The advent of PayPal for immediate money transfers with just an email address is worrisome to online gaming communities that are trying to protect their customers. The privacy concerns are in actual money transfers, which is an issue in console games that deal with micro transactions as well as online titles that require yearly subscriptions, such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, according to Albotas.com.
There are many elements to online gaming, from protective measures in gambling to the security concerns from the most popular PC action titles. Even the next generation of consoles, particularly Xbox One, requires a patch installation to the system to play online. Companies are attempting to fight fraud, security breaches and general privacy leaks for their legion of fans.
Technical Hacking: League of Legends
League of Legends has 32 million active players every month, according to Destructoid. A recent hack of the system required developer Riot Games to announce that usernames, passwords and email address were threatened. Even worse, 120,000 micro transaction records leaked, all involving credit card numbers. No major consequences have been reported as a result, but the company required all members to reset passwords with more complicated configurations, and it is looking into additional security measures like email verification and a two-factor password change verification process.
On a more humorous level, The Verge reports that Riot Games CEO had his Twitter account hacked, and the next entry in the League of Legends series was leaked, including prototype visuals and storyboarding.
Battlefield 4: Season’s Biggest Title
Electronic Arts is the developer of many of the world’s largest franchises, including BattleField. The recent release of Battlefield 4 has users concerned over recent high-profile hacks and subsequent leaks. Battlefield 4 requires the online platform Origin to function, but EA is notoriously large and protective with its published software. The company has stated that it does not have access to pictures, documents and data and has further confirmed that Origin does not require or track this data.
Trolling Turned Real
Online trolling, which is when users post offensive and harassing content solely for the purpose of antagonizing other players, has had real-life consequences, reports Economist.com. Activision Blizzard recently changed its policy from requiring gamers to use their real names after heavy pressure from fans. The company rationalized that if players use their real names, they’ll be less likely to post offensive content; opponents said real names allow trollers to track down players, threaten them, post personal information and even stalk them in real life. To prove their point, one user tracked down the info of a Blizzard manager and posted personal information online. The company got the message and has since changed its real-name policy.
In another incident, Grand Theft Auto 5′s developer, Rockstar Games, has been open about privacy concerns. The company’s privacy profile details that it tracks registration information for an account, subscription posts, micro-content downloads, technical support requests and general download trends. This may still be too much for worried gamers that have seen enough privacy issues to closely scrutinize the companies and their policies.
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