The Man Who Hacked Video Games For A Living

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 1.7K

  • @teinmeizeshi5209
    @teinmeizeshi5209 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2431

    To think it started with a ban. Reminds me of the incident where an art school rejected a very passionate person.

    • @ethzero
      @ethzero 2 ปีที่แล้ว +55

      #godwinslaw

    • @SoulGuitarMetal
      @SoulGuitarMetal 2 ปีที่แล้ว +120

      It's funny that he was hired as a security analyst. What will happen when he gets bored of the job too?

    • @misham6547
      @misham6547 2 ปีที่แล้ว +80

      @@SoulGuitarMetal That's the exact point of hiring him as an analyst, since he already can do harm. By hiring him as one you remove him from the dark market

    • @itiscujo
      @itiscujo 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@ethzero Dang, beat me to it

    • @Cara.314
      @Cara.314 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      @@misham6547 yes....untill he gets bored. That was the joke

  • @Furblesnert
    @Furblesnert 2 ปีที่แล้ว +189

    I actually quit UO entirely when my 2 story house with around 2 million reagents (among tons of other items collected over a couple years of playing) was deleted less than 24 hours after i had paid the upkeep. I always assumed it was a server problem or bug of some kind. Now that i see this, and the fact that there was someone there collecting stuff almost immediately after it happened, i'm going to assume it was this bug. The only reason i was even there right away was because my brother owned the house next door and saw it vanish.

    • @VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan
      @VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      just sad ..... very very sad

    • @Furblesnert
      @Furblesnert 2 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      @@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan i did eventually go back, never got into it nearly as obsessively (the way i generally play mmos) but my dad had a similar hoard, and my brother had an even bigger hoard than either of us, so i could have kept playing, it was just so utterly deflating and demoralizing, especially thinking it was just a stupid bug on Origin's side. If i had known it was most likely a hack, i'm not sure if that would have made it better or worse.
      Thinking about it now, I do remember that reporting it, and having a GM show up, did absolutely nothing. Never heard back from CS, never got anything reimbursed. That's probably what ultimately led to me leaving completely.

    • @VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan
      @VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Oh wow, that was my next question "Did you report it?"
      That they did nothing about it makes it even more sad.
      Well...I think it was the beginning of MMOs and they were very inexperienced.
      The GM was not even able to recover your house and stuff most likely.
      It's still very sad for you as a player and your experience with the game. That a hacker did that to you makes it so much worse.
      The game means nothing to him. He spent some time hacking and making money. He was not attached to the game you loved.
      I am very amazed that he publicly admits to hack. I would be ashamed.

    • @Furblesnert
      @Furblesnert 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@VirtuelleWeltenMitKhan Yeah the house they SHOULD have been able to verify that i had just paid my upkeep a day or so before it poofed, but the contents of a house, as you said, it was early days of MMOs, and even Everquest had years before they had the back end tracking of stuff like trades, dupes, etc (and this happened a year or two before EQ even launched) I still have many fond memories of Ultima Online, just seeing this video and finding out about that hack really made me relive it a little, and made me consider just how much of an asshole this guy was, even if he said "i wasnt doing the really bad stuff" he still affected people in a massively negative way.

    • @xic777
      @xic777 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@Furblesnert thats really messed up that happened to you

  • @Morbacounet
    @Morbacounet 2 ปีที่แล้ว +549

    "I just provided to people what they wanted"
    That justifies anything. Even being a hitman.

    • @RiskOfBaer
      @RiskOfBaer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      Equating video game hacks to being a hitman? Really? I can see the point you're trying to make, but at least use an appropriate comparison...

    • @jacobbatchelor7877
      @jacobbatchelor7877 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Welcome to the human experience broski, enjoy your stay betwixt these shades of grey.

    • @ganjatheninja
      @ganjatheninja 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      yeah some people will pay thousands for digital products and id beat someone to death for thousands of dollars different aspects of life lmao

    • @michaelhutchings8599
      @michaelhutchings8599 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ganjatheninja It's all about perspective ay! Motivation shaped by our surroundings.

    • @kurrwa
      @kurrwa 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ganjatheninja for thousands? people gonna kill you for noodle soup don't overprices services

  • @CorpseTornado
    @CorpseTornado 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    I legit can't get enough of this new video style. This stuff is incredibly interesting and your laying out of the story is objective enough to not be annoying, and flavored enough to not be boring. Good show m8.

  • @collingraf606
    @collingraf606 2 ปีที่แล้ว +200

    I'm loving your latest videos Kira! They've been super interesting. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into making them

    • @KiraTV1
      @KiraTV1  2 ปีที่แล้ว +36

      My pleasure mate :)

    • @moshunit96
      @moshunit96 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Definitely. Found his groove.

  • @shigeon2668
    @shigeon2668 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    “they found out they could buy rocks at diamond prices”
    1980s cocaine trade in a nutshell

  • @Setixir
    @Setixir 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1538

    On one hand he's right. He didn't do anything near as bad as he could have. On the other token I'd respect him more if he'd just own up the fact that he obliterated mmo economies to make money.

    • @geog26
      @geog26 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

      Tokens or hands?

    • @65firered
      @65firered 2 ปีที่แล้ว +88

      He shouldn't just own up to it, he should own it. How many people can claim they destroyed multiple MMO economies, made tons of money from it, and got away with it?

    • @frankmarano1118
      @frankmarano1118 2 ปีที่แล้ว +60

      @@65firered Its why he should do both, he should own up to it AND own it. He did it because he could & didnt face any repercussions so why wouldnt he do it? It's kind badass in a way, but he should also at least own that he kind of messed these games economies up, & made people who actually spent dedicated time working hard on the game end up getting owned by rich kids

    • @65firered
      @65firered 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@frankmarano1118 Exactly

    • @PropaneWP
      @PropaneWP 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      The biggest reason why he wasn't more malicious is because "you don't shit where you eat". He would have destroyed his own source of income. He proved that he was malicious from the get-go, when playing Ultima Online and ruining the accounts of his rivals for no other reason than "fuck you". This guy is 100% an asshole and there's nothing right about what he's done.

  • @SethLT
    @SethLT 2 ปีที่แล้ว +87

    Great video but just frustrates me knowing I can probably never play an online game without people like this.

    • @MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD
      @MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      That's on the devs. If they weren't lazy idiots who banned people who try to help, this wouldn't happen.

    • @commoguru
      @commoguru 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      @@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD He wasn't trying to help, he was destroying the games economy.

    • @MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD
      @MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@commoguru that's helpful

    • @robertdeckard2136
      @robertdeckard2136 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      There are several ways you can avoid people like this and still play online games but the methods of avoidance might not suit you.
      1: Play less well known indie games. The game won't be targeted by hackers if they haven't heard of it. Also, since it's a less popular game, the playerbase will skew older. The sort of people who use aimbots, fly hacks, and the like are frequently trolling for a reaction. If there are no children and they can't get an overreaction from grown men and women they won't stick around.
      2: Avoid mmo's or anything with in-game purchases and pay-to-win. Also avoid competitive shooters like Valorant, Rust, or whatever they're playing now. The hacking situation is so bad on these games that the games now come with "anti-cheat" software which is basically spyware. Look it up.
      3:Play games that let you run your own server. Then whitelist it and only invite people you trust. Setting up a game server is usually easy. It can be done on your own machine if it's up to specs, or you can rent a cheap vps and have your friends pitch in. More difficult than actually setting up the server is having enough friends and "internet friends" with the same tastes in games.

    • @tomlxyz
      @tomlxyz ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@@robertdeckard2136so basically "don't play online games"

  • @RessG
    @RessG 2 ปีที่แล้ว +516

    Manfred: **Exploit the game, selling gold and profiting from it**
    Game company: Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this problem.
    Dat 1 Dev: We can start selling the gold too.
    Game company: Good idea!

    • @Phenomatron
      @Phenomatron 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      you can at least prove damages i guess in court if you have a price tag to the gold value?

    • @Palemagpie
      @Palemagpie 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      If you can't beat em, join em

    • @alexanderwalkendorff7733
      @alexanderwalkendorff7733 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      You pretty much described how and why drug legislation works.

    • @JonatasAdoM
      @JonatasAdoM 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      The guy startted pay to win microtransactions before they were official!
      Really shows that the problem aren't the companies, but the players. The company just wants in on the deal.

    • @JonatasAdoM
      @JonatasAdoM 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@alexanderwalkendorff7733 And you can tax it, while when it is illegal only the bootlegers get to keep the money.
      It's crazy how much cheaper rubbing alcohol is, when Vodka is actually pure alcohol.

  • @Thule-ob1vm
    @Thule-ob1vm 2 ปีที่แล้ว +57

    You know, in the tabletop game Warhammer Fantasy, there was a character named "Mannfred" Von Carstein. A vicious vampire, whom fought against humanity using armies of undead. I find it fascinating that there is a real world Manfred who was just as much of a bloodsucking parasite as the fictional one.

    • @warlordnipple
      @warlordnipple 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Lol, the horrible person who sold digital content to rich people. Much more evil than current companies trying to sell gambling to children. Or governments collecting taxes off the hopes of people playing the lottery. Or game companies with toxic work environments overworking and sexually harassing their employees.

    • @flacidfrank8410
      @flacidfrank8410 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      this one dident fuck up saving the world though

    • @nosoypaul21
      @nosoypaul21 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ​@@warlordnipple you mistake that dude with someone who gives a damn and deserves a damn

  • @sweetfry
    @sweetfry 2 ปีที่แล้ว +64

    It has been a very very long time since I've heard an MMO-related story that I had never heard about before. Pretty incredible story! Holy shit.

  • @Hmmm0101
    @Hmmm0101 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Reminds me of the time I found a bug in burning crusade wow, 14 years ago, buying an item from vendor for a price and selling it to the same vendor for more, creating currency from nothing. I was too young to think about monetizing it and simply gifted away the exploited gold to random nice people I encountered in the world.

    • @jonnym4670
      @jonnym4670 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      well maybe you can still do it on classic wow

    • @Onb3k3nd3
      @Onb3k3nd3 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      same

    • @sjs9698
      @sjs9698 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jonnym4670 unlikely, classic isn't running identical code, it's a chimera of fixes & older stuff rather than the original version.
      still, only 'unlikely' it's only probable that the version they're running is the fixed ver.

  • @Pryide
    @Pryide 2 ปีที่แล้ว +530

    "What i did is ok, since there are others who did worse" really is the worst excuse and shows the level of none-self-reflection Manfred and many others have.
    Great video Kira, interesting topic.

    • @Remixersoloman
      @Remixersoloman 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Id agree if we weren't discussing duplicating items and selling them to impatient gamers.
      He sold duplicated items, vs scamming people out of accounts, stealing info, etc, etc that actual problematic hackers or scammers get into.

    • @Krytern
      @Krytern 2 ปีที่แล้ว +23

      @@Remixersoloman Are you going to make an excuse for organ harvesters too? Because there are people willing to buy the organs. What a stupid excuse.

    • @Pryide
      @Pryide 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

      @@Remixersoloman I know what you are trying to say, but no: He single handedly crashed the game economy and even deleted the houses of other players, therefor lowering (and even ruining) the fun of thousands of players. Thats the whole point, yes there are worse scammers, but that in no way makes what he did "ok".

    • @Remixersoloman
      @Remixersoloman 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@Pryide fair enough on that one but that's the only.time it got that bad, and no matter what it doesn't make the extreme hyperbole in the comments any less laughable.
      No matter how many gamers he made marginally angry for an extremely.small portion of their lives, it is not comparable.to fucking ORGAN FARMING.

    • @Chaelsonen
      @Chaelsonen 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@Remixersoloman 8:00 in, dude worked for a chinese vendor directly.

  • @Weaverbeats
    @Weaverbeats 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    it's crazy that he didn't view himself as a bad guy.

    • @blackroberts6290
      @blackroberts6290 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      deluded moment

    • @bararobberbaron859
      @bararobberbaron859 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      'I could have done worse, so it wasn't bad' is one hell of a weak justification. 'I robbed 40 houses but I didn't kill any of the people sleeping upstairs' level.

    • @rolfs2165
      @rolfs2165 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      We're all the hero in our own story.

    • @Sound_Spark
      @Sound_Spark 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      it's cause he's not.

    • @sophiab.282
      @sophiab.282 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      he has a german name, im not surprised.

  • @jossh6827
    @jossh6827 2 ปีที่แล้ว +512

    Basicaly, he made his fortune doing bad things and destroying economies for legit players in games to turn around and try to buy back his reputation by doing "good" after when he no longer need this as a stable source of revenue. and people will love this guy for it.

    • @kurrwa
      @kurrwa 2 ปีที่แล้ว +35

      yea sweet irony right? online robin hood xD let me steal money from you after 20 years you going to love lmao

    • @utc_3
      @utc_3 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Well you gotta give him some rep for not using these exploits maliciously. Not spoofing ips, installing trojans etc. But as M Nowak said: "online robin hood XD".

    • @timthetoolmantaylor9048
      @timthetoolmantaylor9048 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      It's fascinating regardless. I mean it could be worse, he could be damaging something that actually matters instead of video games, most of which are dead now

    • @kidamnesiak1
      @kidamnesiak1 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      I get why it's annoying and irritating to people who take those games seriously, I'm not begrudging you for that... But comments like this in regards to THIS story seem a bit melodramatic. He didn't actually commit crimes, he didn't take any real money from anyone, nobody was physically hurt or attacked, nobody was infected with malware or blackmailed. Unethical? Yeah... it sucks that people's experience in game was ruined. But in the grand scheme of things, it's impossible for me to be too made at this guy. I mean, come on.

    • @kurrwa
      @kurrwa 2 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      @@timthetoolmantaylor9048 so if I break into your home and take the fridge but I leave you a TV and tell fix that because I could take TV too it's fine? he is not better than people who hack your account and take your all items etc. he is a selfish individual who made profits multimillion profits from someone. he is the same as other black hats hackers doesn't matter he is lighter black lmao

  • @kenny42069
    @kenny42069 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Your videos keep getting better, the editing keeps getting better and the topics you choose to talk about are always interesting and novel. This is definitely one of my favorite YT channels right now.

    • @rkkzjj32
      @rkkzjj32 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Repent and follow Jesus! Repenting doesn't mean confessing your sins to others, but to stop doing them altogether. Belief in Messiah alone is not enough to get you into heaven - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Contemplate how the Roman empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years to accomplish the religion of the Israelites C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate though because you can start a relationship with God and have proof. Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life. - Revelation 3:20
      Revelation has been unfolding since Jesus died. The Popes have claimed to be equal to God and set themselves in Jesus' place (antichrist(s)). Vatican City (Which is its own nation BTW) have risen up to fulfill the role of the false prophet
      Regarding the man of lawlessness or antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 says “Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The restrainer that the Apostle Paul was referring to in 2 Thessalonians was the Western Roman Emperor, who held back the Popes from taking power. Once the last Western Roman Emperor was removed from power in 476 AD, the Pope was given civil and ecclesiastic authority over Rome; healing the deadly head wound of the beast in Revelation 13, as they took the Emperors title of Pontifex Maximus, leader of the church and state.
      “We may according to the fullness of our power, dispose of the law and dispense above the law. Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God.” (Source: “Decretals of Gregory IX,” Book 1, chapter 3.)
      Pope Pius V blasphemed, “The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.” (Source: Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Cities Petrus Bertanous Chapter XXVII: 218.)
      Pope Leo XIII declared, “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” (Source: Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894)
      The antichrist sea beast of Revelation points to the office of the papacy, the Popes of Rome, who controlled the Roman beast for 1,260 years, from 538-1798 AD.
      Daniel 7:25 says “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” The Popes of Rome spoke against Elohim and proclaimed to be God. They reigned for 1,260 years, from 538-1798 AD. during which they caused tens of millions of saints to be killed.
      The Pope’s title is Vicar of Christ, which in Latin is ‘Vicarius Filii Dei’, and equates numerically to the number 666

  • @ReleeSquirrel
    @ReleeSquirrel 2 ปีที่แล้ว +109

    Geez, I always thought most of that mmo-money was from those farming sweatshops, where people multi-client farm as fast as possible, working in bad conditions for little money. It's amazing that he was able to get away with so much in so many games.

    • @SVanTha
      @SVanTha 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      seems like it's that way for WoW cause the dude couldn't hack WoW gold.

    • @yoma2977
      @yoma2977 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Oh they definitely exist especially for wow

    • @frankcoley1537
      @frankcoley1537 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Dude , when you can literally no life and learn python for free. Hell any programming for free ... That's a lot easier than sweating playing video games.
      If you're smart enough you can outsmart the other programmers.
      That's what he did. It's always bad when people who could of done more good with programming end up using it for bad purposes.

    • @architheftmusic1449
      @architheftmusic1449 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@frankcoley1537 If they fired someone when i try to bugbounty for them for Conversing with me, i would do the same. if i had the knowledge i'd burn them to the ground

    • @SilphBoss
      @SilphBoss 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Bug bounties are not good with games. I tried reporting some and the game banned me. Bug bounties are worth it for websites and such.

  • @willcummings4002
    @willcummings4002 2 ปีที่แล้ว +275

    I think the truly criminal action was the use of light mode in EVERY SINGLE SHOT OF CODE

    • @borispsalman
      @borispsalman 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      and the "movie hacker screen" with GUIs and shit when in reality it would look way more boring for average viewer seeing just a simple command line :D

    • @Shrek_Has_Covid19
      @Shrek_Has_Covid19 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      fu ck you light mode is the best

    • @aromatic8565
      @aromatic8565 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      CE and x64dbg didn't have dark themes for a long time...

    • @Truesilverful
      @Truesilverful 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I personally prefer light mode.

    • @willcummings4002
      @willcummings4002 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@Truesilverful who hurt you?

  • @jeb791
    @jeb791 2 ปีที่แล้ว +112

    It wouldn't piss me of so hard if this guy admitted that he is greedy & corrupt instead of calming him not going after innocent players

    • @rkkzjj32
      @rkkzjj32 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Repent and follow Jesus! Repenting doesn't mean confessing your sins to others, but to stop doing them altogether. Belief in Messiah alone is not enough to get you into heaven - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Contemplate how the Roman empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years to accomplish the religion of the Israelites C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate though because you can start a relationship with God and have proof. Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life. - Revelation 3:20
      Revelation has been unfolding since Jesus died. The Popes have claimed to be equal to God and set themselves in Jesus' place (antichrist(s)). Vatican City (Which is its own nation BTW) have risen up to fulfill the role of the false prophet
      Regarding the man of lawlessness or antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2:4 says “Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” The restrainer that the Apostle Paul was referring to in 2 Thessalonians was the Western Roman Emperor, who held back the Popes from taking power. Once the last Western Roman Emperor was removed from power in 476 AD, the Pope was given civil and ecclesiastic authority over Rome; healing the deadly head wound of the beast in Revelation 13, as they took the Emperors title of Pontifex Maximus, leader of the church and state.
      “We may according to the fullness of our power, dispose of the law and dispense above the law. Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God.” (Source: “Decretals of Gregory IX,” Book 1, chapter 3.)
      Pope Pius V blasphemed, “The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.” (Source: Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Cities Petrus Bertanous Chapter XXVII: 218.)
      Pope Leo XIII declared, “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” (Source: Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894)
      The antichrist sea beast of Revelation points to the office of the papacy, the Popes of Rome, who controlled the Roman beast for 1,260 years, from 538-1798 AD.
      Daniel 7:25 says “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” The Popes of Rome spoke against Elohim and proclaimed to be God. They reigned for 1,260 years, from 538-1798 AD. during which they caused tens of millions of saints to be killed.
      The Pope’s title is Vicar of Christ, which in Latin is ‘Vicarius Filii Dei’, and equates numerically to the number 666

    • @jakobtheiner6329
      @jakobtheiner6329 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      It's like in the real world, he's blaming the small time criminal who is doing dirty work which affects few people directly while he himself in this story acts more like a corrupt bank or government that kills millions of people/the game game itself slowly and in a less obvious way

  • @schwimdandy3820
    @schwimdandy3820 2 ปีที่แล้ว +193

    I got a kick out of him saying that he wasn't going to negatively effect the players when everything he did hurt the playerbase.

    • @OrphanHart
      @OrphanHart 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      yeah, in more ways than one. People don't understand how much getting easy money or gear affects games. It could lead to terrible experiences since the players don't have the required experience to match their load out, it could destroy the in-game market, it could lead to a housing shortage due to how easily they can be bought up, any PVP that uses equipped gear for stats would be totally broken, stat and gear cheats can ruin any race for world firsts, just lots of stuff he affects even if he's no longer destroying homes.

    • @jonnym4670
      @jonnym4670 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @@OrphanHart the games ruined themselves making 2 weeks' worth of content into a 6-month grind all so a year they could all be worthless

    • @S.O.N.E
      @S.O.N.E 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@jonnym4670 no

    • @yawnthedinosaur9566
      @yawnthedinosaur9566 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@jonnym4670 don't forget getting time-gated out of content ... Here is a new patch, now come back every week for next 6 months only to do 30 minutes worth of work,

    • @jonnym4670
      @jonnym4670 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@yawnthedinosaur9566 the rep system was the worst I am starting to get into guild wars 2 I like the fact even though they create expansions they keep the old stuff relevant at the same time it still rewards for new content and it shows there will be just as many people playing there meta events from 8 years ago as thier stuff that was released last Feb

  • @jaredhouston4223
    @jaredhouston4223 2 ปีที่แล้ว +55

    He PAID his taxes, which is literally saying he paid insurance, in the case if he got caught that he wouldn't be thrown in prison for years for tax evasion.
    Don't steal, the Government hates competition and if you are stealing, pay your taxes.

    • @blackroberts6290
      @blackroberts6290 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@yeahitsmesofkinwhat so the Joker is serious about his take on the IRS lmao

    • @suckonthebigtoe279
      @suckonthebigtoe279 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@yeahitsmesofkinwhat LOllers

    • @suckonthebigtoe279
      @suckonthebigtoe279 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@yeahitsmesofkinwhat but it's true just pay taxes, nobody cares if you chest in a game.

    • @padlasvillage
      @padlasvillage 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Just pay taxes. Government is biggest thief, you pay taxes everyday in store and yet they steal taxes from your salary. Be a sheep and pay taxes

    • @amphioxusanniversary
      @amphioxusanniversary 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      iirc, that was how they were able to get Al Capone for tax evasion. You can't say 'well, there wasn't a place to put crime-gotten gains, so I thought I didn't have to declare uwu'. It's pretty clever, tbh.

  • @RuskiVodkaaaa
    @RuskiVodkaaaa 2 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    "if you just create infinite money, inflation just gets out of control" oh boy I wish the US government would understand that LMAO

    • @jcarrandson
      @jcarrandson 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Haha so true, I'd love a government bank account where you can just type in the amount you want.

    • @crystllclr3743
      @crystllclr3743 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yeah you would think someone would have told them.

    • @mr_indie_fan
      @mr_indie_fan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@crystllclr3743 we did. We voted for trump. 🔥

    • @tiredpoison5784
      @tiredpoison5784 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@mr_indie_fan trump is a wealthy business man who manipulates fake Monopoly money and with collateral and investments as well as any market manipulation just like any rich person in America. I’m not politically involved but idolizing any politician is doing the world a disservice and people who are tasked with making the world a better place should always face criticism before fame

  • @LtColShingSides
    @LtColShingSides 2 ปีที่แล้ว +47

    lol He's so full of shit. Doing something bad isn't okay if someone else is doing something worse

    • @MisogynyMan
      @MisogynyMan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      You just destroyed 99% of all political debate on both sides.

    • @chode-i-dis4119
      @chode-i-dis4119 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      it is fucked but can't lie dude is pretty smart

    • @Cincy32
      @Cincy32 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      This guy & gamers like him are heroes. The gamers who defend these online economies in games are pure simps & it's thanks to them that microtransactions & the general increase in in-game monetization coupled with a MASSIVE decrease in game quality has been plaguing video games so severely for well over a decade now. Video games shouldn't be allowed to have in-game purchases anyway unless they're very strictly only sold to adults as video games inherently target children & in-game monetization reinforces obsessive & destructive behaviors.
      If guys like this make you mad then learn to do what they're doing. Stop wasting your time & your money like a genuine loser farming imaginary crap that was a sloppy tacked on manipulative system that's not needed in any core gameplay component. I modded the GTA games beginning when I was 12 with GTAIII and I modded & exploited their systems on GTAV Online. Never got banned, never paid for a "Shark Card" & I never had to pay for anyone else to "hack" stuff for me. Get good & stop simping for these soulless, greedy companies.

    • @user-lp5wb2rb3v
      @user-lp5wb2rb3v 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      its a fking game, touch some grass

  • @CleverCover05
    @CleverCover05 2 ปีที่แล้ว +28

    Imagine wrecking game economies and rival players because he can and then call yourself the "good guy" because there were worse offenders. He would make more money selling whatever drugs he used to justify that position.

    • @CleverCover05
      @CleverCover05 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @Bitten Apple well thats the exact reason I never play MMOs. Its reliant on everyone being there to have a good time. The moment someone decides to mess with something as baseline as the game economy for the lulz, it messes with everything else. You can't tell me just because I wasn't personally affected I can't think the guy was a teenage asshole.

    • @_wayward_494
      @_wayward_494 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @Bitten Apple LMFAOO nah you are terminally online ☠ go outside bro

  • @_caith
    @_caith 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    What I never understand, is why these accounts cant just be found via statistics. Like search the database for any player with over 10 trades of over 10 Million. Then take those 1000 accounts and throw them into a spreadsheet. If two people trade 200,000% more than the rest, then you have your offenders :/
    Some games did this - where they searched for fastest dungeon completion time. Any accounts with sub 10 second clears were banned - as it took you at least 5 minutes to just run across the damn map - let alone beat enemies and bosses.

  • @evrfreez
    @evrfreez ปีที่แล้ว +1

    "All I did was bash a lot of random people's teeth in with my hammer. Other guys with hammers, they *kill* people, but I just bashed their teeth in, because I'm an *ethical* hammer owner."
    This freaking guy.

  • @kid10249595
    @kid10249595 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    The amusing thing is how many times he like I would NEVER hurt the player base, yet proceeds to each time he would dupe, cheat or hack the games.

    • @Capnsensible80
      @Capnsensible80 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yeah, he's full of shit. Indirectly hurting the community by destroying the economy is still hurting the community. He wants you to think that because he's not directly harming them his hands are clean.

  • @cassius42
    @cassius42 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Just found your channel yesterday and I’ve binged quite a few of your videos now. Thanks for the super interesting content and keep up the great work!

  • @redbeardsteelskin6723
    @redbeardsteelskin6723 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    I remember hearing about him due to Defcon, but I never watched it so this was actually really cool to learn about. It does feel odd he basically got off scott free for a lot of crimes he openly talks about, but at this point I dunno if there would be anything they COULD do anyhow because they'd have to prove when he did them and with how long it's been on most of them (statute of limitations probably expired).
    Still dunno how I missed out on Wildstar, didn't know it existed till it was gone.
    Great video though Kira, they just keep getting better in quality!

    • @DeadEndGoose
      @DeadEndGoose 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Most of these kinds of things are covered by laws from the 80’s or prior, so unless they charged him with wire fraud, no one gives a shit.

    • @BriarLeaf00
      @BriarLeaf00 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@TuriGamer Certainly not illegal, definitely unethical depending on circumstances and surely just a total buzzkill and why so many are so hands off when it comes to playing mmorpgs.

    • @EvileDik
      @EvileDik 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Definitely not illegal, the game publishers will jump through hoops to establish that nothing in their games have value, to the extent of denying that easily accessible secondary markets that sell in-game currency exist. If everything in-game has no value, how can it be stealing?

    • @redbeardsteelskin6723
      @redbeardsteelskin6723 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@TuriGamer Hacking it in order to make money is very much illegal.

    • @karansainiscmhrd
      @karansainiscmhrd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      He paid his taxes and was transparent about his income the government won't care about the source. It is only when things are out of the normal range of operations that get flagged for investigation.

  • @AzzerMac2
    @AzzerMac2 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Love this new direction for your channel, the last few vids have been fantastic. Nicely done sir.

  • @WalkingIntrovert
    @WalkingIntrovert 2 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    You mean to tell me instead of farming for hours every day for 3 years, I could've just made gold from the thin air?😵

    • @aceous99
      @aceous99 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      the strong eating the weak

    • @protic4
      @protic4 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Rich people be like *smug*

    • @VenturiLife
      @VenturiLife 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      It was NFTs back in the day...

  • @Qube2023
    @Qube2023 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Your vids are hella interesting, been watching em troughout gaming sessions. Learning allot about whats goin on online trough you, thanks for that my guy ! much appriciated !

  • @bigbalddad
    @bigbalddad 2 ปีที่แล้ว +63

    So essentially he was the federal reserve of MMO's. Printing money as often and as much as he wanted, throwing it into circulation essentially causing rapid inflation and as the little people pay the toll he lines his pocket with money. The man should go into politics, he would be a natural.

    • @SplashgameFTW
      @SplashgameFTW 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Except people in politics don't actually get anything done... so he is massively overqualified.

    • @grogdizzy5814
      @grogdizzy5814 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Exactly. He's a douche that screws everyone else while pretending to be a good guy

    • @omegacon4
      @omegacon4 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Except no one voted this person permission to do what he did.

    • @Worms_Pro
      @Worms_Pro 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Your written skills are beautiful :)

    • @venomdank965
      @venomdank965 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      I played Final fantasy 11... I finally got a Kraken club it gets stolen... I bought it for 50-60milish when I wanted to buy a new one it was around 120mil... I quit the game... Everything I worked hard for.. I still want one to this day on private server but seems im never gonna get it.. :(

  • @BeefIntoCake
    @BeefIntoCake ปีที่แล้ว

    Just leaving a comment to boost the "Algorhytm" of this video. This is quality content and I love listening to this stuff while im working. Thanks for this.

  • @seaglass3034
    @seaglass3034 2 ปีที่แล้ว +109

    He ruined game economies, and by immediate proxy -- the games themselves. He is not a "good" guy.

    • @RuskiVodkaaaa
      @RuskiVodkaaaa 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      who cares, games are a waste of your time. Atleast he did something productive in his life and becoming finicially independent. Also he is a 'good' guy, lots of hackers do way worse shit to people who play those MMOs. Malware and keylogging are much easier then what he was doing and are profitable in you can sell the accounts. He could have done that if he wanted and he didnt.

    • @someguy4915
      @someguy4915 2 ปีที่แล้ว +32

      @@RuskiVodkaaaa So because some people do worse things his actions are okay? Because there's serial killers it's okay to just kill 1 person because others kill more? Games are a waste of time? So then anything that is a waste of time in your books is okay to be destroyed? Even when people just enjoy something?
      TV is a waste of time, and because some hackers install malware it is now by your own words okay to destroy television?

    • @TidusleFlemard
      @TidusleFlemard 2 ปีที่แล้ว +29

      @@RuskiVodkaaaa "games are a waste of your time" says the one watching video about games

    • @zipperman6045
      @zipperman6045 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      They're video games good on him for getting the bag who cares

    • @Krytern
      @Krytern 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @@RuskiVodkaaaa 🤡

  • @tdegraaf1990
    @tdegraaf1990 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I like that you've made this switch of subjects on your channel my dude!

  • @RCShufty
    @RCShufty 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    The mental gymnastics this guy does in order to justify his actions is truly amazing.

    • @davet5223
      @davet5223 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Manfred could see the value of time in your life and hated to see it being wasted grinding in a game so wanted to help by speeding up that process

    • @RCShufty
      @RCShufty 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@davet5223 lol, yeah, sure. Was nothing about getting rich at others expense or anything.

    • @davet5223
      @davet5223 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@RCShufty 😆

  • @JohnDBlue
    @JohnDBlue 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I can't lie and say I don't miss you uploading more often, but that's just because you've never made a bad video. This one is no exception ^^

  • @sintare1504
    @sintare1504 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I know guild member friends that lost their houses from being hacked unable to continue gold reselling etc. it definitely hurt people more than you think. Some peoples life’s work was a video game they cared about and you stole it from them for money. You stole someone’s favorite hobby or past time for wealth. Hope it was worth it.

  • @Deektrick
    @Deektrick 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Stellar! just Stellar Sir really am loving this newer format on the channel keep it up!! Quality stuff!

  • @socialistcatdad
    @socialistcatdad 2 ปีที่แล้ว +62

    Yeaaaaaaa he can moralize it all he wants, what he did was definitely exploitative

    • @sweetfry
      @sweetfry 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Oh well, it's a video game. It doesn't actually hurt anybodies well being at the very least.

    • @DrakyrusGunther
      @DrakyrusGunther 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      I think his point is that he didn't mess with anything other than the games themselves so his actions weren't something that could be prosecuted. Yes, he ruined economies, but the games are the ones allowing people to inject data.

    • @socialistcatdad
      @socialistcatdad 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@sweetfry yeah I mean there's something to be said for in game purchases being fairly exploitative all around, but in the scheme of things there's people doing much worse for sure

    • @kurrwa
      @kurrwa 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@DrakyrusGunther he isn't the real problem but games. If nobody would buy gold or items this market wouldn't exist. only people give mad values to those virtual items. I would never pay 10 k for virtual hammer that has no real value in real life after game is gone

    • @insanity2929
      @insanity2929 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@sweetfry Depends what you're on about.. if someone hacks ur account and makes u lose all ur shit thats pretty fucked up video game or not considering hours and money invested into a game. Theres crazy people that dump 1000s into some shitty games

  • @seanmartinss87mmorpgchanne96
    @seanmartinss87mmorpgchanne96 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    wow crazy . man yr videos have got to be such high quality . love it . and what a time we live in .

  • @RisingRevengeance
    @RisingRevengeance 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    As someone who played tons of mmos during his active time I must say I dislike the owners of the games more than him. These kind of things were the norm back then and they hardly did anything to stop it.

    • @defaulted9485
      @defaulted9485 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      The true pros are the account boosters we've met along the way.
      The true scrubs are the account buyers we demolished along the way.

    • @ekki1993
      @ekki1993 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I mean, yeah, the companies (especially MMO devs the last dozen years) deserve worse. It's still good to remember that he screwed up a lot of players and just straight up lied and tried to play neutral. Otherwise you might be seeing way too many dumbasses romanticise the edgy teenage ideal of "hackerman" fucking up shit.

  • @Chasardous
    @Chasardous 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I like the new video format a lot! I just listen a lot of the time, and having stuff to go back and rewatch is nice.

  • @Riclaval
    @Riclaval 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    This is why we can't have nice things, like player trading and auctions in MMOs.

  • @ItsNifer
    @ItsNifer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Okay Kira!
    I see you with the editing.
    Really love how you're improving ur content :)

  • @Caydiem
    @Caydiem 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Dude has a literal philosophers stone inside of him.
    Am I jealous of his talent and dedication to the craft? Fuck yes.

  • @Zdaren
    @Zdaren 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    manfred said he isn't going to negatively impact games and then he continues to do so

  • @amplidude254
    @amplidude254 2 ปีที่แล้ว +36

    damn i think what he's doing is impressive, but i can't believe he doesn't realize how much damage he caused. not only for the players, but the amount of actual revenue lost due to his actions is at least in the millions if not even in the billions.

  • @himechan1211
    @himechan1211 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This was an interesting video. I never really thought about the hacker mentality . I am surprised he hasn't gotten into any legal trouble over how he was illegally making money using exploits across multiple games.

    • @sjs9698
      @sjs9698 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      it's worth remembering that the people who make laws are basically completely ignorant of *every* issue in the digital domain.
      hell they generally struggle to keep up with biological & economic issues which have been resolved for centuries... the worst assumption one can make of the world is that those in power are qualified to hold it, imo.

  • @nitiratp
    @nitiratp 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    I thought this was going to be a video about The Spiffing Brit :)

  • @半蔵-x5h
    @半蔵-x5h 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I remember when Darkfall came out and gold was being sold on launch day. Same thing happened to Mortal Online they were taking orders before beta was over. I had always assumed they were scams, but considering how poorly those games were coded I could see Manfred or someone like him found the bugs in closed beta and new immediately they could deliver.

  • @Falney
    @Falney 2 ปีที่แล้ว +32

    With a rudimentary knowledge, it is typically pretty easy to find/make hacks. I used to make a bit of pocket money in uni by hacking games still in beta and turning the hacks in for bounties. Unfortunately, no developers want to pay bounties for them any more.
    Edit: Most hacks aren't "glamorous" like those mentioned in this video. One of mine was to code an auto potion on health hitting a certain value, or tricking the server into not removing an item from your inventory when you sell it

    • @uHasioorr
      @uHasioorr 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      'Most hacks aren't "glamorous" ' and 'tricking the server into not removing an item from your inventory when you sell it' are contradicting.
      This was literally infinite wealth hack something that Manfred would do.

    • @Falney
      @Falney 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@uHasioorr true. The game I found the infinite money on was firefall I think. A third person shooter by red5 studios. In game cash was unimportant and I was thinking about that when I wrote it.

    • @Falney
      @Falney 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I almost thought I stumbled on a game breaking bug on that when I found I could override the chr health thus becoming invincible. Turned out they had a safety check built in and I got banned.
      I was invulnerable for about 30 seconds.

    • @uHasioorr
      @uHasioorr 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Falney That explains why it wasn't "glamorous" :D

    • @hughjnus4256
      @hughjnus4256 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Falney you make hacks for ROBLOX?

  • @robk79
    @robk79 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I love the stock footage for "top coders."
    Just a bunch of nested ifs and a while loop. It looks like it is actually one of those tutorials for how to make your first "game" by showing you logic.

    • @bottlewisp
      @bottlewisp 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Are you saying that programming is just a bunch of 1s and 0s? Ifs and while loops /is/ programming lol

    • @robk79
      @robk79 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@bottlewisp Nope. I am saying the stock footage is not quite what I would call the programming of a "top coder" and I found it amusing.

  • @jimv8957
    @jimv8957 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    "I decided to not harm any players directly from that point on." > Proceeds to completely destroy the economies of many MMOs essentially destroying them from within. LMAO.

  • @Davyfarra
    @Davyfarra 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Your video format is very entertaining to watch and very informative! Great video.

  • @squirrellyme
    @squirrellyme 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    "I'm just providing paid services before in app purchases were a thing" sounds like what his legal team told him to say so he can keep as much of that money as possible. Because with as much as some of those games made/make, he was way passed just a slap on the wrist and a fine. And still not out of that water, if I had to guess.

  • @georgisaksson7500
    @georgisaksson7500 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    unbelievable !! great video Kira

  • @modelmajorpita
    @modelmajorpita 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    The fact that many companies now offer similar services doesn't mean what he did is ok, it means that in addition to destroying game economies and helping rich players get an advantage over everyone else, he also helped demonstrate to companies that there was another way they could profit off gamers, encouraging them to adopt microtransactions and pay-to-win mechanics by showing there was a market for them they could get rich off of.

  • @demavend6847
    @demavend6847 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Thanks for the work on this video. It was incredibly interesting.

  • @Beldan4
    @Beldan4 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    On one hand I LOATHE this and believe there is no real justification. On the other hand knowing what I do of RNG and how so many of these games are nothing more than super casino's which put Las Vegas to shame, I have little sympathy for the game developers. I can't count the number of times I've pushed myself to the edge of insanity trying to get a RNG drop....and never get it, only to have what I need be on the market for less money then I could earn in a few hours at a job.
    Manfred's ethics are somewhat player dependent. If players didn't buy, he wouldn't sell anything. It's the players themselves who destroyed the economy, he just gave them them the means to do it. I don't like it, but then there's a lot of things regarding human nature that I don't like and I am one too.

  • @ketamu5946
    @ketamu5946 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    There is a rule in germany. NEVER scam tax authorities. If they take you to court you already lost.

    • @noblephoenix6151
      @noblephoenix6151 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      The belief that some people have authority to control the resources of others is the most dangerous superstition. You should keep your property and resist the threats. You are the ultimate authority over your property, anything less is slavery to whatever degree.

  • @colemims6977
    @colemims6977 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I remember selling deviant fish that I fished in the Barrens in the auction house for 1g each. Vanilla Wow.
    I would log in to 25g a day, which was a shit ton of gold at the time.
    I never did understand why people paid to turn their characters into a pirate for an hour (or was it 10 min? I don't remember). But they did. Good times

  • @Shogoeu
    @Shogoeu 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    6:00 the worst move that a company can do - not believing in your own employees...

  • @KingKrouch
    @KingKrouch 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Honestly, I'm mostly interested in game hacking/reverse engineering from the standpoint of singleplayer modding and fixing technical/performance issues that weren't patched, but the whole ordeal with multiplayer game hacking is interesting from a technicality standpoint.
    It's a shame you can barely find any documentation on singleplayer game modding (Without modding tools), because TH-cam goes out of their way to remove anything other than crappy Cheat Engine Assault Cube tutorials (an open source game where there's zero point to disassemble game binaries) because they're paid out by the ESA. Finding documentation on that kind of stuff is notoriously difficult online, assuming you don't like stuff that's objectively cancerous like Guided Hacking.

    • @Reth_Hard
      @Reth_Hard 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I remember when I was young playing an MMORPG (don't remember the name), I coded a mining bot with visual basic. Basically, the bot was scanning the screen for the ore color and was clicking on it for mining. It was incredibly simple and I was leaving my character mining there for hours, then I was using the ore to craft weapons and armors and selling them in my shop. After a few weeks I was a millionaire, with the in-game gold... I was so proud of my little bot! lol But after a while I got bored and left the game.
      The thing is I was expecting to get ban very fast for doing this, it's pretty obvious when you see a character mining ores for 8 hours straight that it's not a legit player but apparently the admins didn't care about this.

    • @Justin-fq8dt
      @Justin-fq8dt 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I am a software engineer who used to own a large CSGO cheat which I sold online as my job for almost 3 years. Although all of the necessary information is available online, you are correct about it being difficult to find. That was several years ago now (I was in my late teens) and my morals have developed quite a bit to the point that I'm not really willing to compromise the experience of other users for the sake of profit anymore. Now I just work as a typical software engineer at a mid size start up, but it's a super interesting topic regardless and I look back on those days of my life with great nostalgia.

    • @sjs9698
      @sjs9698 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Justin-fq8dt most white-hats were black-hats once. congrats on your reform ^^
      also: f-u for breaking cs-go.
      really though. f. u.

    • @MegaKubapl
      @MegaKubapl 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      guided hacking objectively cancerous, could you elaborate?

  • @mikejones-nd6ni
    @mikejones-nd6ni 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    This was an awesome video. Great job with this one

  • @PropaneWP
    @PropaneWP 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    The most interesting aspect of this is the demand for these kinds of services. The obvious delusion required to buy progress and convenience instead of earning it adds a new and thicker layer of roleplay on top of the RPG. Those who manage to get enjoyment from cheating are in many ways the ultimate larpers. No matter how you look at it, it does take a very extra kind of narcissistic idiocy to pay for these services and in turn enjoy them without a second thought. At its core it is undeniably tragic.

    • @AquaCoalaNest
      @AquaCoalaNest 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      This is not true. In SKorea people play from internet coffees, where they can see how much a game costs per hour. So if they have to grind that given hour or can buy it 10% of price it is an easy choice. Don't assume everyone buys these "services" to get ahead in pvp or something similar. Some people just buys out the grinding. And what is considered grinding differ per person.

    • @VRDejaVu
      @VRDejaVu 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@AquaCoalaNest Exactly this. I played a now very dead MMO (Shaiya) for years. When the last update came i didnt like it so i jumped to a server that didnt get updated. I had nothing on the new server so i bought a ton of gold for real money, bought the equipment i needed and went on to PvP.

    • @S.O.N.E
      @S.O.N.E 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@dennisthemenace3695 but thats how MMOs make money

  • @neto7769
    @neto7769 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    great video!! wow, what a crazy story.

  • @Tekel-Upharsin
    @Tekel-Upharsin 2 ปีที่แล้ว +87

    Well kudos to him for cleaning up his act out of his own free will. But it was always unethical, and deep down he obviously knows this otherwise he wouldn't have done a U-turn.

    • @pelinoregeryon6593
      @pelinoregeryon6593 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

      Well, it's no skin of his nose now is it, he already made his money off it.

    • @SoulGuitarMetal
      @SoulGuitarMetal 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Every bandit becomes a good person after a successful robbery or after being caught.

    • @lt.danicecream
      @lt.danicecream 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Who says he cleaned up his act, him?

    • @dubaycr
      @dubaycr 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      lol, this last bank robbery will be my last since I have so much money already. See, I'm a good guy now.

    • @maggiejetson7904
      @maggiejetson7904 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      He would have been sued to bankruptcy once the pay to win economy started, the developers would have enough lawyers to bankrupt him.

  • @skagerrack8638
    @skagerrack8638 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    thanks for putting so much New World footage in there... so many servers got ruined because of such people

  • @FamiAoi
    @FamiAoi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    Manfred ruined several of my favorite games. Several. He ruined markets, the one thing I love to work legitimately in the games. He has destroyed my experience and made players flee from all of my favorite mmos. I no longer play mmos because of him.

    • @MisogynyMan
      @MisogynyMan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      and he still thinks he's not so bad

    • @TyeCozMusic
      @TyeCozMusic 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      So you're saying he did you a favor

    • @Robert-ln8ct
      @Robert-ln8ct 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      That's epic af

  • @johnnykeys1978
    @johnnykeys1978 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    There are hundreds if not thousands of other folk who also have those 'skills', but didn't use them this way, because it conflicted with morals. Manfred has the advantage of not having to worry about morals.

  • @RazielTheLost
    @RazielTheLost 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

    manfred calls THEM unethical while he destroys the entire game instead of just a few players.... manfred was unethical as fuck

  • @Altaranalt
    @Altaranalt 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    2:29 I hate this stock footage clip so much. It shows the player re-loading and AK with his left hand, while grabbing the front with his right, while shouldering the rifle to his right shoulder.
    I see this clip everyone and it drives me insane.

  • @ZybakTV
    @ZybakTV 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Great video dude!

  • @JonatasAdoM
    @JonatasAdoM 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Getting banned for reporting a bug for free and straight to the developer...
    Reminds me of when I shared an issue I had with a service online and asked whether someone had an idea of a fix, only to have it immediately removed because I was "leaking vulnerabiliies".
    The thing is, that was the second time after a while and nothing had been done about it and their customer support sucks.

  • @SleepingKing
    @SleepingKing 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    If the money was as great as this video leads common watchers to believe. Why is manfred now a security analyst making 150k a year? 397 trillion in wildstar gold is a very GENEROUS estimate. If he truly had the keys to the kitchen as you imply then why is he settling for a life of making less then 10% of that?

  • @williammcneil2045
    @williammcneil2045 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    it really is amazing, amazing that he can say oh i am not the bad guy but he is and its clear from the way he talks about it. well that he has no morals at all.

  • @Finderskeepers.
    @Finderskeepers. 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    I would love to see a class action against manfred from those you paid legit or the devs. Hes earned it. He gets no credit for not doing as much damage as he could of, its the damage that he did that he should be held accountable for

    • @sjs9698
      @sjs9698 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      'not doing as much as eh could have'? (nb. not 'of')
      like every driver who doesn't turn their car into pedestrians? do they deserve praise? really?
      all of us could have done *much* worse. all of us. your argument is inane.

  • @ohoto3896
    @ohoto3896 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    i appreciate the fact the stock footage you chose was picked because it was hilarious

  • @pokeylope6108
    @pokeylope6108 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I remember I got the last laugh on someone who hacked my WoW account back in Wrath. Back when you would get a random whisper, and just by replying they could get your info. He then proceeded to sell my armor on my chars, make new chars to spam links to sell gold. Proceeded to secure what he has stolen by putting and authenticator on my account. Coincidentally, at the time you got the offer to get the core hound pup pet for getting an authenticator. I sat on hold with Blizzard for about 4 hours, on the family drive up north for vacation. After 4 hours waiting, answered a few questions and bam my account was back. All gear sold was in the mailbox. Also... I got to keep the core hound pup. Lmao bad timing for him. Account gets hacked right before I'd be on vacay not even playing, plus a free pet. XD good times

    • @dianaalyssa8726
      @dianaalyssa8726 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Nice. Glad you got it recovered fine. Authenticator(s) are nice for protecting. Don't have as interesting a story, was playing invis in Shadowlands, clicking the dumb souls at that pit spot in the maw on my necrolord mog alt at night before reset, dc'ed, ended up changing password, think an ex got on it somehow despite my not sharing password. It wasn't doing anything harmful, perhaps mission tables were ran for me, idk, they were on in the Shadowlands (was freaking out pretty sure in my mind it was him specifically on, not a random person). Sometimes I had more gold or weird items in my menu bars but w/e, weird things on the menubars been a bit off since late Legion. I just try to change pw if anything weird or be visible most times now. Have 2 bnets on authenticators, at least it's more secure than not having them.

    • @hugepriapism3377
      @hugepriapism3377 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      i remember my old account got hacked and sold back in wotlk or cata forgot which one. then later when mop hits i Email blizzard with my card details and account info. And boom got my acount back, now with the swift spectral tiger and both the fire and ice mog helmet you could get at some point... good times thanks hacker i appreciate the mount very much!

  • @jamsenobyrne1421
    @jamsenobyrne1421 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great reporting! Please continue to shine a light on these dark areas of our online reality; I find it (pun alert!) most illuminating. But seriously, you cover a lot of detail in a very short time, and package it in a way that helps me retain much of it. (Believe me, that's an accomplishment, lol).

  • @khandimahn9687
    @khandimahn9687 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    "Ethical hacker"... uh, no. Not back then. Maybe you can make that argument today, working *for* the companies to find and report exploits. But before that, hacking for profit, is not "ethical." Just because you weren't as bad as some hackers doesn't make you good.

    • @someguy4915
      @someguy4915 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      'Ethical blackhat hacker' is already a contradiction, the whole point of the blackhat definition is crime/not ethical... It's like saying you're drying your hands in a bowl of water.

    • @resphantom
      @resphantom 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@someguy4915 Or saying the water is not wet.
      To become a white hat hacker, you require written permission to investigate an exploit and then write a report about it. You are not allowed to decimate a production server.
      Fun fact, hacking or completely destroying your own gear or business is not illegal, because you gave yourself permission to destroy your own equipment or business.

  • @ShayRubachOfficial
    @ShayRubachOfficial 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    this is one of the most interesting vids you uploaded man. cheers.
    UO2 rules btw.

  • @questor55
    @questor55 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I hate people like Manfred. He has a real talent, then employed his significant intellect to rationalizing his shitting up the game space by creating a line that he wouldn't cross. Its like an abuser who tells themselves that beating their wife isn't that bad because they're not killing her.

    • @sankaplays3098
      @sankaplays3098 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      He made money hacking a virtual currency, thats a real big stretch your making there. I once discovered a money dupe glitch in Runescape and it got patched in an hour and got my account banned, had it gone unnoticed I would have made bank off that too. Everybody who had the ability to do this would have done it, 100%.

    • @questor55
      @questor55 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@sankaplays3098 I'm glad you had your account banned in that case.

    • @sankaplays3098
      @sankaplays3098 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@questor55 It was when I was like 13 lmao.

    • @insanity2929
      @insanity2929 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@sankaplays3098 People still have the ability to do this and still do, doesnt make it okay just because "everyone else" would do it.

  • @Keaza.
    @Keaza. 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    There was a dupe going on in a game I play and it was going on for a month and few people knew about it, the economy crashed but my private economy skyrocketed.

  • @Eralealea
    @Eralealea 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    "Expanding the game's functionality to provide players with in-app purchases"
    This isn't even the first time I've heard that ridiculous excuse.
    My go-to response for these people in denial is this: If what you're doing truly isn't wrong, go talk about it openly in the official game channels. Official forums, discord, social media, etc -- ping the staffers and bluntly tell them what you're up to. If you can announce publicly that you're currently exploiting the game and none of the game mods ban you, then I'll accept that whatever you're doing is allowed by the game's rules.
    They never do it, because deep down, they know perfectly well that they're in the wrong.

  • @1970howl
    @1970howl 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great work again Kira, having played most of the games you mentioned and probably buying little amounts of currency for them its interesting to think that it probably came from manfred.

  • @MandatoryHashTags
    @MandatoryHashTags 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    As a career software engineer, I really have no problem with this. Companies need to stop skimping on their QA engineers. When people push out game before it is done to satisfy their publisher this is the kind of crap that happens. If you think games are the only place this happens I encourage you to not make purchases without supervision. Because every website/app on the planet has an astronomical number of exploitable holes in them. Because in the end the companies buying the software and paying for the app want it as cheap as possible as quick as possible, when you do that you end up with crappy work.
    It is a constant war of escalation, the hackers get smarter and it forces games to get better at securing them. If the game fails to do so, then they fail as a game. All of the complaining about ruining the economy perhaps you should consider the game already creates infinite money when you kill things.
    All he is doing is creating a shortcut, which involves risk. If you get caught you're done.
    The sheer magnitude of what he did, is something few can appreciate it. It takes literal hundreds of hours to make this stuff work consistently. Those inventory overflow bugs ... that comes from complete stupidity on the developer. Hard type your inputs, and then take the eight seconds to code defensively and not assume things will be what they are supposed to be.
    This comes down to another point in software engineering, go to all the bootcamps you want to learn how to write code. If the person teaching you how to write code does not know the principles of defensive coding, you will not learn them without effort. I applaud Manfred's tenacity, and hell I would have given him a job as a QA Engineer any day.

    • @L4t3xs
      @L4t3xs 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      If someone steals your car they are a dirt bag. Could the locks have been better? Sure. Still a shitty thing to do.

  • @ekki1993
    @ekki1993 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    People only go out of their way to defend the guy because the companies on the other side are worse. But don't be fooled, he knowingly kept screwing other players and lied through his teeth to appear nicer than he really is. That's not indicative of a good person.

  • @OneMeanArtist
    @OneMeanArtist 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    So he destroyed MMO's for legitimate players and now that he's rich, he wants to somehow be seen as noble? He's a malignant narcissist and anyone who has dealt with this type of person knows... once a pos, always a pos.

  • @ghosttraintittiebeaan4879
    @ghosttraintittiebeaan4879 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    bruh, ur content is absolutely incredible now.

  • @jonpaul3868
    @jonpaul3868 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    As one of the early gen of gamer (I played game as in the arcade golden era) I just can't wrap my head on the idea of using cheats, exploits, and bugs for a game. What is the point of playing games in the first place. What a looser.

  • @yassodude
    @yassodude 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Heard about Manfred in Darknet Diaries, but it's great to see some visual representation of the stories

  • @lostempyrean
    @lostempyrean 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Honestly if I was an MMO dev, I’d hire this guy. His ability to consistently find exploits across 2 decades of games is crazy

    • @oxxy6678
      @oxxy6678 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Like he would work a shitty dev job making 40g overtime when he is making 10x that and doing 10% of the work

    • @GameSetPatch
      @GameSetPatch 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@oxxy6678 people like this are more likely to work under contract for a specific purpose, and then be let go until needed again. And are going to be paid significantly more for their time investment if they have a specialized skill set and experience that can't be readily or cheaply found elsewhere.

    • @lostempyrean
      @lostempyrean 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@oxxy6678 a lot of software devs hire white hat hackers as consultants or contractors lol, they wouldn’t hire him as a full time employee or something?

  • @trashman1358
    @trashman1358 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Awesome vid dude, thanks!

  • @JLH0714
    @JLH0714 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    As a long-time legit gamer, I have often dreamed of meeting one of these people in real life. I guarantee they would think long and hard about their life decisions afterward. They are a disease to gaming. Whatever gaming is today it could be so much more without their cancer spreading and creating a whole generation of gamers content with taking shortcuts and robbing other players out of better experiences and rewards for their hard work. Not only that but they create a society of people who grow up expecting life to be all about taking shortcuts and cheating to get what they want. It doesn't work out as well as an adult in everyday life. You simply can't cheat those bills paid, so this leads them to all sorts of nefarious deeds.

  • @brendanortiz1742
    @brendanortiz1742 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    I worked with this guy. Really cool dude. The problem isn't with hackers exploiting the games because that will ALWAYS be the case. You will ALWAYS have someone who's going to exploit your software. The problem is how do you as a company respond to that type of event.

  • @naswinger
    @naswinger 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    sounds like what banks do: create infinite money out of thin air

    • @lightworker2956
      @lightworker2956 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yeah, this guy is only exploiting MMOs instead of the entire world. What a noob.

    • @kurrwa
      @kurrwa 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      nah

  • @josephbloomquist6850
    @josephbloomquist6850 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Manfred did an interview on an episode of the podcast Darknet Diaries that went into great detail his exploits in MMOs. Great listen for anyone who wants something more than surface level coverage.