This Korea Times article reports ‘popular online role-playing games such as Lineage,need gamers to hunt down weak monsters repeatedly to increase their character’s ability levels and obtain items.To avoid such monotonous work,gamers use cheating tools such as software programs called ‘Macro,’and a USB type automouse”.The article explains,”such passive cheating tools are usually categorized into two types,software macros and hardware types called auto-mouse.The software type is usually called “macro.”It is usually cheaper and easy to use,but is vulnerable to the countermeasures,as game companies can easily upgrade their systems to prevent use of macro programs.In comparison,the hardware type is more complicated,more expensive and more stable.They often look like portable USB storage with a flash memory chip and electronic circuits inside.It can grab video signals transmitted between the PC and the monitor,and analyze the signals to make a judgment.For example,when a player gets beaten by a monster and loses his health, the game shows that he is in a critical condition by showing a bar gauge on the monitor.When the reading goes down by a certain point,the auto-mouse notices it,and moves the character out of the danger zone.Then it makes the character regain his strength by drinking a magic potion or using a magic spell,before sending it to another battle.It is practically impossible for outsiders to tell whether a human or a computer program is playing a game character.Also,it is not against Korean law to use a macro of an auto-mouse,as they do no damage to the game’s main server”.Further,”it is difficult for game companies to punish the cheaters or even detect them.Most companies say they prohibit using cheating programs and they close down game accounts of cheaters who are detected.But such things happen rarely,gamers say”.

Mouse Plays When Gamer’s Away