This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Thirteen-year-old Jordan "Jo Jo" Myller paid $100 of his allowance so someone else could play his computer game, the online sensation "World of Warcraft."
It took him weeks of cleaning the house and washing the dishes, and it was more than twice the amount Jordan forked over for the game itself, but the shy Evergreen Middle School student says spending the money was worth getting a competitive edge.
Jo Jo paid a stranger -- who likely lives on the other side of the world in Asia -- to assume the role of his level 1 undead warlock in the sword-and-sorcery online game and play the virtual avatar day and night until the character grew to a level 40 warlock.
Yes, Jo Jo may be cheating in "World of Warcraft," but "it's fun, and I can do a lot more stuff" zapping adversaries with his newly-honed attributes.
This is deceit and devilish gamesmanship in a digital world.
In games of yore, cheating meant hiding the ace of spades in your sleeve or memorizing the "Trivial Pursuit" cards. Today, high-tech video games involve high-tech cheats -- anything from hacking into a program for player-character invincibility, to paying someone to "level up" an onscreen avatar.
Cheating in online games is a phenomenon that is growing, becoming more sophisticated, and evolving into a million-dollar cottage industry as online multiplayer gaming skyrockets. But honest players say cheating can ruin a game in a heartbeat or the click of a mouse.
DFC Intelligence, which monitors the gaming industry, claims 100 million people log in to play with others in video games every month. Analysts there also forecast that subscription revenue from online games will grow from last year's $2 billion to $6.8 billion in 2011. The Entertainment Software Association estimates 42 percent of frequent gamers play online games.
It's mere guesswork on how many of those players cheat in an online game because of their clandestine methods, but hardcore gamer Ian Ranstrom says there is at least one cheater in every match he plays.
"There used to be cheats here and there, and now everyone's doing it," said the 20-year-old Murray insurance adjuster, who has seen cheating mostly in games like "World of Warcraft" and the World War II shooter, "Call of Duty 2." "They just want to be jackasses."
Players cheat in a variety of ways. They can hack into the programs or create modifications or "mods" to make their characters invincible, shoot better or run faster. They can find "exploits" in the game's playing field that allow them to hide in walls or atop towers so they can shoot without being seen. Some even spend real money to get better weapons or armor in fantasy role playing games.
Seventeen-year-old Carlos Peña of Salt Lake City paid $15 for 200 gold pieces, which helped him buy the mighty "Reforged Blade of Heroes" to whack his enemies with a single swipe and for a grey wolf that he rides like a horse.
"Yeah it was cheating," he said. "But I got a whole bunch of weapons."
Many of these services for gold or "leveling up" are done by "chinese farmers," game players in Asia who are payed slave wages -- making less than 25 cents per hour, according to one New York Times report -- to play games nonstop. Some estimate hundreds if not thousands of such "sweat shops" in Internet cafes and warehouses operate in China alone.
Game makers don't condone swapping real money for the game's gold coins because it violates their "end user agreements" and can upset the virtual economy by artificially inflating the price of goods while reducing the value of the game money players earn legitimately.
And these software developers will spend millions of dollars developing titles with the latest anti-cheat strategies (for example, finding ways to track down cheaters to ban them from the game's servers) or to use anti-cheat software like Punkbuster, a program that is supposed to root out cheaters (though not successfully, according to some gamers).
Many companies are hesitant to talk about cheating in their games, knowing that holes in the software or glitches can ruin a game's popularity. The makers of "World of Warcraft," "Call of Duty 2," and another popular shooter, "Half-Life 2," did not return calls to The Salt Lake Tribune."
But Kirk Baum, the lead online developer for Incognito Entertainment in Salt Lake City, the makers of the "Twisted Metal" games for PlayStation systems, said it's a difficult task keeping up with hackers who try to find new ways to cheat.
"It's a losing battle almost," he said. "It's always someone who's going to thwart your strategy, so you have to attack it different ways."
Gamer Ranstrom says cheating is an annoyance that will never end.
"As long as games are online," he said, "someone is going to cheat in them."