Terrorists will use any tool available to them. Even MMORPGs? Yes, a new presentation given at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington gives a scenario on just how an MMO can be used to practice terrorist plots. First the White House... and then... the World! ...of Warcraft?

At the request of MMORPG Second Life creator Linden Lab, FBI investigators have visited some of the virtual casinos in the virtual world, but just how gambling in Second Life stands from a legal viewpoint is still in question. This according to reports from Reuters.

Casinos offering poker, slot machines, and blackjack can be found pretty much everywhere in Second Life. Linden Lab is currently seeking guidance from the FBI regarding all of this virtual gaming activity in their virtual creation. The company has yet to receive any clear rules from U.S. authorities, however.

"It's not always clear to us whether a 3-D simulation of a casino is the same thing as a casino, legally speaking, and it's not clear to the law enforcement authorities we have asked," said Ginsu Yoon, who until recently was Linden Lab's general counsel and is currently the company's vice president for business affairs.

Reuters reports that while most lawyers agree that placing bets using Linden dollars - Second Life's own form of virtual currency - "likely violates U.S. anti-gambling statutes, which cover circumstances in which 'something of value' is wagered." What remains uncertain is the degree of Linden Lab's responsibility in the matter.

"If you're buying money on the Lindex (a virtual currency exchange) and utilizing it for gambling purposes, Linden could have a much higher level of responsibility," said Sean Kane, a lawyer at New York's Drakeford & Kane who has studied the legal issues of virtual worlds. "If they would be found in violation, that's difficult to say, but I can see a much stronger case being made."

 Yeah, you all probably know already that the l2extreme Lineage 2 "service" got shut down by the feds. Well, here's the story behind it according to the Feds. Really, we got this from their official website.

In 2003, a computer user in China was able to obtain the Lineage 2 source code from an unprotected website. The code was then bought by a Texan, among others in 2004. The code was then passed on to a business partner in California, who set-up a website, www.l2extreme.com, to offer Lineage 2 at a discount.

The cheaper service gathered around 50,000 users by 2006 - which of course drained on the legitimate game's bottom line.

Despite warnings from the owners of Lineage 2, NCSoft, and despite having promised to shut down the service, the California man rented more powerful servers and solicited donations from users to help defray the costs and collected more than US$ 25,000 in less than two days.

Last November, the FBI raided the California man's home, shut down the game, seized the l2extreme domain and posted an anti-piracy warning on the site.

What's odd about this news post on the FBI's Official Website is that it has this creepy reality-TV feel to it. We say creepy because the thing uses language that reminds you of those reality law-enforcement shows. What's worse is that it just forces you to imagine William Shatner's voice reading it out to you.

Not only was the article itself reeking of reality-TV law-enforcement drama, so were the statements from the FBI personnel involved. Agent Thompson - the FBI agent responsible for the raid - actually said that several other servers running pirated games "ran for the hills."

Hear that, you evil pirate scum! Run! Run for the hills!

But yeah, the FBI will go after you if you run private servers using leaked code. So be good people, ok? If you want to check the FBI story yourself, feel free to check our read-link below.

A couple of weeks ago, several developers and publishers of MMOs did their job of crushing the emerging practice of website hacking. In our reports, we mentioned that there are actually different ways to pull this act. Most common of all is third party sites offering in-game items for a hefty sum of money. Final Fantasy XI Online and Hero Online are just some of the games that encountered this modus operandi.

Then you have the much more blatant style, hackers attacking the very domain registry of a gaming site. IGG is a classic example of this, when its site for free MMO Voyage Century Online was hijacked not too long ago. The company had to look for a temporary host just to continue their operations.

Usually, this is the part when we would say "Fortunately, it's all over now." Sorry to burst your bubble, but things got a little worse. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation came up with a warning today, saying a "handful" of Web sites were hacked and then defaced with a fake FBI seal. The report then went on by stating that the seal was accompanied by "an anti-piracy warning claiming that the site had been seized by the law enforcement organization."

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson tried to appease the gaming public by saying that the matter is not yet widespread. However, he expressed his concerns regarding the misuse and abuse of FBI's name. When asked about the possible reasons for such attacks, Bresson commented, "I'm not sure if it's financially motivated. I'm not sure what their motive would be."

NCsoft is dead serious on keeping their Lineage II playing field fair and square. Recently, FBI Agents working with company officials were able to close down a computer game operation which is accused of duping profits by providing a fraudulent and dubious service to its players.

The said company called L2Extreme was allegedly providing its users with unauthorized service and code for Lineage II. The FBI mentions that L2Extreme has up to 50,000 active users on its service and it is costing NCsoft millions of dollars per year. Wow, that's a lot of dough if you ask any of us.

According to the Ncsoft's general counsel, Matt Esber, "in the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately. This group in particular was downloading our version of the Lineage II software from our servers, costing us close to a million dollars in realized bandwidth costs during the period it was operational."

The investigation is still on-going and to those companies who are engaged in this kind of fraudulent act, let this serve as a warning to you.

No, not again. Not another third party site issue. We just reported today that Square Enix needed to create an FBI-esque group to investigate on the irregularities on FF XI Online. We just had that earlier and yet here we are again. This time, it's for mGame MMO, Hero Online.

Unlike the FF case, Hero's is somewhat on its infant stage. And instead of players taking advantage of the system through third party sites, it's the latter that are doing the abuse. Apparently, many players have been accessing websites that claim to have bots, hacks, exploits, gold, guides and others. As a result, these players got disconnected from the game momentarily and found their inventories empty the moment they logged back.

According to mGame's intial reports, these are actually key logger/phish sites that steal players login/pass. The company added that "restoring player's accounts after they have been hit like this takes quite a bit of time and investigation." It in this light that patience is being asked from players. Something the company is running out of, as a massive influx of complaints reached their desk.

In a rather irate tone, mGame's reply continues, "we are in the process of limiting compensation for inquiries of this nature. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!" Also, to further avoid such things in the future, mGame plans to release several GM-made guides as well as in-game systems to help players with information about Hero Online.

MLG Anaheim took place last weekend and the results are in! Who took home the prize money in the league that's pushing the realm of competitive gaming forward? Read on!

Halo 4v4
1. Final Boss - $12,000 ($3,000 each)
2. Carbon - $8,000 ($2,000 each)
3. Str8 Rippin - $5,000 ($1,250 each)
4. XiT Woundz - $3,000 ($750 each)
5. Triggers Down - $2,000 ($500 each)
6. FBI Michigan - $1,500 ($375 each)
7. MoB PowertripBev.com - $1,200 ($300 each)
8. XGC Zone 6 - $1,000 ($200 each)

SSBM 1v1
1. Ken - $2,000
2. PC Chris - $1,200
3. Chu Dat - $800
4. Isai - $500
5. Mew2King - $300
6. KoreanDJ - $200
7. HugS - $150
8. Dope - $125

SSBM 2v2
1. Ken and Isai - $2,000 ($1,000 each)
2. Dope and FastlikeTree - $1,200 ($600 each)
3. Taj and Forward - $800 ($400 each)
4. Chu Dat and ManaCloud - $500 ($250 each)
5. Rob$ and Caveman - $300 ($150 each)
6. Husband and Wife - $200 ($100 each)
7. Mew2King and King - $150 ($75 each)
8. Tink and Chen - $125 ($62.50 each)

Halo 1v1
1. Karma - $2,000
2. Walshy - $1,200
3. Hali - $800
4. StrongSide - $500
5. Ogre 1 - $300
6. Ogre 2 - $200
7. Legit - $150
8. TimeliestBrute - $125

Again, the main event for Halo 2 is 4v4 while the main event for for Super Smash Bros. Melee is the 1v1. Final Boss took first place in the Halo 2 4v4 yet again, but for the first time since their contract. It must feel very good to win under this new pressure! Ken and Isai took first yet again in SSBM 2v2. Final Boss has only lost a tournament once while Ken and Isai have never lost a tournament match, ever. Very impressive work by both teams in their respective games!

Karma took first place in Halo 2's 1v1 yet again .That man is a beast! As is Ken, the winner for the 1v1 for SSBM. The guy who lost to Ken was PC Chris, someone who was able to beat him once this year back at MLG New York. PC Chris continues to improve so it should be interesting to see how they do next time they meet. MLG Chicago takes place July 21st to July 23rd, so check back then!