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Right now, I'm writing a book about StarCraft.
The story I'm after right now is one about hackers. I'd like to speak with hackers (anonymity is no problem), hear your stories and ask you questions (technical questions, personal questions - whatever you're comfortable answering). My goal is not to expose you or even to criticize you in public, nothing like that. I think that this is an important aspect of StarCraft/gaming/computer history that, for many reasons, has very little light shed on it. And what is in the public is often hilariously inaccurate. I'd like to tell the story in an objective, truthful way.
While I do have several leads as far as this story goes, there are no guarantees right now that they'll come through. I thought that asking in this public place could reach a wider array of people and maybe land me an interview or two, enabling me to write the story.
For those non-hackers who clicked here out of curiosity, I'd appreciate your insight as well. There are a few good sources of information about hackers - show me any that you know of. If you have something of substance to say about hackers (why they do it, how they do it, when they do it, who they do it against, etc.), please share your thoughts.
If you're unsure of whether or not you should PM me a certain piece of information or post it, DON'T POST IT. The last thing I'm trying to do is make public information about hacks that will ruin anyone's game, site or day. PM me or email me. So let me reiterate: if you post a hack here, you'll be banned and, knowing that, you'll deserve it. Don't do it.
I want to hear what you have to say and ask you questions. Plenty of people will laugh at the idea that a hacker would respond to a public request like this. Maybe you're right, maybe this will go nowhere. But, maybe I'll find an articulate guy with intimate knowledge of that corner of the net to speak with, one who realizes that I'm not the SC police, just a writer with an idea for a story. I'll never know until I try!
By the way, The Shadow Scholar, an anonymous story by a guy who writes college essays for money, was my inspiration to ask here. It's really interesting on several levels, you should read it!
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United States5541 Posts
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Ashur last entry was very in-depth, you should ask him !
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thanks for the input so far, i've already progressed a bit!
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Croatia9530 Posts
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On November 17 2010 09:52 choboPEon wrote:Right now, I'm writing a book about StarCraft. The story I'm after right now is one about hackers. I'd like to speak with hackers (anonymity is no problem), hear your stories and ask you questions (technical questions, personal questions - whatever you're comfortable answering). My goal is not to expose you or even to criticize you in public, nothing like that. I think that this is an important aspect of StarCraft/gaming/computer history that, for many reasons, has very little light shed on it. And what is in the public is often hilariously inaccurate. I'd like to tell the story in an objective, truthful way. While I do have several leads as far as this story goes, there are no guarantees right now that they'll come through. I thought that asking in this public place could reach a wider array of people and maybe land me an interview or two, enabling me to write the story. For those non-hackers who clicked here out of curiosity, I'd appreciate your insight as well. There are a few good sources of information about hackers - show me any that you know of. If you have something of substance to say about hackers (why they do it, how they do it, when they do it, who they do it against, etc.), please share your thoughts. If you're unsure of whether or not you should PM me a certain piece of information or post it, DON'T POST IT. The last thing I'm trying to do is make public information about hacks that will ruin anyone's game, site or day. PM me or email me. So let me reiterate: if you post a hack here, you'll be banned and, knowing that, you'll deserve it. Don't do it. I want to hear what you have to say and ask you questions. Plenty of people will laugh at the idea that a hacker would respond to a public request like this. Maybe you're right, maybe this will go nowhere. But, maybe I'll find an articulate guy with intimate knowledge of that corner of the net to speak with, one who realizes that I'm not the SC police, just a writer with an idea for a story. I'll never know until I try! By the way, The Shadow Scholar, an anonymous story by a guy who writes college essays for money, was my inspiration to ask here. It's really interesting on several levels, you should read it!
The very, VERY, first thing a true hacker is going to tell you is that hacking is not about breaking into other systems, stealing sensitive information, and being malicious. Those are crackers (black hats).
A true hacker is somebody who applies there skills to ingenuity, progress, and further learning or development. A hacker doesn't break open a router because they want to steal information being sent over a network (unless it's to better the security), they want to know how it works, how it can be applied to other things, if they can make something neat out of it, if they can install linux and make it speak morse code.
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Just wanted to say thank you to those who have contacted me. These threads are interesting as well and I hope it all adds up to an interesting read in the end!
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I had a similiar idea some months ago - writing about why people cheat in competitive computer/videogames (as well as why some gamers pretend to be female on the internet; both have a lot in common).
Gecko and I started this guide together but when we couldn't find more 'famous' ex-hackers who were willing to talk about their past (yes I'm looking at you, Testie) I stopped - Gecko wanted to focus on the more technical aspects anyway. It is still a very good guide which, however, only briefly touches the points I wanted to concentrate on.
My experiences with hackers/cheaters in a nutshell: Most of them don't have much in life besides Starcraft or whatever game they are playing. Every game is taken very seriously, catastrophe is too little a word to describe what happens when they are losing. The few hackers I've confronted in RL about their cheating would either casually play it down - "Everyone does it, it is not a big deal" -, make outlandish statements - "It really helps me to get the timings down! The Koreans do it too!" - or try to twist the truth to a point I call "compulsive lying."
This is an excellent keyword - when Selector was approached in RL about his hacking history he would deny everything, claim to be "almost as good as Mondragon" as well as having apparently "no idea why I'm not allowed to play in the German national team." It was, and I'm dead serious, scary. Couple this with several threats online among the lines of "You are going to regret this" and you get a pretty good picture of how far things can go.
In the end, it is all about attention and much less about winning (the most experienced hackers who can control their ego are never caught - they are too smart), no matter if it is good or bad press. I met hackers ranging from the jovial hobby player who doesn't think it is anything bad to highly manipulative people with a god complex living in their own fantasyworlds.
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Germany2896 Posts
In Gecko[Xp]'s article ignore the paragraph "OP3 - The Ultimative Tool". I'm pretty sure it is almost completely wrong. And several other paragraphs are inaccurate/wrong too. If you have any technical questions just ask me.
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Canada9720 Posts
What zerokaiser said. It'd be nice if your book included at least a sentence explaining that, otherwise it will invoke the ire of every programmer who reads it.
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On November 18 2010 01:31 MasterOfChaos wrote:
In Gecko[Xp]'s article ignore the paragraph "OP3 - The Ultimative Tool". I'm pretty sure it is almost completely wrong. And several other paragraphs are inaccurate/wrong too. If you have any technical questions just ask me.
I don't know enough about the tech side of things to write anything at the moment. I might take you up on that offer though 
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I edited the text file for Minesweeper to put myself at -1 seconds for Expert level. Holy shit I'm so baller that even I'm in awe.
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EPT
