2008-10-19, 07:13 PM
I don't know if you want to mention it at all, but there were a few hacker waves throughout the years. While you mention things ABOUT hackers, I think we should mention how they really did affect the community and draw lots of negative criticism for Wizet/Nexon.
I'd say the worst hacker wave in the history of gMS was Fall-Winter of '06, beginning of '07. I clearly remember going through levels 50-90 between September and March and having TONS of issues with these hackers. In the Fall it got so bad that there would be 3 vac hackers per channel on popular maps like Grupins, forcing people training there to go to Pepes. A few weeks later Pepes became the 3-vac-hackers-a-channel place, and F/Ps had to resort to Pangs at an early level while other classes had to train at much worse places.
At the beginning of 2007 there were HUGE issues with hackers in Ludibrium. It was ridiculously hard to be a legit and find a non-hacked Grim map, much less a Dual Ghost Pirate or almost any other popular training map in the area. I'm sure lots of people also remember the fear of DCing or signing off on those maps (especially Magicians), because if you happened to be unlucky enough to sign on again on a map that was being vac hacked, you were more than likely to get owned by a flying monster. Not to mention at this time there were hackers who were fly hacking while vac hacking in order to try and hide from being reported. In short, utterly ridiculous amounts of hacking that made training for legits near unbearable.
Nexon's policies of zero-tolerance and autoban did have an effect, but a second, less devastating hacker wave did erupt in the summer of 2007 as well. I remember a sharp contrast between the beginning and end of the summer, where at the beginning you could find Shark, Grim, or Hime maps with ease (well, maybe not Hime maps ;D), but by the end of the summer hackers started overrunning those so much that people were forced back to Grims, some even back to Gobies. I know this wave ended abruptly with a swift response from Nexon, but it was still widely noticed by the community.
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In summary, I think it's important to put the two major gMS hacker waves on the timeline as they symbolize times of hardship for legits, as well as community unity and demand for a response from Nexon, which was achieved by the end of each wave.
I'd say the worst hacker wave in the history of gMS was Fall-Winter of '06, beginning of '07. I clearly remember going through levels 50-90 between September and March and having TONS of issues with these hackers. In the Fall it got so bad that there would be 3 vac hackers per channel on popular maps like Grupins, forcing people training there to go to Pepes. A few weeks later Pepes became the 3-vac-hackers-a-channel place, and F/Ps had to resort to Pangs at an early level while other classes had to train at much worse places.
At the beginning of 2007 there were HUGE issues with hackers in Ludibrium. It was ridiculously hard to be a legit and find a non-hacked Grim map, much less a Dual Ghost Pirate or almost any other popular training map in the area. I'm sure lots of people also remember the fear of DCing or signing off on those maps (especially Magicians), because if you happened to be unlucky enough to sign on again on a map that was being vac hacked, you were more than likely to get owned by a flying monster. Not to mention at this time there were hackers who were fly hacking while vac hacking in order to try and hide from being reported. In short, utterly ridiculous amounts of hacking that made training for legits near unbearable.
Nexon's policies of zero-tolerance and autoban did have an effect, but a second, less devastating hacker wave did erupt in the summer of 2007 as well. I remember a sharp contrast between the beginning and end of the summer, where at the beginning you could find Shark, Grim, or Hime maps with ease (well, maybe not Hime maps ;D), but by the end of the summer hackers started overrunning those so much that people were forced back to Grims, some even back to Gobies. I know this wave ended abruptly with a swift response from Nexon, but it was still widely noticed by the community.
*************************
In summary, I think it's important to put the two major gMS hacker waves on the timeline as they symbolize times of hardship for legits, as well as community unity and demand for a response from Nexon, which was achieved by the end of each wave.