This was just a question, one of those questions you think of at five A.M.


What are MMOs like in 2070? Not what's the gameplay like, I mean, what's the security like? What do you have to hack in order to cheat?

Is it going to be a pathetic system, or not? I imagine at least the server's Response and System attributes are probably going to be sky-high, and so will Firewall, (oweing to it's cheapness to upgrade to six), but what about the security itself? What kind of IC would the system have? Analyze and trace and dump? Or would it have a cybercombat load-out? Dare I suggest, even, a Black load? And what about system maintenance?

I imagine that if they do server downtime as frequently as SWG does, you have about four hours' downtime per server every day or every two days. Do they take this time to manually sift through the Admin and Security databases and delete any erroneous entries? Do they attach sniffers to automatically bombard those accounts with free-roaming Agents with orders to track the hackers back once they log on again and fry their systems?

The node hosting bank account links, to pay the game's subscription, would be very secure. Otherwise, the actual game host doesn't have to be as much secure, as financial data or people's well-being are not at risk.

I think you're on the right track. Security would mainly consist of analyzing logs, looking for cheats, and then banning accounts, more than actually having top-notch firewall and ice to stop the immediate hack.

I would find it extremely unlikely that a game would have grey or black ice. It's completely uncalled for. And always remember one thing about ice - sometimes ice makes mistake. Authorized users might get flagged as unauthorized, and ice would the thrown at them. Accidentally booting a player is a hell of a lot better than accidentally killing him.

If you accidentally kill them, they can't renew their subscription!

Yeah they can, subscriptions probably auto-renew unless you specifically opt out, so they can probably suck on the sweet nectar of your credit card for a few months after you die before something gets done about it!

It's just bad PR to kill teens, though.

If its anything like some of the hackers I hear of now in MMOs
1) operate real money trade operations (sell in game currency for real $$$) Hacking/cheating lets you potentially get more in game currency quicker
2) go places/do things the system wont normally allow. Like say login to the test server and explore/make videos/etc and share with friends. Much like a reporter with a 'new scoop'
3) Other reasons

Security? probably not as much as you think. Would be more technical support staff/customer relations then active security hackers.

After all agents are cheaper and more functional for watching the data flow!

As far as what could be a MMO? Anything really. Lets look at now. There are the fantasy ones, sci-fi ones, ones that are alternate real lives, etc etc.

I could see sports games turning MMO too. I'm sure some people would be equally willing to be a fan as a player or a cheerleader.

I'm thinking that MMO's would evolve to the point of having high level punkbuster agents scanning the players constantly for tomfoolery. The players would demand it. Near-AI's are cheap in 2070, so an online gaming system (especially one where gaming-income = real-income) could have thousands of agents watching the population for abuses. If real money is at stake, I would think there would be a rating 4 agent per 1000 players (the ratio of cops to citizens in real world "nice" neighborhoods) and a few live-human watchers too.

If you want to see big brother in all his glory, check out the security in a Vegas casino. If there was a lot of money at stake, such in an online casino, I would expect an equally large amount of agents and live-human watchers. There would be live-human hackers running overwatch programs behind every ceiling tile. Probably every cute virtual waitress would be a rating 6 agent and every virtual slot machine would have an agent running inside it.

There's two "should"s at work here.
One is how should 2070 MMOs be from a shadowrun-realistic standpoint?
The second is, how should they be to make for a good contribution to the story you're telling in your game.
Hopefully we can get these two to meet peacefully somewhere.

I have to say, the first thing I thought of was, watch some episodes of .hack//sign. The entire show takes place inside a VR MMO. You almost never get to see the real world. In that show, they handle much of their security with in-game security. I don't remember exactly, but I think the security users have slightly better than normal abilities, but they are still bound by the basic rules of the game world. It's an interesting show.

Are you familiar with Glitterworld from the Emergence book? It doesn't answer all your questions but gives a decent starting point. That's a good example of a 2070 MMO in my opinion.

Which, since a lot of these games either tacitly encourage or actually RUN brothels, drug dealing, and other sundry vices in game, is probably a safe assumption. Somewhere in every MMO, there is a brothel. I guarentee it. And in every MMO you will find people who insist that playing with hot sim makes the experience much better, adn who will instruct you how to rig your comm for the proper sim. And every corp that runs an MMO will know this. This being SR, instead of instituting policies to cut down on hot sim gaming, they'll just thread a little addictive coding into the game to hook those who hot-sim it.

The Star Shooter game (or whatever it is called) from Ares is basically an MMO.

one aspect of MMOs is that their internal economy and black market could have important real-world ramifications. for instance, it's probable that many MMOs will allow players to buy in-game resources with real money, to greater or lesser extents, simply because such offers are pure profit for the MMO owner. this means that in-game items suddenly take on real-world value--making MMOs perfect for such activities as money laundering. you give your illicit money to a launderer, who uses it to buy in-game items that he gives to your character. your character then ebays those items, receiving real, basically untraceable cash.

if an MMO doesn't allow the purchase of in-game resources with real money, so much the better--it's going to happen anyway, and the additional layer of obfuscation provided by the MMO black marketeers only serves to better hide the money trail. just make sure you perform the black market transaction on the turf of a mega not affiliated with the game.

If you want to try some truly surreal background additions like the current day NuYen originally being the currency of the MMO: World of Shadowrun. So what keeps the NuYen stable in the 2070s? demand for epic mounts, baby.