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Hey all, author here - it feels pretty surreal to see my work on the front page of HN! I have done some other hacking on MTGA like creating an insta-win bug: h

Hey all, author here - it feels pretty surreal to see my work on the front page of HN! I have done some other hacking on MTGA like creating an insta-win bug: https://twitter.com/dan__mayer/status/1641669864460009472 https://twitter.com/dan__mayer/status/1641669864460009472 As others have pointed out there are many games where the items _are_ easily converted back to dollars. Welcome to the beautiful world of game hacking! There are some really great talks about game hacking out there that you should check out, people make bank (and have a lot of fun) with it: 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUf_ygqsDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUf_ygqsDo 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoNdhlLPX-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoNdhlLPX-g It is not all fun and games though, game companies crack down on hackers profiting off of item duping and botting HARD. A bit related is the hacker who sold hardware to help play pirated games for the switch who has to pay Nintendo a third of his salary for eternity: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-hacker-gary-bowser-released-from-jail-will-pay-nintendo-25-30-income-for-the-rest-of-his-life/ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/switch-hacker-gary-... So be careful out there. Hack the planet!

2h 3y ago
> Hack the planet! Honestly this reads as "how do you do, fellow kids?" You found a cool bug, then immediately reported it. That's not what the movie is about at all. Please don't corporatize hacker culture.
- anonym29 3y ago
  The kinds of people who do these exploits and cash in on them tend not to write blog posts about it on their personal website that links to their real-world LinkedIn.
- ddtaylor 3y ago
  It's strange this comment is being downed, because the "Hack the planet" quote from the movie (Hackers, 1995) and the tone of the entire movie is individual hacker vs corporate hacker. There is no way the main protagonist (Dade Murphy) would have disclosed a security vulnerability to the any of the companies in the movie. The quote in question is yelled by Dade while he is being dragged away by federal agents after saying "They're trashing" as a hint to the floppy disk he hid near the trash. Disagree with what the poster is saying if you want, but he is accurate that the quote is being misused IMO
  - nwiswell 3y ago
    That's fair, although that movie is itself a little bit "how do you do, fellow hackers?"
    - MacsHeadroom 3y ago
      You take that back, the film Hackers is a 100% accurate portrayal of the life of all hackers.
      - Firmwarrior 3y ago
        It's 10% exploiting zero days, 90% deploying demoscene animations
- sethherr 3y ago
  lol, "fellow kids" being people who get a roughly 30 year old movie reference.
- danielwmayer 3y ago
  You commented this on a site named "Hacker News" run by a venture capital firm
kg 3y ago
Props for fairly accurately describing what Gary Bowser actually did. Everyone just calls him a pirate when he was basically a middle-man for circumvention hardware... AFAIK he's not even a hacker?
- chinaman425 3y ago
  [dead]
- morelisp 3y ago
  That defense is not really believable given the emails that came out. The punishment is egregious (esp. jail time), should've been something like 3x his profits, but the guy definitely sold ROMs (and other people's circumvention software!) (which apparently they added their own switch-bricking anti-circumvention to!) for profit.
  - kevingadd 3y ago
    He wasn't convicted of any of those things, though. You can look up what the actual conviction was: > The official charges are "Conspiracy to Circumvent Technological Measures and to Traffic in Circumvention Devices" and "Trafficking in Circumvention Devices", both of which are federal felonies in the United States. Perfectly reasonable to assume the worst about the guy, but given that Nintendo is involved I will assume that anything the government couldn't prove is false.
dcdc123 3y ago
Great article, thanks! I had a thought regarding something you said. > this left me stumped as to why the client-side calculation even exists I suspect it is to validate that the price they showed you in the client was the same price they actually charged you. It seems reasonable enough anyway.
quickthrower2 3y ago
Gary’s story is dystopian: jail and slavery to a big corporation. Based move would be to get min wage job or live off benefits and do open source work.
- dmurray 3y ago
  Getting a job that pays cash in hand, or largely in non-cash benefits, would be the other obvious approach. Huge tax rates are generally counterproductive for society (even if you like big government and think the state is a better steward of money than the individual) because at some point people are no longer motivated to produce anything.
  - quickthrower2 3y ago
    Or start a start up. You can pay yourself minimum wage with wealth tied up in the startup that wont be realised for a decade or more.
    - pcthrowaway 3y ago
      The best would be a business that purchases his things for him. E.g. he starts an LLC, profits stay in the company, company provides meals, vehicle, and phone+plan for the execs, plus travel expenses, and he gets a low salary from which I guess he still has to pay his rent.
      - TeMPOraL 3y ago
        Can't the LLC rent some flat as "company apartment" for "employees traveling on business", that happens to be in the same town as the HQ, and, since the LLC has only one employee... Or just plain rent it and sublet it to the CEO for peanuts. (This is all fun speculation, but Nintendo lawyers aren't idiots - the actual settlement likely covers LLCs, startups, benefits, and all other obvious workarounds. Hell, it probably makes Nintendo entitled to the 30% of unreported cash income and proceeds from crime as well.)
theshrike79 3y ago
At what point are you expecting the Pinkerton Agents to break down your door and drag you to a private black site on WotC's request? =)
- User23 3y ago
  I'm not sure if you're kidding, but Hasbro is notoriously litigious and might well do the civil equivalent. They are huge fans of the-process-is-the-punishment too.
  - robobenjie 3y ago
    The comment is referencing this story where hasbro did indeed hire pinkerton to show up at someone's house and intimidate them which has been shaking the mtg world recently. https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/trading-card-game/news/magic-the-gathering-aftermath-youtube-prompts-pinkerton-investigation https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/trading-card-game/new...
  - rantallion 3y ago
    In case you missed it, WotC did in fact sent the Pinkertons to a Magic player's home. Not a great look, even for a litigious firm. https://kotaku.com/mtg-aftermath-leaks-pinkertons-wotc-magic-the-gathering-1850368923 https://kotaku.com/mtg-aftermath-leaks-pinkertons-wotc-magic...
isolli 3y ago
Well done! Can you expand on what this means? "we can just patch our binary with the appropriate opcodes"
- danielwmayer 3y ago
  Yeah, check out my response here: https://old.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/1385b90/heisting_20m_dollars_worth_of_magic_the_gathering/jixazav/ https://old.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/1385b90/heistin...
dr-detroit 3y ago
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2h 3y ago

> Hack the planet! Honestly this reads as "how do you do, fellow kids?" You found a cool bug, then immediately reported it. That's not what the movie is about at all. Please don't corporatize hacker culture.

anonym29 3y ago
The kinds of people who do these exploits and cash in on them tend not to write blog posts about it on their personal website that links to their real-world LinkedIn.
ddtaylor 3y ago
It's strange this comment is being downed, because the "Hack the planet" quote from the movie (Hackers, 1995) and the tone of the entire movie is individual hacker vs corporate hacker. There is no way the main protagonist (Dade Murphy) would have disclosed a security vulnerability to the any of the companies in the movie. The quote in question is yelled by Dade while he is being dragged away by federal agents after saying "They're trashing" as a hint to the floppy disk he hid near the trash. Disagree with what the poster is saying if you want, but he is accurate that the quote is being misused IMO
- nwiswell 3y ago
  That's fair, although that movie is itself a little bit "how do you do, fellow hackers?"
  - MacsHeadroom 3y ago
    You take that back, the film Hackers is a 100% accurate portrayal of the life of all hackers.
    - Firmwarrior 3y ago
      It's 10% exploiting zero days, 90% deploying demoscene animations
sethherr 3y ago
lol, "fellow kids" being people who get a roughly 30 year old movie reference.
danielwmayer 3y ago
You commented this on a site named "Hacker News" run by a venture capital firm

kg 3y ago

Props for fairly accurately describing what Gary Bowser actually did. Everyone just calls him a pirate when he was basically a middle-man for circumvention hardware... AFAIK he's not even a hacker?

chinaman425 3y ago
[dead]
morelisp 3y ago
That defense is not really believable given the emails that came out. The punishment is egregious (esp. jail time), should've been something like 3x his profits, but the guy definitely sold ROMs (and other people's circumvention software!) (which apparently they added their own switch-bricking anti-circumvention to!) for profit.
- kevingadd 3y ago
  He wasn't convicted of any of those things, though. You can look up what the actual conviction was: > The official charges are "Conspiracy to Circumvent Technological Measures and to Traffic in Circumvention Devices" and "Trafficking in Circumvention Devices", both of which are federal felonies in the United States. Perfectly reasonable to assume the worst about the guy, but given that Nintendo is involved I will assume that anything the government couldn't prove is false.

dcdc123 3y ago

Great article, thanks! I had a thought regarding something you said. > this left me stumped as to why the client-side calculation even exists I suspect it is to validate that the price they showed you in the client was the same price they actually charged you. It seems reasonable enough anyway.

quickthrower2 3y ago

Gary’s story is dystopian: jail and slavery to a big corporation. Based move would be to get min wage job or live off benefits and do open source work.

dmurray 3y ago
Getting a job that pays cash in hand, or largely in non-cash benefits, would be the other obvious approach. Huge tax rates are generally counterproductive for society (even if you like big government and think the state is a better steward of money than the individual) because at some point people are no longer motivated to produce anything.
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  Or start a start up. You can pay yourself minimum wage with wealth tied up in the startup that wont be realised for a decade or more.
  - pcthrowaway 3y ago
    The best would be a business that purchases his things for him. E.g. he starts an LLC, profits stay in the company, company provides meals, vehicle, and phone+plan for the execs, plus travel expenses, and he gets a low salary from which I guess he still has to pay his rent.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Can't the LLC rent some flat as "company apartment" for "employees traveling on business", that happens to be in the same town as the HQ, and, since the LLC has only one employee... Or just plain rent it and sublet it to the CEO for peanuts. (This is all fun speculation, but Nintendo lawyers aren't idiots - the actual settlement likely covers LLCs, startups, benefits, and all other obvious workarounds. Hell, it probably makes Nintendo entitled to the 30% of unreported cash income and proceeds from crime as well.)

theshrike79 3y ago

At what point are you expecting the Pinkerton Agents to break down your door and drag you to a private black site on WotC's request? =)

User23 3y ago
I'm not sure if you're kidding, but Hasbro is notoriously litigious and might well do the civil equivalent. They are huge fans of the-process-is-the-punishment too.
- robobenjie 3y ago
  The comment is referencing this story where hasbro did indeed hire pinkerton to show up at someone's house and intimidate them which has been shaking the mtg world recently. https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/trading-card-game/news/magic-the-gathering-aftermath-youtube-prompts-pinkerton-investigation https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/trading-card-game/new...
- rantallion 3y ago
  In case you missed it, WotC did in fact sent the Pinkertons to a Magic player's home. Not a great look, even for a litigious firm. https://kotaku.com/mtg-aftermath-leaks-pinkertons-wotc-magic-the-gathering-1850368923 https://kotaku.com/mtg-aftermath-leaks-pinkertons-wotc-magic...

isolli 3y ago

Well done! Can you expand on what this means? "we can just patch our binary with the appropriate opcodes"

danielwmayer 3y ago
Yeah, check out my response here: https://old.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/1385b90/heisting_20m_dollars_worth_of_magic_the_gathering/jixazav/ https://old.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/1385b90/heistin...

dr-detroit 3y ago

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