Anti-hacking and anti-pirating measures

[sfbay]

Has anyone implemented anti-hacking measures at the server level? For example, when you develop a MMO virtual community mobile game with in-app purchase model, how do you prevent players with pirated/hacked apps?

I have C# experience but I'm new to game development. Any tips on this area is greatly appreciated. What features/measures do I need to add to the TNET? Would this be included in future TNET upgrades?

[ArenMook]

Every pirate that pirates your game and likes it pays for it with free advertising, spreading the word to other gamers, some of whom will then buy the game.

Piracy is a hugely overrated concern and more often than not it actually backfires, causing grief and frustration to legit gamers. Latest example of that -- Sim City.

Bottom line is: worry about making a great game first, and only once it becomes popular should you think about something to separate your legit gamers from pirates. Never harm pirates. Reward legit gamers instead with bonuses that pirates can't get.

[ZJP]

Every pirate that pirates your game and likes it pays for it with free advertising, spreading the word to other gamers, some of whom will then buy the game.

Piracy is a hugely overrated concern and more often than not it actually backfires, causing grief and frustration to legit gamers. Latest example of that -- Sim City.

Bottom line is: worry about making a great game first, and only once it becomes popular should you think about something to separate your legit gamers from pirates. Never harm pirates. Reward legit gamers instead with bonuses that pirates can't get.

Just registered to say: +100000

[littleallred008]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I will probably quote you for a very long time for that!

Never harm pirates. Reward legit gamers instead with bonuses that pirates can't get.

I just have to ask: Is that how you honestly feel about all your products?

[ArenMook]

Yup, and I am pretty outspoken about it. It was a part of my GDC talk earlier this year. As long as piracy is used as a form of trying out something, and doesn't harm the developer. The developer should still be smart about it as much as possible though. For example in case of NGUI or TNet it would be a good idea to limit support to only legit customers. This would fall into the "reward legit users" category.

[Bradamante3D]

I thought about this too. How do you make sure that you only support legit customers? It's not like I see a user profile badge here on the forums that connects the forum nick to a purchase ID, or something like that.

The GDC vault says your talk was not recorded. Is that correct?

The developer should still be smart about it as much as possible though. For example in case of NGUI or TNet it would be a good idea to limit support to only legit customers. This would fall into the "reward legit users" category.

[SketchWork]

You can either

1)  Track the user email and asset store purchase ID
2)  They purchased it directly from your site so you already know they are legit.

Justin

[ArenMook]

I generally don't track who's who on the forums as it's simply too much work. When a customer requests a combo pack version of SGSK (NGUI or TNet+NGUI version), then I check their OR#.