15 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2017
    1. The apparent legal threats that took down these paid hacking tools can be seen as a similar method to fix the game's cheating problem through non-technial means. And while keeping hackers out is important to the interests of fair play, GTA Online's use of microtransactions means hacks that can generate infinite in-game money impact a market that's reportedly worth half a billion dollars to Take Two.

      Hack is everywhere, GTA's case shows how online game hacks can directly cause a big amount of loss of money. Not only economic loss, the impression of the game on players are also worsened. So we can see for huge online game, it is super urgent to minimize cheating as much as possible.

    1. Cheating also appears to be infectious. The likelihood of a fair player becoming labelled as a cheater in future is directly correlated with this person’s number of friends who are cheaters. So if you know cheaters you are more likely to become one yourself. Cheating spreads like flu through this community.

      Infectiousness is cheating's another property, also the most bothering thing about cheating. Since cheating is infectious and people are easy affected by cheaters around them, cheating seems to be a unsolvable issue.

    2. Their idea is to use the structure of the network to predict the likelihood that a given player will become a cheat in future. In other words, the number of friends who are cheats determine how likely this player is to becoming infected with the ‘cheating virus’ in future, so to speak. They say they expect to do more work on this in future.

      This idea sounds reasonable, but still kind of ridiculous. Just because a player meets many cheaters, does not mean he or she is going to be a cheater under that influence. In this case, they cannot let those honest players take responsibilities.

    3. So gaming communities invest significant resources into finding and stopping cheaters. In the Steam Community, for instance, which has some 30 million users, cheats are clearly labelled so that other users can see them and so that servers can prevent them playing games from which they are banned (although they can play other games).

      The cheating issue has drawn a lot of attentions of game companies, they have been investing lots of resources on catching and limiting cheaters.

    1. If you frequent the Overwatch sub-Reddit, or any forum that regularly discuses the game, you will have no doubt ran into many reports of players getting abused by others during matches, especially in Competitive Play.

      Finally game companies figured out reporting system to decrease cheating. However, some inevitable problems are still no ignorable. Although reporting system has made cheating detection more accurate and effective, there could also be some malicious reports that can have honest players be banned. So each solution has its advantages and disadvantages and both of them would be deadly.

    1. Cheating is an issue in online games, and Blizzard is anticipating that cheaters may inevitably be an issue that they have to deal with in their upcoming team-based FPS, Overwatch. In a forum post written today, the developer talked about the penalties it’s imposing towards those who choose to cheat in the game.

      This is a news that Blizzard has done corresponding actions for cheating behaviors. Looks like being permanently banned is what most game platforms would like to do. Also there will be reporting system for players to supervise each other. We can see that game companies are trying best to prevent cheating behavior in different aspects. But still, their attention probably can never get loose.

  2. Jul 2017
    1. This whole article focuses on what, where, when, why and how Chinese government controls the Internet usage and users. In this virtual world, China is undergoing a real war using real technology. By over-watching, blocking and destroying the virtual world piece by piece, the government makes people to be powerless to against the wave.

      A lot of pieces of evidence reinforce author's argument. For example, when it comes to "how", the keywords such as "June 4th"(a brutal massacre that done by Chinese government troop happened in June 4th of 1989) and "Falun Gong" (an anti-communism party) would be in the watching list.

      Arguments made in this article are convincing; they are reinforced by other 4 materials I found for AB assignment.

    2. China's purported goal with its internet controls is the limitation of pornography, gambling, and other harmful practices, but such content is generally easier to access than information related to political and religious groups, human rights violations, and alternative news sources. In fact, the most frequently and systematically censored topics are those that the Communist Party deems to be the most threatening to its domestic legitim

      Right. Although pornography is illegal in China, it is accessible and, obviously, it is not a secret that a lot of people is watching porn content. However, the legal content which is about politics and history, is usually limited or even blocked, and whoever watches or comments those contents may suffer from the aftermath. It is ridiculous that the law is not followed by the law maker.

  3. Oct 2016
    1. foster terrorism if the refugees are not integrated, and worsen the civil war at homeby providing fighters with rear bases.

      These are real concerns. There needs to be some sort of solution to the Syrian refugee crisis. I have really beaten the idea into the ground, but furthermore these people need to be helped.

    2. If refugees roil politics in Europe, it might mean a government loses the nextelection. The destabilization risk in the Middle East is far worse. Refugees havea history of bringing conflict with them: they wage cross-border wars fromrefugee camps, serve as recruiting pools for militant groups, upset delicate ethnicand sectarian balances in host states, and otherwise act as carriers for regional radi-calization.12The Islamic State reportedly used someone entering Turkey as arefugee to carry out an attack there

      More and more reasons why there needs to be a solution to the crisis. Whether or not it is perfect the refugees cannot wait much longer.

    3. Settling Syrians could have myriad benefits in the United States, such as pro-viding a demographic lift and vibrancy in certain places. The scholar David Laitinand housing expert Marc Jahr point out that Hmong refugees have revitalized partsof Minneapolis, Minnesota; Bosnians have done so in Utica, New York; andSomalis in Lewiston, Maine—to say nothing of the stunning contributions tothe United States made by Vietnamese, Cubans, and other groups of refugees.Laitin and Jahr call for settling tens of thousands of Syrians in Detroit, wherethey would revitalize a decaying city and fit in well with the broader Arab-Amer-ican community in Michigan.

      I did not know the benefits of having refugees integrated into American societies, but it is nice to know that this has had a positive effect in multiple cities around the nation.

    4. Lastly, accepting a large number of refugees would not, on its own, offer a sol-ution to the crisis. Of the millions of Syrian refugees, there is no number theUnited States could realistically accept that would be anything other than asmall dent. To have any real impact, the United States would still need to takeother steps, including ensuring that regional and European partners also committo accepting their share

      I think this is an important step to consider. Even if the proposed number of immigrants was reached it would not make a very big dent in the issue. Besides make some Americans feel better the United States would need to do something much big than accept a few thousand immigrants to stifle any refugee related issues.

    5. Nor are the refugee flows likely to abate. The Syria conflict is entering its sixthyear and has seen ferocious levels of violence. The Assad regime is the leadingculprit, using indiscriminate attacks on civilians and sectarian atrocities as partof its efforts to intimidate its enemies and rally its supporters. Waves of refugeesand displaced are also a means for the Assad regime to put pressure on neighboringstates and opposition areas in the country

      This is an important factor. If the refugee crisis is likely to continue there needs to be some long term solutions to the conflict. Without the help of European countries, neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Iraq will be overflowed. This will cause severe backlashes on the economy, the social structure, the citizens and the refugees themselves.

    6. the Syrian civilwar has produced over 6 million of them, and has displaced roughly 7 million morewithin Syria. Indeed, over half the country’s pre-war population of 21.5 million isdisplaced, either externally or internally.

      This is an insane statistic with good support. More than half of the country has been displaced from their homes, and 6 million of them have left the country.

    7. The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Bad and Worse Options

      Byman, Daniel. Sloane, Speakman. "The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Bad and Worse Options." The Washington Quarterly 25 July. 2016. Web. 11 October. 2016.