So can passwords be "hacked"

As in without breaking into the nexon database like last time. Or do hackers just brute force your password or something? I'm not really sure how this nonsense works, but I'd like to know just whether a ridiculously long password is actually secure or if I'm just wasting my time here...

People in alliance have been hacked recently who claim to have never given their password (or PIC) away, and that it wasn't a dictionary word. It also wasn't changed, through e-mail or otherwise.

Are they lying/mistaken? Were they brute-forced? Were they bypassed? Your guess is as good as mine.
(At least one such person just found his stuff in a shop containing hacked items from other people, so the possibility that he was hacked by a "friend" he gave his info to is kind of slim).

If this is true, level 200 would be unachievable, so no.

bahahaha the title scared me for a little bit.

Don't think anyone would know if this was possible except for someone who has actually done it, in which case you are better off asking certain unmentionable sites.