Curse

Inde · Nov 20, 2006, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Just an interesting bit of news about Lineage 2 and NCSoft:

Quote:

FBI, NCsoft Close Down Computer Game Operation
Year-Long Investigation Results in Raids in Multiple Search and Seizure Warrants

Individuals Questioned in Unauthorized Game Server Scheme

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NCsoft Corporation (KRX:036570.KS):

FBI agents, working in conjunction with officials from NCsoft’s® North American business, successfully closed down a computer game operation alleged to be reaping profits by providing a fraudulent service to its players. The operation was closed down after multiple raids and interviews were conducted in various cities from California to Virginia.

Federal search warrants were served on owners of L2Extreme who were also questioned during the raid. L2Extreme was providing its users with unauthorized service and code for NCsoft’s online computer game, Lineage® II. The warrants enabled officials to halt L2Extreme’s operations while collecting further evidence in the course of the investigation.

The FBI estimates L2Extreme has up to 50,000 active users on its service. NCsoft estimates that monetary losses and damages from the operation are costing NCsoft millions of dollars per year.

L2Extreme advertised on its website, www.l2extreme.com, that more than half million registered users had subscribed to play.

“Operations like this essentially are defrauding customers by stealing from companies like NCsoft,” said Matt Esber, NCsoft North America general counsel. “In the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately. This group in particular was downloading our version of the Lineage II software from our servers, costing us close to a million dollars in realized bandwidth costs during the period it was operational.

“We’ve taken this action because we strongly believe in defending the intellectual property rights that we’ve worked so hard to create. We’re extremely pleased that the FBI has worked with us so diligently to bring this particular case to its current state and we want our customers to understand that we will continue to fight similar operations in the future in order to maintain the integrity of all NCsoft games.”

The investigation into the L2Extreme operation is ongoing.

About NCsoft:

NCsoft North America is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with other NCsoft subsidiaries and third-party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles in the last three years and continues to support its franchises that include Lineage/Lineage II, City of Heroes®/City of Villains®, Guild Wars®/Guild Wars Factions™ and Auto Assault®. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.plaync.com.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, PlayNC, Lineage, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Auto Assault and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

I pwnd U · Nov 20, 2006, 10:42 PM // 22:42

Wow that is something. GG NCSoft and FBI on getting them. They lost a ton of money which is going to hurt. Figures that is going on everywhere though. Good to see them cracking down on it finally.

Yadee · Nov 20, 2006, 10:59 PM // 22:59

The people that play private servers in Lineage 2 arent players that are going to get the retail game anyways
They play on private servers because the xp actually comes at a decent pace, and you arent forced to ebay money to be able to keep playing
Also, theres no bots on private servers (while retail is 80% bots)

Its funny to see how fast they crack down on tax evaders while never touching the drug industry though

Ulivious The Reaper · Nov 20, 2006, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Good job FBI now close down sweat shops, i read this on wikipedia and was amazed, now NCSOFT knows what not to leak... too bad they're not going to gain the people from those servers tho oh well

Lasareth · Nov 21, 2006, 01:13 AM // 01:13

It's an interesting story if you know the background of the administration of that site. Lots of discontent with Shmee and Sil3nt. Some people thought it was a ruse so they could run off with the donation goods

Sir Skullcrasher · Nov 21, 2006, 01:20 AM // 01:20

Makes you wonder if A-Net and Ebay will ever team up to stop those sites from selling gold online?

Draconis85 · Nov 21, 2006, 05:48 AM // 05:48

thanks for the story. i wasn't even aware of such activities.

as for the gold farming companiese, aren't they all or mostly in china? so how would we offically tell them to stop it? lol

Sedgehammer · Nov 21, 2006, 08:07 AM // 08:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yadee

Its funny to see how fast they crack down on tax evaders while never touching the drug industry though

1) Our government is not very quick on the uptake when it comes to tax evasion. The IRS is always backed up and people rarely get caught committing fraud until the situation is extremely bad.

2) Every single drug addict I know has been arrested at least once. In the city near me, they crack down on drugs a lot harder than they do on guns. It's all relative, perhaps.

And our foreign policy really has reflected an effort to stop drug trafficking. Columbia only keeps preferred trading status now under the condition that they don't allow their people to smuggle drugs into our country. I think widespread addiction is pretty difficult to stamp out, and I think that's what drives the drug industry.

Thallandor · Nov 21, 2006, 08:49 AM // 08:49

This article is interesting indeed. Several months ago i actually was bored and stumbled upon l2extreme and my ex L2 room mates got hooked on it on the 35X servers and from what i saw it was done quite professionally with weekly seiges and updates. The only problem they had was the rampant Hacking that was done by "contributors"-ie those that donate to l2extreme to support them, where entire castles were held by 1 alliance member with dupped Mercenaries. And the contributors alliance held the main castle across the map doing this. Not forgeting they were also duping items required for the epic Class promotion of Hero status with its own epic weapon. For example, normal medium larger guilds would support perhaps 1-2 Hero at most usually being the leader, while the contributors alliance had close to 50 Heros....

Wihout a doubt there was a large e drama on l2extreme forums and entire guilds that cheated except contributors were banned from their servers and any mention of hacking on part of contributors were deleted. Alot of hate must have been generated from that incident and i am quite sure that some of those who are hateful at l2extreme's actions went on to tip off NCsoft(US) leading on to this event.

From what i remembered, blizzard also came down hard on private servers of WoW in the US threatening lawsuits, but most of those private servers either have incomplete functional DBs or are buggy. Currently the best and most popular servers exist offshore of the US in countries such as Russia/EU where US copyright/IP laws dont penetrate that well. However from a English speaking players perspective, unless you can speak/read another lanugage like german or russian, those servers are probably off limits to you.

Thank God for free online Korean game that are translated into English....if only they actually spend more money hiring proper translators....

Vermilion Okeanos · Nov 22, 2006, 12:37 AM // 00:37

I just thank god for GW.

Lineage II was such a grinding game that waste both time and money. The official server was also flooded with bots and ebayer. It is no wonder people would want a private server. However, I guess that is quite irresponsible of me to say why people want private server. Still, if MMO keep going the way it is, then these game developer are just trying to treat gamer like drug addicts back in the 80s and early 90s. I would make them pay for that if game developer's intention to make game are such. On the other hand, gaming industry grew so big, to a point that even money hungryRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOs are mobbing the game industry. For example, http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/for...ide-214130.php and for the USA side, we all know how much ebay going for, and also how many people who lined up for PS3 (8/10 last I heard) want to sell PS3 after getting it. O well, this is more like a rant now.

Anyway, going through the histroy of it, NCsoft screwed up in the begining of L2 distribution, and the source code for the server was hacked and copied off the official server when the game was still in prelude. If my information are correct, that L2x had been using the same source code from prelude and code it to the curent chronicle. I just wonder what would be the charges on them. They can't possibly blame all bandwidth to L2X, and also many other things. I suppose this depend on the lawyer they hire I guess.

One more thing...
I once personally heard from an ex-police chief saying "We can't go and bring down every law breakers, because we would simply run out of room to put them". Given that most USA states do not execute their criminal, then they have to be kept somewhere. This is the main reason that our government can not rid of crime once and for all. If I remember right, the ex-police chief was talking about drug dealer, addict etc.

Makkert · Nov 22, 2006, 10:29 AM // 10:29

wow. NCSoft and the FBI?
Didn't see that one coming...

Watch out, Jeff Strain is sicking the Feds on ya!

j/k