The Great Hacker War

The "Great Hacker War" is the player-dubbed name of the first major influx of new Hacking methods, spanning from mid-2009 to early 2010.

Pre-War Era
From the genesis of Closed Beta til' early 2009, Combat Arms was a haven for a fair, prosperous community. Players could enjoy hours of gaming and teamwork without questioning the others' skill or credibility. Hacking programs could have been considered a myth, and the few hacks that did occur were easily patched soon after their release.

Though many players knew that hacking would eventually arrive, as it did for many greater FPS games before, they tried to keep that fact in the corner of their minds. Players enjoyed the unique UI and HUD of the game, while the old BGM tunes ignited their thirst for fun, competitive gaming. There was no need for kicking or the failure known as the Elite Mod, because there was almost no reason to do so.

Voluntary or not, hacking soon became a nightmarish-reality, forever changing the CA community for the worse.

Primordial Hacking
During this Pre-War era, hacking was few and far in between. The majority of exploits were glitches in the newly released maps (especially Waverider), and the hacks that were mainly used were light chams or speeding. Occasionally, one player might have even used the precursor to the modern OPK hack, but they were unable to kill more than one player at a time. Hacking during that period was a very minor issue, because it occurred very rarely. Players seldom called each other hackers, and the majority of players were fair gamers at the time.

Hacking never reached a tantamount point, like massive OPK or Ghosting, and other hacks that would soon come later. The most well-known exploit of the time was the discovery of how to utilize Nexon's special announcement device, allowing hackers to start megaphoning hacking advertisements, which in turn caused major lag. It was also one of the main elements which led to the chaos ahead...

The Great Hacker War
The Great War has been a looming threat since the days of Open Beta. Only a year later did the real turn-of-events ignited the never-ending feud..

The Dawn of Unrestriction
A few months after Combat Arms was released, its popularity had begun to spread to many communities over the web. Unfortunately, as Nexon's first FPS game, it was also made known to several "well-known" hacking websites, who specialized in destabilizing video-games. These were (and are) people who took their enjoyment from seeing whether or not companies could do anything against their exploit of the game's many codes. All they had to do was rearrange a line here, insert some things here, and the seeds of chaos were sown.

At first, not many people hacked, and an even larger amount of players knew of their existence. Utilizing many methods, including the Great Announcement jack referenced above, the hacking community began to make itself known.

Beginning in early November, many of these infamous hacking sites released a a new breed of hacking to the general community. Commonly referred to as "Pub hacks", these exploits managed to draw large crowds of users into the new, rapidly growing hack industry, which in turn contaminated Combat Arms' newly formed community. These new hacks were easy to implement and understand, and they gave users a great advantage over other users. The first to resort to hacking were users with bad sportsmanship, lack of skill, or those who nurtured a hatred for Nexon itself.

The flow of new hackers seriously disrupted the flow of gaming balance. Many legitimate gamers were outraged; their much harder-to-earn Kill-to-Death Ratios were seriously being compromised, and they demanded action. Nexon responded by saying that they would continue to update their security, and once again told players to keep their account information safe and secure. In December 2009, Nexon claimed to have banned over 10,000 suspected hackers, though this was still only a miniscule fraction of the ever-growing hacker community (and even then, it had little impact on the rest of them). Many players were not satisfied...

Flight of the Legit
Several months after the initial outbreaks, the hacking situation eventually became so out-of-hand that most Legitimate players started a new routine; to play only the first few days after a patch's release before going back into submission. Many players agreed that a new patch allowed a short timeslot (1–3 days) where hacking was minimum, making it the best time to play Combat Arms. In doing so, it would ensure that there would be a hack-free period of time, because a majority of the previous hacks had just been patched.

However, newer updates eventually became unable to patch certain hacks. Even on the day of a new patch, waves of hackers could already be encountered; most of whom were seen hacking before the patch. Pro-hacking websites could produce hacks for a new patch even before the patch came out. As such, many legit players began to quit Combat Arms; permanently. As the number of hackers grew (through corruption, exploitation, and the selfishness of formerly-legitimate players); the number of legit players greatly decreased. Even today, veteran players claim to "quit" because the hacking situation, coupled with lag, rage-kicking, and simple in-game inbalance is so out-of-hand. They point-out that hacking causes lag, as well as other problems which are simply not good for the community.

During this time, Hackers were exceedingly rampant. They utilized every known hack at the time, including early Chams, OPK/Ghost, and Fly Hacks. 9 of every 10 games had at least 1 or 2 hackers within the room. In every game, some player would be hack-cusated at least once. Vote-Kicking and Elite-Modding were greatly abused, and continue to be today. To make matters worse, many of these kickers and Elite Moderators were hackers themselves. Players who remained steadfast in the face of exploitation were now deeply entrenched in Hackanoia: No one could be trusted; not their friends, and certainly not Nexon. (People would log in and their friends would say things along the line of, "Hey, try these new hacks I found!, or "You won't get in trouble if you use them!," to even,"Nexon doesn't care if you use hacks, and they'll never catch you!".)

Combat Arms, it seemed, was on the verge of collapsing, like many other FPS games before it..

The Hackers' "Eradication"
During the alleged "final days" of the War, the number of ever-loyal players continued to dwindle. Nexon seemingly remained silent to the pleas of their customers. Finally, as a last-ditch effort to stop the hackers, Nexon implemented a very large and sophisticated patch, unlike any which had previously been released. Though shaky at first, the new "super-patch" greatly decimated the hacking community's efforts. Changes were made to the way players logged in, so that they could safely do so from the CA Website itself. (Though players are still able to do so without going on the website) The UI was reformatted for "quicker, easier access"; which also reduced the number of possible exploits greatly. Lag was aimed to be reduced, with more-reinforced servers. Many known glitches that still remained were patched, though a number of obvious ones were left alone. (It is speculated that these are Nexon-approved spots which are acceptably NON-glitch spots) A majority of hacks were then patched, and re-patched, ensuring that Combat Arms could be secure once again.

As such, the Great Hacker War unofficially came to an end within March 2010, when AnhLab Hackshield severely updated its protocols, taking out approximately 65% of all PUB hackers, and 30% of any VIP hackers (vague estimations). Any remaining hackers were dealt with severely, and the rest fled into hiding. For the first time in a long time, all was well once again..

Post-War Era
Soon after the GHW's "end", the number of hacking incidents fell greatly. The community of Combat Arms enjoyed a peaceful prosperity for a few months, with only a few hackers in-between patches. Many who were caught were finally banned this time around, and Nexon's policies grew stricter. Many who were event "suspected" of exploting the game would recieve instant punishment in the form of suspension, bans, or even demotion.

At the same time, however, pro-hacking sites attempted to recover their ground. All good things must come to an end, and a number of ever-increasing riots soon set ablaze another conflict..

Alliance- The Rise of Hope
Taking us back to the Pre-War era, we need to look at the "brighter" side of things. Although hacking incidents have continually occured for some time, there were also some positive outcomes that resulted from hacking. A new, player-safe way of hacking was introduced while hackers controlled the community: Anti-hacking. These hackers used the same exploits that their evil counterparts, but that is where their similarities end. Anti-hackers exploited these hacks even further: by using them to benefit everyone. Anti-Hackers worked to eradicate any "bad" hackers and ensuring that gameplay was fair and safe. If someone began to OPK, an Anti-Hacker would quickly put them down, and they would most likely leave. The majority of these Anti-hackers used means such as ghosting, tapping, and chams to their advantage, and even then, only if necessary.

After the GHW, legitimate players and Anti-hackers decided that enough was enough. If Nexon wasn't going to help, they would take matters into their own hands. The two factions formed a truce: they planned to take the fight back to the hackers. Legits and Anti-Hackers alike prepared for a counterstrike aimed the heart (or source) of all their hacking problems. These noble players decided to band together to try and keep the hackers at bay. Legit and "White-hat" clans assembled and recruited players for their cause. Like other hackers, Anti-hackers used the newest and latest hacks to their advantage. Some also reported any hacks they had found to Nexon, in the hopes that they would be patched. Though unresponsive as ever, Nexon may have been grateful to these players, as they were generously assisting the "constantly over-swamped" Nexon Staff.

Many players hoped to combine the skills of Pro-Gaming players and Anti-Hacking to finally have a solution to their never-ending nightmare, even if it was only temporary.

Resurgence- NX Exploit
Around late-January, 2010, Nexon joined the new growing trend; Free Online Surveys. This allowed people who were too poor or lazy to buy NX to finally recieve some, a comfort as well as a flaw.

Several hackers saw this opportunity to once again resurge hacking. A great majority of 2nd-Generation hackers managed (and are still managing) to complete massive amounts of surveys. The little increments of NX soon accumulated into large amounts of spent NX-credit, adding to their grade, and allowing them to enter the Black Market. Though there were already many hackers in the Black Market, the overwhelmingly increasing number of hackers which flooded in caused serious damage. The server crashed and experienced maintenance repeatedly. Their new-found NX also gave them the liberty to abuse and spam incredible amounts of NX items, like the M32 Grenade Launcher and the Airstrike Designator- LGB.

NX users were enraged. Many of them demanded for the BM grade requirement to be raised. In the February 2010, the Black Market grade lock was raised to Silver. This eliminated a majority of hackers, but at the same time it also took 80% of legitimate players out. (Although some people still managed to bypass the grade lock, via invites or just using the weak security.) The fickle community flooded the forums with demands about changing the grade lock once again, this time to lower it. The grade lock was repealed once again, back to Bronze. However, Nexon also changed the grade requirements so that it required more NX usage to gain higher grades.

To this day, however, hackers have mostly dominated the Black Market scene.

Retribution- Fall of the Fortress
During this time, it seemed that for a while, hacking had finally been beaten back. The alliance between the players seemed as strong as ever, and the occasional hacker was kept at bay.

However, everything nearly fell apart.

In just one day.

It was a seemingly average time for the Combat Arms community, with no events or updates in sight. The Site/System Maintenance commenced and finished as usual, and there were no known issues. Shortly after the update, a series of mysterious hackings occurred. Before there was a chance to put down any recognized threat, they disappeared just as quickly. Fearing the worse, many players began to prepare for the critical situation that loomed ahead.

The hackers, who had finally found their opening via a major flaw in the maintenance program, took the oppourtunity to once again take over "their" community. It was unknown exactly who created the new hacks, but once set in motion, the trend was infectious. Hackers began to re-surge uncontrollably, and the Alliance readied to wage the war it prepared for.

However, a devastating turn of events took place which shattered the balance of CA and tore the community apart. Some of the leading Legitimate players turned on their Anti-hacking brethren as well as the rest of their comrades. They began to utilize hacks themselves, and players were stunned as their admired and respected friends became corrupted before their very eyes. The seemingly-impenetrable "fortress" of players started to crack from within, and the survivors did everything in their power to make sure that it didn't fall apart. A select group of hackers, infamously known as the "AUG" series (because they all had the word AUG in their usernames), led the rest of the hackers in for the kill. They utilized only the most devastating hacks, from entire server crashes, massive Quarantine powerleveling, and a firestorm of Airstrike exploits. The most devastating blow to every user was the use of Rank Hacks to surpass Greatfullded himself as the General of the Army. The players of Combat Arms were devastated. How could all of this happen so soon, so quickly? Had they not prepared for this fight? Were their security methods that bad that even an illegitimate GOA could rise above the rest? The tranquility they had worked so hard to re-achieve fell apart right before their eyes, and many were helpless to stop it.

However, the remaining Legitimate and Anti-Hacking factions held their ground. They eventually pushed back the hacker forces, and kept them at bay. This time, Nexon intervened as soon as possible. They kept the servers stabilized, and continued to support the players as much as they could. Thanks to Nexon's contributions, the playing field was greatly leveled once again. The leaders were banned. Others destroyed.

The Second War had begun.

The Second Hacker War
By the time the Alliance had fallen, hacking was once again in full swing. Newer, more deadly-efficient ways of exploiting the game had been conceived. The ongoing fight between the player-created factions set the mark for newer generations. This time, the innocent players of Combat Arms weren't totally helpless; they could fight back.

Overtaken - Hackers within a Mist of Defeat?
Though the initial months of the 2nd war were brutal, more advanced patches came, and the hackers took blow after blow. Losses were heavy on both sides, but the good players of Combat Arms stood their ground. Many hackers went into remission, hoping to find a way to bypass Hackshield's security. Meanwhile, the remaining Legitimate players and Anti-hackers have decided to use this time to regroup their efforts and prepare for a second assault.

(the rest of this article is currently under review)

From an estimate made by a trusted third party, in the time between each patch there are about ten public hacks made available to the public. That same party also estimates that if you add up all of the members on all of the hacking sites, you`ll find they total about 3.5 million in number, though this includes one person subscribing to multiple sites. Since about January 1, 2010 there has been an uprising of sites offering "Trial VIP Hacks." This allows the user to use a restricted version of a site`s VIP hack for 1–3 days. These "trial hackers" typically exploit cut-down versions of OPK or Teleport Kill as well as aimbot. The catch about the hacks is that they have a built in spammer, locked on, that blatantly states the user is hacking and the name of the website the hack came from. Nexon has made a great effort to stop these free VIP hacks, but the spammers work just as intended, creating a vicious cycle of hooking and drawing in more and more people to download the hacks. As a result, more people are quitting the game and going to better games or turning to hacking themselves once again.

Disarray, Chaos, and Sacrifice - CA's future in Peril?
Combat Arms is now a constant battlefield; With the new UI, HUD, and devastating weapons, hackers have all the opportunity to corrupt the community's gameplay. Other players are losing their faith; others could not seem to trust anyone anymore. Steadfast players have taken refuge within the halls of the NF Battlegrounds; from there, they could at least devise new plans and question Nexon's ethics. They have formed Allied clans such as the Dark Templar to show that there are truly professional players out there. Other sites, like the CBL, have constantly worked in unison with other communities to ensure that there is at least ONE safe haven for the dedicated players of Combat Arms. But trouble began to increase. The hackers continued thier campaign and gradually took more ground and began to crush and take over areas the legits are camping in. Despite the overwhelming complaints and tickets about hacking, Nexon couldn't do anything but watch...

The only refuge legit players can find is within Clearance Level 3 Servers (with the exception of the Black Market). Most of the Level 1 and some of the Level 2 Channels have been flooded with hackers, but it is only with the efforts of the soldiers fighting on the front lines against the hackers that the CL3 has remained a haven for legit players. Most hackers get banned before reaching CL3 because of these soldiers' brave struggle and reports. It is imperative that they do not falter, as one hacker in the CL3 will cause massive mayhem. Although there are some rumors of hackers in CL3 servers ,mainly foxtrot because hackers lower their KDR to cause mayhem there, except Kilo appears to be clean. Keep up the reports and Godspeed...

Christmas, Disunity, and the Bad Part of Giving.
For the holiday season of 2010, several infamous websites such as Gordon and VIP hacks have released free hacks and even some vip hacks. The month of christmas has been extremeley harder hit compared to its previous months. Hacks have been created for free, such as Aimbot and super opk hacks. Even a new spawn system which can spawn many things at once. Brace yourself for fighting agianst the hackers these next few months!!