Johannesburg, 25 Sep 2007
Gamers are notoriously performance-conscious and some of the most demanding PC users to be found anywhere in the world. They spend a great deal of money ensuring their hardware performance is nothing short of stellar, so anything that impedes that must go.
They're paying between R1 500 for a low-end graphics card and R10 000 for dual cards. That's just for the graphics cards.
Bandwidth is crucial to online gaming performance. It's common knowledge that broadband connections are the only route open to local gamers, since many of the games are hosted on servers abroad.
Standard anti-virus software often interferes with the bandwidth so crucial to a positive online gaming experience. The software may start communicating with an online server, searching for updates or, far worse, attempt to block connections to gaming servers.
Gamers want software that protects their machines from malicious code and hackers while they're online and, being advanced users, they understand the need for security. They face a collection of threats from Trojans, worms, spyware, other viruses and hackers. In addition, their profiles and user accounts are increasingly at risk.
According to the Web site dedicated to the online game Second Life: "Second Life is a 3D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 7 777 472 people from around the globe."
It's a digital recreation of everyday life. Players, called residents, create characters with certain attributes and must hold down jobs to earn Linden Dollars that they use to buy, for example, virtual houses, furniture and commodities. More than $2 million in actual currency has already been traded between residents buying characters and virtual commodities from one another. Suddenly someone's profile could be an attractive target for hackers.
More dangerous threat
This represents a less common, yet equally or even more dangerous threat. As soon as player profiles and accounts represent tangible value, they become targets.
Most gamers understand these risks, yet, when their bandwidth takes a hit and their online performance lags, they're often inclined to take the risk and leave themselves unprotected.
The computer game industry has grown and will remain one of the "above-average" growth segments of the global entertainment industry into 2011. PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests game sales will even exceed music spend this year.
That's another reason why the security industry has sat up and taken notice of the market, although it is in the early stages. The industry has developed security products specifically for gamers.
Some of the more important features they offer, besides the straightforward security, include gaming profiles. When one of these is activated, the software automatically runs on minimal resources. Firewall settings are automatically adapted to suit specific games being run. And, with the better security products currently available, gamers need not adjust these manually. When they activate the game's .exe file, the anti-virus software automatically detects it and runs a predefined profile. The better solutions offer online backup that gamers can use to securely save game profiles and online characters.
The channel has seen the opportunity this represents, and one product in particular is being sold in more than 15 countries. The product sells itself to savvy gamers.
Competition will increase in a market that, in broader security terms, is fiercely contested. Until then, vendors are ensuring they continually improve their products to stay ahead of the curve.
*BullGuard is distributed in South Africa by 10Net ICT Solutions.
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