MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious (36 page)

“I’m not so sure it’s that simple,” he said softly. “Rebecca and I talked about this. The question is-” he looked up and fixed Andy’s eyes with his own before continuing. “Do we trust those assholes who badgered us yesterday? So far, they haven’t shown any affinity nor aptitude with what we’ve been dealing with. They don’t understand WoW at all. Suppose we gave this to the AIVD; what do you think they would do with it?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care!” Andy was getting angry now. “Don’t you understand that you could get killed? We’re dealing with terrorists! And those intelligence guys? When you’re lucky, they’ll only throw you behind bars for interfering with an official investigation. Hell, maybe they’ll stick something like endangering national security on you!”

Rebecca shook her head. “I understand how you feel,” she said. “Can you so easily forget why we decided to push on by ourselves in the first place? Yes, you’re right that we’re dealing with dangerous people. Remorseless killers, professionals. Religious fanatics, for all we know. But isn’t that exactly why we’re here? To stop them, when no one else will?”

Now it was Andy’s turn to look down. When he looked up after maybe twenty seconds, he caught Robert and Rebecca exchanging a look. Suddenly, he smiled broadly, and the tension broke a little.

“Admit it, you did more than just talk last night!”

To Robert’s surprise, Rebecca actually blushed. He took her hand and looked back at his friend. “Yes, we did,” he said happily.

“Congratulations! I was wondering how long it would take!” Andy seemed genuinely pleased. “Even a blind man could see the sparks between you two. All the more reason not to get yourselves killed, I’d say.”

Rebecca reached over the table and took Andy’s hand in her free one. She suddenly had a serious, even solemn, air about her. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let other people die because it was easier and safer for me to walk away. If I can’t even be true to myself, how could I ever be true to Robert?”

She squeezed both their hands. “Well, what do you say? Are you with me? Are you with Robert?”

“I’m with you.” Andy sighed. “And I’m not even the one who gets kissed by the beautiful girl. I must be crazy. Damn you!”

Rebecca squeezed his hand even harder. “You’re great!” she said. She bent over and kissed him squarely on the lips before releasing him.

***

“Gold sellers are one of the biggest problems of World of Warcraft,” she lectured a little later. They were back in Robert’s room, in front of the computer screen. Both men were turned toward Rebecca. “They are the people who keep whispering to you in broken English, asking if you’d like to buy some gold.”

Robert nodded. He had been approached often enough. Even Andy, who hadn’t been online all that much, affirmed his experience with the phenomenon.

“They also advertise in the Trade Channels, even though that has become less frequent recently. Blizzard probably found a way to stamp that out. Blizzard tries everything it possibly can to eradicate the problem.”

“Why is it such a problem?” Andy asked. “I mean, buying virtual money for real money seems like cheating to me, but why is it forbidden?”

“Good question!” Rebecca praised him with a wide smile. “The cheating is certainly one side of it. The main problem lies in the way the gold is collected.”

“Why? How do they do it?”

“One way, the honest way, is by actually earning it. Imagine countless offices in China, where scores of Chinese worker bees toil endlessly behind computer screens, fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. They hunt animals for endless hours, putting the skins and the meat on the auction house. Or they mine for minerals and metals, or repeat the same daily quests over and over again on different servers. There are many ways to make gold, if you’re willing to put a lot of time into it. For a few lousy dollars an hour, thousands of Chinese perform the dull labor that most regular players don’t have the time nor inclination for. This has become quite an industry over there.”

Robert had actually read an article about this not so long ago. Still, he didn’t understand what she was getting at. “What does this have to do with us?” he asked.

“The farming and the grinding have many reverse effects on the game’s economy,” Rebecca continued. “For instance, the market prices for many commodities are influenced significantly by the influx of too much supply for the average demand. Prices go down and inflation kicks in. As a consequence, players can’t make as much gold on the market as they should. Many players have problems earning enough gold.”

Andy whistled. “And so they go to the gold sellers!”

“That certainly happens. The majority of the players doesn’t want to cheat, but there are more than enough people who don’t mind. They’re just lazy. Or greedy.” Her contempt carried clearly in her voice. “Some people just like to show off their Mechano-hog of sixteen thousand gold, even though they wouldn’t know how to get that kind of gold in the first place.”

“What does all this have to do with our hacking into Khalid’s WoW account?”

“During the last year or so, the gold mafia shifted much of their focus from earning gold to stealing gold. We’re going to make it look like that.”

The two men looked uncomprehendingly at her. “They steal WoW accounts and suck them completely dry,” she explained. “Sometimes they try to trick you into giving them your username and password by impersonating Blizzard personnel. Or they set up official looking websites, with the sole purpose of getting people to enter their personal information. Mostly they work through clever little virus programs.”

She laughed at their rapt attention. “You can pick up those viruses on all kinds of WoW-related websites,” she continued. “You both know there are thousands upon thousands of websites dedicated to the game. Most viruses are so-called key loggers. They simply record your keystrokes while logging on to WoW and send that information back over the Internet. As easy as that.”

“And what do they do, exactly, when they have that information?” Andy asked.

“Let me show you.” Rebecca straightened the laptop in front of her and summoned the official website of World of Warcraft. She selected account management and followed a few easy steps to the point where she could request a new password. It was telling that this was referred to as a service ‘in case of a lost or stolen password’. Apparently, the theft of accounts was as common as Rebecca had described. She confirmed the request for a new password and received a message that the new password was sent to the email account.

Next, she opened Hotmail in a new window. She logged on, using Khalid’s information, and sure enough, there was an email from Blizzard in the inbox. She opened it. In the email was a link that had to be followed. It brought them to another section of the World of Warcraft website, where they could change the password. Rebecca did so, changing it to
hello123
. Next she switched to the other window, where another email from Blizzard had arrived. It confirmed the request for a new password and warned that this could mean that the account had been hacked. It also gave directions to Customer Support if this was the case.

Grinning, she selected both emails and deleted them. Immediately after, she went to the folder where the deleted items were stored. She deleted the emails again, erasing them permanently.

She didn’t close the email immediately. Quickly, she opened each of the few file folders of the email account, checking for emails that might be important. There was nothing but emails from Blizzard, with announcements and the like. It was clear that this account was set up solely with the purpose of providing a username for World of Warcraft and a valid backup email.

“Okay, let’s do it,” Robert announced. He had taken the other laptop and had the login screen of World of Warcraft in front of him. He had already entered Khalid’s account name and his fingers were hovering over the keyboard, ready to pounce. They shared a look. Andy shrugged. “We already screwed up his account, so let’s make use of it!”

Robert typed
hello123
and only seconds later they were looking at the character selection screen. The preselected character was a level eighty-three Night Elf hunter named Argus. Rebecca clapped her hands. “They didn’t move to another realm,” she exclaimed. “They just did a faction change. They switched from Horde to Alliance. No wonder we couldn’t find them. We didn’t even think of that!”

She pulled Robert’s computer toward herself, holding out her other hand to him. With a shrug, he handed her the mouse.

“Get me a pen and a notebook,” she ordered. Robert stood and just as he returned with the requested items, Argus the Night Elf hunter entered the world. He was in Dalaran, in front of the entrance to the Silver Enclave. She opened the social tab. Argus a was member of a guild called Sphyrnidae. There were seven guild members. None was online.

Rebecca furiously started to copy down all the names.

“Can’t we just make a print screen?” Andy suggested.

“Sometimes I put my trust in old fashioned technologies,” she replied without looking up from her work.

Meanwhile, Robert used the other computer to look up the profile of Malak, who was the guild leader according to the guild info tab. He took the profile of Pharad they had made before in their futile efforts to locate the lost guild. After a quick comparison, he announced, “The guild leader is a Human warrior with matching gear. It’s Pharad, one and the same. There’s no doubt about it!”

Rebecca nodded at this confirmation. She was done with copying the names and closed the window.

“What do you think of the guild message of the day?” she asked them.

“I didn’t see it,” Robert confessed. Rebecca reopened the tab and showed it to them.
ArenA practice every day from 11:00 to 13:00 and 18:00 to 20:00

“What does it mean?” Andy asked.

This time, it was Robert who answered. “Arena fighting is a kind of player versus player combat. You participate as a team, and you fight against other teams. The fights take place in special arena areas.”

“Correct,” Rebecca supplied. “It’s the real hardcore player versus player combat. Up close and personal. You can’t compare it to fighting in battlegrounds. Every fight is recorded, and points are awarded or subtracted after each fight. All teams and players have rankings. The year is divided in Arena Seasons. At the end of each season, prizes are awarded to the best teams and players. There are even tournaments around the world where the best teams engage each other. Spectators follow the fights on big screens. If you want to attend, preorder tickets now, because they’re usually sold out.”

“So are these guys into this?” Andy asked.

“They used to be,” she answered. “Drimm was in a five player team as well as in a three player team. All teams were made up of members of the Hammer of Grimstone. Now they switched to the Alliance, those teams must have been disbanded.” She clicked on Argus’ PvP button and opened the Arena tab. He wasn’t part of any Arena team currently.

“You can practice without being in a team,” Robert said. “There’s an option to enter non-rated combat.”

Rebecca turned to him, surprised.

“Yes, I tried it once,” he said defensively. “Just to see what it’s like. But it was too hard.”

“Whatever,” she answered, glancing at her watch. “We have less than ninety minutes before the evening practice starts, whatever that is. I don’t think we want to be online when the rest appears. Let’s get started to irritate the hell out of Khalid and his guild!”

The cover-up operation was a lot of fun. They stole or simply sold off every single piece of property that Khalid possessed. There was plenty. The man not only possessed a stunning cash fortune of over eighty thousand gold, his bags were brimming with valuable stuff. They sold the ‘soulbound’ items that couldn’t be removed from the character, together with the items that weren’t so easy to sell on the auction house, to the shopkeeper of the Wonderworks in Dalaran. When they were finished with the items he was wearing and carrying in his bags, they went to the bank building and emptied Khalid’s considerable bank account.

Next, Rebecca flew the now completely stripped hunter to Booty Bay. Simultaneously, Robert brought Hunterino by ship to the same place. He was logged on with the alternate account because Rebecca thought it was safer not to use his real account for the execution of the theft. They
didn’t know how thoroughly Blizzard was going to investigate the matter. It wouldn’t do to have Gunslinger suspended for complicity in theft. Hunterino was expandable.

In Booty Bay, at the backside of the town, the Blackwater auction house was located. It was special, because it allowed players of the different factions to trade with each other. In other words, a Horde player could bid on an auction that had been posted by an Alliance player and vice versa. In return for this unique service, the Blackwater auction house charged an outrageous commission of fifteen percent per transaction.

Hunterino put up an auction of a completely worthless piece of equipment. He auctioned a Broken Sword, setting the buy-out price at 86,500 gold. A few seconds later, he got the message that his auction had been successful.
Incoming amount: 86,500
his screen read. That much gold was roughly the equivalent of fifty million Euros, dollars, or whatever currency one could amass a fortune in. It was completely off the charts. He laughed hysterically.

“That must have been the most bizarre transaction in the history of WoW!”

“We’re not ready yet,” Rebecca said smiling. “Are you ready for some bargains? Let’s start with eleven stacks of Eternal Fire. They’re up for ten Copper each!”

Robert typed
Eternal Fire
in the search box. For the total price of one silver and ten copper he purchased Eternal Fire with a worth of two thousand gold. In this way, Rebecca squandered all of Khalid’s remaining assets. Hunterino greedily bought everything she put up for ridiculous prices.

Just as they were finishing, they were alerted to the appearance of two of Argus’ guild members at the same time. Robert looked at his watch and saw to his surprise that it was already nearing half past five in the afternoon. They had been busy for over an hour. The announced Arena training would commence in than half an hour.