 Grand Theft Auto is a gaming series which has grown to the level of phenomenon since it originally launched way back in 1997, and the expectations for any new series are huge. This means a huge amount of pressure, but the online reviews have generally been extremely positive. These have praised numerous aspects of this latest instalment of the franchise – the first entirely new edition since Grand Theft Auto IV six years ago – noting the complex world that the game is set in and the innovative way that the gaming has been structured. This latter element allows you to move between three different main characters if you play using single-player mode, with the ability to shift between playing as Franklin Clinton, Michael De Santa and Trevor Phillips, as the situation demands. The perspectives and situations that this places the gamer in are often daringly ‘dark’ – including a scene of torture – and this has led to some controversy, although the majority of players seem to like this gritty element. However, one key element of the Grand Theft Auto series which has been largely absent from V is casino gambling – although there are indications that this might change with the upcoming update, however until then you may want to practice (which you can do for free if you don’t want to gamble your real money) at http://www.gamingclub.com/au/online-roulette. There is a casino featured in the original version of GTA V, but it is not actually interactive (meaning you can’t gamble at it during the game). However previews of the downloadable content (DLC) update suggest that casino will be central to it. The presence of the Vinewood Park casino with the ‘opening soon’ sign on the outside always suggested that there were plans for this to be a future part of the game – and it seems heists as well as gaming will be available to players who download this update. The content leaks for the GTA V DLC also suggest games like roulette – meaning players should have the option of actually gambling to raise in-game cash as well, indicating that the relationship between GTA and casino gaming is far from over.  |
Boston, MA - April 12, 2014 - In front of a sellout crowd at PAX East 2014, ReedPOP, the world's leading producer of pop culture events, and Penny Arcade, one of the largest gaming communities on the Internet, announced the addition of a new PAX event to the calendar - PAX South. Slated to debut in San Antonio, Texas in early 2015, the southern addition marks the fourth PAX show and third to occur in the U.S., continuing the tradition of proving the most authentic celebration of game culture in the world.PAX South expands an event calendar that includes shows in Seattle, Boston, and Melbourne, Australia. The new show will build on the foundation of the PAX format giving fans a healthy mix of the latest and greatest in video games, tabletop games, game inspired music, competitive gameplay, and insight from leaders in the world of gaming. The annual events give gamers a PAX show for every season throughout the year. "The love of gaming in all its many forms, whether that be on a TV, a computer, a phone, or even a tabletop, is hitting an all-time high. PAX gives gaming fans one place to get a glimpse of emerging trends and does it in a truly fun and interactive way," said Lance Fensterman, Global Vice President of ReedPOP. Robert Khoo, Penny Arcade President, added, "Since its launch in 2004, PAX events have doubled in size almost every year, and our Seattle and Boston events represent the two largest gaming festivals in North America. We've been hearing for years that those in the south had a tough time making it to the northern corners of the country; PAX South has always been a matter of 'when' rather than 'if.'" The addition of PAX South continues ReedPOP's recent expansion in the live events space as the company further solidifies its place as the world's number one provider of pop-culture events. Since the beginning of 2014 the company has announced the creation of a new consumer book event, BookCon, a targeted comic book convention in New York City, Special Edition: NYC, and the oversight of the largest comic convention in Australia, Oz Comic-Con. About PAXThe PAX series of shows (Prime, East, South, and Australia) represent some of the largest gaming festivals in the world, drawing tens of thousands of attendees to each. Connecting the world's leading video and tabletop game makers with their most avid and influential fans, the shows also focus on the cultural aspects of gaming with panels, concerts, tournaments, and freeplay areas. (http://www.paxsite.com) About ReedPOPReedPOP is a boutique group within Reed Exhibitions, which is exclusively devoted to organizing events, launching and acquiring new shows, and partnering with premium brands in the pop culture arena. ReedPOP is dedicated to producing celebrations of popular culture throughout the world that transcend ordinary events by providing unique access and dynamic personal experiences for consumers and fans. The ReedPOP portfolio includes: New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Prime, East and Australia, Star Wars Celebration, and the UFC Fan Expo. In 2013 ReedPOP (has) added Star Wars Celebration Europe and PAX Australia to its rapidly expanding portfolio of international events. The staff at ReedPOP is a fan based group of professionals producing shows for other fans, thus making them uniquely qualified to service those with whom they share a common passion. ReedPOP is focused on bringing its expertise and knowledge to world communities in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific (including Australia). |
Trust is a critical part of a multiplayer game community - trust in the developer, trust in the system, and trust in the other players. Cheats are a negative sum game, where a minority benefits less than the majority is harmed. There are a bunch of different ways to attack a trust-based system including writing a bunch of code (hacks), or through social engineering (for example convincing people that the system isn't as trustworthy as they thought it was). For a game like Counter-Strike, there will be thousands of cheats created, several hundred of which will be actively in use at any given time. There will be around ten to twenty groups trying to make money selling cheats. We don't usually talk about VAC (our counter-hacking hacks), because it creates more opportunities for cheaters to attack the system (through writing code or social engineering). This time is going to be an exception. There are a number of kernel-level paid cheats that relate to this Reddit thread. Cheat developers have a problem in getting cheaters to actually pay them for all the obvious reasons, so they start creating DRM and anti-cheat code for their cheats. These cheats phone home to a DRM server that confirms that a cheater has actually paid to use the cheat. VAC checked for the presence of these cheats. If they were detected VAC then checked to see which cheat DRM server was being contacted. This second check was done by looking for a partial match to those (non-web) cheat DRM servers in the DNS cache. If found, then hashes of the matching DNS entries were sent to the VAC servers. The match was double checked on our servers and then that client was marked for a future ban. Less than a tenth of one percent of clients triggered the second check. 570 cheaters are being banned as a result. Cheat versus trust is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game. New cheats are created all the time, detected, banned, and tweaked. This specific VAC test for this specific round of cheats was effective for 13 days, which is fairly typical. It is now no longer active as the cheat providers have worked around it by manipulating the DNS cache of their customers' client machines. Kernel-level cheats are expensive to create, and they are expensive to detect. Our goal is to make them more expensive for cheaters and cheat creators than the economic benefits they can reasonably expect to gain. There is also a social engineering side to cheating, which is to attack people's trust in the system. If "Valve is evil - look they are tracking all of the websites you visit" is an idea that gets traction, then that is to the benefit of cheaters and cheat creators. VAC is inherently a scary looking piece of software, because it is trying to be obscure, it is going after code that is trying to attack it, and it is sneaky. For most cheat developers, social engineering might be a cheaper way to attack the system than continuing the code arms race, which means that there will be more Reddit posts trying to cast VAC in a sinister light. Our response is to make it clear what we were actually doing and why with enough transparency that people can make their own judgements as to whether or not we are trustworthy. Q&A 1) Do we send your browsing history to Valve? No. 2) Do we care what porn sites you visit? Oh, dear god, no. My brain just melted. 3) Is Valve using its market success to go evil? I don't think so, but you have to make the call if we are trustworthy. We try really hard to earn and keep your trust.SOURCE: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1y70ej/valve_vac_and_trust/ |
