Malware in Games

Malware means software designed to function in ways that mistreat or harm the user. (This does not include accidental errors.)

Malware and nonfree software are two different issues. The difference between free software and nonfree software is in whether the users have control of the program or vice versa. It's not directly a question of what the program does when it runs. However, in practice nonfree software is often malware, because the developer's awareness that the users would be powerless to fix any malicious functionalities tempts the developer to impose some.

Some examples of malware in games are listed below.

If you know of an example that ought to be in this page but isn't here, please write to <webmasters@gnu.org> to inform us. Please include the URL of a trustworthy reference or two to serve as specific substantiation.

Many games are designed to keep gamers compulsively playing—and renewing their subscription. To achieve this result, developers use techniques that derive from behavioral and brain research:

The Skinner Box

An environment in which the user is trained to “push the lever“, i.e. do a certain action over and over again in order to get a reward.

Virtual food pellets

Items that have nothing to do with the game itself, but are valuable to gamers because of the work required to obtain them (e.g., EverQuest); some people will end up collecting them for the sake of collecting.

Random rewards

They turn the game into the equivalent of a slot machine (e.g., World of Warcraft, ZT Online).

Elaborate cycles

Gamers' behavior can be “shaped” by making cycles (progress from one level to the next) slower and slower, designing complex tasks that are difficult to get out of (e.g. World of Warcraft), or conversely dividing them up in small chunks to avoid frustration (e.g., New Super Mario Bros.Wii).

Decay of game assets

This makes it necessary for a gamer to keep playing, without vacations, simply to avoid losing what they have earned so far (e.g., Farmville, Ultima Online, Animal Crossing).

Games such as World of Warcraft, which are considered very addictive, use several of these techniques.

However, the addictiveness of a game is only one of the determinants of addiction. Equally important are the psychological make-up and life circumstances of the gamer. Gaming addiction, like other addictions, is a form of mental escape from an unrewarding life. The sad truth is that, in the long run, it leads to an even worse life.

Note: We are not gamers. If you think we have misunderstood some point, or have suggestions for making this text clearer or more correct, please send them to <webmasters@gnu.org>.
The developers of gratis mobile games apply behavioral manipulation techniques to turn their products into slot machines. This is clearly described in an infographic.

The revenue generated by these games is directly related to the number of strongly addicted gamers (called “whales”) and to the amount of money they are willing to spend. Thus developers carefully study the behavior of millions of users to increase the addictiveness of their games.

Unfortunately, the article uses “free” to mean “zero price.” We recommend saying “gratis” instead.
Resourceful children figured out how to empty their parents' bank account buying packs of special players for an Electronic Arts soccer game.

The random element of these packs (also called “loot boxes”) makes the game strongly addictive, but the fact that players are pressured to spend more in order to get ahead of their competitors further qualifies it as predatory. Note that Belgium made these loot boxes illegal in 2018.

The only good reason to have a copy of such a proprietary game is to study it for free software development.
Cash of Clans is a good example of a gratis mobile game that its developers made very addictive for a large proportion of its users—and turned into a cash machine for themselves—by using psychological manipulation techniques.

The article uses “free” to mean “zero price,” which is a usage we should avoid. We recommend saying “gratis” instead.
A nonfree video game, available through the nonfree Steam client, included a “miner”, i.e. an executable that hijacks the CPU in users' computers to mine a cryptocurrency.
The game Metal Gear Rising for MacOS was tethered to a server. The company shut down the server, and all copies stopped working.
Red Shell is a spyware that is found in many proprietary games. It tracks data on users' computers and sends it to third parties.
ArenaNet surreptitiously installed a spyware program along with an update to the massive multiplayer game Guild Wars 2. The spyware allowed ArenaNet to snoop on all open processes running on its user's computer.
Learn how gratis-to-play-and-not-win-much games manipulate their useds psychologically.

These manipulative behaviors are malicious functionalities, and they are possible because the game is proprietary. If it were free, people could publish a non-manipulative version and play that instead.
The driver for a certain gaming keyboard sends information to China.
In the game Fruit Pop, the player buys boosts with coins to get a high score. The player gets coins at the end of each game, and can buy more coins with real money.

Getting a higher score once leads the player to desire higher score again later. But the higher score resulting from the boost does not give the player more coins, and does not help the player get a higher score in subsequent games. To get that, the player will need a boost frequently, and usually has to pay real money for that. Since boosts are exciting and entertaining, the player is subtly pushed to purchase more coins with real money to get boosts, and it can develop into a costly habit.
nVidia's proprietary GeForce Experience makes users identify themselves and then sends personal data about them to nVidia servers.
A Capcom's Street Fighter V update installed a driver that could be used as a back door by any application installed on a Windows computer, but was immediately rolled back in response to public outcry.
Oculus Rift games now have DRM meant to prevent running them on other systems.
Many video game consoles snoop on their users and report to the internet—even what their users weigh.

A game console is a computer, and you can't trust a computer with a nonfree operating system.
Modern gratis game cr…apps collect a wide range of data about their users and their users' friends and associates.

Even nastier, they do it through ad networks that merge the data collected by various cr…apps and sites made by different companies.

They use this data to manipulate people to buy things, and hunt for “whales” who can be led to spend a lot of money. They also use a back door to manipulate the game play for specific players.

While the article describes gratis games, games that cost money can use the same tactics.
Game Of War: Fire Age is an iPhone game with addictive features which are based on behavioral manipulation techniques, compounded with group emulation. After a fairly easy start, the game slows down and becomes more difficult, so gamers are led to spend more and more money in order to keep up with their group. And if they stop playing for a while, the equipment they invested in gets destroyed by the “enemy” unless they buy an expensive “shield” to protect it. This game is also deceptive, as it uses confusing menus and complex stats to obfuscate true monetary costs.
Nintendo remotely sabotaged all Wiis, making them refuse to work unless the user agrees to a new EULA.

We can be quite sure this EULA is unjust because injustice is the only motive for imposing an EULA.
Angry Birds spies for companies, and the NSA takes advantage to spy through it too. Here's information on more spyware apps.

More about NSA app spying.
Some proprietary games lure children to spend their parents' money.
The Playstation 3 is a tyrant.
Sony sabotaged the Playstation 3 with a firmware downgrade that removed the feature that allowed users to run GNU/Linux on it.

Sony subsequently sent police after Geohot, after he cracked the code that blocked users from changing the firmware, and we responded by calling for a boycott of Sony.

In a court settlement Sony is now paying for the sabotage.
Blizzard Warden is a hidden “cheating-prevention” program that spies on every process running on a gamer's computer and sniffs a good deal of personal data, including lots of activities which have nothing to do with cheating.