E-safety and Web 2.0: Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4

Becta commissioned the University of Nottingham in conjunction with London Knowledge Lab and Manchester Metropolitan University to research Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. This is the fourth report from that research and concentrates on the e-safety aspects of Web 2.0 in education

Prevention vs detection in online game cheating

Abstract. Cheating is a major problem in online games, but solving this would require either a complicated architecture design, costly third-party anti-cheat, or both. This paper aims to explore the differences between preventive and detective solutions against online game cheating. Specifically, it explores solutions against software-based cheatings, what kind of cheats there are, and what proposed and implemented solutions there are. This paper was conducted using literature reviews as methodology, using relevant papers from databases such as ResearchGate, ACM, and IEEE. In this paper, it was concluded that a good prevention strategy during the game development phase is adequate to mitigate and prevent cheating but will require appropriate anti-cheat software to maintain fairness during the lifetime of the game. The importance of an online game’s network architecture choice in preventing cheating became apparent within this paper after comparing the benefits of each type side-by-side. Results showed that peer-to-peer architecture not having a trusted centralized authority means that the game needs to rely more on an anti-cheat software to prevent and detect cheating. This paper could not conclude what an appropriate anti-cheat software is because the topic is outside of the scope of this paper and lacks public data. Still, it does raise the question of whether a more aggressive anti-cheat strategy is suitable for a game or not

Analyysi huijauksen tunnistamis ja esto tekniikoista mobiilipeleissa ̈

Cheating in video games has always been a problem for the players and the game developers. The problem is not just limited to the open platforms like computer games but also to closed platforms like console and mobile games. In this thesis we examine commonly used cheat protection methods that can be used to protect video games from different type of cheat tools. We focus especially on the methods that are also viable on the mobile platforms. First, we study client-side protection methods which are directly implemented to the game's client application. These methods include protection against memory editing and tampering the game save files. We also look how code obfuscation can be used to protect against cheaters. Second, we study different type of server-side architectures that be used to prevent cheating in the game. Finally, we present our architecture that is especially designed to be used in mobile games. The architecture takes account the limitations and restrictions of the mobile devices like unreliable mobile networks and limited battery life. Our analysis concludes that the server-side protection methods are clearly more reliable to prevent cheating in games and they are also much harder to bypass or break. Many of the client-side cheat protection methods are relying on the secure through obscurity which means that they are vulnerable for flaws in the implementation. Also, on the client-side the cheaters can easily gain an access to the game's memory, network traffic and files saved on the device storage. Using server-side protection methods where the game logic is run fully or partially on the server provides the most effective protection against cheaters.Huijaaminen videopeleissä on aina ollut ongelma sekä pelaajille että kehittäjille. Ongelma ei vain rajoitu avoimiin alustoihin kuten tietokonepeleihin vaan se ulottuu myös konsoli- ja mobiilipeleihin. Tässä diplomityössä tutkimme yleisesti käytettyjä huijauksenesto menetelmiä, joilla voidaan puolustautua erilaisia huijaustyökaluja vastaan. Keskitymme erityisesti menetelmiin, jotka ovat myös käytettävissä mobiilialustoilla. Ensimmäiseksi tutkimme miten asiakaspuolen puolustusmenetelmiä, jotka voidaan suoraan toteuttaa pelin asiakassovellukseen. Nämä menetelmät sisältävät suojautumisen muistimuutoksilta ja tallennustietojen peukaloinnilta. Tutustumme myös miten koodin obfuskointia voidaan käyttää puolustautuakseen huijauksilta. Seuraavaksi tutkimme eri tyyppisiä palvelinpuolen arkkitehtuureja, joiden avulla voidaan estää huijaaminen pelissä. Lopuksi esitämme itsesuunnitellun arkkitehtuurin, joka erityisesti suunnattu mobiilipeleille. Esitetty arkkitehtuuri ottaa huomioon mobiililaitteiden useat eri rajoitukset, kuten epäluotettavat yhteydet ja akkujen lyhyen kestoiän. Analyysimme osoittaa, että palvelinpuolen suojautumismenetelmät ovat huomattavasti luotettavampia estämään huijaaminen peleissä ja ne ovat myös paljon vaikeampi ohittaa tai rikkoa. Monet asiakaspuolen huijauksen suojautumismenetelmät luottavat epämääräisyyden tuottamaan turvallisuuteen, minkä takia ne ovat haavoittuvia, jos toteutuksessa on puutteita. Lisäksi asiakaspuolella huijarit pääsevät helposti käsiksi pelin muistiin, verkkoliikenteeseen ja laitteelle tallennettuihin tiedostoihin. Käyttämällä palvelinpuolen suojausmenetelmiä, joissa pelin logiikka ajetaan kokonaan tai osaksi palvelimella, tarjoaa tehokkaimman suojauksen huijareita vastaan

The Economics of Sportsmanship

Cheaters never win and winners never cheat. Most children have heard this simple admonition at some point. It is truly unfortunate that it is not true. Sometimes athletes cheat and win, at least for a while. But it is rarely a good long-term strategy. And given the desire to win evident in athletes at all levels, maybe we should not be surprised at the occasional act of cheating, but rather at the rampant cooperation and sportsmanship that in fact transpires each day in professional sports stadium, high school and college facilities, and parks and sandlots across America. In this essay, we will use the tools of economics to examine and explain this epidemic of sportsmanship and good behavior

Who Owns the Virtual Items?

Do you WoW? Because millions of people around the world do! Due to this increased traffic, virtual wealth amassed in MMORPGs are intersecting in our real world in unexpected ways. Virtual goods have real-life values and are traded in real-life markets. However, the market for trading in virtual items is highly inefficient because society has not created property rights for virtual items. This lack of regulation has a detrimental effect not just the market for virtual items, but actually the market for MMORPGs. Assuming we want to promote the production of MMORPGs as a market, society requires a set of distinct property rules to decrease the inefficiencies in the virtual market. In creating these regulation, we may be able to take cues from intellectual property laws, as many of the problems surrounding virtual goods are akin to intellectual property

Doping in the UK: Alain and Dwain, Rio and Greg – Not Guilty?

As ‘contractors to contest’, athletes must accept certain constraints, such as that against doping, in order to count as acceptable opponents. This essay is an attempt to explore the issue of doping in sport via applied ethics, showing how complicated and messy individual cases can be, and how our judgements about them are coloured by a range of moral possibilities and intersecting contextual features. Sometimes there just aren't any clear-cut answers. It examines four recent cases involving UK athletes, which present us with different though overlapping features, opening up a wide range of issues for consideration. It explores the adequacy and morality of the actions of the athletes and their support teams, and of certain rules, procedures, decisions and judgements surrounding these cases

Social network market: Storytelling on a web 2.0 original literature site

This article looks at a Chinese Web 2.0 original literature site, Qidian, in order to show the coevolution of market and non-market initiatives. The analytic framework of social network markets (Potts et al., 2008) is employed to analyse the motivations of publishing original literature works online and to understand the support mechanisms of the site, which encourage readers’ willingness to pay for user-generated content. The co-existence of socio-cultural and commercial economies and their impact on the successful business model of the site are illustrated in this case. This article extends the concept of social network markets by proposing the existence of a ripple effect of social network markets through convergence between PC and mobile internet, traditional and internet publishing, and between publishing and other cultural industries. It also examines the side effects of social network markets, and the role of market and non-market strategies in addressing the issues

Spartan Daily, April 21, 2016

Volume 146, Issue 33https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily_2016/1031/thumbnail.jp