An open letter to Nexon and MapleStory players

What do you really hope to accomplish with that letter. Honestly?

There is no MMO out there that is safe from hacks, and the ones who do a decent job of preventing their usage just happen to be the ones with a plethora of active gamemasters. Wherever software is involved, it can be reverse engineered, and thus tampered with. Though you seem to think that this is Nexon's fault, it isn't. Want to blame someone, blame the hackers. Beyond hiring a pomegranateload of gamemasters and killing their profit margin, there is NOTHING they can do.

Yes, hackers are at fault. However, Nexon's even moreso at fault for letting them run rampant with their poorly designed methods to combat hacking. Let's observe each of the ones implemented in the current game:

Auto-bans
Bans based on a poorly generated reactive mechanism that determines if a player's current actions are abnormal or not. When determined they are, the hacker is then banned for a week to a month to maybe three months tops. Auto-bans are not permanent nor do they ban the IP. This does not discourage the hacker. Instead, the hacker takes this as an opportunity and makes a work-around to prevent the auto-ban from triggering.

The Hack Reason GM D/C
For players that Maple deems to be questionable but want to be on the safe side (such as lagging), the game boots the player off for "The Hack Reason" and d/c's them. This does not ban the player. All it does is enforce an inconvenience. The hacker, just like with the auto-ban system, comes up with a work-around. This came and gave birth to a timed auto-CC which bypasses The Hack Reason d/c.

Report System
Legit players may report players they deem to be illegit. There's many many flaws with this system. First off, it only works once a day. This means if a player encounters more than one hacker a day, that player cannot report again. Second off, it costs mesos to report. If a player has no mesos on that account, that player cannot report. Third off, hackers also made a work-around with this by creating a hack that lets them automatically CC out of the channel when a player comes within range of them. This means if a hacker actually cares about being reported, players cannot even touch them to report them.

Lie Detector System (no longer in game)
When the Lie Detector System existed, it would allow players to enter in the names of botting hackers. If the question is unanswered within a specified amount of time, the hacker is then sent to town. Three major problems exist with this. It costs mesos meaning a player without mesos is unable to report them. Two, it requires the player to know the name of the said hacker. With all the i's and L's out there, knowing the exact IGN of a hacker proves difficult. Third, if the player is successful in sending the hacker back to town, it does nothing. Furthermore, hackers made another work-around for this. They have hacks that let them teleport back to the map they were in before they were sent to town and they get to continue botting away.

So, what's the best way to combat hacking?

Active GM's
With how openly hacking is talked about, having GM's monitor and interact with players allows them to figure out who's a hacker and who isn't. Granted, they ought to not ban right off the bat with knowledge of who is a potential hacker without research. This would solve a lot of problems and filter out a lot of the major hackers roaming each server.

IP Bans + MAC Address
Crush the hackers with IP bans. When they get ban, include their IP and MAC address. While I'm perfectly aware there are ways to bypass this, doing so requires a bit of work that the majority of script kiddie hackers do not care to associate with. This leaves only the big, bad, and dedicated hackers to change their IP/MAC addresses constantly, and those are for GM's to take care of. The innocent who get caught in the web ought will be solved through the next issue:

Active Non-template Responses
Get rid of the template responses, Nexon. Actually have more than 3 people work on answering tickets at a time. Players who get wrongfully banned or caught in the IP Ban net will be given access. On the other hand, illegit players reported through the ticket system need to be investigated and have proper action delivered.

All three of those are completely doable within Nexon America's abilities. However, they choose to not invest in more active GM's (and the ones that do exist only get paid a pitiful $9/hour), they choose to not use an IP/MAC Address banning system, and their Ticket System is horrid. This is as much of a fault of Nexon's as it is the hackers.