred 2 and Borderlands are they only other games I play online right now but have stopped GT5 as it will certainly be a target soon, Borderlands and Sacred 2 are probably old enough to be safe. BUT BE WARNED - If you currently play a popular game online, it is only a matter of time until it is hacked in a way that can undue any work you have completed. Even if your games stores it's data on your PS3 it can be altered, so can things like trophy's (they can all be turned on or off at the hackers whim)

The bottom line - You know... I don't really give a shit if someone wants to cheat their own game but when it extends to actually harming another players character in a permanent way, you are way over the line. Hotz and company knew exactly what the result of their releasing the root key would be and did it anyway and some asshole company will probably reward them with a high paying job for it (Now I'm looking at you Blizzard, you started that shit). Back in the day, when someone was a hacker they were doing what they were doing to show they could, as a prestige thing. Those days are over and have been for a long time, hackers are nothing but pieces of shit now. The whole situation is very disappointing.

[Bjorn Against]

1. XBox was hacked too and I am guessing Sony will do what Microsoft did...

After the XBox was hacked Microsoft permanently banned all hacked consoles from XBox Live. Sure people could still hack them and play pirated games, but they could never play a game online again nor could they download demos or watch Netflix. Sony will probably find a way to detect the hack and do the same thing.

I really don't think piracy on PS3 is going to be anywhere near as rampant as people are predicting. The risk in using this hack is far too great, most PS3 owners don't want to give up PSN entirely and that may very well be what happens if they hack their machines. If you don't want your PS3 to become a brick I would not recommend using this hack.

[Ohio Joe]

2. I think there is one big difference

Xbox Live is a pay system so they have a support staff to look for cheaters. Sony will either have to change their policy and start charging everyone, which will not please the fan base or pay for it out of their own pocket... maybe, I would not bet on it :D

I'm also not sure the risk is that great, from what I've read this hack allows a user to spoof any PSN identity, all they need is a list of ID's that is not hard to come by. Sony ends up just chasing shadows and banning the wrong player.

I do hope you are correct, I expect in the next few weeks we will see which other games get this type of treatment, if any do as well as what Sony does about it and how fast.

[Bjorn Against]

3. They may be able to spoof an identity, but I doubt they can spoof an IP address

While XBox may be a paid service that does not mean that Sony does not have anybody working for them. I expect that it is only a short time before Sony comes up with a plan to combat this and they are going to crack down hard once they do. I expect you will see a number of people banned from PSN in the not too distant future.

[charlie and algernon]

4. I tried out MW2 multiplayer over the weekend, and yeah, it sucks

I joined a group just as the current battle was ending and saw a major red flag, despite there being 10 on each team, only ONE person on each team accounted for ALL of the kills. So the next map loads and all of a sudden everyone freezes. then one person comes running by, killing everyone. When I respawned, I was frozen with a "waiting for verification" warning, yet I was still killed again. Then a spam ad popped up.... :banghead: I just went back to the campaign mode then. That's all I'll be playing from now on.

I remember the hour+ long battles you could have with 25 to a team on the old Medal of Honor PC games. Those were a ton of fun. Then the clans showed up, then you HAD to be in a clan to play in a particular map, then the hackers showed up, now multiplayer gaming sucks!

[ZombieHorde]

5. I still play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 almost every day without problems. nt

[Ohio Joe]

6. Infinity Ward finally pulls it's head out of it's ass

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42692/Infinity-Ward-taking-on-PS3-hackers

oh good... it only took them a week or so to decide to have a meeting about the problem. I expect Sony to hold their meeting sometime next month.

[Ohio Joe]

7. Sony releases firmware upgrade

This article:

http://news.punchjump.com/blog/2011/01/28/ps3-firmware-update-3-56-blocks-jailbreak-cod-black-ops-hackers/

Also claims they are banning COD:Black op's cheatres... it would be nice if they would do that for MW2 as well.

The firmware upgrade was pretty small... I forget the exact size but it did not take long to download and install, a few minutes.

I fired up MW2 the night they released the upgrade to see if it was working. It was great for a few hours but then I noticed a lot of the old cheats were back... not a big deal, just aimbots and such. Annoying but easy enough to just go to another game. Last night, I noticed that the real cheaters were back but I've found some advice on the web on how to help avoid them.

In the lobby, look for people with monster scores from the previous game and leave if anyone... especially more then one has them. If you just get thrown into a game, upon entering do not select a character. Instead hit the "O" button twice and go into view mode. Use the "O" button to cycle through the players and look for anyone with any type of menu on the screen or anything fishy going on. If you see anything, the only way to get out without joining the game is to use the Playstation button and quit the game... do it and try again. I've only seen a handful of people back to the really bad cheating and they seem to be out mostly in the middle of the night.

[realisticphish]

8. you know

I just don't understand cheaters. I mean, I cheat all the time when I play single player, because I just want to dick around a bit. But when you're playing against other people, whats the goddamned point in cheating? You've proven nothing to anyone, or yourself.

The same goes for people that download saved games to get xbox achievements. Absolutely ridiculous

[lazarus]

9. + a million

I use walkthroughs, which I guess is a form of cheating, on a lot of games. On one game I used a cheat to get extra weapons and ammo, just to save the time wandering the area for days harvesting. But in multi players, it just boggles the mind.

And cheating to get achievements is just stupid. Some "achievement" there.

[realisticphish]

10. oh, i use walkthroughs and wikis all the time

I love the fact that huge RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect have a million different directions you can go, but I just don't have the time to do everything through trial and error (especially when a mistake 2 hours in makes everything go to shit 50 hours in). So, I get the "best" ending I can, without getting spoilers.

And, c'mon, who doesn't love playing GTA with weapon/ammo cheats on? There's nothing like walking around a major city while blowing up helicopters with a missile launcher.

But, yeah... I've heard of the same problems with MMORPGs, but I don't have a ton of experience with those.

[lazarus]

11. there are probably cheats for world of warcraft

which is the on MMORPG I've ever been involved in. I don't know of any.

There are add ons. These are programs you can download and add to your WoW directory that change the on screen display and help you in the game. I don't know if those should be considered cheats or not. I use a couple.

One example: I use one that tracks the timing of bleed effects in combat, so I know which attack to make to keep a specific effect going. My damage dealt has gone up substantially as I've learned to track the various attacks I can make.

[realisticphish]

12. I don't think that counts

really, it's just a GUI mod; you could be tracking the same thing with pencil and paper and stopwatch, from what I'm reading.

I think that people who pay RL money for WoW gold are as bad as cheaters. Of course, as I've said, I don't play, so maybe that IS the norm, but it seems like this would be the case

[lazarus]

13. I agree that buying gold is a form of cheating

as is buying a pre-leveled character. Where's the fun in that? It's like showing up at the end of a movie and having a friend tell you what happened in the first hour.

[realisticphish]

14. and then

lecturing everyone on the plot and characters...

[lazarus]

15. update on Hotz

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/hacker-challenging-sony/

The lawyer representing a hacker who published the first major PlayStation 3 jailbreak on the internet said Sunday he would challenge a federal judge’s order requiring his client surrender his computer gear to console-maker Sony.

snip

Sony, the maker of the 4-year-old console, sued Hotz in San Francisco federal court demanding a judge order him to remove the code. Sony also requested that the 21-year-old computer consultant surrender “any and all computer hardware and peripherals containing circumvention devices, technologies, programs, parts thereof, or other unlawful material, including but not limited to code and software, hard disc drives, computer software, inventory of CD-ROMS, computer diskettes, or other material containing circumvention devices, technologies, programs, parts thereof, or other unlawful material.”

snip

Within days, Kellar said he would petition U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to reconsider her ruling — which came in the form of a temporary restraining order requiring Hotz surrender the equipment next week. Hotz, he said, has already abided by Illston’s decision ordering him to remove the code from his website and YouTube.

That said, the code has spread like wildfire. Yet Illston appears to be ordering Hotz to make sure all the code is eliminated from the net.

The defendant, Illston ruled, “shall retrieve” code “which he has previously delivered or communicated.”

Kellar said that was impossible. “Mr. Hotz can’t retrieve the internet,” he said.

[Ohio Joe]

16. heh... “Mr. Hotz can’t retrieve the internet,”

I guess Judge Illston is not very famliar with the intertubes :rofl: