In hacknet, when you try to hack a target you’ll see it has SSH and FTP services running. You run fake programs like SSHcrack.exe and FTPbounce.exe to exploit those services and the you’re in.
In hackmud, when you try to hack a target you’ll see it has an “ez_35” lock and a “c001” lock. The ez_35 lock requires an unlock word, something like “open”, “unlock”, “release” and a digit between 0 and 9. The c001 lock requires a color like “red” “purple” “lime”. You need to enter the right inputs within the time limit to hack the target. You can do it manually, but most targets have too many locks with too many options to manually guess all of them in time. You’ll need to write your own real life script in JavaScript that can detect locks and automatically guess every option for those locks. If you’ve ever done programming challenges then you shouldn’t have too much difficulty writing these scripts. If you’re new to programming it’s not the easiest tutorial. The game provides very little direct help.
If you’re into scripting or hacking you should check this game out. It’s an interesting twist on the Multi-User Dungeon genre. The game presents mostly as a command-line interface where your goal is to seek out targets to pwn for money/points. NPC targets will have vulnerabilities you need to find and exploit in order to expose a hackable part. Once found you engage hackermode where you’ll have a timelimit to break the target’s security (mostly through bruteforce cracking). The game allows you to write short scripts in JavaScript to automate searching for vulnerabilities and cracking security.
Being Multi-User, there are other users online doing what you’re doing and you’re free to chat with them and exchange scripts. You’re also free to write malicious scripts that will steal money/points from others who don’t check scripts before running them!
The part I found cool was that the game mirrors IRL hacking much closer than other hacking games. You’ll often need to submit incorrect data to NPC targets to get an error message that will contain hints about where to go next. Ex. A webpage has “News” and “About Us” sections. You can request a section that doesn’t exist to get an error message that shows all acceptable sections: “News”, “About Us”, or “Employees”. You’ve found a hidden section! Using scripts to send a bunch of mal-formed data at a target and then analyzing which ones generate an exploitable error is part of real-life security testing.
I got a friend in game dev. They’ve worked for 3 companies over 6 years. None of the titles they have worked on were ever released.
The title they’re currently working on has had its funding cut (by Embracer Group) and the CEO of the studio is desperately trying to find another source of funding. Everyday they go into work expecting to be told the studio is shutting down.
Game dev certainly seems to suck the souls out of creative people who just want to make something fun.
Gamestop has been a meme stock since covid when it jumped from a few dollars a share to $50 a share. Since 2020 it has fluctuated quite a bit but has overall trended downwards. Now it’s gone from $10 up to $30 each. A fool and his money are soon parted.
There’s definitely a CEO whose bonus depends on hitting a certain number of PSN accounts. I can only assume account info is being sold because why else would they care? It’s either that or they eventually plan on charging PC players a monthly fee to play all their Sony games.
Yes, you’re right. Arrowhead aren’t playing good cop. They deeply regret their decision. As they should. They ruined an amazing game by giving control of it over to Sony. I still agree with the OP. Fuck Arrowhead for ruining an awesome game by giving Sony control.
Lay with dogs, get flees. I don’t pity Arrowhead for signing an anti-consumer contract with an anti-consumer company for money and then realized it hurt their image with consumers. This is the consequences of actions. Maybe their next game will be self published. That was always an option. They didn’t pick that. They picked this.
They signed a contract with Sony saying they’d require PSN to play the game. They knew this would be a requirement. It’s not like PSN suddenly isn’t available worldwide. They were fine with the deal until players got upset and now they want out of the deal to save face.
You know how kids will want anything that has their favourite character on it? Gamers are just like that. Elder Scrolls 6 can have 1 minute ads in between areas and it would still top sales charts because gamers cannot stop themselves.
I really hope the recent pushback Sony got will spark a new norm but I’m very cynical.
Stop buying games from studios that pull this kind of shit. I get that some industries are run by monopolies and need government regulations since nobody can choose to support the better companies (because there are none), but gaming isn’t one of them. There are hundreds of independent studios that make games as a passion. Stop buying $90 Aways Online, Loot box, Battle Pass, Day 1 DLC, popular IP games with $50 million dollar budgets funded by investors. If people stopped buying these they’d stop being made.