AGDC 07: Former Ultima Online designer on handling MMO attacks

In the Austin Games Developer Conference (Austin GDC), Heatwave Interactive Director of Development Tim Keating gave a lecture on how video game coders can handle the more shady people who play online games.

Most of what he shared are based on his real-world experience when he was the lead designer of the popular MMORPG Ultima Online.

Keating gave advice on how developers can protect their games from the more common methods of attacks and hacks including duping and denial-of-service. Here are the main and interesting points the director raised:

• Don’t give information to players about other players that can be used in duping scams.
• Avoid “monkey patching” – fixing code in a piecemeal fashion. Instead fix all scripts at once.
• Remember that when you add new features, the interaction testing burden increases in a nonlinear fashion.
• Fix the problem on the front-end “or it will bite you on the back end.”
• Don’t allow flexible inventory limits in your game. “Players will take a reasonable excess and use it pathologically,” said Keating.
• Make sure your network infrastructure can support arbitrary packet sizes, but also ensure that packet sizes above a certain threshold raise warning signals.

Keating’s new company Heatwave Interactive was formed back in February this year. The development studio has yet to announce its first project.

Via Wired

In the Austin Games Developer Conference (Austin GDC), Heatwave Interactive Director of Development Tim Keating gave a lecture on how video game coders can handle the more shady people who play online games.

Most of what he shared are based on his real-world experience when he was the lead designer of the popular MMORPG Ultima Online.

Keating gave advice on how developers can protect their games from the more common methods of attacks and hacks including duping and denial-of-service. Here are the main and interesting points the director raised:

• Don’t give information to players about other players that can be used in duping scams.
• Avoid “monkey patching” – fixing code in a piecemeal fashion. Instead fix all scripts at once.
• Remember that when you add new features, the interaction testing burden increases in a nonlinear fashion.
• Fix the problem on the front-end “or it will bite you on the back end.”
• Don’t allow flexible inventory limits in your game. “Players will take a reasonable excess and use it pathologically,” said Keating.
• Make sure your network infrastructure can support arbitrary packet sizes, but also ensure that packet sizes above a certain threshold raise warning signals.

Keating’s new company Heatwave Interactive was formed back in February this year. The development studio has yet to announce its first project.

Via Wired